Summer Squash and a Murder Mystery

What do you get when you cross two prolific summer squash plants with a murder mystery?  Here at my house we got cookies!!  Let me explain......

I just finished reading Apple Turnover Murder by JoAnna Fluke.  It is a cozy mystery whose main character Hannah Swenson owns a cookie shop in Small Town, MN.  I love cozy mysteries - no sex, foul language, or blood and guts!  The author always includes recipes used by Hannah in her shop.  They always sounded so mouth watering but until yesterday I had not tried any of the recipes.

Here's where my yellow squash plants enter into the story.  In this book there is a recipe for Rose's Zucchini Cookies.  Now, we didn't grow any zucchini because we couldn't find any to plant last spring but our two little yellow squash plants have given us MORE than enough squash.  I thought, What could it hurt?  We have eaten squash almost every way you can imagine so why not in cookies? 

They are delicious!  Granted, it doesn't hurt that they include pecans and chocolate chips in the recipe.  They are so soft and chewy.  Who knew I could get in my 5 fruits and vegetables each day by eating cookies!!  Yummy!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Spicy Doin's Round Here, Ya'll

Another week has come and gone.  We have been busy.  Besides all the normal happenings of life and gardening, we have been preparing to send our youngest off to college in a few weeks.  Very bittersweet days!!  And, since I don't want to cry all over you I will move onto another happier subject.

Our garden is doing so well.  We are just so excited about the bounty! I spent yesterday afternoon canning jalapenos.  Yes, jalapenos.  We are native Texans, you know!!  I guess it's true what they say...You might take the girl out of Texas but you'll never take the Texas out of the girl. 

So many jalapenos but that's okay because we eat alot of them.

After slicing up all those little peppers, I filled four pint jars full of them along with a vinegar brine to pickle them.  I then put them in a water bath for 10 minutes and out they came.  They will have to set up for about six weeks before we can eat them.  I expect to be able to get at least 4 more pints of peppers put up with the way out plants are producing.  If only the tomatoes would ripen we could have homemade salsa.  Now we're talking!!!

And, I think I forgot to tell you that a couple of weeks ago I spent one afternoon canning 18 half-pints of  homemade strawberry jam.  It didn't have to set up and we are really enjoying it!!

I'm really enjoying the new sewing machine.  The knee lift for the pressure foot is great for speeding along on chain piecing.  Soooo much more to learn!! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Our Weekend

I hope you had a great July 4th weekend.  We didn't do much different than any other weekend but it was nice having Bill home on Monday (or at least until he got a call to go play golf for the afternoon!!).  We grilled out Saturday night and it was scrumptious, especially since the squash and green beans came out of our own garden.  We were so excited!!! 

YUMM-O!!!












It took me three whole days to gather enough nerve to actually plug my new Janome into the wall and turn it on.  After reading the instruction manual Friday afternoon, I had myself convinced that a Janome rep would need to come live with us if I was ever going to use the machine.  Since that was not remotely a possibility, I convinced myself that come Monday I would venture over to the sewing shop and ask for lessons.  I chickened out!!  So again, I grabbed the intimidating instruction manual, moved my little Singer off the sewing table and plugged in the electrical cord, the foot petal and even the knee lift bar.  Good to go!!!  I mustered up the courage to flip the little on/off switch and Woo Hoo..you should have heard all the little beeps!!!

So, I thought, "so far, so good!  Surely I can figure out how to thread the bobbin and then thread the machine."  And, what do you know, I did it!!  (Thanks to the step by step instructions with illustrations, I might add.  Have I ever told you I'm a visual learner??)  Well, next think I knew I was sewing along piecing some blocks and sewing on borders and today I finished up my 2008 (yes, that's not a typo - 2008) Thimbleberries Lodge quilt top. 

That's Rudy, our daughter's border collie, guarding the top from the wind so I could get a picture. 
One UFO down (that's unfinished object for you non-quilting readers) and a couple more tops to go.  Then I'm going to have to get brave again and learn how to quilt with my new machine since I told Bill that's the main reason I needed the new machine.  I can't even begin to tell you how many tops I have to finish up with the quilting and binding but I've decided that July and August are going to be FIU (yes, that's finish it up, non-quilters) months here. 

I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Birthdays

My birthday was last week.  Besides having to work, Bill,Hannah and I celebrated at Buffalo Wild Wings.  A pretty uneventful birthday EXCEPT.....I found out that my husband is a poet.  Here's the birthday poem he wrote in my card.

Ja No Me Better Than Anyone
Ja Luv Me Like No Other
Ja No My Faults
Ja No My Strengths
Ja No Me
Janome - Buy It!!

And you better believe, I did!!!   It arrived today.  Brown showed up and left me this!

Now I just have to figure out how to use the thing!!

Thanks for stopping by!!