This is one of my favorite things to have for breakfast on the weekend.
Ingredients:
Two medium sized zucchini, sliced 1" thick
1/2 cup milk
butter
cheddar cheese, shredded
salt
pepper
Place in a pan with an inch of water at the bottom. Cook for 15-20 minutes on medium heat until you can push through the edge of one of the slices easily. Basically you want the zucchini to be soft enough that you can easily mash it with a fork.
When it's done, drain off the water. Add in 1/2 cup milk, butter, shredded cheddar cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.
Until next time.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Zucchini Soup
Labels: recipes
Saturday, July 19, 2008
New Additions to My CafePress Shop
Labels: Herd Queen Productions
I decided it was time to take some time and add some more products to my CafePress shop, Herd Queen Productions.
I added new items yesterday and today - mostly paper products, rather than clothing for most of the items.
Take a look and let me know what you think about the new designs. I am really excited about my masculine card series "Hooked On You". I have more photos along that line.
Until next time.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Today I Feel Like Cooking
Labels: recipes
I feel a little bit more energetic today, and decided to try using up as much of the day's milk as I could. We got almost one gallon for the house milk, so I took my cultures out of the freezer to see if there was anything simple. I decided to make a quart of buttermilk and three cups of sour cream. The sour cream culture calls for light cream or half and half, but I have tried using milk in the past and it turned out just a little runny - it's supposed to make a quart, so I'm going to try using only three cups and see if it thickens up better.
I've got a piece of London Broil thawing on the counter. I'm thinking something with curry powder, but not sure what yet. Do mangoes and curry powder go together?
The oddest thing has happened to me in the last couple of years. I remember when I was a child, the idea of pork chops and applesauce, or any kind of sweet sour meat was just disgusting and gross. But now, it tastes good to me.
I also decided to make Baked Maple Egg Custard. I was thinking about making a pudding to turn into ice cream, but I think I'm going to really start trying to avoid white flour and cornstarch. I am just too tired all the time for this to be normal, I seem to be affected by the foods I eat.
I'm thinking about trying these supplements:
Dr. Ron's Sea Vegetable Plus - Nutrients for a Healthy Thyroid
Doc's Best Multi - the next generation
And the adrenals formula on this page
Organ Delight
And the Thyroid supplement on this page
The only problem is they are crazy expensive!
Until next time.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
A Few Things That Happened Today
Labels: Bargain Hunting, goats, Just Stuff
Something's up with Blogger and Firefox today. I stopped using Internet Explorer some time ago, and much prefer Firefox. But when I logged in and tried to make a post, this is what I was met with:
Quite a mess. I tried shutting Firefox down and reopening, but got the same gibberish. I could have made a post and published it, but there was no way to upload photos. And that's why I'm here today. To share what we got today. Dh was reading one of the local newspapers which mentioned a vegetable and fruit coop was coming to a nearby city. I contacted the group through the website and discovered that they actually have two drop off locations in our area. So we signed up for one box. This is what we got: 
5 pickling cucumbers
10 limes
1 honeydew melon
1 butterleaf lettuce
6 medium russet potatoes
9 red plums
8 nectarines
11 large carrots
7 red onions
4 bosc pears
5 mangoes
7 bananas
5 tomatoes
Our basket cost under $20. It is supposed to $50 worth of fruits and vegetables, and they say it will last a family of four for two weeks.
On the way to pick up our basket - which by the way we spent $6.89 for the round trip into town and back home for gas - a lady was putting out yard sale signs. Dh had to go to a job today and was leaving as soon as he dropped me off. I asked him if he thought that lady might have anything good for sale. I guess I ask the question that way because I don't really care one way or the other if we go and see? He said it wouldn't take that long to look, so we followed the signs. She had bullhead sticker plants all over her yard. I am SO glad we don't have them on our property. I have pulled up several of them and keep my eyes peeled for them and remove them if I see any of them. Dh's sister's property is practically a farm of the horrible things.
At the yard sale, I saw a pile of towels. Lots of nice, thick, mostly purple towels. I asked how much she wanted for the towels - she only wanted fifty cents each! They aren't brand new, and have some strings hanging on some of them, but they are better than most of the towels we are currently using! 
The three on the left are large beach towels, one is yellow striped and the other is a hot pink striped, then a purple one on top of that. In the next pile there is a thick, soft maroon towel at the bottom, and three matching lavendar towels on top. The next pile there are three purple towels with four hand towels, and the pile on the right there are four thick, soft deep purple towels. In the front row there are six washclothes. She was asking for ten cents each for the hand towels and washclothes!
I also saw this Singer Tiny Serger and asked how much she wanted for it... four dollars! The only problem is we didn't have any cash left as we'd used the last $8 in dollars and change buying the towels and washclothes. So I asked dh if he wouldn't mind running back by her place on his way out. He was happy to do that, so she held it for me. Now I have read some good reviews about this little machine, and some terrible reviews. It didn't come with the manual, which could be a problem. I hope I can get it to work! If you know how I can get a manual for it, or if you happen to own one, and have a manual for it, I'd sure be grateful for a scanned copy! 
Here is a beautiful photo of the sunrise I was able to capture the other morning.
My doctor's appointment was on June 20th, and yesterday I received a call from the office that schedules referrals. This was to schedule a mammogram. I wish I could be like many people seem to be, happy that their doctor wants them to radiate their breasts just in case. I hate having all these stupid tests and frankly it just stresses me out to know that my doctor wants me to have them done. She acted like I'm the stupid one, and indeed many people would probably think that way about me, because I haven't been getting tests done all these past few years.
How do you find a doctor that is there for you when YOU want them for something, and leaves you alone the rest of the time? And doesn't put your files into the archive area?
I asked if my blood test results had been returned and I was routed to an answering machine to leave my name and number. The only reason I even went to the doctor was to get the referral to my asthma/allergy specialist. I wonder what he would charge if I just went straight to him without a referral and paid out of my own pocket? If I didn't have asthma I wouldn't be seeing him either. Really, I'm just fine without all these doctors.
I know I have the right to ask for my test results so I can examine them myself, but it is difficult to work up the energy to do something as stressful as that. You're probably asking, what's so stressful? Well, I have to go in and ask. Working up the nerve to do that in itself is stressful.
I've been putting together a brochure for our church in the past few weeks, and I made a really glaring mistake on the front. I was mortified and called our pastor immediately and he had JUST come from the printers, having printed up 200 brochures. I told him I'd pay for the mistake and I've printed them myself, and have also merged addresses for mailing, and have been folding them.
Kev and I are going to church camp this summer. I hope that will be relaxing, and not one more stressful thing. Today as we were going to pick up our vegetable and fruit basket, I found myself wishing I could get my garden going again. I have had so much trouble with the critters out here it is a lot of work to keep them from eating everything up. The entire garden is fenced with chicken wire, the top and the sides, and the last time I gardened the gophers dug their way under and were pulling vegetables into the ground by their roots.
We're getting quite a bit of milk now. Almost one gallon is coming into the house every day, I freeze half a gallon every day from the previous day. We are getting another gallon or so which we divide up between the dogs and the chickens. We had flies for a time and so we were milking at 3am every single morning, even on the days we didn't have to go to work. I think that is what just about did me in. I would sometimes come in and go back to bed by 5am, but it is very hard for me to get up that early every single day without a break.
Dh started another sideline to his business and we're trying to get that off the ground. I've ordered business cards, and created websites for the two businesses. Dh's been doing some cold calls for the second business, hoping to drum up some business. He's got one contact that seems like it will turn into a good opportunity.
Okay, Kev fixed Firefox for me. He hit F5 and did a refresh and now it's working okay. Thanks, Kev!
Also, he edited a short movie I took while outside in the afternoon. Enjoy.
Until next time.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Happy 4th of July, America!
Labels: Holiday Banter
Happy Fourth of July! Our wonderful country is celebrating 232 years of freedom from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
I was invited by one of my good friends to come to her 4th of July pool party. I made three kinds of goat cheese (vinegar cheese made into basil/green onion, jalapeno/garlic and plain), a fruit bowl with honeydew melon, cantaloupe and green grapes, and dh made a dozen cupcakes which we decorated with cranraisins and dried blueberries.
I talked with ds1 about going to a pool party and going to see fireworks and he said he would go with me as dh and ds2 didn't want to.
But then I started feeling like crap - my nose was running and I kept sneezing and sneezing. Also I'd slept wrong and my neck had a crick in it. The CEO of our company rarely gets sick but this past week he kept sneezing as he was walking down the hallways. As the days went by he developed a cough so I thought great, I must be getting what he had. I was pretty sure my friend's elderly grandma would be in attendance, and maybe her young nieces and nephews, not to mention her young son, so I didn't want to get everyone else sick if I was contagious.
I laid down to take a nap around noon and just felt crappy. I was tired but my nose was clogged so it was hard to get to sleep. I took extra Vitamin C, echinachea/goldenseal, and some aspirin for my neck.
I hate making these decisions. Am I getting sick or not? Should I go? If I go and I'm getting sick, I'll get sick for sure. If it's just allergies I'll be okay. But what if it's a cold? I'm going to wear myself and I'll be sick for days. I believe if you feel like you have a cold coming on, and you take it easy, get rest and take Vitamin C and echinachea your body can actually fight off the infection. But if you just keep pushing yourself, then you will get sicker for sure.
My friend has been inviting me over for holiday parties for the last eight months and I've never been able to go to even one. I managed to attend her wedding! LOL. I was REALLY looking forward to swimming, too. And seeing fireworks for once in I don't know how many years. The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I don't think I've gotten to go and see them for at least five years.
Finally around 4pm I decided to text my friend and let her know I wasn't coming, and apologized. It's not like she'll be upset really, I just had tried to go this time, tried really hard. She said I didn't have to bring anything, but I can't go to a party without bringing some goodies. And I know she and her family and friends would appreciate the goat cheese. It really turned out delicious. The milk has been tasting really good lately. Well, I just realized that is because Miss L is back on the milking line. She's always had the best tasting milk.
I finally hauled myself out of bed around 5pm and I'm not sneezing any longer. I really wanted to try getting some photos of fireworks this year with my new camera, so I asked dh if he would take me out. It will be the first time we've seen fireworks as a remarried couple.
The photo above is one I took a few weeks ago while attending a conference in town - I didn't have a tripod with me, that is why it is blurry. I guess they were doing test fireworks. I love fireworks.
Until next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
