Pumpkin Festival

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere, and not a pie in sight!  Pumpkins have invaded the courthouse lawn in Sycamore, Illinois, so it must be Pumpkin Fest.  Each year right before Halloween, the town goes crazy for pumpkins.  Pumpkin Fest has all the usual small town festival trappings -- a big parade, a carnival, a craft fair, food booths, and actually it's not true about not a pie in sight because there is a pie-eating contest on one of the festival days.  The festival also has something a little unique (and my favorite part) -- a pumpkin display and contest which covers the courthouse lawn for four days.  Carved pumpkins, painted pumpkins, funny, scary, silly, ugly -- all kinds of pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns.

Pumpkin Fest began in 1962, and the pumpkin display is quite a popular feature with local folks.  Parents bring their children to see the pumpkins, and I imagine many of them came as children themselves with their own parents twenty years earlier.

This section contained large groups of pumpkins from preschool and school groups.

There are eleven categories for the contest, five age groups, and first, second and third places, so there are lots of winners. The categories are Theme Pumpkins (this year's theme is "Happiness is . . . the perfect pumpkin"); Happy and Fancy; Weird, Ugly, and Scary; TV, Nursery Rhyme, News or Current Events (weird combo, huh?); Carved; Scarecrow; Youth Organization; Adult Organization; Family Entry; Adults -- Carved, Scarecrow and General; and Largest Pumpkin.  This year there were 1,146 entries and, since some entries contain multiple pumpkins, there are lots and lots of pumpkins.

I'm glad I managed to make it to Sycamore this year to see the pumpkins.  I have no interest in the other festival events with the big crowds, but it is fun to tour the pumpkin display. Even on an early Friday afternoon, however, there was a sizable crowd milling around -- young parents with strollers, some school-age children, middle-aged folks with or without grandchildren, attorneys taking a break from court, and a few elderly people walking carefully along the storm fences which enclose the display.  The pumpkins made me smile even as they made me a little wistful for the days when my own children were young.

The Big Winner

Rainy Days and Mondays

Front porch wreath, burlap wrapped for fall

Today I am relaxing and working at home on this rainy Monday to recover from a whirlwind weekend.  Both children blew through for a couple of days to celebrate the husband's birthday. When they are here, it's a firestorm of cooking, laundry, and activity.

Will we ever need to eat again?  Big breakfasts of sausage cheese balls, omelettes, and pancakes.  Lasagna stuffed with cheese and meat sauce.  An enormous dinner at the local steakhouse.  What a dinner that was!  I tried flaming saganaki for the first time and think I'm smitten!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with saganaki, as I was, it's a dish of fried kefalograviera cheese, flambeed in brandy and topped with lemon juice.  If only our waitress had been a little more exuberant with her "Opa!"

Just a sample of the leftover goodies.

And the baked goods, which are still around.  I had made shortbread, the daughter brought a coffee cake, I made a fresh apple cake for the birthday boy, then the son wanted chocolate chip cookies to take back, but he left behind the slightly overcooked ones, and I had a craving for chocolate haystacks.  I didn't use enough chocolate in the haystacks, but they are still pretty tasty.  Daughter took some of the cake, shortbread, and haystacks away, but there is way too much still here.  My waistline does not need this!  I'll have to try to get a little disciplined again before holiday feast time rolls around!

Scenes from My Ordinary Life

I haven't had a lot to write about lately, but I thought today I'd share a couple of images.

My office is a little cubby under the stairs, not quite as small as where Harry Potter had to sleep because there is a bay that bumps out and makes room for my desk.  I bought the desk around 1984 at a little hole-in-the-wall antiques store in Chicago called Clyde's.  It was painted red and black.  The top had been stripped, but the wood was badly stained, so Clyde had given up on stripping it and sold it to me for $50.  It's kind of small (only 42 inches wide) and one drawer is falling apart, but it's been with me a long time.  I feel kindly toward my old desk, and it fits perfectly in this space.  Plus the stained top doesn't bother me since I very rarely see the top anyway.  The little green table came from Ikea unfinished.  I painted it to match the fabric shades I made.  I'm glad you can't see how wonky and crooked the bias tape edging is on the shades.

Anyway, the point of this seemingly pointless story is not what my office looks like, it's the two windows on the sides of the bay.  Late this summer, gnats got wedged in the screens. Whether they got stuck there and died or simply came there to die, kind of like a gnat hospice, I don't know, but last week I was sitting at my desk, and two goldfinches* decided to snack on the dead gnats.  The birds clung to the screens and walked up and down, picking out the gnats as I sat a mere three feet away.  I had never seen anything quite like that.

*Update Oct. 24:  I've just learned from my very knowledgeable bird-watching brother-in-law that these are not goldfinches at all!  They are migrating yellow rumped warblers in fall plumage.  I'm glad to be able to correct my error.  The things you can learn by blogging!

The final image I thought I'd share is a sunset over the prairie.  Yesterday evening we were walking Alfie in the prairie as the sun went down.  The few clouds and jet trails made for an interesting sky.

Chicken Palaw to Fill a Bare Table

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."  When Socrates said this, I doubt he was talking about my dinner table, but he might as well have been.  When I get too busy with work or home projects or whatever fills my days, sometimes the dinner table takes on a barren, forlorn look, as though nothing of value will appear there -- a mere baked potato, pasta with sauce from a jar, or take-out.  I can only take so much of this, however, before I crave "real" food.

Recently I've been busy moving furniture, painting, patching, ripping out carpet, and more painting.  After a while, though, a girl needs a good meal to keep her going.  So the other day I got the urge for Chicken Palaw, a recipe I copied out of Country Living magazine many years ago.  (Maybe I was inspired to cook this by those viewings of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, who knows?) As you can tell from the name, it's Indian influenced, but not really authentic Indian fare.  Still, it's quite flavorful and a change of pace for a weeknight dinner.

Chicken Palaw

From Country Living magazine

1 1/4 cups basmati rice 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large carrots, cut in 1/8-inch julienne strips

2 whole boneless chicken breasts, cut in 2-inch chunks

1/4 cup apple juice

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons pistachios

2 tablespoons sliced almonds

In heavy 5-quart stock pot, heat 2 quarts water to boiling over high heat.  Stir in rice and 1 teaspoon salt.  Return to boiling and cook, uncovered, 10 minutes.  Drain rice.

In same pan, melt butter with 2 tablespoons olive oil over low heat.  Spoon half of the rice into pan and press down with back of spoon to make a firm layer that covers the bottom of the pan.  Spoon remaining rice loosely on top, then top this with carrot strips.  Cover top of pan with linen towel and a tight lid.  Cook 35-40 minutes or until bottom layer forms a crisp, golden crust.

Meanwhile, in large skillet, sauté chicken in remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until golden on all sides.  Add apple juice, spices, and ½ teaspoon salt.  Stir until chicken is coated with spices.  Cook, stirring frequently, until chicken is cooked through and liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes.

To serve, in large bowl, combine steamed part of rice/carrots with raisins and nuts and toss to blend.  Top with chicken mixture.  Break bottom rice crust into pieces and place around the edge.

The rice base before adding the chicken -- rice and carrots tossed with pistachios, slivered almonds, and raisins.

Printable recipe

Mrs. Haggard's Divine Coffee Cake

In the fall of 1981, Mrs. Haggard made the best coffee cake I had ever tasted.  I was in my first year of graduate school. Mrs. Haggard (did the woman have a first name?) was the wife of the department chairman.  The Haggards invited all the first years over to their home one evening early in the year to mingle with the faculty.  I was kind of nervous, and I don't think I actually talked to any faculty, but I did discover the most amazing coffee cake.  At the end of the evening, another student (Tracy) and I begged Mrs. Haggard for the recipe.  She very kindly sent it along with her husband the following week.  I have been making that cake ever since.  I expect Tracy, who was from South Dakota, probably still makes it too.  These days, my daughter is in grad school, and she bakes this cake for her friends.  It is always a big hit, and not just with starving graduate students.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup margarine or butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Cream margarine/butter and sugar together.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well. 

Sift together dry ingredients and add them, together with sour cream, to butter mixture.  Beat well.

Spoon half of batter into a greased Bundt pan.  (If you do not have a Bundt pan, a tube pan will work.)  Add half of topping.  Then remainder of batter.  Sprinkle on remaining topping.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50-60 minutes.  Turn upside down immediately.

Printable recipe

Fourteen New Crochet Squares

I have been a hooking fool, ya'll.  Since my last post about my crochet square project, I have made fourteen more squares.  This has become my evening relaxation -- sitting in a comfy chair, watching a movie, and crocheting a new square.  One evening last week, we rented "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" through OnDemand.  That was one of the most enjoyable movies I've watched in a long time.  I liked it so much that I watched it again the next day (and worked on another square!) as I was waiting for the carpet man to stop by for measurements.  Since I watched the movie, I have found myself thinking, "Everything will be all right in the end.  So if it is not all right, it is not yet the end."  Isn't that a comforting philosophy?  How intriguing to think about setting off on such an adventure when one is "elderly and beautiful."  If you have not seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it.  If you have, what did you think of it?

Here are my latest squares from 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans by Jan Eaton.  One is even called Marigold!  Bear in mind, these have not been blocked yet, so they are a little curly and misshapen.

Top row: #80 Blocks and Shells, #31 Primrose Square, " 83 Diamond in a Square.
Bottom row: #100 Pastel Delight, #137 Criss Cross, and #113 Wisteria

Left column, top to bottom: #20 Colorful Bobbles, #149 Solid Square, # 87 Peony. Middle column, top to bottom:
#85 Lemon Stripe, #51 Bright Flower, # 78 Briar Rose. Right column: #209 Marigold and # 22 St. Petersburg.

A Borrowed Recipe for Rosemary Parmesan Chicken

You may remember my very blackened Spanish chicken from about a month ago.  It was flavorful but not very pretty. Recently, Ann, from On Sutton Place, posted a recipe for a different kind of baked chicken.  I felt a little trepidation, but hers looked scrumptious, so I felt like I should give it a try.  I'm so glad I did.  As she says, it is "truly a one-dish wonder."  Rosemary Parmesan Chicken, where have you been all my life?  Please stop by her blog and check out the recipe (and the rest of her blog, for she is one talented lady).

The recipe couldn't be simpler.  I followed it pretty much to the letter only I used fresh garlic instead of garlic powder. With rosemary from the garden, bread crumbs made from potato rolls, and paired with a salad of mixed tomatoes and basil, it was delectable.  Please click here to go to On Sutton Place for the recipe.

Good-bye Old Friend; Hello Sleek New Friend

Well, I finally did it.  I dumped an old friend.  After nearly 24 years, we'd been through a lot together, but he just wasn't holding up his end anymore.  So it was good-bye Old Electrolux.

Faithful Old Electrolux

My husband and I bought the vacuum cleaner as our mutual gift on the first Christmas after we got married.  Old Electrolux was sleek and powerful in those days.  It was a huge step up from my old round Hoover.  But things changed.  Old Electrolux just wasn't picking up like he used to.  His days were numbered.  I started scoping out hot new vacuums online.  Then Miele caught my eye.  Sleek, compact, and powerful.  I'd found my new friend.  So I put Old Electrolux in the trunk and dropped him off at Goodwill.  I felt a little sad about it.  Still, maybe he can be rehabilitated and someone else will befriend him.

Sleek New Miela Callisto

How do I like the new Miele Callisto?  It has been an adjustment, but so far so good.  It is powerful yet much quieter than my old vacuum cleaner.  I like that three of the most commonly used attachments are stored right in the canister, and I have found the suction control very useful.  I turn the suction to low and am able to vacuum cloth lampshades without worrying about damaging them.  The canister is lighter weight than the Electrolux because it is plastic.  I do wonder if it will be as durable as the old metal machine.

See the hair?

What don't I like?  I wish it had come with two wands.  I would rather snap off the whole wand to change heads rather than reach down to detach the head.  Depending how expensive it is, I may purchase a second wand.  Also, the bags seem a little small. We produce a lot of dirt around here, and I think we'll go through bags pretty quickly. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Alfie!)  My biggest gripe, though, is the plastic canister I just praised for being lightweight.  It develops a static charge or whatever, and dog hair clings to the bottom.  That means I have to frequently spend time vacuuming off my vacuum cleaner.

All in all, though, I am happy with my new friend, Miela.  Which is a good thing, because Miela is pricey.  I just hope he's worth it.

Note: This is my honest opinion.  You all know Miela, the company, doesn't know I exist and did not ask me to review their vacuum cleaner or compensate me in any way.  If anyone from Miele is reading, however, I wouldn't say no to some free vacuum cleaner bags!

Misadventures in Painting

My husband was out of town this past weekend, so I decided it would be a great opportunity to repaint his office and the attached sitting room.  This space used to be an apartment.  The second floor was expanded during the Depression to add on this space which, when you take out the bathroom (I showed its renovation last February), is a kind of funky L-shape.  The section that is now an office used to be a wee kitchen.

Right after the tenant moved out in 1996.  The door beside the sink leads to the tiny bathroom.

After the tenant moved out, we took out the kitchen, stripped some of the woodwork, changed the light fixtures, replaced the linoleum with cork flooring, and put in new (now old) carpet.  For some time, I've been wanting to replace the carpet again, but can't do that until after repainting.  Anyway, this seemed like the time.

Part of the trouble is there is way too much heavy furniture in that room -- a set of three wood lockers we use to store DVDs and tapes, three antique armchairs, two bookcases, a heavy oak desk, an oak filing cabinet, a TV, and a couple of small side tables.  Since I couldn't move all this by myself, especially through the narrow doorway into the hall, I dragged it all to the center and covered it with plastic.  That seemed like a clever idea until I found that there were areas along the perimeter that were too tight to set up a ladder, so I had to paint some parts of the ceiling perched on a ladder unsteadily propped against the wall.

Another way I was being clever was by using paint we already had.  I'm all about saving money when I can.  I had almost a gallon of ceiling paint, which I managed to eke out to cover the whole ceiling.  I thought.  Then Saturday evening as I was taping the woodwork in preparation for Sunday's wall painting, I noticed a good sized area I had missed.  So I scurried off to Lowe's to buy another gallon of the exact same Valspar ceiling paint.  I'll just touch up the missed area and some other "thin" areas, I thought.  The gosh darn ceiling paint isn't the same!  Can you see it in the picture below?  It depends on the light and the angle, but I can clearly see the areas I touched up.  Sigh.  So there is more ceiling painting to be done.

For the walls, well, I found an almost full gallon of Sherwin Williams paint in the basement clearly marked "office."  It looked a little different to me, but I figured it must dry a bit darker.  After seeing how the ceiling needed more than a gallon, I knew I'd need more paint, so on that trip to Lowe's, I also stopped at Sherwin Williams, paint in hand, to ask for another gallon of the same thing.  They no longer make the EverClean paint the young man said.  He was amazed that the paint was still good.  In fact, all three employees (it was dead in the store) came over to look at the paint and discuss the options.  I asked for a comparable paint in the same color.  No problem, and the paint was 40% off, my lucky day -- until he rang it up.  $44 dollars for one gallon of paint (at 40% off!) and an edger.  So Sunday, I cracked open my extremely valuable Dover White paint from Sherwin Williams and, after edging, realized it was the color from two paintings ago.  I'm thinking the paint was from 1996.  No wonder the guys had been amazed that it was still good; they were hardly more than toddlers when that paint was mixed.  So the paint is now not the warm, pale-butter-white I wanted, but a generic white-white.  Oh well, at least it will be clean and fresh.  If I ever get the room completed, I'll show the end result.

Like Traveling Pants, Only Not Wearable

Late last week I received a large envelope in the mail.  Inside was a notebook.  It was the Traveling Notebook from Chantal Loves Vintage.  Chantal is a wonderfully wacky Brit who, well, loves vintage and blogs about vintage goods, classic movie stars, as well as other things, like her travels to France.  A while back, Chantal got the idea for a notebook that would travel around the world being filled in by bloggers and others.  "Sign me up," I said.  And then the notebook arrived, a blank page waiting just for me.  I'm not going to lie, there was pressure to do something creative and awesome.  Not being a creative, awesome gal, I settled for doing the best I could.  What a surprise -- my page involves yarn and food.  Here's a little peek.

To read more about the Traveling Notebook, check out Chantal's blog.  I can't say for sure, but it might not be too late to get in on the fun.  As for the notebook, I put some traveling pants on that baby, and it's on its way to the east coast of the U.S.  Happy trails, little notebook!

Vintage Photos

My daughter and I were sorting through old photographs during her recent visit.  We had a drawer full of photos from my husband's family that needed to be identified and sorted.  That led our daughter to decide to "borrow" a few old family photos and scan some others to create a photo wall in her apartment.  I thought I'd share a couple of the photos that she scanned.  There's something about the utter seriousness of vintage childhood portraits.

This picture is of my grandfather with his sister and older brother.  His brother looks so intense it makes me wonder what the photographer had said to them.

The second photo is of my husband's great-grandfather and his sister.  There were two portraits made the same day. This is the "fun" photo of them with their toys.

Late Summer Rambles

This morning, Alfie and I went on one of our rambles around the prairie and the countryside.  I've written about the prairie before (here and here), but today, rather than our usual circuit, Alfie and I went to the "dog prairie."  The dog prairie is the section where dogs are allowed off leash, in contrast to the main prairie where everyone lets their dogs run illegally.  The dog prairie is a much newer section which is being restored to prairie from corn fields.  It shows.  It's basically a flat field with mown paths.

Views of the dog prairie

Still, Alfie had a good time, running and sniffing, wild and free.  And while many plants were still in bloom, like goldenrod and sunflowers, there were others beginning to go to seed.  I love the texture of the dried seed heads.

Coneflower and Black-eyed Susans (I think)

Driving home, we took a roundabout way down country roads through the fields.  Around here the main crops are corn, soybeans, and wind.  There's something great about driving down a gravel road on a cool, sunny morning, windows down, through acres of corn with huge wind turbines stretched out like a row of sentinels.

And then a gorgeous red barn before turning for home.

Can This Tree Be Saved? Yes!

One of the benefits of living in an old (and I mean old) neighborhood is the mature trees.  When we bought our house eighteen years ago, one of the reasons was the settled feel of the neighborhood with its huge trees and established (and sometimes shabby) shrubs and landscaping.  Sadly, since we've lived here, three immediate neighbors have lost large trees.  Two to storms and one to a garage addition.  We have two large trees in our front yard -- a pin oak and a hackberry.  The hackberry, while not a particularly gorgeous tree, shades the front of our house in summer and provides a visual anchor for our yard.

2012

Quite a few years back, our hackberry lost a large limb that grew toward the house.  The limb was as big around as many good sized tree trunks.  It did a little damage to the gutter around the porch, but nothing serious.  It was a bad loss, but we knew the tree could survive.  My husband was pretty militant about it in fact.  The tree must be saved. Then in 2008, another gigantic limb came off, pulling much of the bark from the side of the tree.  I figured the tree was a goner.  How could it survive with large chunks missing on two sides?

2008

The man from the tree service came, cleared the limb, and cleaned up the wound.  He said we didn't need to take the whole tree down right away.  I think he was afraid my husband would start weeping openly if he said the tree had to go. We decided to leave the tree and see what happened.  What happened?  A little regrowth around the wound and ants. Periodically my husband would drag me out there and say, "See? It's regrowing."  Yeah, okay.

The current state of the 2008 wound, with a
climbing hydrangea about to overtake it.  The
first wound is completely covered by the vine.

This summer I noticed some fungus growing at the top of the wound. This was a couple of weeks after a tree at the end of the block came down and knocked out power to the neighborhood for a whole day.  I started to worry about that darn hackberry.  I suggested calling in an arborist.  The husband resisted.  He was reluctant to hear that the tree would have to come down.  That it was a danger to passersby and the front of our house.

But one day, I went ahead and called an arborist in a nearby city.  He came by very early on a recent Saturday morning.  We prepared ourselves to hear the worst.  But lo and behold, he said he did not recommend removing the tree or even any of its branches.  Maybe a little trimming in a few years to take out some dead wood if we wanted to.  I was very surprised and also relieved.  My husband?  It was the best gift he ever received, to hear that his beloved hackberry was spared.  At least he had enough dignity not to do a happy dance right there in the front yard.

Spanish Chicken or Blackened Mess?

By accident the other day, I happened to catch a little of Nigella Lawson's TV show.  She was making a super easy oven-baked Spanish chicken.  I found the recipe online and tried it out last night.  Before baking it looked gorgeous.

After baking, not so much.

Before dinner, I told my husband I would have to blog about this chicken as a major FAIL.  He insisted that it was not a failure at all.  Turns out he likes onion and garlic blackened in olive oil.  Actually the chicken and potatoes were quite tasty, and even the chorizo was good if one could look past the heavily blackened exterior.

I'm pretty sure the finished dish is not supposed to look like this.  I'm not sure what went wrong.  I did trim some of the fat from the chicken thighs before cooking.  I also used Mexican chorizo rather than Spanish.  It was a soft chorizo with no casing.  Maybe that's why it charred.  The onions? I don't know.  I cut them in fair sized pieces.  Maybe next time -- and, yes, I think there will be a next time -- I'll lower the temperature a bit.  The only changes I made from Nigella's recipe were to reduce everything (I used four thighs rather than twelve), lightly salt the chicken, and I added a couple of grinds of black pepper over the whole thing and  three large cloves of garlic, peeled and quartered.  Click here to go to Nigella's recipe.  Don't judge her recipe by my blackened mess.

Still Working Through "200 Crochet Blocks"

Now that I finished my oversized crochet baby blanket, it's time for me to get serious about my other crochet project, the 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans sampler throw that I am making for our daughter.  I've completed seven more blocks since my last update.

Top row: #55 Centered Square, #47 Queen Anne's Lace, #88 Edwardian Fancy, # 173 Big Round.
Bottom row: #161 Daisy Chain, # 86 Sunray, # 17 Alternate Bobbles, #28 Christmas Rose, # 38 Dahlia.

I had the most fun making the Alternate Bobbles.  I have never been able to knit bobbles for some reason, and I was pleased to find out how easy they are to make in crochet.  Love that!  I think there may be a crochet bobble scarf in my future.

On a separate, Blogger note: I am quickly running out of free space on Picasa.  In fact, I had to go in and delete some unused photos from my web album in order to upload these pictures.  Anyone have good advice about how you dealt with this?  Do I just have to suck it up and purchase additional space?  I am super cheap, so I hope not.

Aug. 29 post script:
I am trying out Photobucket as a replacement for Picasa, so I am adding in this photo of the Dahlia square to see how it goes.  The square reminds me of commercials I used to see for Outback Steak House's blooming onion.  Photobucket allows you to store photos and then upload them with the url.  So far, this seems like a free solution.

Put away that hoe! Grilled zucchini boats

"The first zucchini I ever saw, I killed it with a hoe."  -- columnist John Gould in Monstrous Depravity: A jeremiad and a lamentation [about things to eat], 1963

Zucchini can take over a garden, and maybe some gardeners feel like taking a hoe to them on occasion.  When I was growing up, if a zucchini hid under the leaves and got too big to suit my mother (and by too big I mean anything over five or six inches long), she would pull it off and chuck it aside to let it rot in the garden.  Let's face it, zucchini are so prolific that gardeners can get pretty cavalier with them.  

We don't have enough space or sun to grow zucchini at our house, so I cherish zukes when I get good ones.  Last week I showed you the zucchini I got at the farmer's market.  Today I'll show you what I did with them.  My sister-in-law sent me this great grilled zucchini boat recipe.  If you have a zucchini-filled garden, it'll have you saying "whoa" to the hoe!  

This was cooked directly on the grill for great grill marks.

This recipe could be changed up almost any way you like.  You could make it spicy, add garlic or olives.  I've even seen similar recipes with bacon or sausage.  We liked it just like this, as a side dish.  It makes a beautiful presentation.

Grilled Zucchini Boats

2 medium zucchini (6-7 inches long), ends trimmed

3/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

2 plum or large cherry tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

3-4 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons bread Italian crumbs

1/2 teaspoon (or several grinds with pepper mill) black pepper

Olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Heat grill to medium-high heat.  Cut zucchini in half lengthwise.  Scoop out centers to for a 1/2-inch- thick shell.

For filling:  Chop the zucchini center flesh.  Combine with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, basil, onions, bread crumbs and black pepper. 

Brush cut side of zucchini lightly with olive oil.  You can salt them lightly if desired.  Place zucchini, cut side down, on grill either directly or in a grill basket.  Grill, covered, for 6-8 minutes until tender crisp.  Check occasionally to prevent burning.

Turn zucchini over and fill the wells evenly with the filling.  Sprinkle on remaining ¼ cup Parmesan cheese and parsley.  

Filled and ready to go back to the grill.

Return to grill and cook, covered, for additional 4-5 minutes or until cheese is melted and filling is heated through.   Remove from grill.  If not using a basket, remove carefully using a large spatula.

Click for Printable recipe

A blanket for my baby

Back in November, I mentioned an afghan I was crocheting from a baby blanket pattern. After a year of working on it on and off, I finally finished it!  I wanted to complete it in time for my "baby" to take it along to his new apartment.  He came home yesterday to steal a rug for his living room.  I was all "Your blanket's done!" and he was all "It looks great. Nice stripes.  I'm not taking it right now."  Did you hear the pop that was my balloon being burst? Or maybe it was just the hiss of a slow leak of the air being let out. Regardless of the letdown of not hearing, "I've been hoping you'd get it done! I can't wait to take it with me!" I am happy to have completed the afghan even if it is still here instead of warming up the college apartment.

It is quite a large afghan as you can see.  The "baby" is 6'3" and wanted the blanket to be big enough to stretch from toes to chin.  Not sure if it's quite that long, but it's a big one.  And heavy.  It weighs about six pounds.  It's nice to finish a big project, but the husband is a little envious of the blanket, so who knows?  Maybe I'll have to start another one and, if I'm industrious, get it finished before we are shipped off to the old folks home.