Oreo cakesters

Well, have you tried them yet??? We are a divided house on these right now. The boys just barely liked them, but the girls here liked them. I got both, the regular and the chocolate ones, just to be fair. The box comes with 6 little packs in it with 2 of the cakesters in each pack. They are about the size of an actual oreo but they are made with a chocolate cake like product with the cream in the middle. I don't know that I will buy them again, but I can say that I have officially tried them.

What about you???? anyone try them yet???????

I'm melting, melting...

Can you say, It's hot as hell and we are burning up. It really has been a pleasant summer so far...up to this point that is. Our overnight temps have been good and we have only had a few days in the 90's. Well then along came this week...we have been in a heat advisory for the full week with temps in the 100's and heat indexs up to 115 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of the ground we made up on rain is now going to be flushed down the drain. The garden has gone from a lush land to a deprived looking area really quickly. Everything is drooping and wilted.

I am hoping and praying that our new fruit trees make it through this hot period. We lost trees last year to the lack of rain I hate to see it again. It is like burning money up.

Hows the weather in your neck of the woods??????

Zucchini...need I say more!

Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini...they seem to be EVERYWHERE this time of year...or at least everywhere that there is summer, gardens, farmers markets, and everywhere in between. We have a huge amount of the green gobblins around here too. We only grew about 2 of the "traditional" green zucchini, but we started several of the of the Tromboncino zucchini. The have also just taken over with tons of them...here is the description of them from the package...
Tromboncino C. moschata 80 days. This Italian summer squash is a wonderful diversion from the usual. The light green-to-tan fruit can grow up to 3 feet long and may be harvested anytime, from just a few inches through its full size. Enjoy Tromboncino's rich flavor steamed, grilled, or sliced raw in your favorite salad. A vining variety that is best trellised for straighter fruit. We actually have them just about everywhere. I have frozen it, baked with it, eaten it, given it away and more...but we stiff have it. So far, I have made Zucchini bread, Chocolate zucchini bread, zucchini cake and put zucchini in almost everything we eat. Here is my recipe for the bread...that my very picky eating son said "if you could make all the zucchini into bread, it would be ok "... What can I say, the bread is good, but he doesn't like those green veggies laying out on his plate where he can see them. Well, here is my recipe...

Zucchini Bread Recipe!!!!!!! This one is a winner!!!
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 cups white sugar
3 cups grated zucchini (let it sit for a while and drain off any liquids before adding)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
You can also all coconut in any amount to this ...(I like to add a hand full of unsweetened)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, and salt; stir into the egg mixture. fold in nuts and/or coconut. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

I also like to sprinkle a bit of sugar onto the top of the batter, just before backing...gives it a nice finished look.

Does anyone Need any zucchini????

Summer Days

Or maybe I would be saying summer Daze!!!! since it is running by and I am mostly in a daze at the rate it is passing. Seriously thought, the summer is running short and we have been keeping busy with the "normal" summer activities.

We had an awesome night on Monday. We spent it with friends, at their house out in the country, around a campfire. We ate, talked and just shared time with our friends. Kenny had a blast too, with their son. I can honestly say that we, and probally most people, do not take enough time to spend with friends and family, and just enjoy them. We really has a super evening and we really needed it. I just love good people, food and a campfire too!!!

The kids have been taking advantage of the pool...yea, it is nothing special, but they have really liked having it. Kenny is taking to it like a little fish. He has swim lesson a few years ago but I wasn't really sure if "he retained any of it". Simone likes it too but is only in it when it is really, really hot out.

I have been keeping busy with the garden, kids, yard, dogs, husband, cooking, laundry, rearranging the house and so much more.

The weather has been pretty good so far this year. It is starting to get really hot now and it is getting dry. We really have been blessed with some great weather and all and the garden is doing well. I can honestly say that we have a TON of tomatoes!!!!! We have some other great things too, but this must be the year of the tomato!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our summer has been a good one so far and I hope everyone is having some fun during their summer too.

2007 Garden

The garden has been growing like crazy. We had a ton of rain here this past week and it has helped the garden so much. We have been picking tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers, cukes and just a few yellow squash. I have not been in the mood to can up the goods, so I have been freezing them. So far, I have frozen 7 gallon bags of tomatoes, 3 gallon bags of onions, 2 gallon bags of peppers and we have already eaten a ton of fresh salsa.

From what I understand, not to many people have even reaped the rewards of their tomatoes yet...My mom has not gotten any off her plants and neither has her landlord. My mom also when up to the farmers market on Tuesday and no one had any available either, they all said it was to early. It might be to early for them, but we have been picking them like crazy. I am not sure what we have done to get these 'maters so early, but it has been great!!! We planted about 30 tomato plants and they are great...everything from cherry to beefstake and everything in between.

We have not received any zuchini yet and I am hoping we get some soon. We had to replant this, since it did not "work" the first time.

So far we have been pleased with out garden and cant wait to see what else we get...

Six Flags

Well, we have been to Six Flag once again. It was a great day. Cullen, Belinda, Simone, kenny, Laura (cullens mom) and our nephew Michael all went. We started out on Friday, June 29...and the weather was not great. It was grey and cloudy and somewhat cool for the end of June. Since we had to travel over 100 miles, we decided that the weather might just be better there and we would be optimistic...

When we arrived at Six flags, it started raining, but we decided that to try it and see if we could handle it. It wasn't raining to hard so we went in.
The boys started out with the batman right away. Michael went with his Uncle cullen and they had a great time. We hung out (or should I say in...inside some of the shops while they rode) We really didn't very wet from the rain but it seem to be getting colder and so we decided to stay and ride some more of the rides and shop around insted of going to the water park.

My around 1p.m. we went out to the car and has some lunch and the weather seem to be improving and the fun began...everyone decided to go on some of the wet rides, like the log flume, thunder river, and the tide wave...now, it didn't matter if it rained, because everyone was soaked anyhow... It was getting warmer so it was getting better...

We spend the afternoon riding almost everything out there, Simone, Kenny, Michael, Cullen and Laura all rode the batman...it was great. I sat and watched, lol!!! Simone was a bit green when she got off, but everyone had a good time.

We decided to have a snack at Jonnie Rockets and ate a ton of hot and wonderful french frys with soda... It really hit the spot and they were really good too...

We left the park at about 5 p.m. and headed home. We had a good ride with no problems except for waiting on Hwy 44 for about 45 minutes at a stand still due to an accident. When we passed it, it looked pretty serious. There was a lot of traffic but it started to move on after that and we were off to get back home.

Overall, it was a super great day and the kids had an awesome day.