Recipes...well kind of sort of.....

Well I haven’t journaled in I don’t know how long….I just haven’t felt like it…blah blah blah…anyways…my life is just oh so exciting so I know you have missed me if you are an avid reader! Lol

I do remember a lot of comments asking for recipes and I’m sorry to say, I’m not really a recipe kind of cook! Lol….a little bit of this a little bit of that…I get that from my dad…but here’s a basic recipe for a summer vegetable medley. My mother tells me I invented something new because she had never heard of someone cooking cucumber. But I’m telling you what they were good in this mix too! Also, for all you garden impaired people, they sell most of this stuff at grocery stores but if you have a local farmer’s market…please support that!

Ok so basically you slice up one or two yellow squash, zucchini, and maybe one small cucumber, about a ½ a diced onion, ½ a chopped up green pepper, and sometimes I also add frozen broccoli, or a diced tomato…really whatever veggies ya like. I put this all in a skillet or pot, about a cup of water or chicken stock, 1 or 2 tablespoons of Smart Balance margarine (or whatever butter you use – we use Smart Balance faithfully). I’m almost done…about a teaspoon or so of celery seed, salt and pepper to taste…and I’ve also been adding a dash of fuengreek…(whatever, it’s on my spice rack which I received a wedding present over 10 years ago…it smelled like it would go good with celery seed so I put it in there)…also just a pinch of rosemary – I LOVE rosemary so most things get a pinch of rosemary lol….so let’s see you cook this concoction on medium for oh 10 to 15 minutes or until the veggies start to get tender.

As for the pizza steak hoagie recipe…well Jimmie made those and I think he cooked them like I cooked the veggies…no real recipe just whatever sounds good. Basically ya take either hoagie buns or French bread sliced in half. Add a little pizza sauce, cooked beef hoagie patties, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, onion, whatever else ya want to top it with – I noticed on the one he made for himself he put all sort of banana peppers and jalopena peppers and a lot of other stuff I find yucky…lol…I like mine with very little sauce (I like my pizza with very little sauce too! Lol). Put it all open faced on a pan and pop it in the oven til the cheese gets melty and the bread gets toasty.

Ok one more recipe…did ya’ll know Elmo wrote a cookbook? I saw it a couple of weeks ago on Good Morning America and this one recipe stuck out to me, because we grew zucchini this year…here it is…I’ve made these and they are addictive! I made mine with mozzarella and cheddar cheese instead of parm. though….

Abby Cadabby's Magic Golden Zucchini Coins
Prep time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 5 to 8 minutes Makes 4 to 6 servings
6 small, thin zucchini or yellow summer squash, or a combination Salt to taste 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1. . (With kids!) Use a plastic knife to slice each zucchini into ¼-inch-thick rounds.
2. In a large saucepan, steam or boil the zucchini until barely tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside to cool slightly.
3. Preheat the broiler.
4. (With kids!) Place the zucchini in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle each "coin" with a tiny pinch of salt and some Parmesan cheese.
5. Broil the zucchini until just golden, 1 to 2 minutes.
Tip: You can steam the zucchini coins, lay them out on a baking sheet, and sprinkle them with cheese in advance, then broil them just before dinner.

Ok this concludes cooking with Jodi 101….there will be a taste test later!! Lol

Umm so two weeks ago Isaac came and spent some time at our house. That was so much fun…I don’t get a lot of one on one time with him and he’s just growing up so fast! Jimmie is picking Isaac up again on Friday to go to more tractor pulls. We’re keeping him til Sunday this time.
Oh this is a prayer request…one of Jimmie’s friends that he’s known for years through tractor pulling and auto mechanicing etc…he had cancer and has actually been living on borrowed time for a few years now. Like literally 3 or 4 years ago the doctors gave him six months. Well recently we’d heard that he was in the hospital and this past Saturday we were up that way, so we stopped by his house and he was home from the hospital but was resting so we didn’t get to see him. Hospice was there and they had begun the morphine treatments, so we knew Chris wasn’t long for this world. He passed away Tuesday morning. One really good thing is that a few months ago Jimmie had a really good visit with Chris and Chris shared with him at that time that he had made peace with the Lord and was ready to go home. So that’s a big praise! But just keep his family in your prayers please. He has two daughters who are in their early 20’s and I just cannot fathom what they are going through.

So Jimmie is picking Isaac up earlier in the day on Friday to go to a tractor pull on Friday night and the visitation for this friend is Friday afternoon. I asked Jimmie what he planned to do with Isaac when he went to the visitation. He said he’d take him with him. I said ummm…I don’t think that’s a good idea. But I checked with Missy and she said he’s been to a visitation before so she’s ok with him going with Jimmie. I was telling Jimmie that last night on the phone (because he’s working in Evansville Indiana this week) and he told me that he had talked to Isaac about his friend dying already. Jimmie said he told him that his friend was really sick and he was dying and Isaac asked aww why does he have to die and Jimmie said well everybody dies…and that was that conversation…I think I’d like to be a fly on the wall when Jimmie and Isaac are having bonding time like that…lol…

Well umm let’s see…not really a whole heck of a lot going on. It’s hot…lol…ohhh! I just thought of something to share. So mom and dad are going on a cruise in October and it’s funny because it was the exact week that I was thinking of a vacation for Jimmie and I. So we checked out the cruise deal that mom and dad are going on and it was a really good price so we were going to do that too. Well so Sunday evening Jimmie and I are talking about doing that, when he remembers that the last time he checked, he almost had enough reward points on his Drury Inn rewards to qualify for a cruise. So we checked his points and he has enough for a free 3 night 4 day cruise! So the down side is that we aren’t going on the cruise with mom and dad after all because that one is a 6 nighter but the upside is we’re going on a free cruise! The way it works is, we got online and let them know that Jimmie wants to redeem his points and then they send us a packet of info and options. So we’re just waiting on the packet to come in. But they use the major cruise lines so I’m pretty sure we’ll be going to the Bahamas in October! Wahoo!

Well…I’ve babbled on enough…happy Wednesday ya’ll!!