Fried Zucchini

I know I just posted like three hours ago, but WOW!!! I tested my skills in cooking fried zucchini, and BAM! I nailed it! I never liked fried zucchini growing up, but this stuff is great! I think I may have over cooked it just a smidgen, but I think that's what made it better for me. So, here is the recipe:

Fried Zucchini
vegetable oil for frying
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 eggs beaten
2 zucchinis

Pour oil to cover about 1/4 inch of entire bottom of frying pan, let simmer. Mix flour, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Beat eggs in another small bowl. dip sliced zucchini in egg, let excess drip off, then coat in flour mixture. Put in oil and cook about 3 minutes on each side. Set on a paper towel to let excess oil drain. Enjoy!

How does your garden grow?

My garden grows very well, in case you were wondering. This month we have had tons of zucchini and cherry tomatoes, and I just picked our first cucumber! We've been super excited for cucumbers.

The tomatoes don't usually get put into anything special, because Lance and I like to snack on them too much, but I've put my cooking skills to work with my zucchini. We also like to snack on raw zucchini dipped in ranch. It's a good treat if you're not in the mood to cook. It's kind of like a cucumber, but with a different texture.

Something we have had a LOT of lately is zucchini bread. How do you make a zucchini into bread, you may ask? Well, here is the recipe: (it came from the Better Homes and Gardens 75th anniversary edition cookbook) I hope you like it!




Zucchini Bread
1 1/2 cups flour 1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup cooking oil
1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan: set aside. In a medium bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
In another medium bowl combine egg, sugar, zucchini, and oil. Add zucchini mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in nuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

I'm Bored!

Hey guys! Lance had a lot of homework tonight, so to get rid of my boredom, I decided to change a few things on my blog. I figured out tons more things that I was too impatient to learn before. So, what do you think? Don't get too attached. Lance has a long semester ahead of him, and I like designing things.

My Occupation

No, I did not get a new job. I enjoy mine just fine, thank you. What is my occupation, you may ask? Well, I am a house wife, and a pretty darn good one, if I may say so myself. (I really didn't mean that in a prideful way. I just know that I work hard to keep my marriage and home strong.)

What exactly does a housewife do? Well, for those of you who think that we just sit around watching soap operas and eating bonbons, you are in for a surprise. I don't even get television reception in my home right now. Sure, I have movies, but why would I watch a movie if there are so many other things that need to be done? There are many things we do, but this list is only a few things I can think of off the top of my head: clean the house, cook, mend clothing, keep blog up to date, receptionist work, filing work, weeding, gardening, yard work, rake leaves, shovel snow, decorate, plan/hold parties, be a therapist for our husbands, organize closets/cupboards/drawers/etc, take care of bills, run errands, and so much more!

Now, you may be thinking, "Why is she telling me this?" Well, I have been thinking about this a lot lately. About a month ago, I ran into an acquaintance, and he asked me where I was working. I told him that I was at home. He said that he would never have let his wife stay at home before they had kids. It made me feel like I wasn't doing anything worth while, and I was a little depressed for a few days. Still, to this day, I am frustrated about that conversation, and can't believe he would say that to me. I can understand where he's coming from, wanting more income. But money isn't everything. My point is, please don't judge people for staying home. We're not lazy, like you may think. In fact, I've had some jobs that were tons easier than working hard at home.

Many others of you may be thinking that house work is not the funnest thing to do. Well, sure, there are chores that just plain suck (cleaning the shower, toilets, etc) but there are some great perks to it as well. For one thing, you can go to work in your pajamas! There are some days when I don't even take a shower until three in the afternoon (mind you, these days, I'm doing the dirty, sweaty work like scrubbing floors forever, weeding the garden, etc). If you don't get something done as soon as you'd like, you don't have a boss breathing down your neck demanding it get done or you're fired (I'm sure that is an extreme thought, but at least you don't have to worry about getting fired for any reason). If you're a clean freak, you have time to clean whatever you want to clean. If you're not so much of a clean freak, you can get on to other tasks. You don't have to wake up early to get to work. You can take a day off whenever you like, and don't have to worry about finding someone to fill-in for you. You can do things for others (just today, I babysat two of my nephews, and it was fun!). You can try out new recipes that might take too long for someone working 40 hours a week. You can catch up on scrapbooking that has piled up over the years. You can save money on birthday and Christmas gifts by making some. The perk list is endless!

Well, I hope you have learned that being a house wife is an acceptable occupation. In the past month, as I have been thinking about it, I have learned not to judge people by where they choose to work, just as long as they do something and enjoy it.

Cabin Fever

This weekend, Lance and I were able to go to a cabin with Lance's family. It's kind of hard to explain how we got access to a cabin, so I'll spare you the details. We had lots of fun. Here are some pictures to illustrate just exactly how much fun we had.

There was an old dryer that needed to be disposed of, so some of us had fun playing in it.

Here is the demolition team disposing of the dryer. Now, these are some happy workers. Wouldn't you be if you got to smash a dryer?

Some of us went for a walk. Olivia got tired, so I carried her on my back. She's my buddy, or in her words, "Bubby."

Here is the whole crew.

Lance and I are posing for a beautiful river view. This was on our hike.

I like to show Lance who's boss by demonstrating my strength. Yes, I really am picking him up. Hooray for me and my super strong legs!

One of Lance's favorite past times is throwing rocks in the water. In this case, he's throwing a boulder!

Our room was up a ladder. I'm getting ready to come down. "Look out below!"

Lance showed me his strength, too. We're just a strong couple, I guess.

See ya!

Weekend Getaway . . . sort of

This past weekend, Lance and I celebrated our anniversary. (Our anniversary really was last Wednesday, but we celebrated this weekend.) We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Tremonton for FREE!!! It was free, because when Lance was on his last business trip in St. Louis, he had some troubles with his hotel room not being clean (I won't tell you all the details, but just know that it was really disgusting.) We decided on Tremonton because with how many points we had (for staying for free) it would be enough for TWO nights at Tremonton, or only one night somewhere else. (We still have one more night left, but we don't know when we'll use it.) Since we were up that way already, we decided to go to Promontory Point and see a major historical site for our state. After seeing the railroad sites, we went to the rocket exhibit at Autoliv. Then, we came back through Brigham City and visited the tabernacle there. Surprise for us: the couple that was there as a guide were related to Lance. The guy's mother was a Welling! How crazy is that? Then, we went for a drive, stopped by John Paras furniture to browse (we do that sometimes, but never buy anything because furniture is expensive), then we went home and watched some movies. I made kettle corn from a recipe I found online. It was so DELICIOUS!!! I got the recipe on Thursday, and we have had some every day since. (We're kind of popcorn fanatics.) So, that was our wonderful weekend. It was so much fun hanging out with my best friend for so long. I love him lots, and am glad we have been married for three years.

We ate at Subway, and I'm wearing my fancy sunglasses from getting my eyes dilated that day.

This is in our hotel room. The mirror opens up into a closet. Weird picture, I know.

This is our hotel room. It was nice. The bed was super soft!

Here is the Golden Spike sign! We didn't actually go up to the trains, because there was an entrance fee just to look at them. But we got a good shot without having to touch the train. (This isn't the good shot of the trains, but they are in the background.)

This is on the other side of the trains. We found an old train track, so Lance is standing on it, and you can see the trains behind him.

This arch was formed by the ancient Lake Bonneville. It is named Chinese Arch. They think it was named that because of the many Chinese workers that worked on the railroad.

Lance climbed up on top of Chinese Arch.

I'm just lounging on the pillar.

Oh, such balance! Watch out, he might strike at any time.

I hope that the rocket doesn't start up while he's looking in there!

We're standing at the pulpit inside the tabernacle. Good thing it's not a big conference and we're the speakers. That would be scary!

Brigham City tabernacle. Isn't it so pretty?




Kettle Corn Recipe

1/2 cup popcorn kernels 1/4 cup vegetable oil or buttered flavored oil
1-3 tablespoons sugar salt to taste

Pop the popcorn kernels with the vegetable oil, either in an oil popper or on the stove. Sprinkle sugar/salt mixture, stir, and enjoy!

Flower Power

I was having a bad day, today. I needed to water my lawn, and as I was making sure that the hoses were in the right spot, making sure that the water was getting everywhere it was supposed to and not where it wasn't supposed to, I sat on my porch and admired my flowers. I know you're probably thinking that I'm obsessed, but hey, what else would I obsess over? So, when I turned the water off, I took some pictures of my beautiful flowers. It gave me peace to realize that I nurtured these darling flowers from tiny little seeds. Who knew that sprinkling seeds here and there, then watering every day would produce such art? It just goes to show that tender loving care really does pay off.

Our Home

One year ago today was when we put an offer on our house. We still love it! We've done a few renovations, and there is still a lot of work to be done. We have loved living in this house and look forward to living in it for years to come. Here are some pictures of how we have decorated it and some renovations we have done

Camping

We went camping this weekend for a family reunion. It was fun . . . except for the camping part. I don't like sleeping on the ground, and I don't like sleeping in a tent. At least I had a thick pad so I didn't get bruises from the bumps in the ground. I send thanks to my parents for lending me a very much appreciated pad. It really was a lot of fun, though. There were lots of fun things to do and nice people to hang out with. Here are some pictures.

The camping trip was for a family reunion. Here are many of the people who were there.

We played "A Minute to Win It" Lance's game was "junk in the trunk" He had to get all of the ping-pong balls out of the box on his bum by wiggling them out. It was hilarious. He did a good job. I had to whip a ping-pong ball into a large tin bucket with a towel. It only took me a couple of tries. There were many other equally funny games that had us all laughing.

Some of the men folk went into some fields to play golf. That was Lance's highlight of the weekend. He LOVES golf.

Sunday morning, Lance roped me in to playing golf with his brothers, Blake and Bryce. Lance did the best, of course, since he golfs more often than any of us. But I did okay. I had some pretty good hits. (That's probably because I go to the driving range from time to time with Lance.)

One tradition we have is to throw rocks in the river. This is one of the splashes from a large rock that Lance threw.

Question: How do you entertain grown men?
Answer: Give them big sticks.
Lance and Dan are having a large stick (sword) fight.

Lance, Melissa, and Olivia are throwing rocks into the river. Olivia had a blast throwing them. She even used her left hand a few times.

We had to cross this bridge to get to the river where we throw rocks. The bridge was kind of bouncy, but it wasn't scary.