Untitled from c525600 on Vimeo.

it all started with the silly putty on the carpet

I've been reading this book for BlogHer Book Club and not that they didn't warn me or anything, but it's been kinda making it hard for me to sleep at night.  Well, not hard to stay asleep per say, just hard to fall asleep.  You'll certainly hear about it more when I finish.  I don't want to say too much now.

So thanks to this book I really haven't been getting as much sleep as I should be considering that it's the middle of summer and I have nowhere to be each morning. It occurred to me yesterday that it's almost August and I haven't done the first thing for school yet.  That's when I looked down and realized that the littlest kid is stomping on his silly putty on the carpet.

I don't know if you heard about our last incident with silly putty or not, but we don't have a good track record in this house.

Anyway, to say that I've gotten myself in a little funk is an understatement.  I need to snap out of it and I'm hoping it starts tonight with a victory at Hogwarts.

We did have a nice ride around the neighborhood in the back of Daddy's truck the other night though.

So, how are y'all?

beautiful afternoon

top secret blog project: Stuffed Summer Squash

I mentioned yesterday that I had been working on a top secret blog project and I had so much fun with my most recent adventure!  Knorr and BlogHer sent me a sample package of concentrated chicken stock to play with in my kitchen and the challenge to create an original recipe with it.   Knorr is one of the sponsors of this year’s BlogHer ’11 Conference in San Diego and they’re giving 8 winners of this recipe contest a ticket, airfare, and hotel for BlogHer ’11.  I’ve never been to BlogHer and always wanted to attend so I’m hoping this is it!

Now, let’s get to the goods.  Since it’s summer time and I seem to have an abundance of yellow squash hanging around I decided to make stuffed squash and fill it with the wonderful flavors of the chicken stock soaked up by bread crumbs and veggies.

If you want to play along and make this at home (and you know you do) you’ll want to start by slicing open a few yellow squash horizontally and scooping the seeds out with a spoon.  You could also use zucchini I suppose, but curvy yellow squash is what I had on hand.  Curvy as Kim Kardashian.  Ahem.  As I was saying, scoop out the seeds and place them in a shallow baking dish.  

Next you’ll want to chop some onion, celery, and broccoli.  Sauté the onion and celery in a tablespoon of butter under they are tender and then add the broccoli for just a couple of minutes to start the cooking process.  They broccoli pieces will finish cooking in the oven so you don’t need to cook them too long. 

In a separate pot, place 1 ¾ cups of water and one container of the concentrated chicken stock over high heat.  Once it comes together to form a nice broth, reserve ¾ cup of the liquid.  Bring the rest to a boil and add two cups of herb stuffing mix and stir in the veggies.  Mmmmmmm… you can smell the flavor here and trust me when I say that you’ll have to refrain from digging in with a fork.

Fill each half of the squash with a couple of spoonfuls of the stuffing mixture.  Pour the reserved broth down into the bottom of the baking dish to provide a little bath for the squash to cook in.  Cover the dish with foil and place it in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes.  

You want the squash to cook all the way through and the stuffing to be infused with the flavor of the stock and veggies.  After the squash is cooked, you can top them with shredded cheese and bake for another five minutes or you can omit this step if you’re so inclined.  Why anyone would skip out on the cheese part I have no idea, but whatever floats your boat, dude.

The verdict: Delicious.  Thank you Knorr and BlogHer.  Even if I don’t make it to San Diego this summer, you’ve given me a fun day in my kitchen and an excellent new flavorful recipe to add to my arsenal of summer vegetable dishes.  I couldn’t be happier.

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Stuffed Summer Squash

3 large yellow squash

1 container Knorr Homestyle Concentrated Chicken Stock

2 cups Herb Stuffing Mix (I used Pepperidge Farm)

½ large onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

¾ cup broccoli, chopped

½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 TBSP butter

1 ¾ cups water

Bring water and concentrated stock to a boil.  Reserve ¾ cup of the liquid.  Saute onion and celery in 1 TBSP butter and add the broccoli pieces after a few minutes.  All of the vegetables should be tender but not fully cooked as they will cook more in the oven.  Add 2 cups stuffing mix to broth and stir in veggies.  Place 2 heaping spoonfuls of stuffing in each half of the squash.  Pour ¾ cup reserved broth into the bottom of the dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 35 minutes, until squash is tender.  Sprinkle cheese on top of each piece of squash and bake an additional 5 minutes uncovered, until cheese is melted and stuffing is slightly crispy on top.

Total cook time: 35 – 40 minutes

Serves 6

Note: Knorr Homestyle Stock used to make chicken stock.  Each tub makes 3 1/2 cups of broth, can be diluted with almost any liquid, from water to fruit juice. Uses carefully selected ingredients, including herbs and vegetables, slowly simmered to perfection.

bullets of randomness

• The kids had dentist appointments this week.  It was Josh's first visit.  He was so very brave.  And cute in those big boy batman glasses (so that the "sunshine" wouldn't get in his eyes).

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• I got my tickets to the last Harry Potter earlier this week.  I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
• I've been enjoying figuring out Google Plus.  So far it's been lots of fun investigating!
• I've been working on a top secret blog project which is one reason why I haven't posted quite as much as I'd have liked this week. More details coming next week.
• Julianna's latest obsession is Pokemon.  She's been addictively (I just made that word up) playing PokePark Wii this summer.  She saved her own money from selling lemonade to buy the game and she's pretty good at it.  She's gotten close to beating the game.  We've been to the library on numerous occasions to check out Pokemon books and we even we to a Pokemon/Bakugan club earlier this week and she was completely enthralled.  Totally in her element among the older kids (no surprise, mostly boys) and now she's started collecting Pokemon cards much to the dismay of her parents.  [Although I will say that I bought her first pack because she helped me clean the whole upstairs and I wanted to reward her so I guess I brought it all on myself.]
• We celebrated a very good Fourth of July with family and friends.  We had a cookout at our house Sunday night and my dad even got to come.  Monday night we went to Jonathan's grandmother's house to watch the fireworks display at Creekside Park.  Josh was a little scared but he did much better than I expected.
• New book review coming soon.  I've read some interesting ones over the last two weeks and I started Pillars of the Earth but had to give up on it for now.  Anyone else read that that can advise whether to proceed or not?
• Julianna ran a true mile yesterday on her own and I couldn't be prouder.  I'm hoping she'll join us on the Mission Mile again this year.
 

Questions of the Day:
-What have you been up to?
-Are you on Google+?
-Are you a Harry Potter fan?  Do you get rediculously excited when a new movie comes out or is that just me?
-Any suggestions for new books to read?

 

now I have Lee Greenwood songs going through my head

We had a cookout here to celebrate the 4th of July on Sunday night since most people had Monday off from work.  It was a ton of fun and the perfect summer celebration.  The fourth of July has got to be one of the best holidays all year.

 Why people make business calls on holidays, I just don't understand.

Lots of kids in a truck.

First family picture since Josh was born.  Awesome.

 Jonathan got to spend a little bit of time with his dad which he was thankful for.

The kids got to throw some pop-its and Josh adored being carried around my Sara Beth all night.

ready for fireworks