Grating Zucchini

Just a couple of tips on grating zucchini. This was my first go at it, so I’ll tell you what we learned.

Zucchinis can be really big.

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That said, don’t let them scare you. It’s likely you are bigger than they are. Rinse them off in the sink in cool water.

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Cut off the stem end.

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Use the medium grater size so that your pieces are small enough to mix well. Grate zucchini down about an inch or until you see the seed core appearing.

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Cut around the seed core as far down as a paring knife will go and pop it out. Continue grating until more seed core shows up and do the same thing. This easy step will keep the seeds out of your bread–which is much nicer than having big old surprise seeds show up at inconvenient times…like when you’re eating.

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Measure out what you need for your recipes and bag and freeze the rest.

The end.

Easy Summer…

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Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.

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A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.

~Ada Louise Huxtable

Gracious Giveaways

There’s a ton going on right now with summer winding down and back-to-school looming around the corner. Here are a busload of giveaways that should make things just a tad easier–or at least a heck of a lot more fun!

First-our own Gracious Rain…

Back to School Motherload

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This giveaway includes everything you see here–except the apple. There are two packs of paper, sticky notes, mini highlighters, watercolor paints, Dr.Seuss Markers, mini calculator, pencils, glue sticks, note cards, crayons and heart tattoos. Once your sweet things are happily on their way out the door–you can sit down with a package of Pepperidge Farms Chocolate Pirouettes and contemplate your life…and how good it is!

Oh, yeah. You wanna win this one.

To enter:

Make a comment on this post. (1 entry)

Grab my Gracious Rain button for your blog. (2 entries)

Blog about this giveaway on your blog and leave a link in the comments. (3 entries)

Do any or all of these things to rack up entries.

I’ll close the comments Thursday August 13 and announce the winner Friday August 14, 2009 at 10 am.

Good luck!

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Oh–there’s more! Click on the links below–and follow the instructions to enter any or all of these incredible giveaways. Free is good–right?!

Fabulous Book Giveaway

Click the above link to enter to win the wonderful book “100 Ways To Simplify Your Life,” by Joyce Meyer. Couldn’t we all use this one?

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Hannah Montana Movie Giveaway

If your kids are Hannah Montana fans–now’s your chance to score big before the movie is even officially on the store shelves. Check out the clips from the movie and enter for a chance to win!

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$50 Barnes and Noble Gift Certificate

And who doesn’t want to curl up with a stack of lovely new books after the sweet kidlets head out the door for school? Fifty bucks will buy someone a bit of instant happiness.

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Avion Indoor Remote Control Bi-plane

Ooooh–I see Dads getting involved in this one. Or you could win it and sock it away for Christmas. Either way it’s a great win.

Take Me Home…

When you wake 3 babies and 7 grown-ups at 4 am to catch a shuttle at 5…

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so you can get to the airport at 6:30 to stand in line until 8…

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to catch the 9am flight back home…

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there really should be an agreement of some sort…

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that they will not, under any circumstances, delay the flight–

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for two and a half hours.

But there isn’t.

So they did.

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And the whole building found out the real meaning of the words, “sweet tempered babies” and “darn good sports.”

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Till finally, finally they pointed us westward…

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grateful that they got that wing screwed back on…

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so that we could fly, and fly, and fly safely back…

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to our little home…

in the mountains.

 

 

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Week 21 Food Storage Prompt: 10 lbs. Powdered Milk

Wind It Up…

Day 6

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If we’re going to see it–it has to be today. Note the lady in the white T-shirt smiling sweetly at our little herd. Yeah, we got a lot of that.

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Aren’t these mounted policemen the guys who chased Santa Claus through Central Park in that Elf movie? I bet that got them on the naughty list.

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A shy bald kid at his favorite place on the face of the earth…

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Nintendo World! Gee, I thought our front room was Nintendo world. My mistake.

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The youngsters were thoroughly enthralled.

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Most of them, anyway.

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I really wanted to see where the Macy’s Parade takes place on Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m some kind of country chick or something, but I just couldn’t fathom an 8 story department store.

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By the time we went up all the escalators–I was a believer.

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This place had a McDonalds right in the middle of the store. Yogurt–yum!

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Then on to the Empire State Building. We didn’t actually take the tour to the top—

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but the ground level was really pretty.

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Speaking of ground–apparently New York people spit a ton of gum on the ground. Ewww–ah.

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Prepare now for the ultimate Subway experience. First you go in and down…

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then sometimes you have to go back up. Hooray for big burly men.

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See that gal in the green shirt waaaay up ahead? Well, she is our illustrious leader, guiding us to all things touristy–provided you can keep up.

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I’ll admit, I expected the subways to be dark and dirty and full of scary gangs and half dead people. I know, too many movies–but the truth is–they were clean and well lit and full of regular folks…just like us. See? I can be taught!

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Our destination was at the very last stop. That why the sign says, “Last Stop.” har har

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We found this lush, shady park to sit in and rest our tired bones…

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and stare out at the lovely Lady Liberty. This was my very first time seeing her.

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We just sat and thought for a very long time. It seemed like the proper thing to do. That’s the bald kid and his mom in between the trees there.

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It was really quite peaceful…sobering even. My mother’s family came here from Sweden and my father’s came from Scotland about a hundred years ago. They both saw this very same lovely sight.

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We loved the boats…

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and the chicken nuggets…

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the sea birds…

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and the mysteriously matching trees.

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We discovered that they are building a memorial visitor’s center for the World Trade Center.

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So, for now all we could do was stand back and take pictures of the Ground Zero horizon…

but it was enough.