Grandma Kelli's Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

The other day Bobby Flay's Throwdown was 100% zucchini, which caught my attention. When the challenger stuffed the blossoms, I entered a new dimension of food consciousness. Not only do I love cooking with zucchini, but my garden is rife with squash plants. So one night last week, when I didn't feel like eating a meal, I waddled out to the garden and plucked some zucchini blossoms. And this, readers, is what I came up with. Mmm Mmm good.

Total Prep Time: 15 min
Serves 6

1. Pick 15-18 blossoms from your garden. Swish in warm salt water to zap any garden "visitors." Lay the blossoms on a paper towel.
2. Turn on your oil to heat up while you prep.
3. Mix up 1 C. pancake batter (not too thick) while you soften 8 oz cream cheese in microwave for 30 seconds.
4. Finely chop a fresh basil leaf and 1/3 c. black olives. Add to the cream cheese mixture.
5. Stuff the blossoms with the mixture.
6. Dip each blossom in batter then into the hot oil. It takes less than a minute for each blossom to fully cook.
7. Remove from oil and place blossoms on paper towel to absorb excess oil.
8. Serve these little gems on your most treasured serving plate with bite-sized veggies from the garden. I use cherry tomatoes for color.

While these are not low in fat, carb, or calories, they taste amazing without any salt or pepper added. The Basil is requisite, however, for the right balance of flavors. Limit yourself to two and it's a perfectly healthy appetizer!

p.s. I bought a Pampered Chef decorating gun about 5 years ago and I had never opened the box, until it came to stuffing squash blossoms. I recommend using it or a pastry bag.

If It's Up to Me, Immunize by Three

Here's a picture of my friend Carrie's newborn daughter, Audrey. She's a beautiful and perfect little one. To make sure that doesn't change, here's a vitally important message for parents of newborns and toddlers.

Young mothers & fathers need to beware the misleading scare tactics used by healthcare professionals and the pharmaceudical companies who persist in their propoganda about "Immunize by Two; It's Up to You" -- Much has been written on this topic that would strongly suggest parents of infants (newborn-24 months) revise that motto to read "I Immunize by Three; It's up to Me". With thousands of parents' testimonials of the harmful, and often permanent, side-effects of the standard vaccinations, parents would be wise to take their children in at later intervals than what is considered standard by most medical professionals, beginning at 2 months, and sometimes even earlier. While some parents go so far as to refuse to vaccinate their infants and children, this researcher maintains that delaying those shots by a few months may be wise. Every parent has the prerogative to wait before allowing their infant's immune system to be taxed by doses of harmful diseases that are preserved in often harmful solutions.

The high and rising numbers of autistic children in the US, Canada, and the UK reflect the correlations between early immunizations and the increasing amounts of innoculations now administered to infants. In the 1970s and 1980s when your parents were raising small children, the immunizations prevented a few diseases: polio and rubella, both diseases that can leave irreversible damage and even death); tetanus (because we used pins on our diapers), and pertussis. Today's regimen will also provide attempts at early prevention for pneumonia, chicken pox, mumps, RSV, as well as HPV for girls. That's a lot of foreign disease to inject into the immune system of a newborn -- even if their name is Darth Vader, Clark Kent, or Xena!

Autism is a life sentence, in spite of what Jenny McCarthy says. It's irreversible, it's difficult to understand and to treat, and many frustrated parents daily who wish they had known better. Don't take my word. Instead, parents should do their homework and ask around. Listen to the stories of mothers whose infant ran a fever of 107 degrees after its first set of shots. Ask how many side-effects your neighbor's newborn endured from its vaccinations. Your baby's life depends on the choices you make and when you make them.

And whose ANGELS have we here?

Hmmm. Summer activities for 4 and 5 year olds. My BFF asked for advice about how to keep her two kids happy and cooperative during the summer break, so here's the advice I sent her. It's based on my own parenting style, so take it or leave it. It worked for my family: Abbie & Alex

The more structure you can provide, the happier everyone will be. It's hard work to be that proactive, but it's really worth the effort. Keep a set schedule during summer months. Something like:
7-9am tv & breakfast; tv goes off at 9am
9-9:30 dress and make beds, comb hair
9:30-11:30 family activity (zoo, walk, store, errands, park, visit friends)
Noon-1pm lunch and more tv (a.k.a."quiet time")
1-2 project time - make a birthday card, paint with water, start to put together a model airplane or car (Alex) begin cutting out paper dolls (Abbie). Clean up and save more for tomorrow.
2-3 Reading time (and use this time to go to the library twice a week)
2:30-4:30 Outdoor family activities (hammer and nail, catch flies/lady bugs, dig and plant flowers, transplant bushes, pull out old stuff, wash the car and dry it -- better yet, put a coat of wax on and let the kids buff it off, help Grandma with her yardwork, go swimming.....) I never run out of ideas.
4:30 If there have been no melt downs or fights between kids by this time of day, pull out the rewards: mini-play dough one color for him, other color for her; or a package of Skittles to share (split 3 ways it's not a huge dose of sugar).
5-6pm prepare for dinner, eat, clean up dinner (they help, of course)
6-7 baths and a video
9 - bedtime
You're free. Enjoy the solace, cuz it all starts again in 12 hours!

Joy

"Experience is a brutal teacher. But you learn. By God, you learn." -- C.S.Lewis

Everything I've ever read by this man has changed me in some small way. He just GOT IT - what it means to be human. He figured it out, not on his own, and not without heartache, but he learned. By God he learned.

Do a search on this man and find out more about him. Then read one of his books. My favorite is The Screwtape Letters.

Help--I've fallen into email purgatory and can't get up!

Recent photos of Brian Allred's kids. Such sweethearts!

I've read four books since the beginning of June. How's your reading going? Did you know that all Americans have lost some of their reading skills due to lack of use? It's true. According to a 20-year study on American reading habits, the results show that we not only read less, we read with less ability as a result. This study included all age, race, and socio-econ groups. The only age group whose reading skills improved were 9-year-olds. I guess we can thank J.K. Rowling for that significant exception. If you need a suggestion for reading, check out my Shelfari.

AFTERTHOUGHTS:
Hope you enjoyed the Wicked Tinkers video. What's that? You didn't WATCH it? Well, stop reading now and click on the link. If you like Craig Ferguson (or anything Scottish), you'll enjoy watching this.

Back to my original premise: I took the plunge today and deleted 600 emails (many of them unread) from my GMail Inbox. Only 300 more to go. Hence the heading about "email purgatory" -- can't move forward till I settle up. Most of these are things I needed to unsubscribe from long ago.

Scottish Festival 2009 (Wicked Tinkers video)

Wicked Tinkers
This past weekend was the Utah Scottish Festival, which has become an Allred family favorite. We visit the Malcolm booth, watch the weavers, and cheer for the hefty lads competing in Highland games (sheaf toss, caber toss, etc.) We enjoyed the March of the Clans this year for the first time, but our favorite event is always the concert on Saturday night. WICKED TINKERS is one of the BEST Celtic bands I've heard. The digeridoo is an amazingly singular instrument. It's the long pipe in the photo. (Check out my link to Craig Ferguson playing with Wicked Tinkers on the Late Show.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYk6_R0pxJk&feature=related

Honoring this year's Clan Chieftain
March of the Clans