Thoughts and stories, by Pal

For those of you with zucchini from your garden, or your neighbor's garden! Zucchini Sticky Toffee Pudding Oh, my. The banana sticky toffee pudding is good but I think this is better. We have the best, friendliest neighborhood. And so, in the heat of the summer, everyone shares their zucchini. I love zucchini but I can’t eat them that quickly. Some of them get grated for baking and freezing. This is a great recipe for using some of your extra zucchini. You will be tempted to leave the flavors out but don’t. The sauce is good with vanilla flavor; it’s phenomenal with a butterscotch flavor. Caramel flavor, brown sugar flavor, and French vanilla flavor are all good and each gives a distinctly different tone to the sauce. For the toffee sauce: This is not complicated to make. You will need a candy thermometer. Just cook it until you reach the desired temperature. 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup (1/2 cube) salte...

By Dennis Weaver  · July 6, 2016  13 Tips for Perfect Cookies Thirteen Tips for Perfect Cookies Sometimes it’s the little things, attention to detail, that makes cookies better. Here are thirteen ways that you can make your cookies perfect. Use great ingredients.  Your cookies won’t be better than your ingredients and grocery stores usually compete on cost. Mediocre chocolate chips mean mediocre cookies. Pay attention to expiration dates . Fresh flour or fresh cinnamon is better. If cinnamon has been sitting in your cupboard for three years, throw it out. Measure carefully . Baking is precision. Check your measuring cups and spoons to be sure they are accurate. Chances are good they are not. Use a kitchen scale to check your measures. One cup of water should weigh eight ounces. Pay attention to temperature . Cream your sugar with firm butter; don’t let it melt. If your butter and sugar mixture is soft, your cookies won’t be ...

If you like recipes, these sound interesting and fun to make and eat! 10 Lettuce Free Salads You'll Make All Summer Long! from  Huffington Post Who says a good salad must have greens? These crowd-pleasing salads are packed with nutritious and tasty ingredients — from fresh corn to quinoa to avocado — and they’re 100% lettuce-free. Get ready to discover your new summer staples! 1. Black Bean, Corn & Avocado Salad with Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette AKA “veggie crack,” this black bean and corn salad is one of my most popular recipes — and it doubles as a dip. The vinaigrette is similar to the smoky-sweet salad dressing served at  Chipotle .  GET THE RECIPE 2. Grilled Asparagus & Feta Salad This is the kind of wholly satisfying salad that makes you wonder if you might possibly be a very happy vegetarian. Don’t forget the warm crusty bread for mopping up all the lemon-scented olive oil and feta.  GET THE RECIPE ...

Eating alone?  These are great ideas for quick meals for one person!  I am looking at these kinds of ideas more now, as I eat alone often now.  My dear husband Wayne, whom I have mentioned often, is now on a feeding tube and can't eat anything more by mouth.  His esophageal cancer is progressing, and he recently had a touch of pneumonia at the bottom of his right lung.  That indicated aspirating from the esophagus, and if he were to continue eating even small amounts, it could cause pneumonia often.  For the last few weeks he had been able to eat only food pureed, or liquified, and only a few bites of each food.  I even had to put Cream of Wheat with milk into a blender, and tapioca with milk into a blender.      This was taken with Wayne, our daughter Angie (Angela) and me, in September 2014, at my 80th birthday party.      Yesterday we took him to the hospital with severe intestinal bleeding, and he will be th...

Zucchini Cookies!  Another great recipe to try!  For anyone who has zucchini squash that you don't know what to do with, here is a great idea!  I will admit I haven't tried these yet, but I have some zucchini in my fridge, and that is what I plan to do with it.  This recipe looks like it will taste great!  But first we will go to the hospital tomorrow, and have my husband's same day surgery on his "fistula", which is the port in his arm to be able to handle dialysis.  It was found to have scar tissue in it, so it needs to be repaired, so his dialysis will be able to have that access.  The "catheter" near his shoulder put in 3 months ago is supposed to last only 6 months. We will appreciate any prayers in his behalf.  In the meantime, we will enjoy Zucchini Cookies!  4.5  from  14 reviews ZUCCHINI COOKIES PRINT This is a DELICIOUS way to use up some zucchini! These cookies are soft and cake like and ta...

This is a change of pace!  Sounds like great ideas for dessert!  A cobbler made in a skillet, and baked in the oven.  A lot like dutch oven cooking.  Have fun and try it.  I think I will!  From Meridian Magazine. How to Make Skillet Cobblers By Dennis Weaver  · July 7, 2015 I love cobblers with their crusty tops and sweetened fruit. My “go to” cobbler recipe for years has been our “Mormon Peach Cobbler” recipe.  Fifteen, maybe twenty years ago—actually now, it’s more like thirty years ago–we found an old Mormon pioneer cookbook at a little store in Yellowstone Park.  It had a recipe for peach cobbler that we liked.  We’ve tweaked it over the years and it still makes a very good cobbler.  That recipe is the basis for our skillet cobbler mix, one of our bestselling mixes.     How to Make Skillet Cobblers Skillet cobblers are made with a sweet cake over a filling.  There’s more cake to fruit t...