It's ZUCCHINI Season...

I love zucchini and this is one of my favorite ways to prepare it

It's simple to make:

I also love zucchini breads - here are a few of my favorite recipes:

And zucchini is so tasty when grilled:

I think I could live on zucchini alone...(well maybe a bit of chocolate, too)!

Do you have a special or unique recipe you can share with me?

Pasta Bowties....

Did you expect anything else? 

My husband is till rolling his eyes!!

I bought this pasta in Ohio and couldn't wait to make a cold salad.  I boiled the pasta for 9 minutes....

....and mixed it with tomatoes, celery, red onion, broccoli and balsamic dressing:

And it was delish!!

You can purchase it HERE

One Pot Spaghetti....

This is my 'go-to' meal when I can't think of anything else to have.  It is easy to prepare and is very tasty, too!

I one electric fry pan, or stove top fry pan lay 12 oz of spaghetti, one sliced onion, 2-3 lg sliced garlic cloves, 3 Roma tomatoes cut up, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and a few bunches of fresh basil and parsley. 

 Pour 4 cups of water over the top and bring to a boil.  Stir occasionally and cook for about 13-15 minutes until water disappears.

Serve immediately and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garnish with basil and/or parsley:

The recipe can be altered easily by adding some fresh spinach, zucchini or green beans.  

The leftovers are just as tasty, too!

A Homemade Tuffet, inspired by MacKenzie-Childs 2011....

Anne of Apple Street Cottage is hosting a new group party called 

 'Do it Over' Designers.

For the first party I am sharing a post I wrote in 2011 and thought it was worthy of sharing again.  

  I made this tuffet 9 years ago and it is still used as a foot stool.  

Here is the original post:

I wanted one of these, but couldn't afford it:

So I made this:

I bought 4 legs at Home Depot:

and an 18" table top:

I marked off the quadrants for the leg placement:

and drilled holes:

I bought 3" foam and cut an 18" circle. I also cut out a circle in the center:

And just in case you don't know how to cut foam, use an electric knife. I shaved the edges to give it shape:

This was the fun part, because I love to doodle:

I sewed a "tube" of fabric and batting and stapled it to the bottom of the base. There are also 2 small holes in the center of the wood - I ran fishing line up through these holes to hold in the center "wooden button":

top view:

I gathered the batting:

I also gathered the fabric. I covered a 5" wooden disk with coordinating fabric and batting for the center. This disk also has 2 holes and I tied the fishing line from the base to this to hold it in the carved out center of the foam:

I glued some fringe around the bottom, screwed in the legs and glued a small wooden button on the top to hid the fishing line knot.
This was my first attempt in making a tuffet and I am pretty pleased with it!

It was a one day project with lots of supplies all over the kitchen counter, numerous swear words and one leg that had a defective screw!! The project was fairly reasonable to make (about $60.00) and I was surprised to find that 3" foam was $40.00 yd!!

Foam: $20.00
Wood: $5.00 and $2.00
Legs: $11.00
Fabric: $10.00
Fringe: $10.00
Batting: $3.00

And here it is today, 9 years later!:

Hop on over to these blogs to see what these 

'Do it Over' Designers

have created:

Apple Street Cottage

Little Vintage Cottage

Chas's CrazyCreations

Our Hopeful Home

Cloches and Lavender

Exquisitely Unremarkable

               Thanks for stopping by! 

Roasted Red Pepper Butter

We enjoy flavored butters so when I saw this jar of Roasted Pepper Bruschetta I knew just what I could make!

I chopped a few tablespoons of the peppers and mixed it with 1/2 stick of softened butter, 2 mashed garlic cloves, some spiced seasonings and salt and pepper.

I spread the butter into 'leaf' butter molds:

I froze the butter and then popped them out of the mold:

This was delicious on steamed corn on the cob!

YUM!

The corn has been so good this year - not sure where it is coming from, but it's delish!

Local corn should be ready soon.

Pineapple Surprise....

Here's a delish idea that makes a few cocktails!