Squash ideas

So just about this time of year, if you have a garden or have family/friends who do, you're probably inundated with summer squash.

Usually I feel pretty limited in what I can do with all the crooknecks, butterstick and zucchini squashes. I like them sauteed with some butter or olive oil, fried or served as fritters. And, of course, there's the zucchini bread I usually make at least twice during the summer and frittatas that make a good breakfast or dinner feast.

There's also creamed squash or casseroles, though I'm not a big fan of either of those.

I've also created a couple of recipes and posted 'em on this blog. The Late Summer Veggie Soup is good, but the warm Squash-Chard Salad is my favorite! Kale would go well in that recipe, too.

This past week, on a whim, I threw some fresh crookneck squash onto a salad. Wonderful.

I also cooked some squash with garlic and a green onion in an egg scramble and made a breakfast burrito. Awesome!

So, I encourage you to figure out different ways to eat up all that squash besides cutting it up and freezing it for goodness knows how long. It's a good way to get some healthy veggies into your diet!

Finally!

I've been working on these pair of pants for weeks now:



And I've finally finished!

When I first completed the pants a few weeks ago, I was discouraged to find the pants were too big. I mean huge! I looked like I was ready to audition for the circus.

So the past few weeks I've been mulling over what to do to correct the mistake. Do I have to take out every single hem? How much should I take out?

After much thought and discussion with my mom and some other people, I decided that I've worked much too hard on these pants for them to go to waste. There's not much warm weather time left so time was running out!

So I took off the casing, which is at the top and holds the drawstring, and undid the hems at the bottom. But I left the hem at the top. A classmate in my sewing class, which I'm taking through Oct. 7, suggested no one would see the top hem, so leave it. So I did.

Unfortunately, all that seam ripping didn't come without casualties. I tore a small hole in the casing. But, I refuse to worry about it! It's a small hole and hopefully no one will notice since a shirt will cover the top of the pants most of the time.

After taking out the seams and casing, I marked an inch from each outer leg hem and sewed 'em up. I then tried the pants and decided to take out 3/4 inches more. Now the fit was just a tad tight in the hips, but otherwise fit nicely.

So I trimmed off the excess material, reattached the casing and drawstring and hemmed the legs. Perfect!

I wore the pants yesterday to visit family and go to a show with my hubby.