Sunday, Sept. 15

Slept late, until 8 a.m. Skipped my exercises after breakfast, as usual on Sunday. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9 a.m., and she diced veggies for chicken. I added broth and spices and started the chicken simmering.

I wanted to use three yellow squashes and one zucchini, so Mother sliced them, and diced an onion, and we put together a casserole. The casserole uses an egg, crushed crackers, and spices, including garlic powder, plus shredded cheese (we used Monterey Jack). The whole recipe is guesswork, and depends on the number of squashes used. I boiled the squash until they were tender, then Mother mashed them. For that amount of squash, we used a dozen no-salt crackers. The other ingredients are "to taste" (garlic powder, no salt seasoning, pepper, and paprika, and about a cup of shredded cheese). Mix all ingredients, except the cheese, and put in a Pam sprayed two quart casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 35-45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

When the casserole was ready for the oven, I went upstairs and got ready for the day. It was after 11 a.m. by the time I came back downstairs. So I put the casserole in the oven, then gathered ingredients for making dumplings. Once I had the dough ready, Mother rolled it out and cut it into bite-size dumplings.

Hubbie had peeled potatoes, and I set them to boiling, and then removed the chicken from the pot, and began cooking the dumplings. It takes a while to do this, since I only put a few in the broth at a time (to keep them from sticking together, and then cook them for five minutes.

The potatoes were cooked by the time the dumplings were done, so I mashed them, and set the table. In the meantime, Mother sliced Sis's homemade bread. This carb-loaded meal was so yummy. Mother even asked for more dumplings. In fact, we all ate a few more.

The casserole was delicious, too. It's been a long time since I've thought to make it, so we really enjoyed it. For some reason, Sis doesn't like this dish, but we think it's awesome.

After lunch, we decided an outing was in order. Our library DVDs were due, so we took them back and got two more seasons of "One Tree Hill." Then we stopped by the greeting card shop, where there was a trunk show going on.

We could see without getting out of the van that there was nothing of interest there, so we didn't bother to get Mother into her wheelchair. But Hubbie and I walked by the booths, where vendors were selling jewelry, totes, and beauty products.

Five minutes later, we were on our way. We decided a treat would be nice, so we went to a fast food restaurant to get cups of soft serve ice cream. Hubbie drove to the river, where we enjoyed the ice cream and watched folks fishing, playing with their children on the sand bar, or just watching the river flow over the dam, like we were doing.

From there, we stopped by the grocery store to buy cartons of yogurt for Mother. Came back home after that and watched a Hallmark movie, a couple of one-hour shows, and the news. Mother was ready to go home after that, so Hubbie accompanied her.

Then he and I spent the evening watching episodes of "One Tree Hill."