I guess I have to eat my words!

It's funny how that happens.

On Friday, while floating in Nancy's pool with friends, we were talking about hot dogs as supper. I was remarking that hot dogs should be served with chips and maybe pork and beans. It seemed weird to me that someone was serving them as a meat with vegetables on the side.

Well, today, I invited Stephanie and the girls for dinner. I have an over-abundance of vegetables from the farmer. I told her that we were putting pork steaks on the grill. She called me back a few minutes later to say that it would only be her and Nicky as the girls didn't want to commit.

Butch went to the grocery store to pick up a couple more pork steaks---which he couldn't find---people here don't know what pork steaks are. Sometimes I've found them marked as blade steaks. I already had a pack of two that I found at Publix, but Butch won't shop there because he says it's too expensive. He's right, but I like that store much better than Kroger's. He wound up buying pork chops. That's okay, pork is pork---slap some barbecue sauce on it.

I started cooking at 3 p.m. and didn't finish until 7:30 (which of course includes, eating and cleaning up). About 3:30, Steph called to say that the girls were coming after all with 3 friends---Jordan's boyfriend, Cameron was out-numbered by 4 girls. I knew I had plenty of vegetables, but not enough meat. That's where the hotdogs come in. Turns out, hot dogs can really be a meat with vegetables. There were enough pork chops if we split them, but the kids all chose hot dogs anyway.

The side dishes were: cucumber salad, squash casserole, buttered parsley potatoes, and fresh green beans. For dessert, I made a zucchini cake (recipe follows). Jordan was the only one "brave" enough to try the cake. She really liked it, but couldn't convince the other kids to try it. They thought it sounded disgusting. Instead, they ate all of Butch's Klondike bars. He complains, but really, I never see him happier than when there are a lot of kids in the house. It's funny how he tries to make them happy.

There was enough food left over for another meal for all of us. I sent Steph home with theirs.

Lessons learned:

hot dogs can be a real meat even if it's not

zucchini cake tastes really good even if you forget to put the nuts in

I really like it when people eat and run

Zucchini Cake

3 eggs, beaten

2 cups zucchini, grated (I used my mini-food processor)

1 cup oil

3 tsp. vanilla

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup chopped nuts

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour into a 9x13 prepared pan. Bake 45-50 minutes.

Frosting

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tsp. vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Mix well and spread on cooled cake.