Last time I updated about the garden, the squash plants were in full force. We planted zucchini, yellow squash, and some patty pan squash. Squash always seems to do well, and we always have a plethora of the brightly colored vegetables. Truth be told, I was sick and tired of seeing, picking, and eating squash. That’s when it started to get bad. There was squash in the garden, in the refrigerator, and even on the counter. I finally decided to do something with it today.

I ended up freezing three gallon bags of various squashes and I’m thinking that tomorrow I’ll probably have at least that much more to do. This is what I did to freeze the squash so it will be yummy in the winter.

1. Washed and cut the pieces into a nice size for stir fry, casseroles, etc.

2. Started a large pot of water simmering to almost a boil.

3. Prepared an ice bath

4. Put the squash in the hot water for almost five minutes, just enough to get it nice and bright in color.

5. Removed the squash and put it in its ice bath.

6. After it was cool to the touch, I used my gallon sized Ziploc bags and put them in there. I stuck them in the freezer, and I was done!

I’ll have to be honest and say that there was some squash that went bad, as well as some green beans I didn’t get blanched in time. I’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen again!

Do you prefer frozen or canned veggies?

We have two dogs, a chocolate and black Labrador Retriever.  Since we don’t have any kids yet, they are like our children. Luckily, they are young and fairly healthy (knock on wood), so they don’t cost us too much money except for dog food each month. We can handle that.  We love them tremendously and enjoy their presence in our family.  I was talking to one of my friends yesterday about them, and she told me about her dachshund.  She told me she had to take off work on Monday because her dog was sick.  That was puzzling for me, but when she told me she had just spend $4,000 on surgery for him, I was dumbfounded.

$4,000 for back surgery on a dog?!  She then proceeded to tell me (over email) through three paragraphs how her dog is like her third child and she loves him more than some of her family members.  She said she would do anything for this dog, which is apparent with the $4,000 surgery.

Now, I love my dogs like anyone else, and I think they are the sweetest girls that I’ve ever met.  But to be honest, I don’t know if I could pay $4,000 for surgery on one of my dogs.  I think I’d probably be pretty sick over it if I had to.  It does make me wonder if I’m the bad one, or if she’s out in left field for spending that much money on her pet.

How much would you spend on your pet? Would you put a limit on it?