Grandma Kelli's Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

The other day Bobby Flay's Throwdown was 100% zucchini, which caught my attention. When the challenger stuffed the blossoms, I entered a new dimension of food consciousness. Not only do I love cooking with zucchini, but my garden is rife with squash plants. So one night last week, when I didn't feel like eating a meal, I waddled out to the garden and plucked some zucchini blossoms. And this, readers, is what I came up with. Mmm Mmm good.

Total Prep Time: 15 min
Serves 6

1. Pick 15-18 blossoms from your garden. Swish in warm salt water to zap any garden "visitors." Lay the blossoms on a paper towel.
2. Turn on your oil to heat up while you prep.
3. Mix up 1 C. pancake batter (not too thick) while you soften 8 oz cream cheese in microwave for 30 seconds.
4. Finely chop a fresh basil leaf and 1/3 c. black olives. Add to the cream cheese mixture.
5. Stuff the blossoms with the mixture.

****** for the rest of this recipe, visit my cookin blog: KitchenDiva.blogspot.com *********

If It's Up to Me, Immunize by Three

Here's a picture of my friend Carrie's newborn daughter, Audrey. She's a beautiful and perfect little one. To make sure that doesn't change, here's a vitally important message for parents of newborns and toddlers.

Young mothers & fathers need to beware the misleading scare tactics used by healthcare professionals and the pharmaceudical companies who persist in their propoganda about "Immunize by Two; It's Up to You" -- Much has been written on this topic that would strongly suggest parents of infants (newborn-24 months) revise that motto to read "I Immunize by Three; It's up to Me". With thousands of parents' testimonials of the harmful, and often permanent, side-effects of the standard vaccinations, parents would be wise to take their children in at later intervals than what is considered standard by most medical professionals, beginning at 2 months, and sometimes even earlier. While some parents go so far as to refuse to vaccinate their infants and children, this researcher maintains that delaying those shots by a few months may be wise. Every parent has the prerogative to wait before allowing their infant's immune system to be taxed by doses of harmful diseases that are preserved in often harmful solutions.

The high and rising numbers of autistic children in the US, Canada, and the UK reflect the correlations between early immunizations and the increasing amounts of innoculations now administered to infants. In the 1970s and 1980s when your parents were raising small children, the immunizations prevented a few diseases: polio and rubella, both diseases that can leave irreversible damage and even death); tetanus (because we used pins on our diapers), and pertussis. Today's regimen will also provide attempts at early prevention for pneumonia, chicken pox, mumps, RSV, as well as HPV for girls. That's a lot of foreign disease to inject into the immune system of a newborn -- even if their name is Darth Vader, Clark Kent, or Xena!

Autism is a life sentence, in spite of what Jenny McCarthy says. It's irreversible, it's difficult to understand and to treat, and many frustrated parents daily who wish they had known better. Don't take my word. Instead, parents should do their homework and ask around. Listen to the stories of mothers whose infant ran a fever of 107 degrees after its first set of shots. Ask how many side-effects your neighbor's newborn endured from its vaccinations. Your baby's life depends on the choices you make and when you make them.