Summer Squash Casserole and the Daily Grammar Lesson

It's Friday. I am so glad to have made it through the week. Snow and icy weather threatens us for the next week. Wonder how much we will get and how or if it will affect the roads. We shall see!

I am pretty much a stickler for grammar and spelling; however, I am not perfect myself. I often make typos and sometimes forget to hit "spell check" before I hit "publish post" and then pay for it. It is odd that the spelling errors or typos don't show up when I skim over it, but when I hit post and then look at it, they are like strobe lights!! Most of my friends (and family) know that there are things that stick out to me and make my skin crawl. When I hear someone say, "Now, that's a whole nother story!" I have to admit it is like fingernails on a chalkboard...my kids will crane their necks to see my reaction if they are in the same room. There is NO SUCH WORD AS "NOTHER"... or is there? I looked it up. Apparently its first known use (notice the lack of apostrophe in "its" - possessive) was in 1909 - over 100 years ago. It does say that it's (contraction for "it" + "is") primarily used in speech and informal writing. I guess I can give it that. I guess I just don't understand why we feel the need to give a dictionary entry to a word that is the result of "poor English." Why can't people just say it properly... "That is an entirely different story!"

The other thing that really "chaps my hide" is that we were so beat over the head to say "she and I" that we forget that "her and me" is still proper English, too! You should say "She and I went to the store." when "I" is part of the subject of the sentence. If it is not, the word "me" may be perfectly acceptable, in fact, it is probably right! "They gave the awards to her and me." You wouldn't say, "They gave the awards to she." or "They gave the awards to I." I heard a public speaker say it wrong the other day a couple of times and I have to say, I wished I wore hearing aids so I could turn them off :)

Ok, off my soapbox for now... Summer Squash Casserole (Melissa, you have my permission to leave the cracker crumbs off of the top). When I was in college they made a casserole similar to this on the Sundays that they made fried chicken for Sunday dinner. It was one of the best things to come out of "that school," lol. This is not their recipe, which I am sure was loaded with butter and other very fattening things. But it is just as yummy!!

SUMMER SQUASH CASSEROLE

4-5 summer squash or a mix of summer squash and zucchini, sliced in 1/2-inch thick rounds
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. olive oil
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. shredded cheddar
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
salt and pepper

In a saucepan, heat oil and saute the onion just until it begins to soften, then stir in the squash and garlic. Add in about 1 t. salt and 1/4 t. black pepper. Cover and let it steam until the squash is soft, but not mush! Preheat the oven to 350' and grease a 9x13 casserole dish. Toss the squash with 1/2 c. sour cream and 1/2 c. shredded cheese. Taste for seasoning then spread in prepared pan. Mix together the cracker crumbs and the other 1/2 c. cheese and top the squash. Slide into the hot oven and bake for 20 minutes.