Honest and Hard Working . . .

A certain young man rushed into a service station one day and asked the manager if he had a pay telephone and would he be able to use it.

"Sure," the manager replied, "It's over there." He nodded towards a telephone on the wall over in the corner.

The boy walked over to the telephone, pushed in a few coins, and then waited for an answer as the telephone rung on the other end. Finally someone answered.



"Hello sir", he said in a rather deep voice. "Could you use an honest, hardworking young man to work for you?"

The station manager could not help but hear what was going on. After a moment or two, he heard the boy reply . . .

"Oh, you already have an honest and hardworking young man working for you . . . well, okay, thanks just the same!" And, with that, he hung up the phone.



As he turned to face the station manager, one couldn't help noticing that he had a wide grin plastered across his face. He started back to his car, humming a tune, quite obviously very happy.

"Hey, wait a minute!" the station manager called after him. "I couldn't help but over hear the conversation you just had. Why are you so happy??? It sounded to me like that man already had someone working for him who was honest and hardworking?"

"Well," said the young man as he smiled at the grizzly old station manager, " you see, I am the honest hardworking young man that works for him. I was just checking up to see how well I was doing my job!"



I hope that I am the kind of person what would be considered hardworking and honest in all my dealings with others. I try to be at any rate! I'm not about to phone and ask!!

I made us a lovely soup for our supper last night. It's been very cold these past few days. Much more like October than the end of July! Whatever has happened to our summer??? I had some courgettes that I needed to use up so I made some delicious courgette dinner muffins to go along with it. I ended up with enough to pop them into the freezer for another meal, as well as some soup to go along with it. It's always nice to have a meal or two stored in the freezer that you can take out when time is short and lacking in inspiration. For those of you who don't know, a courgette is a zucchini!



*Jumbo Courgette and Basil Dinner Muffins*
Makes 6 large muffins
Printable Recipe

I have used courgettes many times in sweet loaf breads and in casserole. It also makes an amazingly moist dinner muffin. I love the flavour that the basil and cheese gives to it. They go well with eggs, hot soups and salads.

2 1.2 cups plain flour
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
the grated zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup buttermilk (or sour milk)
2 large eggs
3 TBS olive oil
2 TBS Pernod Liqueur (Optional, if not using use 1 tsp of Anise extract in it's place)
1 1.4 cups of grated courgette, drained well
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese + more for sprinkling (optional)



Pre-heat the oven to 190*C/375*F. Grease six oversized (Texas) muffin tins. Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.

In another bowl beat together the eggs, buttermilk, olive oil and liqueur or anise. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients over top. Fold together with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Do not over mix. The mix will be lumpy. Fold in the courgette, cheese and basil.

Spoon into the prepared muffin cups until just level with the top of the pan. (Sprinkle some more cheese over top if desired.) Bake in the centre of the oven until the tops are lightly browned and they spring back when lightly touched, or a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. This should take 20 to 25 minutes. Let rest in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack. Serve warm. These are best on the day served, but can be frozen for up to 3 months for longer storage.



If you'd like to see the recipe for this delicious soup that I made to go along with these tantalizingly delicious muffins, pop on over to The English Kitchen.