Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

Zucchini Flowers two days in a row! It is not like we eat this all the time. Yes, tonight I made Fried Zucchini Flowers again but this time they were stuffed. I had the batter leftover from last night's dinner. I used a recipe for Bon Appetit for the stuffing. I only made enough for 4 flowers. I used about 3 tbsp Ricotta, one mint leaf that was chopped up, some lemon zest, salt, and pepper. I served them with a side of sauce. They were not bad but I do like plain fried flowers better.

Burgers and Potato Salad. The burgers were from Ferraro's. The Potato Salad was a recipe from the box that contains recipes I collected when we were first married.

Tonight we had Classic Potato Vinaigrette Salad. There was no notation of where the recipe was from. But I know why I saved it! Delicious!

Classice Potato Vinaigrette Salad (makes 3 cups)

Ingredients-
1# new potatoes
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp oil oil
2 tbsp minced shallots
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Method-
Boil potatoes in salted water, just until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain Cool slightly. Dice.
Whisk vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk in oil. Add shallots & warm potatoes. Cool.
Stir in celery and parsley.

Uncle Art's Recipe for Fried Squash Flowers

Today I had a much-needed vacation day. I went fabric shopping with my sister Lenore. She came over with a beautiful bouquet of squash flowers from her garden.

When Chris and I were first married I worked as manager of an ice cream store that was very close to where my Godparents lived. Once and a while I would get a call my Godfather, Uncle Art, asking if I could stop by on my way home from work. He had something for me. I love my Aunt and Uncle and I would do anything they asked of me. I would pull up to the house and my Uncle would pop out of the kitchen and give me a greasy paper bag. It was filled with Fried Squash Flowers. Oh, the aroma! Oh, the grease! I would eat the whole bag while I drove home. Ah, memories.

Fortunately, I had asked my Uncle for his recipe. Here it is-

 

The batter-

 The flowers ready for the batter, remember to remove the piston.

 Frying-

 Sprinkle with salt as soon as you remove the flowers from the oil!!!!!

This was a perfect vacation day dinner! 

Yes, that is fresh corn on the cob from Cole's Farm Stand!

Fried Squash Flowers Just Like My Uncle Art's!

 

 Aunt Nora, Mom and Uncle Art

Every year when I see the squash flowers pop up on food blogs and at the farmer's market I remember my Uncle Art. I was always getting calls from my Uncle Art to stop by because he had made something for me. I always knew what it was... fried squash flowers! He would hand me a greasy paper bag and say, "Here you go kiddo! And don't eat all of them!" Of course I would finish the bag before I got home. Lucky for me Chris was not a fan of these.

Every summer I have tried to duplicate his recipe. I had gotten a recipe from my Aunt Catherine after my uncle had passed but she was not sure it was correct.

 

Finally today I found a recipe that resulted in the closest thing to my uncle's recipe. SavourFare.com, Fried Zucchini Blossoms. The batter is so light and easy to make! Every bite brought back good memories.

Today started out as a rainy Saturday. So I headed for the kitchen. I had been wanting to try a new crunchy granola bar recipe. Carrie's Crunchy Granola Bars. They were good but need something added to them... sugar maybe!

Next I needed to bake cookies. I looked in the cookie jar the other day and realized I had not baked since Easter! I had posted a recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to try. It was from RealSimple.com, Coconut Slice and Bake Cookies. Oh these are good! I believe if you have coconut you should have chocolate so I added chocolate shots. Yes these are really good.

Hey isn't this a blog about what I made for dinner!

Actually Chris made dinner. A perfectly grilled steak. And corn on the cob, yes they were the 2 smallest ears of corn at the store!

My contribution to the meal was....

Yes you guessed it. Roasted Potatoes! I can't help it. But I tried a new recipe. Again from a Pinterest post. The recipe is from PlainChicken.com, Easy Oven Roasted Potatoes. Of course they were fantastic!

And someone was happy to see me in the kitchen...