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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Zucchini Flower Recipe

A twist on my Noni'e recipe

Easy delicious flavors that remind me of Grandma.
I grow zucchini. It is the easiest vegetable for my climate zone.
In late summer the green goblins take over my garden.
I was longing to make these so bought the flowers at the
farmer's market on Sunday

Ingredients:
3 eggs (toss 2 yolks)
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup flour (use gluten free if you like)
1/2 cup panko flakes
about 1 cup of cheap olive oil (not EVOO)
teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
about 24 flowers
couple paper towels


Mix 3 egg whites and one yolk with milk in a wide bowl.
Wisk for 20 seconds with a fork

on a plate spread the panko and flour and stir together

mix salt pepper turmeric and garlic powder in a tiny bowl
put 1/4 in the liquid and 3/4 of the spice into the dry

Heat a heavy pan on the stove add 1/8 cup oil to pan
allow to get hot 1 minute

after you rinse and air dry the flowers
dip each one into milk then roll in dry mixture
Your hands get gooey, dry them off.
Wet first dry second-
the yellow flowers will look flaky not "caky."

Drop the flowers into the pan and allow to lightly saute for
less than a minute each side. Keep face back it can spit.
The flowers should have space around them as they cook.
Put cooked flowers on top of a plate with
a paper towel to drain any excess oil.
If the oil turns brown, dump, wipe the frying pan dry
 and add a new 1/8 cup- olive oil, enough
to line the bottom. You don't want bits of burned panko
in the oil.
Continue cooking each batch

Total time about 12 minutes from preparation to done

You might sprinkle with sea salt when done
Serve right away.

My children like lemon juice lightly drizzled I gobble mine
before dinner.


my kitchen window

Fruit salad, olives, artichokes and sorry they ate all the flowers before dinner

My Noni lived to 89 years old.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Keep Working Bees


Bee on clover in my garden

“Did you cry at graduation?”
"No time for it."

Prepare house for market-
Paint bonus room vanilla-
Pumice tile revealing blue-
Rescue bees from the pool-

Shake chlorine from wings. 
Rub antennae into working order.

Marbles in the birdbath for bees to safely drink.
Avoid the basin, silly bees choose drowning.

Red and white herbaceous clover covers garden.
Neighbors don't appreciate of the beauty of lawn
that requires no watering, fixes nitrogen,
and feeds the bees.

New owners plant sod.

Working. 
Second revision done, 
search for the word, 
rub a pollen eraser.
House listed in the M. L. S.
College orientation for baby boy.
Mortgage job consumes endless hours.

"Make your bed!"
This hive is mite free.

Winter requires sugar syrup.
Summer's song pushes towards goals.
The landscape below our flight uncertain.
Meadow adventures ahead.
Keep working little bees.






Notes on this poem:
or cheat sheet for reading
I have a large swimming pool at my home in California. The bees feed on my flower and vegetable garden but I continuously find solutions for their desire to get a drink out of the pool. Once they swim they can't get out. Try and scoop them as best I may and I was one excellent lifeguard in my teens and twenties but many drown. I took the top off a bird bath I made and added glass marbles for them to have a drink and escape but they prefer the pool and certain death.
I'm selling my home as my youngest will leave for college in the Fall. The large house requires hours of work- cleaning, gardening, and the fixing that comes with home ownership. The garden doesn't have traditional lawn. I planted clover which requires no watering and native blooms that the bees enjoy. I plan to simplify my life and work on writing and my day job as a mortgage banker.  I don't know what is ahead - all I know is to keep marching like those bees I love.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Joy


Sand in my toes
shake off
foggy sensation weighs in
on the sky and mind
a grain flows
and finds
joy






































Photos taken with my iphone 4 in Laguna Beach and Laguna Niguel copyright Caroline Gerardo
May you have simple joy today