My Tangent - Zucchini Flowers – Food Network “Chopped”

Morning,

Have been checking the farm this morning, and it looks like I may have an abundance of Lilliputian tomatoes… I have to pick them green before the onslaught of snails and slugs attack in manic droves. Thanks-be that I like green tomatoes.

Discovered something about zucchini that I never knew, and being from the world of banking why would I ever know this tidbit of info. It appears that my zucchini plants have been sending up a number of yellow blossoms. They bloom, open, then close, then drop off… but no zucchini squash. Where are the zucchini? Well it appears that, after my researching and reading, that the zucchini plant first sends out male flowers. Then and only then, if the male flowers sort-of like the environment, the plant starts to send up the female flowers… the ones that bear the baby zucchini. Doesn’t that sort of imply that there is some sort of reasoning somewhere in the genetic make-up of the plant?

I’m not having much luck… Everything I read states, or should I say, all implies that I will soon have “more zucchinis than you will know what to do with.” Well I know what to do with zucchini! I just need zucchini. After three tries I’m beginning to wonder if this self-reasoning plant knows what to do with me. And then the English teacher in me would like to follow the Latin rule of using the letter “i” for more than one zucchino. I don’t care about different species of zucchini. I just would like to see at least one zucchino…

Last night’s supper was supposed to be Fusilli German Style, but I had neither fusilli nor any caraway seeds. And so I substituted farfalle, or mini-bow tie pasta and dill weed and poppy seeds. Supper turned out quite good. Bacon, ham, cabbage, onion, beef broth, and parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Stove-top dinner with snap-beans and pickled asparagus… easy to make, and certainly easy to eat.

Best show on TV, in my very humble opinion, is the Food Network’s Chopped. The contestants have to use a set of four given ingredients to create an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert. It’s sort of like going to the pantry and fridge in my kitchen and then grabbing four ingredients and then coming up with something worth eating. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. You’ll be asking yourself “What would I do, if I had those four ingredients?” Just don’t give me sea urchin or okra!

Enjoy,

Jim