Fried zucchini flowers
Zucchini plants were always plentiful in my grandparents’ garden. Anyone who grows zucchini successfully knows that, at some point, one can wish there weren’t so many! Here’s a great way to enjoy the zucchini plant and put a little production reduction into place.
The following is the primary ingredients in the breading. Amounts are completely fluid.
Zucchini flowers, rinsed. (use the male flowers…those without a fruit behind the blossom). Also, early in the day is the best time to harvest. The flowers close and wilt as the day progresses. Always beware of bees hiding in the flowers!
In one bowl, mix together egg and milk (start with one egg and enough milk to make the mixture thin)
In another bowl combine flower, garlic powder, salt pepper. Other optional ingredients are dried parsley, basil, and/or oregano.
Heat a small amount of oil in a fry or saute pan until the oil shimmers.
Dredge the zucchini flowers in first the egg/milk mix and then the flour mixture.
Place in the hot oil and cook just until the flower browns, flipping when the first side is finished. Place on paper towel to remove excess oil.
I like these best fresh out of the pan, but they work no matter what. Also, these can be a different, interesting pizza topping… Also, I’ve used flowers from other summer squash and smaller winter squash to good effect.
Photo credit: Allerina and Glen MacLarty
IrfanView – A Quick and Clean Graphic Tool
Like any computer tool, IrfanView is one of many available of its type. I own Photoshop, but for basic image manipulation, the following are the primary reasons I use this tool.
1. Irfanview is Freeware. It’s not a trial software and there are no nags for licensing or registration or anything.
2. It supports many, many graphic formats. A jpg image can be opened and saved as a gif, a tif, or any other of 22 formats. Different extensions for different applications. And the result is seamless…
2. The whole install takes up only 9.23 mb and requires very little memory to run. There is just one exe and no additional dll’s.
3. Image rotation results in no loss of image integrity.
4. The most common tools for any user are cutting, cropping, and resizing. With Irfanview, these operations are a snap.
5. Plugins can be all installed at once, or in bits. A multi-media player option, OCR, and send by email right from IrfanView are examples of available plugins. You can use them, or not!
6. Batch conversion or renaming is a breeze in IrfanView.
7. I use IrfanView a lot to manage screen prints. ALT-PrtSc and CTRL-V to paste into IrfanView and you’ve got an easy way to save a copy of whatever from your PC screen and cut out whatever you don’t want or need. That’s how I got the IrfanView home page banner for the top of this post.
This is just a fine product, in my opinion, with a dynamic user base. The forums are a great place to learn the ins and outs of the more advanced functions. I have nothing bad to say about IrfanView and recommend it often when asked my opinion.
Cajun Spice
Photo by McKay Savage
Whenever I’m making a recipe and come across an ingredient that is really a LOT of ingredients, I know the options are few. There’s the costly option, buy some quantity of the combined product for much more than the sum of its parts, or make my own. Whenever I can, I like to make my own.
My mom, in addition to being a spectacular cook at home (completely unbiased opinion), worked in commercial kitchens for many years. This recipe from one of those kitchens is for a large quantity of Cajun Spice, but easily subdivides to smaller quantities.
Cajun Spice is wonderful as a hostess gift or for holiday or special occasion giving, too!
Cajun Spice
1 c paprika
1/2 c salt
1/3 c onion powder
1/3 c garlic powder
1/3 c cayenne pepper
2 T + 2 t white pepper
2 T + 2 t black pepper
1 T ground dried oregano
1 T ground dried thyme
Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender.
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