| Maytag parts |
| Saving for College |
Cover one flour tortia shell with chunks of mozzarella and a few chunks of crumbled feta cheese.
Add a layer of a sliced fresh-off-the-vine tomato.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Place under broiler in oven for 5 minutes.
Take pizza from oven, and cover with fresh herbs, a bit more salt, and, this is the most important part – a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
The bottles arrived via UPS on a mundane Wednesday afternoon. UPS trucks rarely come by in this neck of the woods, so that alone was the equivalent of sitting in traffic in the city and watching a mule parade by. The kids had to call me out to “sign” for the package. “Alcohol,” the guy in brown said. “Really?” I said. “That’s usually the only reason they ask for a signature.” I signed and noted he didn’t even ask me for ID.
The cardboard flaps were peeled back, and out popped two glistening bottles of sparkling wine, with gold-foil labels, from a winery in California, Chandon. “What is my husband up to now?” I wondered. A text from him simply said, “Oh, you got them?”
What to serve with those glistening bottles? Flowers, of course, but what could I do to mix it up? Never mind the fact that in spite of how delicious and rich this meal is, the combination of the sugar in the champagne, and the richness of the cheese sent my stomach in a surprising tizzy. This meal was, and still is, one of the most amazing meals I have ever cooked — and probably eaten. I gathered some fresh zucchini blossoms from the garden, with the baby zucchini still attached. I found only four blossoms, and knew that wouldn’t be enough. To round things out, I added some Day Lilies to the mix.
I soaked the flowers in cold salt water to get rid of the ants and dirt.
Meanwhile, I mixed
In another bowl, I mixed a cup of flour with just enough soda water to make the flour frothy and runny.
Then, I carefully opened the flowers, and spooned the cheese mixture inside the flower, and twisted the ends shut to hold the mixture. Next, I dipped the stuffed flowers into the flour water, and laid each blossom in a hot skillet, already coated with olive oil. I fried until crispy on one side, and then flipped, and crisped them up on the other side.
N0w, if only I could get my stomach strong enough to try the combination again… because this was a meal I truly enjoyed cooking and eating.
As if having the frogs around wasn’t enough, they came with an accompaniment. Poison Ivy.
Frogs like to live in the tall grassy weeds, and there, unbeknownst to my son, was a big bed of Poison Ivy. He had marched right though the weeds, and there was not one spot of his body that didn’t hold some welt of the inflamed itches. I mean everywhere. Even his ears.
His eyes were soon swelled (not shut) and his itching was relentless.
But yet, there is a cure, and I must feel compelled to share this — because I can’t stand to see kids suffer. I did not get this stuff for free, (I wish! The stuff is expensive.) This is not a review. Zanfel Poison Ivy Cream
The hardest part was figuring out how to apply the stuff… very specific instructions.
1) Get a shower and get all wet.
2) Squeeze out EXACTLY 1.5 inches of Zanfel (there is a ruler enclosed in the packaging) and rub this stuff in your hands for 3 minutes with water to create a lather.
3) Rub the soap onto the affected areas.
4) Leave soap on until the itching stops. Which, for my son, was quite complicated… because he had different stages of the poision, so when one area felt like it was “cured,” and he would jump in the shower to wash it off, he suddenly remembered there was another spot that still itched. So, we had to do this several times before we got him all settled.
Then, he was happily, again, comforatble in his own skin.
When I arrived home for my son’s surgery, I spotted an abundant kale bed, fringed with vibrant green New Zealand spinach in my neglected home garden. The sage was overflowing, and the oregano was just at the peak before going to seed. I neglected the garden again for four days – much more important babies inside to take care of and figured the intense heat and lack of rain would take eliminate the leaves for me and I wouldn’t have to deal with them.
Yet, everyday that bright kale greeted me, undaunted by the heat. Then, I would say to myself, in my insomnia-stressed state, “I really should be making a shake out of that,” but didn’t.
Finally, I gave in and set out to rescue the greens. There was no way I could drink it all, no matter how much I stuffed into my immersion blender. So, I Googled, “How to freeze greens.” There were the familiar steps of blanching; cold-water bath and then storing in zip lock bags. Yet, somehow, the idea of putting soggy, goopy blanched frozen kale into my morning shake (even with the blackberries) did not appeal to me.
So, I dehydrated the greens. Why I didn’t think of this before, because it is so simple, fast, and easy, I don’t know. But it’s perfect. Takes up less space, requires no freezing, and all the nutrients are intact – and not soggy. This powder tastes great, and can easily be dropped into soups, shakes and salads. Now, I have jars of that expensive green powder they sell at health food stores in my pantry. I kept the oregano separate from the sage, but I put the kale and spinach together and called it “greens.” From there, I pulverized the powder with my food processor to make a “stealth” powder.
Wash the greens first, just like you would do as you were cooking them. On Google I learned all kinds of ways to dehydrate food. Some people put them in their hot car! Could work. But dehydrators are cheap, and does it fast. Others use an oven at 150 degrees on screens. Each batch of greens took about an hour to create crispy – and quite tasty leaves. Amazing, to me, how that big bunch of greens dried up into this small little amount. I also learned the zucchini; carrots and beets also do quite well dehydrated… so this might be a new option for me. Of course, there are always tomatoes, which I do in the years when I am blessed with tomatoes. (This might be one of them.)
So, all of you Deceptively Delicious fans, trying to get more veggies in your kids food by doing all that prep work of cooking and pureeing the veggies, might want to consider dehydrating instead. Now, the kids will never know what hit them when I sprinkle some of these greens into their food.
I will start by saying that it’s been a rough 24 hours, and I’m tired.
When he fell, I turned the boat around, and instead of seeing his eyes looking across the water for the rope, I saw his head tilted upwards eyes squinting shut, and he was reeling in pain. I held my breath, and willed him to put his head back down at water level, open his eyes and reach for the rope. He couldn’t. He was in massive pain… but he couldn’t speak to tell us what it was. The water, so fluid, can be as solid as a brick wall.
The water was unusually rough; but this never bothers the boys when they ski. A fact that never fails to leave me in awe of their skills. I was driving, and his brother was the spotter, taking pictures. He wanted to break in his new wake board, and get some air. Instead, in the moments that followed, his brother and I somehow managed to throw the rope close enough to him and coached him to grab the rope, while we pulled him in. “Can’t get my bindings off…” was all he kept saying between sobs of pain. Through some Herculean effort of adrenalin, I pulled my oldest son, bigger than me, still attached to his wake board, out of the water and onto the boat platform. Then, somehow again through an effort I can’t recall, we got him into the back of the boat, learning at that point that the pain was radiating from his leg.
I scanned the lake, saw no other boat, and drove fast (as my son kept screaming to do) straight to our dock, and miraculously, parked the boat like a beeline, straight, perfectly and effortlessly, into our dock.
My son ran for help – we had to get the bindings off – and we found a man with a Phillips screwdriver, who laid my son face down on the boat, and worked on getting the bindings off his foot.
I drove the car from the top of the hill, down to the dock, and was ready to pick user him to urgent care… my mind spilling with what-ifs – everything to the soccer camp that starts this Thursday, soccer try-outs on the 27th, and if he would have a life-long injury.
Without even a request for help, several people offered to watch the other boys. No time to argue, I left to let them all fight out who would have them. I drove as fast as I could… my son wishing it wasn’t so far. Fifteen minutes. “This is what life is going to be like now,” I thought, looking over at my son. “I have four boys. As much as I can’t stand what’s happening right now… this is reality.” As hard as I tried to relax, I could not get that scowl off of my face.
He was still dripping wet with water, and started to shiver.
He said he heard his bone crack. Thinking of how the sound of the waves and the boat engine should have drowned out that sound, a shiver went down my spine too.
At urgent care, he was seen right away. Mercy came in the form of a Nubain shot – just so he could endure the x-ray. He was still shivering… they gave him one blanket… but my request for another was delayed. The shivering was hurting his leg even more. I couldn’t endure his sitting there shivering, and in this pain, so I went to the hall and got his own blanket. After 20 minutes, the shot offered little relief, and we went ahead with the x-ray.
I used the break to check on the boys, and decided it was time to send them to a legendary friend’s house for dinner — if she didn’t have them already. Later, she told me, “God told me to buy extra food this week, and I did.” You can’t imagine how great of hands the boys were in.
All the while, I’m sitting in a waiting room of urgent care doctors, wondering if I can trust these doctors, and where I should go for real help. Lots of cell phone calls to my husband (he works with doctors) gave me some names… and it turned out that the Urgent Care Facility was already working with them – they would be reading the x-rays by computer.
His right tibia is broken. But “not separated” are the operative positive words here. It is going right into his growth plate, so an orthopedist will be seen on Friday.
A boot, not a cast, was placed on his leg…, which instantly relieved much of the pain.
Vicodin was given for pain, which, my son says, “isn’t working.” I swear my own experienced with Vicodin leads me to believe it is truly a stimulant. At 4 in the morning, with my son still awake, I am convinced this is the last thing to take for pain. In retrospect, in my now bleary-eyed state, I should have been adamant about requesting something with codeine.
Yes… his summer is ruined; at least the way we all thought was going to be. But, if things go as planned, his first day of school will be boot-free. Still, I have to remember just how lucky he was. Things could have been worse. Also, thinking just how grateful we are to be surrounded by so many caring friends.
The nasturtium flowers are not quite blooming yet, so I haven’t fried them. I’m trying to give the zucchinis a chance to flourish before I start snatching the flowers – so we’re frying the Daylilies while we wait for the rest of summer’s bloom. 
Yes. I mean those Daylilies. Those ordinary blossoms on tall spiky green stems that are growing in abundance in your yard.
A friend told me about Daylily soup a few years ago, which I never made. But, nevertheless, I Goggled edible flowers, and sure enough, those Daylilies growing in abundance are certainly edible – and they are delicious. Not as peppery as the nasturtiums… but a definite distinct yummy flavor… you’ll have to try it for yourself.
Dipping those big blooms in flour and putting them on a hot skillet is so exotic – it’s so much fun/weird to do. My 12-year-old always takes over in the kitchen when I’m frying up a batch. He’s a patient chef… working slowly to make sure the ants are all gone, (sprinkle blooms with salt before washing) making sure the egg/milk mixture has a chance to dip into the middle of the flower,
and carefully twisting the bloom so that salted flour coats the petals on all sides.
Most importantly, he understands the importance of a dry skillet — just enough olive oil to crisp them – but not a deep fry.
And, he stands guard watching them carefully and knows just when to flip them over with a fork to crisp up the other side.
Everyday nature brings us another batch of day lilies—hence the name. Try frying them, just for fun.
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