Squash Blossoms!

"Girl!" my friend Pepper shouted into the phone, "I need you to come over and frrryyyy!!!"
Pepper is one of those instinctual cooks, a MacGyver of the kitchen who can throw together a gourmet meal with only two slices of cheese, some old bread, and a jar of spice that lost its label five years ago. I, on the other hand, don't know a grater from granita. But, we both acknowledge that I have one strength – I am a wiz with a tub of Crisco and a frying pan.

My southern roots shine through when it comes to frying, and I don't fool around with any of that namby-pamby olive oil stuff. So when Pepper decided to experiment with frying up some squash blossoms from her garden, she put out the call.

"We don't even have anything like that in the house," Pepper's daughter observed wryly when she saw me extract the blue and red container of Crisco from my shopping bag. "0 Grams Trans Fats!" the label shouted optimistically, as if that made the food you cook in it any less likely to kill you after 70 or so years of eating the stuff. But mmmmm, good.

Stumbling somewhat into Kitchen Chick's and the Gastro 3's territory, I used a recipe from Big City Little Kitchen for the cheesy stuffing. It calls for a cup of ricotta, so I took advantage of the fantabulous local variety from S. Serra Cheese, available from Morgan & York. I found that it's hopeless to try to use a tool to stuff the delicate little blossoms – you just have to break down and use your fingers. Once stuffed, do a little twist of the blossom at the end, dredge in egg and then toss in cornmeal, throw it into a pan of hot Crisco for about four minutes, and voila! Yummy little packets of cheesy summer goodness.

To be honest, the squash blossoms themselves don't seem to have a lot of flavor. They're simply an attractive, seasonal medium to contain the lovely cheese. And what more could you want, I ask?

(If you don't have access to your own garden and/or squash blossoms, they've been popping up at Farmers' Market for $3 a pint. Definitely a better deal than the $5/pint shelled peas, the cost of which seems somehow tied to gas prices. Are there pea speculators?)