Squash Blossoms!

Normally, I am a meat and potatoes kind of person. You know the type ---- normal, everyday, homecooking like meatloaf, baked chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, corn, broccoli, etc., etc. I don't usually stray too far from the safety zone. I will try new recipes, though, especially if I have all the ingredients around the house and it all sounds good.

Since starting the gardening thing, I've been on a search for good veggie recipes. I've been trying to get away from a lot of meat, as my cholesterol seems to be inching its way up. I'd rather control it with diet rather than the pills.

So. . . . with that in mind, I stood outside staring at my poor zuchinni and squash plants pushing out all these beautiful flowers, but no females with the fruit on the base of them. ALL males. I have read that the male flowers come first, but this was just too much. I had heard that these flowers are edible and well liked, but not available in grocery stores because of being so highly perishable. If you do an internet search for "squash flower recipes," you will see that there are hundreds to choose from ---- baked, fried, deep fried, raw, stuffed, etc.

I took my trusty scissors out there and started snipping. I took them all!!!!! I found this recipe and decided to try it for supper last night. I psyched myself up, saying that there were frozen meals on standby if this did not work out and not to get crabby or mad or blame myself as this was DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone of food. I must say, this rates a 10 on the scale of "we'll do it again" recipes. We wolfed it down so fast, there was no chance for pictures, sharing with Sis, or with Buster.

So here's the recipe.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Filling:

1/2 cup grated jack cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped (I used pepper jack cheese, so didn't need the pepper)
1/2 cup chopped prosciutto or other ham (I used crumbled bacon)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (I used 1/2 teasp dried oregano)
1 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used 1/2 tablspoon dried)
1 medium tomato, peeled, seeded, diced and drained (I just chopped and threw it in)
salt and pepper to taste
16 to 18 sqash blossoms
1 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 325
Oil or butter casserole dish
mix everything except blossoms and oil in a bowl
Remove stamens from flowers (I used a scissors as I kept ripping the flowers)
Stuff each squash blossom carefully with about 1 tablespoon of mixture.
Press edges together. Place in casserole and drizzle with olive oil.
Cover with tin foil, bake 15 minutes. Remove foil, return to oven and bake 15 minutes more.

The recipe said to serve with a tomato or spagetti sauce. I heated some up, but never used it. They tasted soooooooo good just the way they were.

I made a box of the pasta roni noodles, garlic and olive oil flavored. Since I had a lot of the cheese filling left over from the blossom stuffing venture, I threw that in with the noodles and tossed.

I've got to tell you ----- this was a supper to die for!!!!!! I'm not sure my blossoms out there will ever make it to the squash stage.