Oil Spill

Checking my vegetable garden in early morning is my usual task during the summer time. This morning I followed my routine. It was a less humid and cloudy day. The wind was gently blowing from the South. Then I noticed the subtle gasoline stink. Yes, the smell was the oil from the Gulf. We live in Baton Rouge, which is 80 miles away from the sea. It is unbelievable but sadly our life is affected by the oil spill.

The small particles of oil must be everywhere around the Gulf. We breathe the contaminated air and no one knows the long-term result of it. It is scaring.

Omelet with Zucchini Flowers, Dill and Feta Cheese

“Zucchini flowers are so flavorsome,” said my husband, who is native to Greece. Indeed, there are many dishes using zucchini flowers in Mediterranean counties. I have never tried zucchini flowers before and I was always fascinated about eating them.

So I planted six zucchini plants this spring and was looking forward to harvesting the flowers.

However, a few weeks ago, when they were ready to blossom, the plants suddenly started dying. After searching webs for the cause, I found out they were attacked by squash vine borers. In fact, I found the babies and eggs lying on the zucchini leaves. Yikes!!!

Fortunately, several flowers were surviving and I was able to eat them! Certainly they are very delicious. It is sweet and has a delicate flavor. The flowers could be better than zucchini fruits!

Plum and Blueberry Clafoutis

Our plum tree produced a lot of fruits this year. My husband enjoyed eating them. But they were too sour for me. In front of tons of plums, I thought about many possibilities to cook and eat them. Then, making clafoutis suddenly flashed into my mind. It was already ten o’clock at night. But I decided to just do it!

The dessert was done before the midnight. My husband and I ate all before the next day of afternoon!

Clafoutis is a French baked dessert. It is very easy to make. Mix with eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, and flour. Pour into the tart pan. Add fruits such as cherries, berries, apricots and plum. Then put it into the preheated oven. 30 to 40 minutes later you are eating this delicious dessert.

Do not remove pits of fruits. They give a special flavor to this simple sweet!

Chicken Tikka Masala with Chickpeas

When the weather gets hot, I long for curry. Since my neighbor gave me a lot of fresh jalapeño peppers, I decided to make tikka masala.

Usually I roast chicken, which is marinated with yogurt, ginger, garlic and species over night, and add it in tikka masala. This time I boiled marinated chicken wings along with my homemade tikka masala paste, vegetables and chickpeas. Of course, I used a lot of jalapeño peppers, which make this dish extremely hot and flavorsome :)

Pita Sandwich with Hummus Dressing

It has been very hot with no rain in Louisiana. I am very afraid that this heat will produce multiple huge hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, the weather forecast warns that we will have a several major hurricanes this summer. When I think of this, I feel a chill go down my spine.

The summer heat reduces my appetite. But I have to eat in order to get going. So I made this simple pita sandwich with delicious hummus dressing. Use various kinds of summer vegetables. It is very refreshing and recovers my good appetite!

Shrimp with Orzo in Tomato Sauce

If the current oil spill continues more than 50 days, it would be the worst oil spill in the U.S history. This was the article I heard a month ago. Today is the 51st day after the oil spill started. It is already the worst oil spill in the U.S. history. Yet, no one knows when the spill stops. Depressing.

The shrimp dish I made before the oil spill was Shrimp with Orzo in Tomato Sauce. It was so delicious because of the tasty and big shrimps from the Gulf. But now it makes me very sad since many of the shrimp beds in the Gulf are destroyed…