I’m glad to be writing for Slice of Life again.  I had a good time participating in the Slice of Life Challenge in March.  Maybe too good a time.  I sometimes got lost in writing and neglected other things.  Things like the grad class I was taking.  Housework.  Exercise.  

I wanted to start participating in the Tuesday challenge, but it has taken me this long to just sit down and write.   I think once I fell out of the daily habit of writing and posting, it was easy to stay out of it.  The last few weeks of school were frantic and I decided to give myself a break until the end of the school year.  

School has been out for a few weeks.  I never should let myself off the hook about something I really want to do.    I’m working summer school, but I definitely have more time to myself.   My day starts at the same time but ends almost three hours earlier.   I’m not taking any classes.   So far I’ve been avoiding writing by cooking.   I’m an okay cook, but I don’t cook enough.  This new foray into cooking has lasted two weeks.

I think I can maintain the routine, at least for the summer.   On Saturday, I choose the recipes.  The first week, I looked through cookbooks.  This week, I felt too lazy for that so I used Pinterest.  I make my shopping list on Saturday night and then I hit the farmers’ market early Sunday morning and swing by Aldi on the way back.  Both weeks I’ve had to make a trip to a conventional grocery store later to pick up a few remaining items, but it is worth it for the freshness of the food at the farmers’ market and the cost savings at Aldi.  I know there are people who would go to the farmer’s market first, buy what looks good, and then menu plan around that, but my brain doesn’t work like that.

Last night I made zucchini fritters.  I had bought some beautiful zucchini at the farmers’ market.  I went to grate it, as directed, and quickly remembered that my husband had thrown my grater away.  Actually, Ed threw the bottom part of the grater away, because he throughout it was a piece of Tupperware that was missing its lid.  I threw the top part away because it was impossible to use the top part of the grater alone without skinning the heck out of my knuckles.  

Back when I discovered part of the grater to be missing, I complained to my husband about it.  He suggested I use the Microplane instead.  That works well enough for cheese, but it doesn’t work for zucchini, as I quickly discovered last night.  If you take a Microplane to zucchini, you wind up with zucchini pulp.

I contemplated running out and buying a grater, but I had started dinner late, and I wanted to get it on the table at a reasonable hour.  I chopped the zucchini as finely as I could, in the hope that this would approximate shreds.  

I started mixing the ingredients together.  As I was measuring them out, it occurred to me that this recipie had a much higher ratio of bread crumbs, cheese, and egg to vegetable than I had originally suspected.  Not exactly he healthy food I was looking for.

I forged on, forming the mixture into small patties and pan frying them in a little bit of olive oil.  It took a while.  I mistimed when to start cooking the corn on the cob, and it was ready long before the zucchini fritters were.  I removed the corn from the pot with tongs and then emptied the boiling water into the sink.  I put the corn back in the pot and put the lid on, hoping it would stay warm but not overcook.

Ed came home while I was frying the zucchini cakes.  I finished cooking the final fritters, and called him to the table.  The corn had cooled a little more than I would have liked but was still delicious.  You can’t beat fresh corn in the summertime.  I like it with butter and salt.  I don’t usually eat butter, but I make an exception for corn in the summertime.

The zucchini cakes were just okay. Conisidering the recipie used an entire box of crumbled Feta, they should have been delicious.  I might aquire a grater for the zucchini and see if that helps.  I’d like to cutback on the breadcrumbs and maybe use a sharper cheese.  I don’t know what though.  

Ed’s take was that they were good, but that he wouldn’t consider them a main course.  I told him they were too much work for a side dish.

Tonight I’m making Thai noodles of some sort.  Another Pinterest experiment.    I had to buy Siracha.  They don’t sell that at Aldi.  I hope they are easier and tastier than the zucchini cakes.  Or at least one of those.  I really ought to start chopping.

I’m glad I managed to write something first.