Quarantine Cooking: I Don't Need No Stinkin' Fryolator

I suppose I could've fried last night, using my new carbon steel wok, but that would've taken more oil. I decided instead to use my dad's handy dandy ever reliable cast iron frying pan. The hubs brought home these squash blossoms while I bought these baby artichokes a couple Saturdays ago.....yikes. I won't do that again. I'll cook produce from now on as soon as I get it.

You need to keep cut artichokes in acidulated water (just squeeze the juice of one lemon into the water and throw the peels in there too). Not too bad. I am getting more practiced at trimming and cutting artichokes.

I look at the squash blossoms to determine how much filling to make (don't wanna make too much); it's merely chopped basil, chives or green onion, and mix with goat cheese and cream cheese (just enough to a consistency to make it easy to spoon with a rubber spatula into the blossom). I guess I'm getting more practiced too at fried squash blossoms too.

Sparkling water is key to the batter. 3/4 to one cup of Perrier or Pellegrino to one cup of flour. I love the fizziness of this batter.

I almost forgot about wine time! I love this Hello Kitty bottle. I just ordered a bottle cutter to turn this bottle into a drinking glass. I think I might have put too much water into my batter which makes the frying oil splatter. Good thing I had my wine to sip while wiping up grease spots.

My artichokes are looking good! And they're crisp! I just hope they're cooked enough to be tender enough to eat. The squash blossoms are not looking as crisp as usual because I was running out of batter, but I do love that yellow and green color of the blossoms are more visible.

Whew...these fried appetizers were work, but luckily I've two neighbors, Cecilia and Roseanne to share these vegetables which were way too much for just me and the hubs. I still have leftover fried baby artichokes to eat with my leftover squid ink pasta while the hubs eats hot dogs and leftover potato salad Friday night.