Frying is Not Ready for Prime Time

I don't really remember what happened on Wednesday.

Thursday night, I met GM for dinner at Big Bowl and then we met several of his friends to see Spiderman 2. I actually thought it was quite entertaining, much more so than the first one. Afterwards, we went to the Marble Slab Creamery for some ice cream. I ordered a vanilla milkshake, which was good, but expensive. At Big Bowl, I strayed from my usual crispy orange shrimp and got the Thai Herbed Calamari appetizer for my meal. They were interesting and were spiced very differently from most calamari I've had, although the pieces were not chopped as finely as is generally optimal.

After work on Friday, I drove by EB's house and she gave me a HUGE batch of cucumbers and yellow summer squash. I was seriously worried as to whether it would all fit in my refrigerator or not. It did. My dad showed me how to use the vegetable peeler to peel the cucumbers. No, I hadn't even done that either. Then I sliced them all up and sliced the squashed. I then attempted to fry the squash. I put all my squash in a ziplock bag with about a half cup of cornmeal and made sure it all had a nice coating. Once the pan was hot, I made the mistake of kind of tossing in a piece, since I was hesitant about putting my hand too close to it. Well, it splattered some in a dramatic fashion. I discovered that putting the squash on the spatula first was a little safer. The whole process seemed to take forever and I didn't eat until about 10:30 or so. Fortunately, my dad talked to me on the phone through most of the ordeal, to talk me through what I was doing. I wouldn't say that my final product tasted that great, by any means. I think I will have to have verbal guidance, in person, for my second attempt. I have enough squash for about 147 more attempts, so I better get the next one right.

Tonight's meal was much more of a success. GM came over and I showed him around the house. I made the parmesan and chive biscuits from the recipe that we tried when RR and MDLP were visiting. I baked salmon filets with honey and dijon mustard sauce. I also made a salad with salad greens, EB's cucumbers, grape tomatoes (sliced in half), blueberries, and three different kinds of mint leaves. I also made a vinaigrette dressing for it, using olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper and a little sugar. It all turned out perfectly!