APPLE ORCHARDS, AND VINEYARDS, AND SQUASH BLOSSOMS - AT LAST!

Lest anyone think I'm so lucky as to still be in California on extended vacation, alas, that's not the case. I've been home for three busy weeks, but am enjoying reliving the memories as I cull through my vacation photos, slowly getting up these posts now that "real life" once again has the upper hand.

Tuesday of my vacation week was my first chance to see some of surrounding El Dorado County. Marilyn had lots of great places in store for us. And I had a great time in the kitchen that night - finally making stuffed squash blossoms for the first time!

We started our morning in Apple Hill, a series of loop roads off Route 50 between Placerville and Lake Tahoe, boasting some 50 orchards, Christmas tree farms, and vineyards at a 3000-foot elevation. First stop: High Hill Ranch, with a lovely pond and view, plus crafts booths, apple baked goods, a farm market where we scored apples and some terrific Asian pears, and free apple juice (yes, the free tastings continue). We also received complimentary tastings of apple wine and mulled cider, but they were a bit sweet for me.

On our way “out” of the loop from High Hill, Marilyn wanted to take us past Madrona Vineyards and, well, it was such a lovely sight that we decided to go on in for their wine tasting at 11:00 a.m.

Unlike Napa, where I went on my last trip to California and found most wineries charge you for tastings and a guided tour, in this area, the norm seems to be free tastings of 4-7 of each vineyard’s standard wines, with a potential charge for its “select” offerings, and the assurance that anything you pay for, you’ll recoup if you actually purchase wines on premises. When we stopped at Madrona, we were the only customers in the place, and the fireball of a gal who served us offered well more than the standard 5 tastes, along with samples of some of the food items they sell. A fun morning. And yes, we bought several bottles of wine.

Afterward we stopped at several more Apple Hill orchards before deciding we were ready for our picnic. Again, Marilyn knew the perfect spot – Boeger Winery, with more great wines, beautiful landscaping, and lovely picnic tables. Plus they sold figs and other produce grown on the estate. Too bad we’d already bought figs at Ferry Plaza. But we enjoyed our picnic. While walking the grounds and seeing figs hanging from the trees, we Midwesterners put 2 and 2 together and suddenly understood where fig leafs come from.

Back at Marilyn’s house later that afternoon, I had in mind to serve a platter of grilled veggies from our Ferry Plaza purchases, as well as the abundant squash in Marilyn’s garden. While the grill was hot, it made sense to go ahead and cook the beets for an appetizer I wanted to make later in the week, along with the salmon I planned for an easy salad supper the next night after our day trip to Tahoe. We had plenty of salmon, so I decided to use it to augment what otherwise would have been an all veggie meal, unsure whether it would have been considered “enough” by everyone at the dinner table, including Marilyn’s husband.

We brushed the veggies with olive oil in which I'd steeped garlic and fresh herbs from Marilyn's garden. Jeanette was kind enough to helm the grill while I tackled something I’d been salivating for all summer.

Blogger friend Chef Dennis of More Than a Mount Full has been making me crazy for months with his tantalizing photos and recipes for stuffed squash blossoms. I hadn’t had any luck finding squash blossoms to stuff myself all season, until I took a closer look at Marilyn’s vegetable garden. When I asked if I could use the blossoms, I think she thought I was crazy.

I was able to delicately remove about five blossoms – far fewer than Chef Dennis’s “standing weekly order” at his farmers market for five bunches. I wouldn’t have the opportunity to test out all his variations (including this dessert version, squash blossoms filled with cannoli cream!). But I would do my best to make these five little blossoms worth the effort.

These are delicate things to work with, at least my specimens. So I gently washed them and patted them dry with paper towel. Thanks to Dennis's post about "zucchini pops," I felt empowered to keep the blossoms attached to the baby squash, to the extent I could.

I based my filling on Dennis's standard recipe here, adjusting for quantity (since - did I mention? - I only had five), and adding a healthy dose of fresh basil, rosemary, and thyme from Marilyn's garden to his suggested cheese mixture of ricotta, mozzarella, and romano, working with cheeses I had available.

Side note: I used Marilyn's mezzaluna (the curved knife/shallowly indented wood chopping block thingie pictured above) on quite a few occasions that week, and found it to be a great tool for cutting small-leaf fresh herbs. Apparently my mom gave it to her sister awhile back, and I think I should put it on my xmas list now that Mom is asking for mine.

Using a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off, I piped the cheese-herb filling into my little blossoms as best I could. This is a job where you need two hands, if not more - holding the blossom open, and keeping the cheese mixture pressed into the tip of the plastic bag while you do your utmost not to tear or overfill the blossoms. Which means you have no extra hands available to photograph your efforts. However, Marilyn was kind enough to snap this one as I worked.

Following Dennis's recommendation, I refrigerated the filled blossoms while I whipped up his light batter of eggs, milk, flour, and - best of all - a little romano (or parm) and more fresh herbs. After dipping the chilled, filled squash blossoms in the batter, I fried them in olive oil in a shallow pan, turning after about 2 minutes.

Fried till golden, here's how they turned out. I must confess I'm not sure how much I could detect the innate flavor of the squash blossom in my first try at making (or eating) this dish. But the filling was excellent, and the cheese and herbs in the batter are a definite plus. We're talking delicately fried foods here, and I enjoyed the heck out of these. As cook and hostess, I usually let my guests eat all they want first. But since we had five squash blossoms and only four at the table that night, I asked (politely, I hope) if I could take the fifth. I don't know whether my family still thought I was crazy after making this dish for them or just appreciative of my efforts. But I was glad to have one more taste of these goodies.

Not that I let my dining companions go hungry, of course. Here's what else was on the dinner table that night - grilled veg platter and salmon topped with tomatoes and basil.

No one left the table hungry. Although (typical of the way I cook when actually presented with the opportunity to cook for others instead of just myself), we did have a lot of grilled veggies left. No problem. The next morning we would head to Tahoe, and the leftover veg would make a great omelette before we set out.