Thank You, Mario

Okay, so it's time for full disclosure ... my goal to make one recipe out of every issue of Food & Wine finally hit a bump -- I missed out on July. Well ... I made half of a recipe, because, yes, it was that complicated and was a two-day affair. But then life got in the way. Well, at least it was all good things that got in the way. Time with family, taking our trip up to Duluth. It was an ambitious recipe for a crazy month. And before I knew it ... July was gone.

So, maybe that is why I made sure I made my August recipe now (of course, was it any surprise that the September issue was in my mailbox on Saturday??)

What did I take on? Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters from Mario Batali. I was thrilled when I found a zucchini recipe, because our little backyard garden has been quite fruitful when it comes to a few things: cucumber (more than I could ever ask for), cherry tomatoes (delish) and zucchini. We've been lucky to enjoy a few other items, like cabbage and a watermelon, but zukes and cukes have reigned supreme. So, when I found an intriguing recipe that would use up some of my harvest - I knew it would be my August choice (and since I do have a couple weekends left, who knows, maybe I'll tackle something else, too.)

K was very much about helping me create the fritters, which made me happy - because maybe then he would eat zucchini more enthusiastically. So, after coarsely grating the vegetables and mixing it all in, it was already a promising bowl of color:

The secret ingredient (which I'll explain why it's a secret a bit later) was lemon zest. This meant I got to teach K how to use my zesting tool ...

And then, my little sous chef went to mixing ...

He swore not to tell daddy that there was lemon zest, because D hates anything with citrus in his food. After carefully mixing everything up, and with K at a very safe distance from the stove, it was time to fry up some fritters:

Now, I am not a huge fan of eating a lot of fried food, but I have noticed in every recipe where I fry zucchini ... it always ends up with good results, and this zucchini had cheese in it ... how can you go wrong with fried cheese? Of course, I did set the fritters on paper towels to allow the extra oil to be absorbed.

In the end, I had a plate of more fritters than I was originally planning (and note, I had already eaten two of them ...)

(I really need to get white plates.) In the end, the result was a winner! Even D thought they were delicious -- which is monumental, because he doesn't like zucchini at all and he doesn't like citrus in his fruit (which I still haven't told him about at this point ...)

So, thank you, Mario Batali, I think I have finally found a way to get my men to eat zucchini and I no longer have to enjoy the delightful vegetable solo.