So, when Steve, who plays soccer with Lazaros came in for lunch today, he asked his server, "do you have the stuffed squash blossoms?" which was relayed to me and to which I answered, "No." By the end of the shift I was being asked if we would be serving them tonight, because if I were, he'd bring his wife! Well, I had exactly 12 blossoms in the walk-in, hardly enough to put out 3 orders. So I got on the phone. I'm not going into a tirade about the abundant detours in the Twin Cities that have added HOURS and even DAYS to my to my over booked schedules, but, ONE thing a particular that one of those detours has showed me, are the community gardens of the Como Student Housing that is found between Como and Hennepin & 25th and 26th Avenues (Avenues ALL? I guess so, our address was 1040 27th Ave SE hmmmmmmmmm) I know, because we lived there and numbers three and four children were born there...but I hadn't seen the gardens on the Hennepin Breezeway--never had because the location has changed--BUT in the course of this SUMMER-long detour, I recognized it for what it was and I was dying to get my hands on those big, golden squash blossoms that taunt me through the fence as I crawl my way up to the stop sign. As I was saying....so, I got on the phone to Marcie, Head of the Communities Activities AND the person who gave us our first break, figuratively and realistically--350 Lemon Cream Boughatsas rolled in my tiny kitchen with four children hanging on my legs: and I MEAN wrapped around my legs--and I asked her if there was any way to get some of those blossoms. After a troubled moment of weighing my urgency and the proprietary urges of the "student" gardeners, she described her plot: first one on the left, up against the fence with no boundary fencing around it--that's MY Marcie--and boy did I pick! Who, Who was gonna eat ALL those zucchinis threatening to burgeon? If they ask me, I will come again and cull their patches...all of them. Besides, a real Kolokithokorfada is just what it says it is: the END of the zucchini--the flower that will fall off as the squash elongates...so really, no embryonic zucchinis have to die! So the blossoms were picked, stuffed, and oven braised. Everyone who had them raved and I think it was the yogurt that did the trick. I did not see Steve, however.

Two of those who did try the Kolokithokorfades (c'mon, try saying it once or twice--it'll roll off your tongue!) was our friend Suzanne and her friend from Kansas City, Joe. Now Suzanne is one of those girls who calls up the Gardens, asks for "Anna" and then tells me, "Hi Anna, I'm driving through the cities, can you get me my order?" And she knows it will be ready: 2 separate 1/2 pints of Skordalia and 2 separate 1/2 pints of Tyro. Don't ask her why, she just wants it that way....because she GIVES half of it away! Always! So, you gotta love a girl like that. And her she is feeding octopus to her Joe "ala Grec".