Our Revenge on the Grasshoppers

Phil here.  Kristen asked me to be her guest blogger today.  I returned home from Costa Rica last weekend, and found that the grasshoppers were making a feast in our garden.  The large numbers of grasshoppers in our area was even a topic of conversation at our bishopric meeting on Sunday.  I mentioned that we should just eat the grasshoppers to get our revenge.  I have eaten locusts in pickled form, but I have always wanted to try the hoppers in a taco, Oaxaca style.  The problem is that the Oaxacans use very young grasshoppers, and our pests had been eating so well that they had attained a far more mature size.

The thought of eating my grasshoppers took a firm possession of me on Monday morning when I was working in the yard.  They were everywhere.  I began grabbing them when they were in easy reach, and I soon had a nice herd of little appetizers:

 I left them in the bucket all day so that they could rid themselves of their last meals.  When it was time for dinner, I put a pot of water on the BBQ Grill and started it boiling.  In the meantime, I pulled off the legs and the heads --- the legs can be left on, but the barbs tend to wedge themselves in your gums.  The great thing about grasshoppers is that when you pull the heads straight out of the bodies, the stomachs come right out as well:

If you are not squeemish, you can leave the innards in for a little more juicy flavor, but many hoppers carry tapeworm in the stomach, and as a tapeworm survivor, I prefer to take the safe route. 

Once the legs, heads, and inward parts are removed, throw them in the boiling water.  Boiling them before frying softens the casings.  I left them in for about 15 minutes, but they could come out as soon as they turn a bit red:

Once they have been boiled, the wings are easily removed. Once the wings are off, you are left with a nice pile that looks (and smells) like shrimp.

 If they were small, I would love to cook them in a chili and lime sauce at this point.  But since they were large, I dipped them into egg and rolled them in corn meal: 

The funniest thing I heard all evening was when I pulled the corn meal out of the pantry. Kristen said, "That has been in there for a while. Better check it for weevil."  She cracks me up. If only we had a few, fat, weevils, we would have been dining in style!

Fry them in oil.  Be ready to be amazed at the "shrimp smell":

BBQ sauce was the most popular, but the honey-mustard-horseradish was good too.  Suprisingly, everyone partook:

If we do it again, I'd try bread crumbs instead of corn meal.

This is not up to Kristen's usually high and exacting cooking standards, but it was fun.

Recipes

Zucchini Specialties
These are so yummy. I always forget to take pictures of these. They do not last long around my house. They are my personal favorite.

The Worlds Best Chocolate Zucchini Brownies
2 cups sugar                ½ cup cocoa
1 cup vegetable oil        ½ cup evaporated milk (or vanilla soy milk)
3 eggs                            2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon water            1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 ½ or 3 cups flour            
¼ tsp. Baking powder            
1 tsp. salt                

Mix sugar, oil, eggs, water, and vanilla together. Add the dry ingredients and stir well. Stir in the milk, then add the zucchini and nuts. Spread on a greased jelly roll pan (Cookie sheet with sides). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Allow to cool and frost with Perfect Chocolate Frosting.

Perfect Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Zucchini Snack Cake
½ cup margarine        ½ cup oil
1 ¾ cups sugar          2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla              1 tsp. soda
2 ½ cups flour            ½ tsp. cinnamon
4 Tbsp. cocoa            1/2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt                 ½ cup milk (sour)
2 cups shredded zucchini

Cream eggs, vanilla, sugar, and fats. Add dry ingredients, alternating with milk. Add zucchini. Put in greased 9x13 pan. Top with ½ cup chopped nuts, ½ cup chocolate chips, and ½ cup brown sugar. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

(I mix the chopped nuts, chocolate chips and brown sugar in a bowl, then sprinkle over the top of the cake batter before baking)

Southwestern Cobb Salad

All I can say about this is WOW!  We loved the flavor of this.  This was a filling meal.  I served whole wheat dinner rolls with the salad, and that is it.  It has so many fun mixtures that taste great with the Green Godess dressing.  Find the recipe here http://www.melskitchencafe.com/?s=Cobb+salad

I think sweet corn would be a good addition to the bean salsa.  We did not add parsely to the dressing and it was still delicious.  I also used leftover marinaded grilled chicken and some rotisserie chicken pieces instead of the chicken recipe.

I am going to have a guest blogger tomorrow.  He will share the recipe and instructions for fried grasshoppers.  I find it a little disgusting, but I can't help feeling a little intrigued by them too.  This is what happens when your husband travels out of the country.  We try all kinds of things we would not have known about otherwise.  Grab a bucket with a lid and your butterfly nets.  This is going to be fun!

Back To School Shopping

We went shopping at the Park City Outlets one August Monday.  The kids had a craving for In-n-Out burgers for lunch.  We drove back to Draper for more shopping and lunch.  Since this is Phil's favorite place to eat, they wanted to send him a picture while he was hard at work and 2 hours away from the nearest In-n-Out.  That is a little mean, but he let them know it was okay because he has eaten there many times without them. 

Summer Flowers

My flower gardens have been really nice this year.  I planted 100 gladiola bulbs in the spring.  I thought if I planted 20 every week that they would bloom at different times.  Interestingly, bulbs of the same color bloomed at the same time even if they were planted at different times.