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zucchini bites

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zucchini bites

This week, I lost my last grandparent. My last living grandma passed away on Monday, thus forever stripping me and my brother of our grandchildren statuses. Both of my parents are now completely parent-less, and that must feel even weirder.

While most of my grandma+food related memories are firmly connected to my other late grandma (you know, all those leek pies I can’t seem to shake off …oh stop rolling your eyes!), I have foggy visions of homemade yogurt, roasted peppers with garlic, perfectly round buns and thick slices of white cheese somewhere in my head that smell like this grandma. Granted, there is a heady aroma of Turkish coffee always somewhere nearby coupled by the faint note of cigarette smoke.

My grandma enjoyed life until the last day of her 87 year long life. Coffee, cigarettes, the occasional drink, fried eggs, bacon, minced meat kebabs…all were on the repertoire. The lady loved her meat (runs in the family but did skip me by some genetic mishap) and would often look at me bewildered as I stated (for the millionth time) that no, thank you, I am not a fan. Two things she frequently requested my dad to bring her during one of his visits were pork greaves (I had to look up the English word for this – to me – horrendous product) and pork galantine (another glance at the dictionary was required for this). I may not have agreed with her food choices but there’s no arguing that she was one determined food-lover.

Her passing has made my mind wander in weird directions these days, swinging from relief that she didn’t have to go through any of the many horrors that old age can bring and all the way to a sense of guilt that we should have stayed longer than our regular half an hour during our last visit to her house on the day before she died. Even though I am almost 32, I still find it particularly hard to accept death as a part of life. I have issues with dealing with the physical aspects of it; the fact that someone is no longer there, that no matter what happens you will never again be able to look into their eyes and see the loneliness, to hug them and feel the aged paining joints under your hands, to see their knees betray them for a split second.And I also despise cemeteries and funerals. Or as my dear Salinger would aptly put it “all the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner – everybody except….”

zucchini bites

I made these zucchini bites on the day I last saw grandma. But the only thing that links them to her is the fact that they were made for her one and only great-grandson, the one she never thought she’d live to see and yet she got to see him, hold him, watch him walk, talk and run. Here’s to hoping that all of us would live to be 87, see at least one great-grandchild and eat whatever pleases us until the very last day.

zucchini bites

ZUCCHINI BITES
recipe (adapted mostly in the cheese department) from The Naptime Chef
makes 12 bites (made in a 12-piece muffin pan) or 24 mini bites (24-piece mini muffin pan)

ingredients:

  • 2 cups zucchini, grated
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup Pecorino, finely grated  (original recipe asked for cheddar)
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (seasoned ones would be great)
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley (didn’t use, had none)
  • sesame and flax seeds to sprinkle on top (optional)

instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C.  Butter the muffin tin.
  2. In a large bowl,mix the beaten eggs with the rest of the ingredients (minus the seeds, if using).
  3. Distribute the mix between the 12 (or 24, depending on your muffin tin) muffin holes equally (note: I did not have enough batter to fill them all the way up – as you can see mine are pretty flat – but that’s ok). Sprinkle some sesame and/or flax seeds on top of each.
  4. Bake for about 15-20min (mine took about 18) until set and golden on top.

 


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