Flowers for Valentine’s Day

My first valentine was Mishell, she was my third crush. My first crush was when I was in nursery school. My mom always packed me those Kraft handi-snacks with the red plastic spreader...

we’d walk to the cafeteria together holding hands and would eat that while she's sitting on my lap. I guess there were things I had unlearned growing up because I don’t remember having a more romantic date than that.

  Mitch, that's her nickname, was my longest crush, 5^th grade until about sophomore year of high school. I blame her for introducing me to one of my passions in life which is baking. She told her friend and her friend told my friend, then my friend told me that she liked guys that baked, so I did.

          When we were in 7^th grade I asked her to be my valentine. It was for a party they were having in one of our classmate’s church. We had to pay I think around 100 pesos, for food, per person. Mind you I was only earning 20 pesos from my daily allowance. This meant that I can’t eat until I get home for over a week. Also I had my heart set on buying her tulips because they were her favorite flowers. Three to be exact, because that is the number of words you need to say I love you.

          Sadly, I don’t really remember a lot of what happened that night, except for when one of my friends came out with a microphone to sing a song for his crush. We still tease him about that. Oh and I didn't get a kiss, just in case you were wondering, because that didn't happen until later in my life and not with her. All I remember was that I had to endure not eating for a month and a half just so I can pay for the flowers and both of our tickets. No wonder I hate Valentine’s Day. Also I remember getting in trouble for buying those flowers. My mom said that it was a waste of money. I thought maybe I should have just spent it on food.

          One thing that day taught me was never to get girls flowers. Not because they don’t like them, but because they’re just a waste of money and that they will wither and die anyway. Ok maybe that's over reacting. But if you absolutely have to, like how I foolishly did, then maybe you should get her some flowers she can eat.

Squash Flower Soup

Serve 4-6 (Unless you’re in a date which means it’s for 2 with leftovers)

250 g Squash Flowers

50 g butter

100 g Onions. Chopped

3 cloves garlic, Chopped

150g Squash, Peeled and Diced

1 liter water

Salt and pepper to taste.

Flour and Egg (optional)

1.) First thing you need to do is to clean the squash flowers. If you can remember your grade school botany classes then you should know the part of the flower. The parts you want are the petals, and the receptacle from which the petals grow out of. You will need to take out the sepals (First photo from left) and the pistil (Right most photo).

2.) If you like you can leave 4-6 flowers that are still on the stem and is intact that you can use for garnish so carefully remove the pistil making sure you don’t break the petals. (Middle photo) the rest you can roughly chop and set aside.

3.) In a medium sized pot add your butter, onions, and garlic over medium heat and sauté until onions are translucent.

4.) Add the squash and continue sautéing until it turns bright orange.

5.) Add the liter of water and allow to boil covered until the squash is tender. This will take about 8 – 10 minutes.

6.) Then add the chopped up squash flower and cook for another 5 minutes.

7.) Puree everything in a blender or with a hand blender if you have one, and bring back to a boil. Season with salt and pepper then remove from heat.

8.) For garnish, you can use the flowers you’ve set aside in step 2 (photo clockwise starting from top left corner) dipping it in flour, egg, then flour again and deep frying it until it is golden and crisp.

9.) Serve hot topped with the crispy fried squash flower.