Happy Sunday! Friday and Saturday I had the opportunity to assist with an Ag Leaders Session. The Ag Leaders Institute is a year long course for farmers to learn about cutting edge issues and leadership skills to address those issues. It was fascinating to watch the minds of 25 inspirational farmers connect and learn from one another throughout the weekend. Mary invited a local artiest from Boone, Iowa to speak with the group. David emphasized the idea of expanding creativeness and to use the resources we all have at our fingertips. He explained that our phones are like a advertisement agency. We can expand our reach with just one click of a button. He encouraged us to create a 6 word phrase that described what and why we do what we do. I began the process by jotting down words that remind me of the farm and in the end I came up with “Agriculture taught me freedom and knowledge.” Through this statement all things are true. I have found that I am truly happy connecting farmers to consumers. Before the Ag Leaders Institute on Friday we had a little incident at our apartment resulting in the fire department which is the real reason for this post!
Exactly one week ago, Megan and I decided that we were hungry for breaded cauliflower but trying to be the new, improved, and healthy us, we did not want to go into town. We found a recipe online and tweaked it to fit our taste buds. It started off as any normal cooking experience. I combined the ingredients and Megan cut the cauliflower into bite size pieces. I had Garrett put turkey burgers on the counter grill and I added oil to the frying pan. With in seconds the apartment was flooding with smoke and I began to panic. We turned on the vent and opened the sliding glass door but even with all our effort the apartment stayed smokey. We opened the door to the hallway hoping to release some of the smoke when immediately all of the alarms went off. It was so loud I just knew it had to be the whole building. Ah man was I mortified!!! I looked out side and everyone from the building was standing outside in their pajamas! I called the Ames police right away to let them know it wasn’t a fire but that did not stop the fire trucks from pulling up to reset the alarms. They asked us what happened and once we told them they laughed and asked if it at least tasted good. I should have offered them some but we had already ate it while we were waiting for them to arrive. Haha I have never been so embarrassed in my whole life!!
Here is the recipe if you are also in the mood for breaded cauliflower but please cook it in a deep fryer or an oven! I sure learned my lesson!
Ingredients:
– 1 head of cauliflower
– 1 tsp of garlic powder
– 1 tsp of onion powder
– Egg yolks
– pepper
– salt
– sugar
– 1 cup of flower
Steps:
1. Clean and cut the cauliflower into bite size pieces
2. Combine all dry ingredients into one bowl
3. crack 1-2 eggs into a bowl and whisk
4. dunk the cauliflower into the egg and then into the flower mix
5. Fry in oil for 2-3 min
6. Enjoy!
To modify for a healthier version- bake cauliflower in the oven with similar ingredients.
Picking Wild Flowers 