pic(s) of the day - sweet okra blossoms

One of my most favorite things to eat is fried okra...I LOVE IT!!!! The fact that it is on the menu is one of the best things about Cracker Barrell in my book. Not the rocking chairs or the homemade biscuits. It's not the old time country store. It's not the jumber checkers. Ok, the massive fire place could be a close contender, but number one for me is fried okra! As good as it is at the ole CB, no one, and I do mean no one, makes it like my momma!

It may sound silly, but it is one of those foods that opens the flood gate of memories and every time I eat it, I feel connected to my heritage. It makes me think of my grandma's house in Memphis. Whenever we would visit,there would always be at least one huge dinner when as many as 17 of us would cram into their tiny eat in kitchen and spill over into the connecting living room. The menu would inevitably consist of fried freshly caught fish (bass or bluegill), hush puppies, her garden grown green beans, and fried okra!!!!! Along with much much more I'm sure and accompanied by a glass of instant lemon tea from a can. That scene is just as vivid in my mind as today's lunch. I can smell the hot grease, hear the laughter and the jokes, feel the chill of the AC (they had a window ac unit right there in the living room and it was always frigid!). My cousins and I would fuss and play, fuss and play. Such fun memories.

Fried okra reminds me of my great grandpa Otto. He and my grandma Pootie lived on a farm near the house my parents lived in when they first married. They still tell the story every year when they pick their okra about their very first crop and how they didn't know when it was ready. Erring on the side of caution, they let it grow to the size of a zucchini and Grandpa Ott had to explain to them the rules of picking okra. It's just one of those funny little stories you grow up with that make you smile and remember.

I find it funny that such a prickly, slimy, seedy little vegetable starts out with such a lovey, pristine blossom and ends up chopped up, coated in cornmeal, and fried into such yummy deliciousness. I think we go through our pricks and slime in life, feeling all cut up and mixed up at times, sometimes kind of awkward, but in the end, we look back and see that yummy deliciousness of life comes as a result of our experiences. Cheers to yummy deliciousness!!