Sometimes Things JUST Don't Turn Out As I Imagined They Would...

Sometimes a plan just doesn't come together as I envisioned.

The other day, after viewing a beautiful and tasty-looking post for Fritto Misto, over at "What The Hell Does A Vegan Eat Anyway?" (One of my favorite titles for a blog in all of vegan-land, by the way), I got the brilliant idea to do my own version - dipping garlic-scape buds in Panko breadcrumbs and deep-frying them.

Now, garlic scapes (the stem and flower bud of garlic) are lovely and mild and a beautiful shade of green. See the picture? They're beautiful! Very plentiful at farmer's markets this spring - and I've used them adventurously and deliciously in the past few weeks. And deep-frying? Mmmm, pretty-much guaranteed to make ANYTHING golden, crispy and wonderful. You'd think I couldn't go wrong here.

But no.

Dipping the pretty green buds in soymilk and then in Panko crumbs and frying turned them golden and crispy, (and actually VERY tasty) but had the unfortunate result of making them LOOK incredibly UNappetizing!!

In all seriousness, they looked startlingly like fried crispy tadpoles or tiny green drumsticks (actually, now that I think about it, they looked freakishly similar to the fried frog's legs I once had the miserable experience of sitting next to...shudder...).

So much so, that I didn't even bother to get a decent picture. Trust me. They were NOT pretty. I couldn't even enjoy them; golden, crunchy-fried, little green vegetables that I KNEW they were... green and brown and crispy-tadpole-shaped on the outside, squishy like guts on the inside. Poor lil' guys!! And normally I'm not at all squeamish when it comes to "fake meats" and such. (Sorry for the mental picture but it really gave me the willies, so I thought I'd share.).

But who knows? Your kids may think fried tadpoles are a wonderful addition to the menu, try at your own risk.