Zucchini Flower Omelet

I must admit that I didn't follow her instructions too closely, but since I had just purchased 4 zucchini blossoms at the farmer's market, (and they weren't cheap like she claims at 50 cents each!) I chose to loosely follow this recipe. The way the recipe is written illustrates some shortcomings that I noticed in many of her recipes.

Here are some of my observations:

• She does display a bit of arrogance throughout the book. The comments in the head note - without further illumination of - "a stranger in line asks what I do with them. It seems few people [read - Americans] know," and "French and Italian women know lots of uses for them." - strikes me as a little too smug. Throughout the book she is encouraging women to cook for themselves, but this sort of comment is likely to just make the reader feel inadequate.

• No pan size is given.

• No instructions on how to clean and prepare flowers are given. If you follow the recipe to the letter, you'd be putting whole zucchini flowers in without first taking out the pistils (and checking for insects) or removing the stems which would ruin the dish. I cleaned mine, removed the pistils and stems, and sliced them thickly crosswise into rounds first.

• She suggests heating the butter in the pan until "piping hot" before putting in the eggs. Then, waiting "a few minutes", for the eggs to start to set to add the cheese. This would definitely result in brown if not burnt butter and a brown crusty bottom, with uncooked eggs on top. It definitely wouldn't take "a few minutes" for the eggs to "start setting".

• Again, instruction is lacking on the basic technique of making an omelet by letting the uncooked egg flow underneath the cooked parts. There is no mention of touching the eggs at all in the pan.

The book itself speaks to novice cooks, but without basic cooking skills, I think this recipe would leave them either wondering what to do, or facing a disaster of a dish if they followed the instructions exactly.