I had to give in to my Southern upbringing on Wednesday night. Don't laugh, Mom. Really. I just HAD to make some fried okra.

Now, you have to understand that my parents were mostly raised in New York state. Eating okra and collard greens was not something that happened often in their houses, or ours for that matter. One might wonder how and when I figured out that I liked that stuff. Well, I like the okra anyway, and I am not really sure when it happened. But it did. I generally only order fried okra when someone else cooks it. Tonight I just had to give it a try myself.

My Dad has been visiting this week, and the Misses and I took him to the Community Garden we have been volunteering in yesterday. We put him to WORK! Part of our payoff was a bunch of fresh okra. I couldn't let it go to waste so I embarked on an Internet search to find an easy recipe for fried okra.

I found one, chopped up some okra, and found out that I didn't have all of the ingredients. What was a girl to do?!

Improvise!

I soaked the okra in some cold water then coated it with a mix of panko and Lowry's season salt. Threw it all in the frying pan with a mix of vegetable oil and bacon grease, cooked it for 5 minutes and Presto! Fried okra.

I served it with ham, mac and cheese, and peach slices.

YUM!! Summer on a plate, for me anyway. The Misses didn't like the peaches, but ate their weight in ham and mac and cheese. Miss S did say that she liked the okra, but didn't go for seconds. No complaints though - it is a start.

My Dad commented yesterday that he has been able to see my culinary progress through my blog. I guess I have sort of come into my own in the kitchen. I truly enjoy cooking now. I am still tied to recipes, but I think I will eventually gain the confidence to create on my own. All I know for sure is that I wouldn't have even tried frying okra 3 years ago, much less improvising the recipe. And one of my kids liked it!