Weird Recipes From Your Yard

This soup is served cold. You need a rose, preferably red or pink. It should still have lots of fragrance. You can't use roses that are hybrids. Gently peel away the rose petals one at a time. Cut away the bottoms of the petals that have no color. Keep a few of the rose petals to use to sprinkle on top of the soup just before serving.

Other ingredients needed are:

16 ounces cold water

4 ounces sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

16 ounces can of pitted sweet cherries

8 ounces dry white wine

8 ounces sour cream

2 ounces Cherry Schnapps or preferred cherry liqueur

Add water, sugar, and cinnamon in a pan and bring to a boil on medium heat. Drain the canned cherries and add to the pan. Reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Next, add the wine and rose petals. Let cool. Put in blender and mix on liquefy setting. Pour into a large bowl and stir in the sour cream and Cherry Schnapps. Refrigerate until cold. When ready to serve, sprinkle the remainder of the rose petals on the soup. Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.

I learned this recipe when I was living in New Mexico. It is surprisingly good. This makes enough for 5 or 6 people to have a sweet snack. You will need to select about 3 large prickly pear cactus 'fingers'. Remove the spines and outside layer. Cut into one inch thick slices lengthwise. Soak overnight in water. After removing from the water, cut into one inch cactus cubes. Then heat to boiling and cook until tender. Drain and add the syrup until the cactus candy has soaked up the homemade syrup. Watch carefully so that you don't scorch the syrup.

After the cactus has absorbed the sugar, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. For a more colorful effect, roll the cactus cube candy in colored sugar.

Sugar Syrup recipe:

3 cups sugar

1 cup water

2 tablespoons orange juice or pineapple juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or omit and add another tablespoon orange juice)

Heat all of the ingredients until the sugar dissolves.

This salad is just like the popular wilted lettuce salad with bacon flavored dressing

Makes 4-6 servings