My wife loves me

[Xipe Totec]

I just want you to know, that my wife went out of her way to find paddle cactus, and made me a cactus omelet this morning.

Unless you live in New England, you have no idea how hard that was to achieve.

PS: It was delicious!

:9

[david13]

1. Are you talking about nopales? I have some growing at my

place in Joshua Tree.
dc

[Xipe Totec]

2. Nopalitos. Yes!

but they don't grow in New England; It's too cold!

They are imported here, and very expensive!

[kwassa]

3. they look like they have bunions!

and one great memory that I have is camping at Joshua Tree in the spring when the cactus were flowering.

Over 80 in the daytime, and below freezing at night when the sun went down. Ah, the high desert!

[Xipe Totec]

4. Those are tunas - prickly pears!

The fruit of the Opuntia.

They taste like a cross between strawberries and cantaloupes, filled with buck shot...

[EndersDame]

5. That is so hard to think of them as expensive they are so cheap and plentiful

My grandma (she lives in the Rio Grande Valley) would just bring them in from her yard and cook them up for us :)

[Xipe Totec]

6. The RGV is my old stomping grounds!

So you understand, fully, what I'm talking about.

My wife has to pay more than two bucks per paddle, and for each prickly pear, another buck fifty!

If she can find them, when she can find them!

[texanwitch]

7. I have some growing in my yard.

They came from the Grand Canyon.

[Xipe Totec]

8. They use them as hedges where I grew up

In the Lower Rio Grande Valley!

:hi:

[debbierlus]

12. Most people in New England have never had them.

Not much of a demand, so I am sure they order only in small quanities and have to pass off the higher cost onto the customer.

[Kali]

9. omelet?

what else goes in it?

[Xipe Totec]

10. Eggs, cactus,

the cactus is de-thorned, cut juliene style, fried in olive oil, rinsed (to wash the cactus slime off), and then mixed with battered eggs to make the final omelet.

You can put chipotle hot sauce, or mix fried tortillas into it, but it is not absolutely necessary...

:hi:

[Odin2005]

11. I know prickly pear cacti are edible but never ate them before.

What do they taste like?

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Hey, I know.

Once when I had a recipe that I wanted to try I spent several Saturdays looking for fresh cactus in the Boston area. Nada. I did find some allegedly fresh cactus but even I could tell it was very old and dried out.