New Grandchild

My son and my daughter-in-law just produced a bouncing baby boy. It took awhile( 36 hours) but they had a home birth just as they had planned.This morning I will whip up a stack of pecan waffles to celebrate the new arrival. I will follow MKR's guidelines " Pour the batter from a pitcher into a smoking hot waffle iron. Waffles are best when made at the table and eaten at once." That is so true. The best waffles I have ever eaten were made on smoking hot center table grills at a national park restaurant outside Deland. I don't remember the name but it featured a water wheel outside. Of course the waffles were eaten on day four of the ECG trip. That means we had already cycled over 100+ miles. Grilled shoe tongues might have tasted good by then.

Is the cookbook in Italian?

The three Italian guests were very interested in Cross Creek Cookery. Since we were speaking through an interpreter, I xeroxed off a copy of the cover so they could have it for their search on Amazon. My breakfast was fairly mundane....Italian bread, dried cherry granola, collard quiche and just-off-the-tree Amber sweet oranges. juice, coffee, tea. yogurt, coconut milk by request,and eggs. We talked for a long time. It was a goodf moning.

Dealing with Death

What does one cook when the phone rings in the predawn hours and a voice from the rehab says, “ No pulse, we tried ? We called rescue. No pulse.” And you say the D. word because the voice will not say it. And the voice says, “Yes, but we tried.” And you wait an hour to tell your beloved husband who is the next of kin who until this one night has been at the bedside of his father. What does one cook? Does one cook? Or does one leave a scribbled note beside the guests’ empty plate, “ I’ve gone to do last rites for my father-in-law.

But last rites are brief and hospitality is long and guests don’t come down before nine. So one stands by the beautiful priest and mumbles the ancient words then one runs home and cooks out of MKR's cookbook. The hands shake but the eggs scramble. And with the biscuits one serves sour orange marmalade which is sharp and sweet like the recently deceased.

Ice balls and train whistles

I went out to pick the collards for the quiche and found ice everywhere. The buckets I had leaned up against the citrus grafts froze solid. Poor little Key Lime, a casualty of my belief in zone creep.

Baked Sherried Grapefruit Fiasco

Followed MKR's recipe page 195 CCC. Using my new g-fruit knife, an instrument that is so lethal it could split the atom, I sectioned the grapefruit. Turned it over and drained it as Marjorie cautioned. Sprinkled the edges with brown sugar, powdered clove and dots of butter. Filled the center with sherry. Broiled it. Served it with a smile and NO ONE ATE IT. Everyone was on cholesterol medication and grapefruit is contraindicated. Sadness. Were folks just heartier ( pun intended) during Marjorie's time?