The Yearling Begins Again

I always taught The Yearling in April because all of the vegetation MKR mentions is just outside the classroom window. Now, many years past my time as a teacher, I am reminded of tar bush, fetter bush and loblolly bay. Outside the B&B window is a huge magnolia spreading it shiny leaves over a Cherokee Rose bush. The rose is beautiful but deadly with its massive thorns. Sometimes I get Jody's " sharp pleasure" just from looking at the wild forest in my yard.

Lemon Delight

MKR's recipe for Greek Lemon Soup ( page 10 of CCC)requires a lemon. I wonder if she ever grew Ponderosas. This one came from the kitchen garden and actually has only about the juice of one lemon because its rind is so immense.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Leftover sweet potatoes mixed into regular drop biscuit batter served with Black Forest Ham. The potatoes had some orange juice in them which gave the batter a slightly citrus flavor.Yum.

Valentine's Day

Wonder what Marjorie cooked for Charles on Valentine's Day before he left? Probably some wonderful Dora cream dessert or the yummy Baba au Rhum on page 172 of CCC.

Blueberries

I always imagine MKR walking in her garden at dawn. I don't know if she grew blueberries, but I suspect she did given that they grow well in the acid Fla. soil. Ranger Kate Morrison's Blueberry Pecan Cobbler(pg 26 Cross Creek Kitchens)is a huge favorite of mine because it provides the wonder of blueberries and pecans without the twelve tons of sugar most pecan pies require. Kate gives the choice of a yogurt or whipped cream topping. We know which one MKR would have chosen.Don't we?

Oranges, Sour and Sweet

My citrus tree are bearing. The limequats have lots of fruit. The kumquats won't be outdone.The amber sweets served sushi cut style are beautiful and tasty. Northerners gasp after the first bite. So this is a real orange, they say.Reading Kate Morrison's accounts of the revival of the Cross Creek Groves brings tears to my eyes. I,too, have a sour orange tree after one of mine froze back to the graft. I am about to make the sour orange pie Kate talks about in her Cross Creek Kitchens.

Rabbits' Eye Blueberry Toast

Yum. This morning was a big hit. I used some of the berries I had frozen from the bushes out front, tore up yesterday's fine pecan bread, made a layer of blueberries, cream cheese on the pecan bread, sprinkled some pecan halves and covered the entire mix with a standard French toast egg mixture. Put it in the fridge overnight. Popped it in the 350 oven for an hour. It was so completely wonderful. The aroma had the guests dancing down to breakfast.I can't wait for the blueberry bushes to bear fruit this year. Technically, only two of them are true rabbit's eye. The others are Bonnie Blue. Marjorie could have had some bushes just like mine.

Stuffed Collard Leaves

Why not? Why should the Middle Eastern folks have all the fun? I harvested some young collards and put them in the microwave for a few minutes to tenderize them. Then I stuffed them with cooked brown rice and peppers and covered them with marinara sauce. Yum. Who says collards are just to be cooked to death with fatback? I think Marjorie would approve.

Snakebite Sauce and Fried Green Tomatoes

It is tomato freezing cold here at the B&B. I harvested all of the green tomatoes yesterday and made fried green tomatoes for my guests. The Roma tomatoes were cut in 1/4 inch rounds ,dredged in cornmeal and flour, doused with Mrs. Dash's Lemon Pepper and "fried" in butter. The St. Augustine Snakebite sauce was served as an optional side in a crystal dish. The guests from the frozen north seemed to enjoy the sauce engendered warmth.

Florida's Cranberries AKA Rosselle

The flower looked like an okra flower but MKR's description of a rosselle plant was clear enough for me to understand that I did indeed have one courtesy of Lowes. Or at least I HAD one until the freeze. Curses on La Ninya or Ninyo whichever weather system dries us and freezes us. My urban farm is certainly dry and certainly cold.

Anyway I harvested the dead Rosselle calyxs and followed the directions for making jam. Yes, it turned out syrupy and red. It is good on hot biscuits, but then what isn't?

The Vegans Have Landed

Wonder what MKR's take would have been on vegans? No, Dora cream. No butter. No eggs. No meat. I can't imagine Marjorie eschewing animal products. I can't imagine myself doing without them either. Still, reading Dr. Will Tuttle's World Peace Diet has made me think about the effect our diet has on the world at large. The statistics are grim.

Max and Me

I am reading Max and Marjorie, the letters of MKR and Maxwell Perkins, her famous editor. I am amazed by how much her work depended on his suggestions. I knew that The Yearling arose from his initial suggestion that she write a " boys book" and that she was the one who changed it to a book " about a boy." Reading his suggestions for South Moon Under, I am aware of both his talent and his technique. He always began with praise and then inserted suggestions. She took most of them. No wonder she could not compose well after his death.

Last night I received a huge bag of well washed collards. I think I will create my favorite collard soup since I have smoked turkey from Thanksgiving and sweet potatoes from the river yard patch. They are slender but scrumptious. The combo is something MKR would have enjoyed with a pan of hot corn bread.

Golden Acid Apples

Trotted out today to pick the Ambersweet oranges for breakfast. Perhaps it was citrus hubris that got me but the juice made my lips pucker. I wonder if I picked them too early? Sally Morrison says leave them on the trees until the news of an impending hard freeze. Today I have on a sleeveless shirt and shorts, so I guess there is no danger of the hard freeze just yet.

I wonder,have they interbred with the calamondines? Speaking of those lovelies, I have made a wonderful waffle syrup with orange marmalade and a few tablespoons of calamondine juice. It adds MKR's beloved tartness. I am going to make the wild orange pie on page 197 of Morrison's book. The idea of low fat cottage cheese as opposed to the canned condensed milk I usually use, is appealing.

Toasty Pecan Bread

The moment it dips below 90, I'm making pecan bread in the bread machine. Because I live in what was at one time a large pecan grove, I feel like making the bread is somehow connecting with the land's history. I use a simple white bread recipe and add a quarter a cup of pecan meal. It is delicious. The leftovers are wonderful especially layered with honey ham.

Kumquat Butter

The Meyers lemon is taking the year off after its stellar performance last year. The kumquat is stepping into the center ring. Hundreds of kumquats hang from the bush that is nestled under the amber sweet orange. Can't wait to make the kumquat butter from the recipe on page 91 of Cross Creek Kitchens.

Cross Creek Kitchens II

I'm reading Sally Morrison's cookbook the way I have read some of Marjorie's short stories, delightfully. Morrison is a state park ranger and the curator of Marjorie's Cross Creek house. According to the book, she cooks and bakes on the original woodstove and fills the pantry with preserves she makes from the same trees and gardens that Rawlings once tended. This seems to me to be as close as possible to the culinary Marjorie.

Morrison's gingerbread waffles on page 87 have passed muster at the B&B table. Offered with a little orange butter, they are ambrosial.

Cross Creek Kitchens

Walking through Southern Crossings,my favorite consignment store in the cosmos, I found a copy of Cross Creek Kitchens by Sally Morrison. According to the blurb on the back, it has over 150 recipes for fresh-tasting specialties AND tales of life at Cross Creek. Can't wait to make okra pickles. The table garden is going gang busters with baby okra.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

MKR's recipe on page 68 of Cross Creek Cookery makes me skip down memory lane. Candied sweet taters were always on the menu in my home place whether it was Jonesboro or Miami. By the Miami era, we simply opened a can and out oozed the sugar sodden potatoes. Then we ADDED more sugar and stuffed them in half an orange with a marshmallow sitting perkily on top of the tater. I think there may have been some orange juice added. The dish was good even if it was not good for you.

Sweat and Sweet Potatoes

Dug them this morning by accident. One half dozen perfect sweet potatoes. I thought their vines were weeds. When I started to pull them the potatoes began to pop out of the soil like rubies. I will makde the sweet potato souffle on page 68 of CCC. MKR calls it luscious and utterly deadly. What more could one ask?

Seven City Citrus, my answer to Cross Creek