Seven City Citrus, my answer to Cross Creek

Black Bottom Pie NOT

Used MKR's crust ( 14 crisp ginger cookies 5 TBLS. melted butter) to form the base for my latest calamondine pie. Yum. The ginger sets off the citrus in a wonderful manner. I love the fact that Marjorie loved the original Blackbottom Pie recipe so much that she wanted to be " propped up on my dying bed and fed a generous portion."

Chili for the Chilly

Now that it is less than 100 degrees daily, I am looking through the cookbook for some cool weather food items. MKR's Chili Con Carne ( page 117) looks excellent and I think I will make it if and when the thermometer signals fall. I made it last year. Actually, I think I commingled her recipe with one of Bill Bellville's because it had habenero peppers in it.

I grow lots of habeneros without trying. They are beautiful to look at, resembling ruby red Christmas ornaments when they are ripe. Unfortunately, they are the atomic bomb of the pepper family and must be handled with care. MKR did not mention them in the cookbook. Her range of peppers is short...bell to datil.

Apologies to Miss Marjorie

I made homemade ice cream tonight. It was vaguely related to MKR's Fresh Peach Ice Cream on page 202 of Cross Creek Cookery. The weasel word here is vaguely. I threw a large container of French Vanilla yogurt in the wonderful ice cream maker then added two serious Georgia peaches which I had chopped in small pieces and left to sit in their own juice fortified with just a tiny bit of brown sugar and a little lemon juice. Finally, I pressed the start button and went back to reading the NY Times book review. In six minutes I had Fresh Peach Ice Cream. Not bad for someone without her own Dora.

Calamondines Keep Fallin' On My Head

Opening Marjorie's memory meals for the eighth season. So far we've celebrated with citrus, a calamondine tart for breakfast. The tiny tart citrus is making tree branches bend out by the river. I remember MKR's story about searching for the Seville orange tree on her Cross Creek property. Martha thought Marjorie wouldn't like the oranges because they were bitter sweet. I wonder if she knew about calamondines? My Cuban friends marinate pork loins in them. I make lemonade , cupcakes and cake out of them. They grow like weeds.

Made the first waffles, too. I love MKR's description of the correct waffle iron temperature, " smoking hot." Mine was. Yum.

A Calendar's Days are Numbered

Although I'm not in session until 1 October, I'm still eating quasi- Marjorie. Last week I tried an aspic. Yes, I know Julia C. scraped beef bones to make it jell, not moi. I open a tiny brown envelope of Knox. Not having any beef in the house for a decade makes a beef bone hard to come by.

Anyway, the aspic was cool and quivery. It was a gazpacho recipe that I have always loved. One that features summer time tomatoes , honey , whole lemons and a glug of red wine.With a slice of roast chicken and a two bite brownie, life was good.

I am reading Marjorie's letters again; the ones Gordon Biglow edited.I am struck by her " human habitation keeps a house standing." In an age of foreclosure, so many houses have been left with the doors swinging open.They don't seem alive anymore in the same way a loved one seems a stranger when the last breath goes.

Summer Time and the Living is....

The B&B has closed for the season. No more big breakfasts. Now I will just read her correspondence with Maxwell Perkins, her editor. What an incredible relationship they had.He knew how to honor her gift by asking just the right questions.

In her Nov. 4, 1931 letter she tells him about her fine stand of broccoli. I agree. Fla broccoli, even urban grown, is fine indeed. Last year I grew Goliath and fed the entire neighborhood. This year I am roasting the broccoli, carrots,and tiny potatoes in an olive oil rosemary mixture. 400 at 20 minutes. Yum.