summer

Jun

06

Jacaranda Blossoms & the Scent of Peaches

stories  Posted by / 2 comments

I’m home.  Back in Los Angeles where I belong and happy to be back amongst friends and familia.  I got here just in time too.  Summer, which to me means jacaranda blossoms and the scent of fresh peaches.

I had hoped to make it home while the jacarandas were still in full bloom.  I love those velvety, lavender flowers with the heady scent so much.  The air in L.A. Is redolent with them this time of year and the sweetness carries on the breeze.  In some areas, the streets are completely carpeted with fallen blossoms and each step from a pedestrian crushes them and increases the aroma.

My grandmother Lupe once told me that jacaranda flowers were good for headaches and so each year, faithfully I gather the blossoms, dry them and sew them into a little pillow by hand.  I’m not sure if sleeping on the dried, crushed flowers makes my headaches any less painful but it sure does smell good.

Summer is also the smell of peaches and memories of making peach pies with my Tia Luz who, even in her 90s would climb her own trees to gather the peaches for her famous pie.  She’s gone now too and I miss her but the scent of peaches always brings back the memory of her smile.

There is something so summery about the smell of peaches.  I walked into a market just yesterday and was assaulted by the delectable scent.  It tickles my nose, makes my mouth water and beckons with promises of rich juice dribbling down my chin, sticky fingers as I slice them for pie and tantalizes me with lust for warm, flaky crust.  Yeah, I’m so making pie next week.

The first peaches of the season though are to be eaten fresh and cold.  My grandmother would wash them carefully, making sure all the fuzz was gone before patting them dry and putting them in the fridge to chill.  There was nothing better than those icy cold peaches, big and juicy.  The smell of them was intoxicating and still is; the taste, even better.  When I bite into a ripe peach now I am transported and am back in that little kitchen on Goodwin Avenue watching my grandmother and great-aunt make pies or out on the patio with my grandparents watching my grandmother slice pieces of ripe peach and hand them to me to eat.

Peaches were just the beginning and their heavy scent whispered to me about other fruits of summer: cherries, plums, apricots – they all beckon but the peaches say summer most of all.

Jan

24

Aiden’s Midnight Fig Jam

family recipes  Posted by / 2 comments

Frigidaire and Jennifer Garner are teaming up to inspire families everywhere to roll up their sleeves and get cooking together. Starting today, people can join in the Frigidaire Kids’ Cooking Academy ( www.maketimeforchange.com) to get great recipes, how-to videos and tips, all designed to help involve kids in the kitchen.

My kid-friendly recipe is one for a fig jam I made this summer with my grandchildren on a hot night when we couldn’t sleep for the heat.  It was tons of fun making it and I love the idea that every or every post submitted, Foodbuzz and Frigidaire will donate $50 to Save the Children.

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It’s 12:45 a.m after one of the hottest days of summer.  It was 105 degrees!

The grandkids who are visiting for this week can’t sleep, house is too hot and my a/c wall unit is icing over.  What to do, what to do?  In the fridge was a massive bowl of the past two days harvest of figs from our tree just begging me to do something with but it’s been too darned hot.  I took an almost midnight shower and came out to two small children that were hot, grumpy, tired and in need of something, anything to do to get them to relax enough to sleep.  I went to the fridge, saw that big bowl of figs and remembered the jam I had been intending to make.  “Who wants to have a midnight jam session?” I asked the kids.  “We do!”

I had had an idea in mind on how to make my jam, an older recipe that called for cinnamon, lemon rind, fresh figs and sugar but whenever the kids help me cook, things change.  I really like letting them improvise and find their way around my kitchen.  We discuss flavors and ideas all the time.  They’ve been cooking with me since before I started Dona Lupe’s so I’ve learned to trust them the way they trust in me.

Insomniac grandkids

Aiden took charge of this jam session.  He just turned five on Friday the 20th and was in a very assertive mood.  He handed me a bottle of caraway seed and said, “Grammy use this, it almost smells like figs.”  Into the simmering cinnamon and water it went.  What the heck, how bad could it be?  I searched for lemons but we were out and being midnight by now, we were out of luck with a store.  David suggested the rice vinegar in the pantry for a little acidity and it made sense to me so I added it.  This was so not the jam I had planned on but as we all took turns chopping figs and adding them to the pot, the kitchen was starting to smell amazing.

Chop, chop, chop

Once the figs were all in the pot, Aiden handed me a jar.  Surprised, I looked down at a square box of chili powder from the Indian store I frequent in Los Feliz.  “Put some of that in Grammy” he said seriously.  I nodded and added about two tablespoons, stirred it in with crossed fingers and tasted.  Oh. My. God.  That was some amazing jam!  Things happen in midnight jam sessions, things you’d never expect but surprisingly sweet and good.

Jam!

We’re going on 1:00 a.m. now and the kids are drifting off to sleep while Aiden’s Midnight Fig Jam is slowly simmering on the stove.  When he wakes tomorrow there will be toast smeared with his jam and the day, however hot it turns out to be will keep that spicy sweetness.

Aiden’s Midnight Fig Jam

5 lbs of fresh figs, washed, trimmed and chopped roughly
3 c. Sugar
1 cinnamon stick
3 c. of water
Pinch caraway seeds
4 tablespoons of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of dark red chili powder

Set a large pot with the water and cinnamon stick to boil, then bring to a slow simmer.

Trim off the points and ends of the figs and rough chop them.  Add the caraway seeds to the simmering cinnamon water, the sugar and rice vinegar.  Stir until well blended.

Add the chopped figs, the chili powder and stir slowly.  Let simmer for two hours till well thickened, stirring frequently so the sugar doesn’t burn and stick to the bottom of your pot.

Remove the cinnamon stick, let cool and store in Mason jars using proper canning techniques.

Best cooked at midnight to the strains of Luciano Pavaroti (you know we had to listen to Figaro), Lauryn Hill and Trio Los Panchos.  Insomniac grandchildren optional.

Aug

13

Isis’ Impromptu Tea Party

parties  Posted by / 1 comments

Lavender & Mint Tea Cakes

Isis is here.  Isis Lucia is my son Phillip’s four year old daughter and she lives in San Diego with her mom.  I rarely get to see her but last night Phillip brought her over to spend the weekend so we’re pretty excited.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the LLANTO.  Llanto is Spanish for a whole lotta crying.  Isis can cry at the drop of a hat.  Phillip is great with her, but boy can she cry.

Don't let this happy face fool you, she can beat Niobe at crying.

This afternoon while we were waiting for Jasmine and Aiden to arrive and hopefully distract Isis from crying she dissolved into tears again.  Phillip was pulling out all the stops to get her to quit but nothing was working.  So Grammy (me), nursing a bad migraine opened my big mouth and said, “Isis want to make cake?”  Instant smile.

Isis surveys her new domain from lofty heights

I scanned my pantry and couldn’t find what I needed to make cake but I did find one Duncan Hines box of white cake mix left behind by an old roommate.  Bingo.  Isis and I whipped up a boxed cake which I doctored with a little bourbon vanilla and buttermilk.  I rummaged in the fridge and found butter as well as a lemon.  Yay!  Buttercream in the making.  I whipped together butter and confectioners sugar with Isis wide eyed and happy wondering what I was doing.  I explained about buttercream while adding just a bit of buttermilk to make it extra creamy.  I showed her how to zest a lemon and that a little vanilla makes everything taste just a bit better.  She helped me squeeze lemon juice and add it to the buttercream, then tasted it and nodded approvingly. I think Grammy made points today.

They didn't want tea but grape soda went well

The cake was in the oven and the lemon buttercream in the fridge when she started crying again.  My head throbbed.  Phillip looked desperate.  I IM’d Marissa to please hurry over with the cousins and got the reply back OMW.  The tears were still going and I scanned the yard looking, thinking and saw the little pink and white plastic table.  “Isis want to throw a tea party for your cousins?”  Crying stopped, she looks up and asks, “tea party?”  I nod carefully, trying not to cause ripples in the migraine.  “Si!” she chirps.

So now I have a tea party to pull out of um…somewhere.

Jasmine and Isis comadreando at the tea party

I take the now done cake out of the oven cut it into petit four type rectangles, top it with a blob of lemon buttercream, decorate with lavender and mint from the garden, set the table quickly, find grape soda and some straws and just before she hits the internal Cry button one more time, Jasmine and Aiden walk in the door with presents for their cousin.  Tea party success!  Everyone enjoyed it and even Ozzy got a slice of cake (well he ate the buttercream right off it, Ozzy is a sucker for butter even when I pollute it with lemon).

Let him eat cake!

It’s been two hours and still no llanto.  She’s too distracted with cousins, jumping on the bed, the trampoline, running with the dog and Jasmine who is the social director of the cousins.  Thank God.  Fingers crossed, hope it lasts.

Even the big boys come to our tea parties