"Cleora's Kitchens" (and her life)

     My day job demands rapport with dozens of people on a daily basis. The clientele is not inclusive and ranges widely - male and female, varied ages, races and nationalities. Religion and politics are not good subjects to broach when establishing or maintaining a friendly but business-like relationship with patrons; weather is mundane, and asking about health can open a voluble can of worms. I have found a topic that most adults are happy to discuss and that I enjoy. It entails a simple prompt, "I bet your mother was a good cook!" I may just get a basic list of meals or I may get something akin to a memoir. Either is enjoyable and folks seem to relax when they reminisce.

     Perhaps that is why I treasure this cookbook, Cleora's Kitchen, which is also a personal history of an amazing woman whose circumstances compelled her to be an accomplished culinarian. Because her culture and upbringing were so different from mine, I am fascinated (and awed) by her book. 

Sour Cream Cucumber Salad

     I don't believe there is any other side dish that so epitomizes summer, with the possible exception of a simple sliced tomato. In the morning of a day that promises to be a triple-digit steambath, it's time to head to the garden to pick a couple of favorites - cucumbers and dill. Because I usually share my dill with ravenous swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, and am happy to do so, I plant more than I need. The dill plants are amusing this year - the stormy month of June produced spindly stems that leaned and fell but then turned upward and continued to grow. And now in the early days of August that are hot and humid but continually rainless, the dill, and indeed the entire herb garden, thrives. On another day I will harvest more to dry and store but today only a small handful is needed. Placed in a small mortar, it is easy to use kitchen shears to snip the feathery leaves into small pieces. 

 

The cucumbers are peeled, sliced, layered and salted. After covering and refrigerating for an hour, the excess water is drained off so the salad will not become watery. A thinly sliced onion is added and then a simple dressing of sour cream, vinegar, sugar and dill. By dinner time, the creamy dressing and the crisp vegetables have melded into a mouthwatering accompaniement to a grilled steak. (A garnish of the fresh-cut dill adds visual appeal as well).

Girls and Pigtails

     A beloved little neighbor started playing softball this summer and her dad has been practicing with her on the sidewalk in front of their home. He showed me an endearing photo of the two of them discussing some fine point of the game and it immediately took me back fifty years - not the uniform or the glove or any sporting aspect but Makayla's two braids. Actually I don't remember back that far but a photo from the time shows my sister and my self at the kitchen sink; Mary is washing dishes while seated on a stool;  I am standing on a chair, dishtowel in hand, ready for drying duty. My hair has a slightly crooked center part and two braids, just like Makayla's. Two little girls - two generations apart, engrossed in two different occupations - share a timeless determination and a hairstyle.

The "Art of Fishing" or "Fishing Art"

     My son likes to joke that his portrait hangs in a most honored place - his parents' bathroom. And it's true that his likeness does preside there but not in any professionally posed manner. This darling shot of Michael and pint-sized Marissa, taken some seven years ago during a summer vacation, has always been a favorite of mine. The quiet togetherness, the shared love of nature and fishing, and even a similar stance in the water create a timeless image of father/daughter camaraderie. But instead of just enlarging and framing the photograph, I took it a step further. Because I wanted a decorative element for a smallish wall in the master bath that would add a splash of both forest and sage green, I ordered a "fake" magazine cover personalized with the treasured photograph. The matted and framed composition adds just the right punch of color to the (much used) room and never fails to make me smile.

BLT Salad

   It's tomato season - and a perfect little specimen like this was destined for something great. And bacon left over from breakfast had been chopped and saved for a main dish later in the day, so BLT salad became the entree on a recent August evening.

     The tomato was chopped and added with the bacon to fresh torn lettuce, cooked penne pasta and scallions. The salad was then tossed with a creamy dressing (mayonnaise, lemon juice, chili sauce and chicken bouillon granules) and allowed to sit in the refrigerator for an hour before serving to meld the flavors.

     At dinnertime, flaky biscuit dough was placed on a baking sheet and topped with shredded sharp Cheddar cheese. A handful of garlic chives from the garden was snipped into fine pieces and pressed atop the biscuits, flattening them slightly. Served right from the (toaster) oven, they were the perfect accompaniment to the chilled BLT salad - a cool meal on a hot summer night!

Handkerchief Art

     A collection of old handkerchiefs had been kept safely in Mom's closet for decades. One of them she carried on her wedding day so the little box of linens had a special significance to her. After redecorating her bedroom, she asked me if there wasn't a way to display the prettiest of the handkerchiefs. My first thought was to sew them onto throw pillows but after studying the new blue and pink flowered bed linens and curtains, the old but polished dark furniture, and the bare walls painted a slightly mauvey pink, I decided to create an intriguing pair of compositions to be hung as wall art. Blue linen from my scrap box was used as a background and the handkerchiefs (chosen for nostalgic reasons and for appropriate colors) were folded and arranged into geometric designs (it took several tries before I was happy with the layout!) Pressed and secured in place with small pieces of two-sided tape, the final products were placed behind glass in pretty white frames. The final products brighten the room and the delicate lace and embroidery lighten the atmosphere.

And More Peaches - Peach Amaretto Cakes

     The local farmers' market had lots of fresh produce to tempt us but none as much as these luscious peaches. Despite their very large size, they were perfectly ripened and sweetly juicy, and actually the size appealed to me because I intended to use them for cooking. After peeling and dicing, only two of the fruits were needed for the cake recipe I had chosen. Midway through mixing the ingredients I decided that because of the extreme heat of yesterday morning, cupcakes would be a more prudent choice - eighteen minutes of baking time versus an hour. (The record-setting heat wave that is broiling this pocket of the midwest has stymied all baking in my kitchen for quite awhile but the peaches inspired a defiance against common sense and a yearning to resume a favorite pastime.) Seconds and even thirds were requested by the dessert-eaters last night, and if I hadn't savored one straight from the oven earlier, a second would have been on my plate too!