Tea and Travels

Hawaii has a long-standing tradition of throwing huge parties to celebrate the first-year anniversary of a baby’s birth. A celebration of this kind is referred to as a Baby Luau. Other indigenous cultures have similar traditions, based no doubt on the high infant mortality rate among earlier, pre-modern generations. If a child survived the various medical, environmental and social perils lurking in his or her first year of life, this was indeed cause for celebration and a good indicator that the child may even thrive into adulthood.
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​This tradition is alive and well in Hawaii today, and we have been fortunate enough to have been invited to a few of these mega-parties. Usually Baby Luaus are held at beach parks and involve copious amounts of Hawaiian food, games and bounce houses for the keiki (the Hawaiian word for children,) and plenty of beer for the grownups. 

For a quick refresher on the basics of Hawaiian cuisine, I invite you to visit “A Hawaiian Afternoon Tea” in the World of Tea Parties section of myteaplanner.com. Here you will find an introduction to Spam Musubi, Poke, Kalua Pig, Edamame and Haupia, perennial favorites at every Hawaiian gathering. There are also suggestions for expanding the Hawaiian Tea Menu into a larger group event such as an Easter Brunch or a Graduation Party. These suggestions, of course, can also be applied to a Baby Luau.
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​Although the baby is the star of the show, a Baby Luau is not just about the baby. Since the one-year-old herself has little awareness of what is actually going on at this gathering, other than a feeling of happiness at recognizing her grandparents and other familiar family members, a Baby Luau is really a community event, a time for the entire extended family, along with friends, neighbors and co-workers, to express gratitude for a new life among them and for the continuing cycle of life in the world around them. 
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​Wayne and I recently had the privilege of co-hosting a Baby Luau for our little friend Willa, along with her parents, Diana and Francis Blanco, at our beach home in windward Oahu. The festivities included a wading pool for the younger children, the beach itself for the older keiki and the grownups and a basketball hoop on the grass, accompanied by old-time rock and roll courtesy of Alexa. The menu featured the ever-popular Poke (marinated raw fish cubes,) and Edamame (spiced, cooked soy beans in their pods,) but Willa’s mother, Diana, opted for a more health-conscious contemporary menu while still offering foods that children love. Willa’s Dad, Francis, manned the outdoor barbecue, and everyone was happy. Here is a sampling of what we ate:
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​            Fresh Vegetables and Cheese Cubes with Ranch Dip
            Pretzels and Chips with Cheese Dip
            Fresh Fruit Salad (Pineapple, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Grapes and Bananas)
            Caesar Salad
            Potato and Crab Salad
            Irish Soda Bread with Cream Cheese and Apple Butter
            Barbecue Baked Beans
            Hamburgers and Hotdogs with Buns
            Grilled Marinated Chicken Legs
            Grilled Marinated Steak
            Marinated Vegetable Kabobs, some with Shrimp, some with Steak Cubes
 

​After plenty of feasting with many visits back to the food tables for seconds and thirds, the guests were delighted by the arrival of the Shave Ice and Ice Cream truck. This welcome husband and wife team parked at the gate and dispensed bowls of ice cream topped with shave ice in any flavor or combination the recipient might fancy. I noticed that the adults were just as thrilled with the Shave Ice truck as the children were, but they did wait politely until all the children were served.
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Birthday Cake followed quickly after the Shave Ice. With my passion for baking cakes, I was eager to volunteer for this task, and I couldn’t stop at just one Birthday Cake. I offered three choices: Three-Layer Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with Fudge Icing, Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze and Blueberries and Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. I was pleased that several of the guests sampled all three. We served the cake, lighted the birthday candle and sang “Happy Birthday” indoors to avoid melted icing in the sunshine, a peril of baking layer cakes in Hawaii.
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​​For those of you unfamiliar with Hummingbird Cake, it is a lightly spiced cake made with chopped rather than mashed bananas, crushed pineapple and chopped nuts. In the American South, Hummingbird Cake is made with toasted pecans, but I chose chopped toasted macadamia nuts for our Hawaiian Baby Luau. And I used Hawaiian Apple Bananas grown in my neighbors’ back yard. You can find a discussion and recipe for Hummingbird Cake in the Afternoon Tea for a Large Group section of myteaplanner.com. 
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With the exception of the store-bought Poke and Edamame, all the food at Willa’s Baby Luau was homemade, either prepared by Diana, Francis, Wayne or me. In our blogs and on our website, Kathleen and I are fearless proponents of homemade food at social gatherings. With planning, cooperation and teamwork, friends and family members can make a special occasion even more special by donating our time, creativity, hard work and love. For courageous home cooks, we even feature a home-prepared Wedding Reception menu, including a homemade Wedding Cake, on our website, complete with timeline, planning guide, grocery and equipment  lists and division of tasks for a small group. At Willa’s Baby Luau, in addition to our four-person food preparation team, other friends arrived early to help with decorating or stayed late to assist with the clean-up.

​When we work together as friends, we learn so much about the gifts and talents of others. I was intrigued by the very tasty Potato and Crab Salad made by Willa’s mother, Diana. With the inclusion of crab and frozen green peas, it is quite different from any potato salad I had ever made. Diana told me that a less expensive version of this Hawaiian favorite can be made with imitation crab, readily available at local grocery stores and fish markets. This product, sometimes called Surimi, is made of ground white fish with flavorings added to simulate the taste of crab. Critics point out that Surimi is much less nutritious than crab, but it is certainly less costly, has a good flavor and texture and does not require cracking and picking over the crab legs. I will share Diana’s delicious recipe, and you can decide which form of “crab” to include in your Potato and Crab Salad.

Potato and Crab Salad
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​This delicious party favorite includes only a small number of ingredients and can be made a day early and refrigerated. Also, the proportions of the ingredients can be adjusted according to your own preferences. If your family loves mayonnaise, feel free to double the amount listed in this recipe. The same goes for the olives, peas and all of the other items included in this potato salad. This recipe will feed about twenty as a side dish, but you can double it for an even larger group.
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• 5 pounds of russet potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks and boiled until tender (about 20 minutes)
• 12 large eggs, boiled, peeled and chopped
• 1 pound of imitation crab (or fresh crab, boiled, shelled and picked over)
• 1 (one pound) package frozen petit peas, thawed
• 1 (fifteen ounce) can pitted black olives, drained and sliced
• 1-2 cups mayonnaise
• salt and pepper to taste

 
to serve:

• paprika
• chopped flat leaf parsley

 
Makes: about 20 servings
 
Special equipment: 2 large pots for boiling the potatoes and eggs, paring knife, large spoon for mixing, extra large mixing bowl, large attractive serving bowl

1. Boil the eggs and refrigerate them in an ice bath. Peel, chop and boil the potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside to cool. While the potatoes cool, peel and chop the eggs, thaw the peas and slice the olives.
2. Assemble all of the prepared ingredients in an extra large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the imitation crab and mayonnaise. Start with 1 cup of mayonnaise, stir and add more if you want a creamier texture.
3. Arrange the salad in a large attractive serving bowl. Sprinkle the top with paprika. Then sprinkle chopped flat leaf parsley decoratively around the outside edge of the salad. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

​For nearly sixty years, Cuba, a very close neighbor of the United States, has been a mysterious forbidden island which no American has been allowed to visit. And through the decades, because of the American trade embargo, Cuba became lost in time, free from all the trendy products that accompanied the invention of the computer, and utterly unscathed by American pop culture. During this interim, in spite of an economy of scarcity, Cuba’s own culture has thrived. 
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​Since the death of Fidel Castro in 2016, his brother Raul has headed the Cuban government, and the animosity between Cuba and the U.S. has softened. It is now possible for Americans to obtain person-to-person cultural exchange visas to visit Cuba, and cruise ships and tour companies are happy to provide a stream of American tourists eager to learn about this ancient island, visited by Christopher Columbus back in 1492.
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​We were pleased to have the opportunity recently to cruise to Cuba from Miami and tour this beautiful island, filled with friendly, healthy and well-educated people eager to share their way of life with us. 
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​After two stormy days at sea, we anchored in the Bay of Cienfuegos, and took a tender ashore for our first look at Cuba. Cienfuegos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its Spanish Colonial Neoclassical architecture with domed, brightly painted buildings and New Orleans style wrought iron upstairs balconies. Also in the Neoclassical tradition, the city itself is laid out in a neat symmetrical grid with all the streets parallel or perpendicular to each other. One striking blue building on the corner of the central square has a high dome that provides a view of the harbor. Sadly, it and all the other buildings in the city are in disrepair. 
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​Fidel Castro’s government chose to emphasize health care, education and the arts over building maintenance and transportation. Today, Cuba has the highest literacy rate in the world with free education for all citizens, including access to advanced university degrees for those who wish to pursue higher education. Cuba also provides free health care for everyone, and has a very high ratio of doctors per capita. The government also actively supports the arts. Ironically, while Cuba is a poor country viewed by most Americans as part of the Third World, its citizens enjoy quality of life through excellent education, good health and access to music, dance and the visual arts. Perhaps someday, Cuba will also be able to afford to repair and renovate the beautiful buildings of Cienfuegos.
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​Cienfuegos is a relatively young city—only two hundred years old. It was founded by French speakers from Louisiana, hence the New Orleans-style wrought iron architectural embellishments. As we toured this dilapidated and fading colonial town, we did not see a lot of other tourists around the central square, which was comprised of an old church, a city hall, a museum and a government-run cigar store. The side streets were filled with local entrepreneurs selling predictable souvenirs—Che Guevara tee shirts, Fidel Castro hats, wooden bead necklaces, maracas, baseball bats and little wooden models of old Chevrolets. 
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​Indeed, the “antique” Chevrolets, for which Cuba is now famous, were readily available to hire as taxi cabs. These classic automobiles, reminders of the pre-revolutionary days when Cuba was a playground for wealthy Americans and mafiosos, have been lovingly maintained by their owners who have inherited them from their fathers and grandfathers. Because of the embargo, Cubans cannot obtain American auto parts, and Cuban mechanics have become remarkably inventive in finding ways to keep these old cars running and in good repair. 
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​Most Cubans do not own cars, and horse carts are still widely used as a form of transport. Hitchhiking, and just standing around at the side of the road hoping to get a ride are daily realities for Cubans. Still, there was a cheerfulness about the Cubans we met and a genuine kindness and hospitality in their interactions with us. Also, we saw no beggars or homeless people in Cienfuegos, or anywhere else we visited in Cuba.
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​Our time in Cienfuegos was spent on a “Local Culture” tour, which turned out to be a delight. We visited a local public school (there are no private schools in Cuba,) where the curriculum focuses both on general education and the arts. Like all of the other buildings in Cienfuegos, the school was old, beat up and very dilapidated, but the students and teachers were smart, lively and competent. The children had been specially recruited from other schools because of their potential in either dance, music or visual art. We visited a class of ten-year-olds who were being coached by their dance teacher in a very rigorous workout of yoga-like floor exercises that included doing the splits while placing their entire upper bodies flat on the floor, then moving on to many additional difficult postures in quick succession. Then the children did a spontaneous free-form dance based on the teacher’s oral cues. Each child improvised being a seed growing up out of the earth into a tree and then returning to the earth. I was quite impressed by the children’s skill, fitness level and creativity.
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​We also listened to solo music performances by two high school girls who played very skillfully, one on the saxophone and another on the violin. Then we visited the drawing and painting classroom where several art teachers were present. They are government certificated artists as well as teachers and are thus allowed to sell their art to tourists, though they were not at all pushy about it. Some of the work by both the students and the teachers, especially the classical style portraits, was very impressive.
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After our visit to the school, we returned to the museum on the central square for a performance by the Cienfuegos adult professional choir. They sang beautifully a cappella, sometimes accompanied by traditional percussion instruments such as cowbells, miniature maracas, rhythm sticks, etc. The arrangements and rhythms were intricate and very creative. Each piece included solos by various members of the eleven-woman and seven-man choir, so that individual voices as well as group harmonies were highlighted. The director, a lively young woman named Honey Moreira, introduced each piece in excellent English.

The choir’s repertoire featured amazing variety, reflective of the diverse cultural influences in Cuban history and contemporary life. They sang African-inspired pieces, Cuban folk songs, an Argentinian composition, a Desi Arnaz song, and even an American gospel song in English, “Let’s Go Down to the River to Pray.” I loved every moment of the performance, and we bought a CD and a DVD. Though this is a government supported municipal choir, the members must do their own fundraising to support their travel expenses when they perform in other cities and even in other countries.
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​The next phase of our Cuban adventure included a road trip through the lush tropical countryside on our way to Havana. Along the bumpy road, we saw farmers at work tending their small farms with yards filled with dogs, chickens and goats and fields of beans and sugarcane. There were many horse carts and even teams of oxen pulling wagons. We saw no heavy farm equipment, not even a lawn mower to cut the weeds threatening to take over the narrow road.
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As we approached Havana, larger and larger crowds of people were standing along the side of the road, apparently hoping to get a ride into the city for work. There were even some government officials among them, stopping cars and asking the drivers to take a few people along with them. Clearly, transportation is a challenge which Raul Castro or his successor will need to address.
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​Havana was founded by the Spanish conquistador, Diego Velazquez de Cuellar in 1515 after Christopher Columbus “discovered” the island of Cuba in his efforts to travel to India. The island was then inhabited by the Taino, a subgroup of the Arawak, indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida. Unfortunately, the well organized and inventive Taino succumbed to diseases introduced by the Spanish, notably smallpox. When the Spanish realized that Cuba, unlike Mexico, lacked rich deposits of gold, silver and precious jewels, the island was used by the conquistadors as a shipping and transport hub as well as a strategic defense against pirates and other European invaders. Sadly, Cuba’s economy came to rely on slaves imported from Africa to work on the sugar cane and coffee plantations. The first slaves were brought to Cuba in 1513, and slavery was not abolished until 1886. In the government-operated stores we visited in Havana, rum, cigars and coffee still appear to be Cuba’s primary retail products.
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​As a Spanish colonial city, Havana’s architecture reflects its complex history. We visited El Morro, also referred to as Morro Castle. Built in 1640, El Morro is a fortress designed to protect Havana Harbor from European enemies such as the Dutch and the British.  It is named after the three Biblical magi, and its official name is Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro. This huge stone edifice and lighthouse was designed by the Italian engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli and built by slaves using the rocks extracted from the moats that surround the castle.
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Another Spanish colonial marvel is the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, located in the central plaza of Old Havana over the remains of an older church. Built by the Jesuits in 1748, from blocks of coral extracted from the Gulf of Mexico, this lovely old church is considered one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in Cuba. The ornate exterior features two asymmetrical bell towers while the interior, with its black and white marble floors, is decorated in a simpler, more Neoclassical style. While the government of Cuba has an ambiguous relationship with religion, this church still functions as the cathedral for the Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana. The last three Popes have all visited Cuba, and as we toured the interior, I noticed a newish statue of Pope John Paul II, now canonized as a Saint.
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​While in Havana, we ate at both a paradar, (a privately-owned restaurant,) and a government-run restaurant. Both served roasted chicken with rice and beans followed by good espresso- style Cuban coffee. The family-run paradar is one of many such entrepreneurial ventures now being encouraged by Raul Castro. We found the food fresh and well prepared and the service friendly. Fresh vegetables, notably wonderful farm grown tomatoes, were also on the menu, with a very nice flan for dessert. 
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​The large government-run restaurant probably better reflected the diet of everyday Cubans. To the accompaniment of a live band playing Cuban music, we were served roasted chicken, black beans and rice, fried plantain chips and coconut ice cream, accompanied by coffee with no milk or sugar on the table. I suspect that many Cubans are eating primarily the black beans and rice portion of this menu, and while this may seem to some visitors to be a rather sparse meal, I fell in love with Cuban black beans and rice and share a recipe with you at the end of this blog.
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​On our final evening in Havana, we took a trip back in time to visit to the cabaret show at the Tropicana Club, still entertaining fun seekers since 1939. We arrived in style in the back seat of a 1958 Edsel convertible taxi, painted metallic purple with purple streamers flying from the back antenna. We entered the lush tropical gardens surrounding this outdoor night club under the stars with table seating at various levels circled by old banyan trees. Upon arrival, each gentleman was handed a cigar, and each lady received a long-stemmed red carnation. Every table of four was served bowls of peanuts, glasses of champagne and a full bottle of rum, just to get the party started.
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The show was very loud, colorful, glittery, and spectacular, with non-stop vocal music, dancing and frenetic Cuban instrumental music accompanied by relentless local percussion instruments. There was a large troop of chorus girls, obviously selected to look identical, as they all had the same long-legged slender figures and wore identical lavishly colored costumes, all with glittering, elaborately tall headdresses.  Each song and dance sequence lasted only a few minutes, then segued into another song and dance with different costumes in different colors, all very bright and sparkly—red, yellow and orange—and the headdresses also changed, from huge piles of glittering artificial fruit to flowers and even palm trees, one swaying on top of each dancer’s head.
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The music and rhythms never stopped, and the central apron-style stage was surrounded on higher levels with smaller stages connected by glass stairways so the dancers and singers could move up and down, creating constant motion throughout the performance. There was a small elevated stage just above our table, and there were similar little platforms everywhere throughout the large venue, so everyone could see the dancers and their elaborate costumes close up. The dancers and singers were all very talented, including the male dancers, who also changed colorful costumes and were obviously trained in classical ballet as well as Cuban folkloric dance. I wondered if the little boys and girls we saw at the art school dance class in Cienfuegos would eventually end up at the Tropicana.
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At about 11:30 PM, it started raining and the show stopped. Many members of the audience left, but we stayed, and eventually the rain subsided, men came out to mop the water off the stage and the show resumed. We were glad we stayed, as the “guest stars” came out, a group of opera singers, six men and one woman called “Los Classicos.” They sang some beautiful arias, including “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot in gorgeous arrangements. All the voices were spectacular, including a counter-tenor who sang a lovely aria with the soprano.
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The grand finale brought the entire cast of dancers, singers and rhythmic musicians back, once again in a new set of even more elaborate and sparkling costumes. The final song and dance sequence seemed to go on forever, with the dancers descending into the audience and dancing with the now drunken guests. The damp night had gotten chilly, the cigar smoke oppressive, and I started to feel a bit queasy, a victim, I fear, of sensory assault and too much of a good thing. When the loud, relentless rhythms and visual and auditory overload finally came to an end, I heard someone say that the next performance, “Even better than the first,” was about to begin at midnight.
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​We took the southern route back to the ship through coastal farmland and long swampy beaches covered with tropical vegetation. In this very rustic area, we saw small farms, many homes with thatched roofs, fewer cars and more domestic animals, especially cattle, chickens, goats and horses, many of which were pulling carts. On the potholed country road, farmers had laid out their rice crop, so the passing cars could winnow the grain by driving over it. I was impressed by one more example of Cuban ingenuity in the face of perennial scarcity.
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Our destination was the Bay of Pigs and a visit to the small museum commemorating this embarrassing moment in American diplomatic history and glorious victory for a group of very young Cuban revolutionaries. In April of 1961, during President Kennedy’s administration, a group of Cuban American expatriates colluded with the CIA to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army. The invasion failed, and the result was to solidify Fidel’s power and create a new set of idealistic Cuban heroes, including Che Guevara.
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The museum is small and modest with displays of the weapons, uniforms, personal effects and photographs of the young revolutionaries. One young man, who died of gunshot wounds during the battle, wrote, “Fidel” in his own blood on a wall just before his last breath. There were numerous photographs of him, as this is just the sort of romantic narrative that winners of a battle like to seize upon. It reminded me a bit of some of the monuments of the American Revolution that we had visited in Boston.
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​I left the museum with the very strong impression that our visit to the Bay of Pigs was high on the government’s agenda as part of our person-to-person cultural exchange with Cuba. Sadly, the dramatic story of the young man who died a martyr for his country, and even the brave exploits of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara described at the museum, will be pretty much lost on American visitors, as all of the descriptions of the artifacts and photographs were written in Spanish only. I am grateful to Miss Basile, my high school Spanish teacher, who taught me enough Spanish to find my way around a museum.
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​I believe that our trip to Cuba came at a tipping point with Cuba on the verge of momentous changes. The Cubans seem to be very pleased that President Obama visited Cuba and hopeful for an end to the embargo on goods traveling between Cuba and America. Cubans seem to be eager to embrace a more modern lifestyle, especially through internet technology. I believe that the Cuban people are our friends, and in general they appear to be happy, healthy and profoundly decent in the old-fashioned sense of that word. I wish them well.
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​March Reminders:
 

Easter is not in March this year. It’s on April 1, but you should start planning your Easter or Passover feast now. Our Easter Tea in the April calendar section of our website is filled with ideas for a very special Easter, including Hot Cross Buns, Cherry Scones and Kathleen’s elegant Panna Cottas with Raspberry Coulis.
 
The entire month of March takes place during Lent this year. If you have given up meat or just want to simplify during this time of quiet reflection and service to others, our Vegan Tea in the Special Occasion section of our website might be perfect for you. I also recommend the following recipe for Cuban Black Beans and Rice, which can be made as a healthy and purely vegan dish.

Black Beans and Rice, along with plantains, are the staples of Cuban cuisine. Cuban farmers also produce citrus fruits, cassavas, garden vegetables, dairy products, chicken, pork and beef. Black Beans and Rice can be made without meat, or with the addition of ham hocks or bacon. The vegetarian version would make a simple and lovely meal served with a green salad filled with fresh tomatoes.
 
One can produce bean soup by throwing beans in a pot with water and a few spices, but I recommend the Spanish and Latin American approach used to create very flavorful Cuban style Black Beans. In this technique, the beans are cooked in a big pot with chicken or vegetable broth while the Sofrito, or vegetable and spice mixture, is sautéed in a skillet and then added to the beans. This mixture includes a jalapeno. Handle the jalapeno with disposable gloves, and do not remove the seeds if you want a spicy flavor. Also, add more than the four garlic cloves called for in this recipe if you really love garlic. Opinions vary as to whether the black beans should be soaked before cooking them. I chose to soak mine, and the result was delicious and very similar to the Black Beans and Rice we enjoyed so much in Cuba.

Special equipment: large cooking pot or Dutch oven with lid, skillet, rice cooker or medium sized cooking pot with lid, large wooden spoon for stirring, paring knife, disposable gloves for handling the jalapeno, large ladle for serving.
 
 
Makes: approximately 8-10 servings
 

​Prepare the Beans:

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, sort the beans to remove any impurities, rinse them and soak them in 6-8 cups of water for 8-12 hours. Start this process the night before you intend to cook the beans. (Alternatively, use the 1 hour quick soak method described on the package.)
2. Pour out and discard the soaking water and rinse the beans. Add the broth, salt and ham hock or bacon if using. Bring to a boil on medium high heat. Then simmer on low, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for about 1 ½-2 hours. Add water if the beans start to become dry.

 
Prepare the Sofrito:

While the beans cook, heat the olive oil on medium and add the chopped onion and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the chopped bell pepper, jalapeno and bay leaves. Continue to cook, stirring, until the vegetables are almost caramelized, about another 10 minutes.

1. Turn the heat to low and add the black pepper, oregano, and cumin. Cook and stir for about 2-3 minutes to meld the flavors, and add the Sofrito to the pot of beans after the beans have been cooking for about 1 hour. Scrape the bottom of the skillet to include all the spices and bits of cooked vegetables. Stir in the vinegar and sugar.
2. Stir the pot and continue to simmer for another 20-30 minutes while you prepare the rice. The timing can be somewhat flexible when finishing the beans, but stir occasionally.

 
Prepare the Rice:

1. Follow the instructions on the package for making rice, or use a rice cooker. To make rice in a pot on the stove, add 2 cups of uncooked rice to the pot and rinse to remove any dust or debris. Drain off all the rinse water and add 4 cups of fresh cold water. (I never add salt or butter when cooking rice.)
2. Bring the rice to a boil over medium high heat, stirring once or twice. Cover and reduce the heat to low; simmer for 20-25 minutes without removing the lid.
3. Turn off the heat, remove the pot from the burner, and continue to steam for about 10 minutes without removing the lid. When ready to serve, remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork.
4. To serve Black Beans and Rice, place about half a cup of cooked rice in each bowl and ladle a generous amount of cooked black beans over the rice. Enjoy immediately.

 

In elementary school, geography was my favorite subject. I loved maps and globes and stories about faraway places. One of the locations that intrigued me most was Nova Scotia, a remote, windswept peninsula jutting off the eastern coast of Canada into the wild, stormy Atlantic. At least that is how I imagined this distant magical world from my childhood vantage point in the American west. When at last my husband Wayne and I had the opportunity to cruise down the St. Lawrence River from Montreal to Boston and on to New York City, I eagerly anticipated our time in Nova Scotia.
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My interest in our visit to this maritime province was heightened by the fact that our neighbors in rural Hawaii, the artist Ian Taylor and his wife and childhood friend, Lynn Donovan, are natives of Nova Scotia. They were happy to fill us in on places we needed to visit and local foods to try. We were fortunate in finding Garry Jollymore, a friendly and knowledgeable guide who was willing to sacrifice part of Canadian Thanksgiving to drive us around Halifax and its environs on a private tour. As we discovered, Garry’s knowledge and enthusiasm about Nova Scotia was truly inspirational.
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​Garry then drove us to Halifax’s most famous historic site, the Citadel, a British fortification high on a hill above the harbor. First established in 1749 by Cornwallis, the Citadel was added to in subsequent decades to protect the city during various military actions, including the Seven Years’ War with the French, the American Revolutionary war, and the War of 1812. In 1803, the imposing Town Clock was constructed on the eastern slope of Citadel Hill and keeps time for the city of Halifax today.
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We also passed through the quaint lobster fishing villages of East Dover and West Dover filled with pretty wooden houses, freshly painted, and lobster traps stacked up in the yards. The sight of all those lobster traps reminded us that it was lunch time. Wayne and I had done plenty of reading about the famous Atlantic lobster rolls, but as people whose lives have been oriented toward the Pacific, we had never eaten a genuine fresh east coast lobster roll. We asked Garry for advice, and he was happy to recommend Rhubarb (rhubarbrestaurant.ca.) We knew that the roll was almost as important as the lobster, and Garry assured us that at Rhubarb, they bake their own rolls. Rhubarb is a pleasant, informal place that specializes, not surprisingly, in sea food and baked goods.
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​At Rhubarb, we ate our very first lobster rolls, and they were everything we dreamed they would be. The rolls were very fresh fat rectangles, toasted and buttered, and the lobster filling, piled on top, was divine. It consisted of huge chunks of fresh lobster with small pieces of chopped celery and green onion bound together with mayonnaise with a small serving of coleslaw on the side.  We gilded the lily by ordering steaming bowls of fish chowder to eat with our lobster rolls. The soup was brimming with big chunks of haddock, salmon, more lobster and clams in the shell. We topped this memorable meal off with pieces of very moist rhubarb cake, almost like bread pudding, with vanilla ice cream.
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Our final adventure in rural Nova Scotia was a visit to a little shop called Acadian Maple Products near Peggy’s Cove. (acadianmaple.com, 1378 Peggy’s Cove Road, Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia, 1-902-826-2312.)  This very local establishment sells all kinds of maple products, many of which are made on the premises. We sampled various flavors of maple fudge and bought bottles of maple syrup to take home. We also purchased a box of maple sandwich cookies shaped like maple leaves and filled with maple cream. They were delicious, and we later regretted not buying a few extra boxes to share with friends. I noticed that Garry bought two boxes to share with his family for their Canadian Thanksgiving celebration.
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We will remember Nova Scotia as a very traditional place filled with lovely gardens, striking architecture, exquisite natural landscapes and polite and welcoming people. To keep these memories alive, I am happy to share the recipe for Maple Shortbread Cookies. These would be perfect in any season to serve at Afternoon Tea, or since we celebrate Valentine’s Day in February, you can make them in heart shapes with a cookie cutter and even tint them pink and sprinkle some red or pink sugar crystals on top, though to be truthful, Maple Shortbread Cookies need no decoration. For even more ideas for Valentine’s Day treats this year, we recommend The Valentine’s Day Tea in the February calendar section of myteaplanner.com.
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​Shortbread cookies are easy to make, and good recipes abound on line and in cook books. Traditionally, this Scottish classic contains only three ingredients—butter, sugar and flour. Our own website, myteaplanner.com, contains numerous Shortbread recipes, from Kona Coffee Shortbread to Black Sesame Shortbread to Chocolate Shortbread Petticoat Tails to Shortbread Shamrock Cookies. It is easy to find Maple Shortbread recipes on other websites. King Arthur Flour has an excellent recipe for Maple Shortbread using pure maple sugar. Here I share a very simple recipe adapted from allrecipes.com that calls for maple syrup rather than maple sugar. I cannot guarantee that these Shortbread Cookies will be as good and Mrs. MacGregor’s, but I think you will enjoy them.
 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup pure maple syrup
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
demerara sugar for sprinkling (optional)
 
Preheat oven to 350°F
 
Special equipment: large mixing bowl, hand held electric mixer, rubber spatula, medium sized mixing bowl, sieve or flour sifter, large cookie sheet, parchment paper, offset spatula, wire rack
 
Makes: about 2 dozen cookies

1. Sift the flour and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and maple syrup together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.
3. Form the dough into walnut sized balls and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten gently with an offset spatula and sprinkle the tops with demerara sugar if desired.
4. Bake 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Serve immediately or store in an air-tight container between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.

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​Like Chaucer’s pilgrims, we “Longed to go on pilgrimage,” not to Canterbury, but to Canada, to marvel at the glorious autumn foliage in the eastern provinces. So last October, we made our way to Montreal to begin our explorations in the hospitable, French-speaking province of Quebec, the starting point of our adventure down the St. Lawrence River and beyond. 
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​While viewing the fall foliage was our primary goal, we discovered many historic, natural, cultural and culinary delights along the way. Among these wonders was Montreal’s magnificent, neo-gothic Notre Dame Cathedral, with its huge organ, exquisite stained glass windows and elaborately decorated ceiling with stars and Fleur de Lis in very French blue.
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​Old Quebec City was another wonder.  We were transported to medieval France as we wandered on cobblestones among the lovely old brick and stone homes and copper roofed French style chateaux, including the massive Chateau Frontinac, now a Fairmont hotel.
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​Other highlights of Quebec included stops in the welcoming town of Saguenay, and the pristine beauty of the Farrillion National Park on the rugged Gaspe peninsula. In Saguenay, we were introduced to the food and culture of the local First Nation people, known as the Ilnu, and we witnessed the beauty of the boreal forest, a mixture of evergreens with deciduous maples, birch and mountain ash.
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​The Gaspe peninsula, in the Gulf of ST. Lawrence, is home to whales, seals and migrating sea birds as well as the luminous autumn colors in the surrounding hills that comprise the end of the Appalachian Trail. There was a seasonal chill in the air as we watched the sea birds, who had already begun their winter migration, and marveled at the mountain ash trees, covered with big clusters of huge red berries among the yellow birch leaves, red maples and deep green cedars and pines.
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These and many other treasures await the visitor to Quebec, a province rich in history and French culture going back to the 1500s, and the even older culture of the Iroquois, who lived in one of the most beautiful natural settings on earth. Though I cannot describe every detail of the kaleidoscope that comprised our time in Quebec, I will return to Montreal, where our journey began, and share a small, unique adventure that has remained a fond memory: our walking Tea Tour of Chinatown, Quartier Latin, The Plateau and Mile-End with tea connoisseur Mélissa Simard, founder of Round Table Tours. (www.roundtablefoodtours.com)
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​Mélissa led our small group on a lively English language hike over cobblestones and up and down hills and curving streets to five different tea-themed venues where we experienced first-hand the history and evolution of tea and tea culture.
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Logically enough, we started in Montreal’s Chinatown, as the tea plant, Camellia Sinensis, originated in China. Our first stop was My Cup of Tea, where we tasted two traditional Chinese teas, Blooming Flower, a green tea with osmanthus flowers, and ginseng oolong. This charming little shop offers a wide selection of Chinese teas for purchase. (www.mcot.ca)
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​​Next, we visited Camellia Sinensis Maison de Thé, one of the five top tea importers in North America. We removed our shoes as we entered this zen-style tea shop and school for tea sommeliers. Tea guru Kevin Gascoyne, co-author of the definitive Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties, is one of the four owners this interesting place, which offers tea from China, Japan, India and other tea growing regions for sale. We were invited to sit and enjoy a tea tasting, starting with Silver Needle, a white tea from China. White tea is lightly oxidized for a fresh, clean tea flavor. We also appreciated a taste of Pu-Erh, from 2006, an aged black fermented tea named for the city in Yunan province where this tea originated. Tea was first consumed in China for its medicinal properties, and Pu-Erh is reputed to aid in digestion. Camellia Sinensis Maison de Thé has an extensive website (www.camelliasinensismaisondethe) where on-line shoppers can purchase a wide variety of elegant tea cups, teapots and other tea ware as well as an impressive selection of books and magazines on various aspects of tea in both English and French. 
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​​After a few pleasant sips of Dong Ding Mr. Chan oolong from Taiwan in the final moments of our respite at Camellia Sinensis, Mélissa, our intrepid tea mistress, hustled us off to Kusmi Tea (Maison de Thé since 1867.) This establishment, which started in St. Petersburg, now has 126 tea boutiques around the world. They specialize in perfumed, blended teas for unique aromas and flavors. From among Kusmi’s vast tea offerings from Sri Lanka, India, China and Japan, we were given several interesting tea blends to taste. Each blend has its own intriguing name, such as Anastasia, a very aromatic Earl Grey-style tea with orange and bergamot, Prince Vladimir, a spicy floral black tea flavored primarily with cloves and popular at Christmas time and St. Petersburg, a sweet, caramel flavored dessert tea. This large, airy shop, filled with big white tea canisters and imposing silver samovars, offers a tea blend for every imagination, including one called Be Cool, flavored with licorice, peppermint and verbena. The Kusmi boutique in Montreal is located at 3875 Saint Denis. The online boutique can be accessed at: kusmitea.com.
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​One of the high points of our entire sojourn in Quebec was our visit to Cha Do Raku. a Kyushu-style Japanese tea house and boutique. Here we celebrated a whimsical, updated Japanese tea ceremony hosted by the delightful female proprietor, Shiho Kanamaru. She told us that she hopes to make a playful version of chanoyu, or Japanese Tea Ceremony, advocated by Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591,) famous for establishing the elegant simplicity and spontaneous artistry of the traditional Japanese “way of tea.”
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​At Cha Do Raku, we sampled three Japanese teas and some lovely traditional yet innovative Japanese style food prepared by Ms. Kanamaru to harmonize with the tea. We started with a roasted green tea, then Goicha, a fermented tea from Shikoku, and finally, steamed Sencha, whole green tea leaves infused in hot water. To complement our tea tastings, we were offered Japanese style ceramic bowls of homemade multigrain rice flavored with miso, radish, gobo (burdock root,) eggplant and large black beans in a subtle peanut sauce. This dish, just freshly prepared, was perfect with the tea. 
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​​For the sweet portion of the tea ceremony, we were offered tiny cups of coconut cardamom cream with an intense matcha (powdered green tea leaves) syrup poured over it for a sort of “green tea affogato.” Our hostess told me that the coconut cream contained coconut milk, palm sugar and ground cardamom cooked together for about forty minutes and strained. She said that the matcha “syrup” contained no sugar. When I made the coconut cream later at home following these instructions, my version did not resemble the light, ethereal taste of the dessert we had a Cha Do Raku, although it did produce a very flavorful coconut syrup that was quite delicious poured over ice cream. 
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​Our unique experience there was something magical, fleeting and ephemeral in the mingling tastes, textures and colors of the tea and the simple, elegant food—like a dragonfly skimming along the surface of still water. I believe that Rikyu would have been pleased.
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​For our final stop on our Montreal walking tea tour, we visited Cardinal Tea Room for an experience that resembled a traditional English style Afternoon Tea. Mélissa told us that she had tried all of the traditional European style tea rooms in Montreal and chose the Cardinal for our tour because of the quality of the tea and the food. Although I have not visited every tea room in Montreal for comparison purposes, I was more than satisfied with Cardinal. The upstairs room has a charming retro ambience with nothing corny or cutsie—just an old fashioned tea room with no tablecloths but a nice collection of unmatched floral cups, saucers, plates and teaspoons. The tea was served in Red teapots in homage to their mascot, the iconic red bird. We tried three of The Cardinal’s teas and liked all of them: Genmaicha (a Japanese green tea with roasted rice,) Rooibos de Provence (the red herbal tea usually grown in Africa,) and Cardinal Grey, the house black tea blend.
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​​On the day of our visit, The Cardinal served only five food items, but each one was simple, basic and perfect, and presented on a lovely three-tiered server in the English tradition. The two sandwich selections were smoked trout with cream cheese and white cheddar with Branston Pickle Relish on firm white bread, both very good and served at room temperature as cheese should be. The blueberry scones arrived fresh from the oven with crispy tops and warm, soft centers, accompanied by clotted cream and jam. The sweets were both bars: very fresh lemon bars with crisp, buttery crusts and deep, dark and dense chocolate bars with no icing, intensely chocolate and not too sweet.
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​We were exhausted after trekking all over Montreal in search of tea, but we were thrilled by the experience. We relished the variety of tea offerings, and we were impressed by Mélissa's excellent taste and integrity in selecting only the finest teas and the best tea-related activities for her clients. Quebec is a province of great variety and infinite charm. Our Afternoon Tea Walking Tour of Old Montreal was just one of many unique experiences awaiting the visitor to this memorable place.
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​If you are curious to know more about tea but don’t have time for a visit to Montreal at the moment, our website provides a quick review entitled “A Brief History of Tea” in the Tea Book section of myteaplanner.com. You can also access a tab on “Teas of the World and How to Make Tea.” In the “Tea Menu Basics” section of our website, you will find an extensive selection of free recipes for Sandwiches, Savories, Scones and Tea Breads, all designed to be served with tea.
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​Finally, January is a perfect month for a tea party. After the busy holidays, it is comforting to share lovingly brewed hot tea and carefully prepared foods in a quiet cozy setting with a few favorite friends. The Winter Tea on our website is a good place to start. January 1, New Year’s Day, is also the day that the new year, in 2018, The Year of the Dog, is celebrated in Japan and among people of Japanese ancestry living throughout the world. We will be celebrating Japanese New Year at our home with the traditional foods, served with hot green tea, that are prepared only on this special day. I hope you will take a look at the Japanese New Year’s Tea in the January calendar section of myteaplanner.com. If you do not feel ready to make the entire menu, you might want to make just Ozoni, the simple, fresh and delicious Japanese New Year’s soup. As my co-author Kathleen points out in her January blog, winter is definitely the time for hot soup. Happy New Year to all of you.

​​I have been baking Christmas Cookies every December for decades. I have a repertoire of classics that I make every year because each one is the favorite of someone in my family. Also, my old tried and true recipes never fail me. My husband loves simple Almond Butter Cookies, my sister-in-law Joyce likes Spritz, made in my elderly hand-cranked cookie press, my brother-in-law Rudy always appreciates my Orange Ginger Cookies, and the list goes on. Nevertheless, every year I get lured into trying a new cookie recipe by the tantalizing photographs in one of the magazines I read every month. Some of these neophytes have made it into my list of perennial favorites, but even more have caused nothing but bitter frustration, embarrassment and failure.
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After all, Christmas baking is an emotional business. The holiday baker takes pride in her creations and wants to please her friends and relatives. She eagerly anticipates their delight when she offers her little gifts of holiday cheer made with her own hands. But nothing is more heartbreaking than soggy Lemon Bars, Chocolate Chip Cookies that are too hard and crunchy or Peanut Butter Cookies that fall apart into crumbles. A baker’s delicate spirit also crumbles with every culinary failure. For that very reason, I have learned to be wary of potential disasters lying in wait.

Admittedly, a cookie baker must have the gift of patience, as cookie making is a meticulous and time consuming process than cannot be rushed. Even so, some of the “new and improved” recipes I have tried recently were just too complicated and tediously over-produced. I have trained myself to scan a recipe to discern if the writer has gotten carried away with a procedure that could be simplified. Also, I am wise to the fact that magazine editors feel pressured to re-invent Christmas every year. Sometimes these “innovative” Christmas cookies are simply overly complex or garishly decorated versions of old and reliable favorites. Shortbread doesn’t have to contain roasted chestnuts just because it’s Christmas, and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies don’t have to have red and green M&M’s in them just to create holiday color.

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​This year, I intend to bake only Christmas cookies that I have made successfully in years past and that I know my loved ones will like. Of course, I can’t promise that I won’t be dazzled by a photo of Gingerbread Men decorated like Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Santa Hats. Okay, I can promise not to go down that road, but I will at least stay open to the possibility of finding the best Christmas cookie recipe ever just this year. Short of that miracle, here is my baker’s dozen list of old faithful Christmas cookies from the past. I have loved making each one of these, and my loved ones have thanked me for them. The recipes for several of these favorites can be found on myteaplanner.com. I am happy to provide the recipe for Christmas Sugar Cookies, which I found in a magazine, with a gorgeous photograph, of course.

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1. Spritz
2. Almond Butter Cookies
3. Shortbread
4. Orange Ginger Cookies
5. Mexican Wedding Cookies
6. Christmas Sugar Cookies
7. Cinnamon Sugar Pie Crust Pinwheels
8. Mexican Chocolate Cookies with Chili
9. Apricot and Plum Jam Bars
10. Cherry Thumbprint Cookies
11. Best Friend Lemon Bars
12. Iced Chocolate Brownies
13. Chocolate Chip Cookies

 
When compiling my yearly Christmas cookie list, I like to picture a huge tray on Christmas Eve with several of each of the cookies arranged in a pleasing display. I look for visual contrast, color, and variety in shapes, flavors, textures and appearance. A few days before Christmas, I like to assemble individual trays or boxes for special friends.
 

​If you plan to bake Christmas cookies this year, don’t forget to follow a few simple rules. Bring the butter and eggs to room temperature before making the cookie dough, and pre-heat your oven. If the recipe tells you to chill the dough after you have mixed it, don’t skip that step. And line your cookie sheets with parchment. This will not only make cleanup easier, but it will help prevent the cookies from sticking and burning. Also, while one batch is in the oven, you can prepare the next batch on a sheet of parchment and have it ready to pop in the oven. Then the newly- baked cookies can cool right on the parchment on which they were baked.
 
I will leave you with a few tips about each of my favorite Christmas cookies in case you would like to try making them yourself.
 

Spritz:  myteaplanner.com: December: A Christmas Tea I make these pretty Swedish butter cookies into wreath shapes with a cookie press. You can tint half of the dough green with a few drops of food coloring if you wish. I like to sprinkle my Spritz with red or green colored sugar for a festive presentation.

Almond Butter Cookies: myteaplanner.com: A World of Tea Parties: A California Tea The dough for this basic butter cookie with toasted almonds added is rolled into logs and chilled, then sliced into rounds before baking. I leave these elegant little cookies undecorated because even at Christmas, they speak for themselves.

Shortbread: myteaplanner.com: A World of Tea Parties: A Classic British Afternoon Tea This ancient classic can be formed into a circle on the cookie sheet, then cut into wedges, or cut into squares or rectangles before baking. I leave some of my shortbread cookies undecorated for purists like my nephew Peter, and I sprinkle others with red or green sugar crystals.

Orange Ginger Cookies: myteaplanner.com: December: A Christmas Tea These spicy gems contain finely chopped candied orange peel, candied ginger and toasted almonds. It’s a snap to grind all of these ingredients together in the food processor and mix them in to the molasses-rich batter. These cookies keep well and can be mailed to friends far away.

Mexican Wedding Cookies: myteaplanner.com: October: A Tea to Honor Our Ancestors These luscious, nut –filled butter balls are also known as Russian Tea Cakes. Most recipes call for toasted chopped pecans, but I like to use almonds.

Christmas Sugar Cookies: I am sharing my recipe for these old-time Christmas cut-out cookies below. If there are children in your household, they can help you cut the dough with traditional Christmas themed cookie cutters and decorate them with icing, sprinkles and colored sugars.

Cinnamon Sugar Pie Crust Pinwheels: My grandmother used to make these addictive little morsels with left over pie dough. These are for people who think they don’t know how to make cookies, and you don’t even need a recipe. Buy a package of Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough and roll out the two logs of dough on the kitchen counter. Cover them with little bits of cold butter; then sprinkle the entire tops with sugar and cinnamon. Roll the logs up again tightly and slice them into thin circles, about ¼ inch wide. Carefully place each pinwheel flat on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake them at a high temperature for a few minutes, following the package directions for baking a one-crust pie shell. Watch them carefully, and remove them when they just start to brown lightly.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies with Chili: myteaplanner.com: October: A Tea to Honor Our Ancestors These are for the adventurous chocolate lovers who are not afraid of a little heat. These easy to make drop cookies are dark chocolate, spicy, chewy and wonderful.

Apricot and Plum Jam Bars: myteaplanner.com: July: A Picnic Tea Kathleen developed this wonderful, trustworthy recipe. She makes homemade apricot and plum jams in the summer and uses her pantry supplies to make these festive holiday bars. Bake them in a large pan and cover one half of the batter with apricot jam and the other half with plum to create two Christmas cookies in one baking. Or you can add a little cinnamon to the dough and spread the top with apple butter.

Cherry Thumbprint Cookies: myteaplanner.com: June: A Wedding Reception Tea These little round butter cookies with a dent in the middle can be filled with anything you like: whole almonds, a candied cherry, chocolate ganache, or your favorite jam. I like to use Bonne Maman cherry preserves.

Best Friend Lemon Bars: myteaplanner.com: November: A Post-Thanksgiving Tea These classic favorites should be among the last cookies you bake before Christmas, as the bottoms can become soggy if they sit for too long. Take the time to hand squeeze fresh lemon juice.

Iced Chocolate Brownies: myteaplanner.com: A World of Tea Parties: An American Southern Tea I like moist, fudgy brownies with a thick layer fudge icing, cut into very small squares. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies: myteaplanner.com: August: A North American Family Reunion Tea Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies are American inventions, and it wouldn’t be Christmas without them. Chocolate Chip should be the last cookies you bake before Christmas. You might want to bake them on Christmas Eve and share them while they are still warm. Use the recipe on the Nestle’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips bag and add half a teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough. Chocolate Chip Cookies need no decoration.

​These are the traditional iced and decorated Christmas Cookies that add such a festive air to this most popular of holidays. They take a while to make, as the chilled dough must be rolled out on the kitchen counter with a rolling pin and cut into holiday shapes with cookie cutters such as stars, bells or angels. Then the cookies must be cooled before decorating. I adapted this recipe from an advertisement I found in the November, 1976 edition of Woman’s Day magazine.
 
For the Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 ½ cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup toasted sliced almonds, crushed
 
For the Icing and Decoration
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
red and green food coloring, optional
red and green sugar crystals
white, silver or multi-colored sprinkles
 
Preheat oven to 375° F (After the dough has chilled)
 
Makes: about 4 dozen
 
Special equipment: Large mixing bowl, medium sized mixing bowl, sieve or flour sifter, electric mixer, plastic wrap, 2 large baking sheets, parchment paper, rolling pin, Christmas-themed cookie cutters, such as stars, bells, Christmas trees, angels, etc., one or more small bowls, teaspoon
 

1. Bring the butter and egg to room temperature and toast the sliced almonds on a foil or parchment-lined cookie sheet at 350° F for five to ten minutes until they are lightly golden brown. Let the almonds cool, then crush them and set aside.
2. Sift the 2 ½ cups flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium sized bowl using a sieve or flour sifter. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and 1 ½ cups powdered sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
3. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat just until the flour disappears into the dough. Stir in the toasted almonds. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for three hours. Preheat the oven to 375° F and divide the dough in half. Continue to chill one half, and roll the other half out on a lightly floured flat surface with a rolling pin to a thickness of about ¼ inch.
4. Carefully cut the dough into Christmas shapes with cookie cutters and transfer the cookies to parchment-lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough into a ball and re-roll to cut out more cookies. Sprinkle the cookies with red or green sugar crystals, or wait to sprinkle the cookies until after they are baked, cooled and iced.
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 7-8 minutes, or just until the edges start to turn a light golden brown. These sugar cookies should be very light in color. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet, still on the parchment paper, and cool on a flat surface. Remove the remaining dough from the refrigerator and follow the same procedure using a fresh sheet of parchment for each batch of cookies.
6. Decorate the cookies when they have cooled completely. For the icing, mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until smooth. Leave the icing white in color, or place it in smaller bowls and tint with a few drops of red and or green food coloring.
7. Spread icing over each cookie with a teaspoon, using the back of the spoon to make sure the icing is evenly distributed. Sprinkle immediately with red and green sugar crystals, white, silver or multi-colored sprinkles for a festive appearance. Let the cookies sit on the parchment until the icing has dried. Carefully transfer to airtight containers, separating layers with sheets to parchment.

 
 

I have been in love with china cabinets all my life. Among my first memories is gazing through the glass into my grandmother’s old oak cabinet back in Kansas at the colorful jumble of pink and green Depression glass, dishes and platters for special occasions and brightly decorated teapots in wildly imaginative designs from the 1920s and even earlier. One of her teapots was chocolate brown in color and boldly decorated in orange and green to resemble a dragon with the dragon’s mouth serving as the pouring spout and the handle as the tail. Presumably this fantastical creature would be pouring hot tea rather than fire. Gram also had a bright red tomato teapot with the green stem protruding from the lid. Born in the Victorian era, my grandmother also had her share of elegantly painted floral teacups, hobnail milk glass vases and clear pressed glass cake plates.

All of these items fascinated me, and fortunately, Gram was not the fussy sort who didn’t allow children to touch her “good china.” She even let me open the cabinet myself and touch anything I pleased. This activity afforded me endless hours of pleasure throughout my childhood. I learned to admire and respect my grandmother’s treasures, to celebrate their stories, as every piece of china has a story, and to replace them carefully in their rightful position in the cabinet where they lived with all of their beautiful friends. We also took the dishes out to serve their true purpose when Gram and I decided that today we would have Afternoon Tea.

Modern life does not always make room for a china cabinet. If you live in a place that cannot accommodate such a large extravagance of money and space, at the very least, you can allocate a cupboard or a shelf in your living area for your teapot, your teacups and whatever tea accoutrements you may have. This will give dignity and meaning to the quiet and peaceful ritual of Afternoon Tea when you make time for it in your life.

Those of us who love this ancient custom want to offer our food and tea on the most beautiful china we have in the most elegant and hospitable way we can. Our tea objects are the tools of our trade, and they deserve a place of honor, as they are sacramental objects in the sense that a shared meal, prepared with love, is a sacred activity.

​Gratitude is at the center of every tea gathering. We are grateful for our friends who share this special time with us, for the privilege of preparing food and tea for them and for our ancestors who kept this practice alive and taught us about tea. And we are grateful to be the stewards of our tea objects, which someday will belong to someone else.
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​As Thanksgiving arrives this year, I hope that gratitude will be your theme on this long holiday weekend. Perhaps you will make time for an intimate tea gathering with a few special friends or relatives in addition to the traditional family feast.  And if you have a china cabinet, open it up and use the oldest and most precious pieces you have. If not for Thanksgiving, then when?

For Thanksgiving tea time ideas, I invite you to look at the Post-Thanksgiving Tea menu in the November calendar section of myteaplanner.com. This menu is filled with wonderful suggestions for using Thanksgiving leftovers in creative and delicious ways. The September Ozark Harvest Tea, based on my grandmother’s recipes, might also provide some inspiration and insight into the woman whose china cabinet captured my imagination and set me on the road to Afternoon Tea. And if there are children in your life, the Thanksgiving weekend would be a perfect time for a tea party with your young friends, teaching them by example the spirit of gratitude and cooperation. You can find our Afternoon Tea for Children in the Afternoon Tea for Special Occasions section of myteaplanner.com. This menu includes easy to make tea foods that children like to eat and can actually help prepare themselves. We have also provided a complete grocery list, planning guide and step-by-step procedures for making the food with the children as a hands-on play and learning activity.

As an easy addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table or the featured sweet at a post-Thanksgiving tea party, I leave you with a recipe for Tarte Sucre, a French-Canadian classic that features one of autumn’s true gifts to the world, maple syrup. This special pie will also serve as a preview of our culinary adventures in Quebec, coming up in 2018.

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​This sweet and comforting pie originated in northern France and Belgium and has become a staple of French-Canadian baking with the addition of locally produced maple syrup. Quaker immigrants brought a similar pastry to Indiana, where it is known as Sugar Cream Pie. This is one of the easiest desserts to make, sort of like creamy Pecan Pie without the pecans, yet it is deeply satisfying and memorable in its humble simplicity. 
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1 package refrigerated pie dough
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup maple syrup plus 1 tablespoon for whipped cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups heavy cream, divided
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon salt
 
Preheat oven to 375°F
 
Special equipment: 9” pie pan, plastic wrap, medium sized mixing bowl, whisk or hand-held electric mixer, rubber spatula, wire rack
Makes: about 8 servings

1. Following package directions, prepare the crust for a single-crust pie in a 9” pie pan. Crimp the edges decoratively, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the filling.
2. Reserve 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup for the topping. Combine all the remaining filling ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl (make sure the butter is melted,) and whisk or beat lightly until well combined. Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula.
3. Bake the tart in the bottom third of the preheated oven until the filling is just set, the crust is golden brown and the top is a dark amber color, about 50-60 minutes.
4. Place on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
5. Whip one cup of well-chilled heavy cream until it is soft and pillowy. Add 1 tablespoon maple syrup and beat for a few more seconds. Keep the whipped cream chilled until ready to serve the tart.
6. When the Tarte Sucre has cooled, serve it in small slices topped with maple flavored whipped cream.

When Wayne and I return to California, in addition to visiting family and friends, we make time for dinner at Manresa. This small restaurant in the town of Los Gatos has earned three Michelin stars under the inspired leadership of Chef and founder, David Kinch. Humble yet quietly creative, Kinch is the winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef in America award, and Manresa was named Best Restaurant in the United States by Forbes magazine.
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​Los Gatos, where Manresa is hidden away on an alley off the main street, is a pretty Victorian town just south of San Jose and twenty miles from Santa Cruz through the scenic coast range. Named for the mountain lions and bobcats that populated the area when Los Gatos was founded in 1839 as a Spanish land grant, an occasional mountain lion still appears in the mountains and parks surrounding the town. Redwood trees and oaks are also abundant in the area as are a number of exquisite and well preserved Victorian homes. We lived in Los Gatos for forty-two years before retiring and moving to Hawaii, and our son graduated from Los Gatos High School, founded in 1908. Wayne and I have been dining at Manresa, more or less yearly, since the restaurant opened in 2002.
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David Kinch was wise to situate his gem of a restaurant in this lovely historic town. First of all, the temperate weather invites visitors in all seasons. Secondly, this Mediterranean climate provides for the farming, fishing and production of a vast selection of exquisite vegetables, fruits, wines, fish, seafood and cheeses within a fifty-mile radius, allowing Kinch to offer true farm to table food, for which the restaurant is justly famous. Also, Los Gatos is home to a host of Silicon Valley millionaires who can afford Manresa’s very steep prices. However, since Manresa earned its third Michelin Star, gourmet food lovers from all over the world are willing to make the journey to a town fifty miles south of San Francisco to experience some of the best food they will ever eat.

More recently, the Japanese concept of umami has in a subtle way become evident in Manresa’s menu. Umami is a Japanese word coined in 1908 by professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University; roughly translated, umami means “pleasant savory taste.” Professor Ikeda contrasted umami with other pleasant tastes, which could be described as sweet, sour, bitter or salty. By incorporating Japanese-inspired ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, green tea, dried bonito flakes, fermented fish and kombu dashi (seaweed broth) into some of his preparations, Kinch achieves an astonishing depth and complexity of flavor that exudes umami. 

This sense of dignified welcome infuses every aspect of the guest’s experience throughout the evening. The staff is impeccably trained, and there is never the slightest whiff of snobbishness or superiority. Every guest is greeted with genuine friendliness, and the service is quiet and efficient. Indeed, the movements of the food servers resemble graceful choreography as the plates and utensils are presented and removed in a silent dance that is never too hurried or too slow. Manresa opens at 5:30 PM, and there is only one seating, though guests do not arrive at the same time, so there is never a sense of crowdedness or too close proximity to the next table.
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On our recent visit to Manresa, we were served some familiar favorites and several innovative food combinations new to the menu. The first and last items to arrive are described on the post-dinner menu as: Petit fours “red pepper-black olive” and Petit fours “strawberry-chocolate.” These charming savory and sweet petit four bookends have been on the menu for several years and form a comfortable sense of deju vu for returning diners. The enigmatically described black olive and chocolate items are both tiny madeleines, freshly baked and still warm from the oven, with spongey centers and slightly crispy exteriors. The savory black olive madeleines, which arrive at the beginning of the meal, serve as a preview of the slightly sweet chocolate madeleines, that follow dessert. The red pepper and strawberry bites are in fact tiny and very intensely flavored fruit jellies, savory and sweet respectively.

​In previous years, David Kinch’s signature amuse bouche was the French-inspired Maple Egg. This stunning starter consisted of a slightly sweet and slightly savory poached egg, served in the shell with a touch of sea salt, sherry vinegar, a sprinkling of fresh minced chives, tiny amounts of ginger, cinnamon and cloves, a drizzle of maple syrup and a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. The idea was to use the miniature mother-of-pearl spoon provided for the purpose to dig down to the bottom of the egg and retrieve the spoon, laden with a small amount of all of the key ingredients, including, of course, some of the luscious liquid egg yolk. This creation was truly heavenly food. I miss the Maple Egg so much that I found a recipe on line and have make them at home. While they tasted delicious, the technique requires a culinary precision and expertise that I sadly lack, and mine were mere shadows of the glorious Maple Eggs we once enjoyed at Manresa. I provide you with the recipe for the famous “Arpege Egg” at the end of this blog with a stern warning that yours will not be a good as David Kinch’s.

The bakery and pastry staff at Manresa is outstanding, and fresh bread is always served throughout the meal. Usually there are three selections, a traditional sourdough, a dark seeded bread with rye flour and my favorite, buttery miniature brioches. Manresa churns its own butter from cows on a small farm in Watsonville. This aromatic, rich butter is nothing like the butter that most of us purchase in the store, and of course it is always served soft and spreadable at room temperature. Manresa’s breads have gained so many admirers that Kinch has launched Manresa Bread, a bakery that sells all manner of bread, croissants and other pastries near the restaurant (276 North Santa Cruz Avenue, Los Gatos.)

​Another of Kinch’s inspirations is The Bywater, a neighborhood bar and eatery, also in Los Gatos (532 North Santa Cruz Avenue,) which he co-founded with Andrew Burnham. This informal eatery offers New Orleans-inspired food and drinks, including fried green tomatoes and po’boy sandwiches. You will recall that Kinch honed his cooking skills in New Orleans early in his career. He checks in at Bywater regularly before heading to Manresa for the dinner service. One of my fondest memories of dinner at Manresa is David Kinch, coming out into the restaurant toward the end of the evening in his food-splattered apron to check with us and the other diners one by one to see what we thought of the meal. His humility and sincerity were heartwarming, and his love for honest, natural and beautiful food was heartfelt and true. If you would like to explore Kinch’s philosophical and aesthetic understanding of food and its relation to the sea and the land and the changing seasons, you can read Manresa: An Edible Reflection, (Ten Speed Press, 2013) which Kinch co-wrote with Christine Muhlke.

Manresa is a special occasion, or perhaps even a once in a lifetime restaurant. It can cost up to a thousand dollars for a couple to enjoy a meal together at Manresa, much more if they order costly wines. The tasting menu is $255 per person, and the additional Beverage Pairing is $198 per person. Expensive as it is, we have always felt that we received good value for our meal, as it was perfect in every way, conceived by one of the greatest chefs who ever lived, and prepared by the best cooks, bakers and pastry chefs you will ever find. Reservations fill up at least three months in advance. If you want to dine at Manresa, 320 Village Lane, Los Gatos, CA, 95030, call (408) 354-4330.

​​David Kinch was inspired by Alain Passard, chef of the three Michelin-starred restaurant L’Arpege in Paris, who elevated this simple poached farm egg into a genuine work of art. While this recipe cannot give you a world-class chef’s sensitivity to aesthetic detail and the nuances of taste, texture, temperature, technique and presentation, it will help you make an astonishingly tasty poached egg, actually six poached eggs, to share with your friends and loved ones. You will need a metal egg rack and a special tool to cut off the tops of the egg shells. We found ours at Williams Sonoma.

• 6 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• a sprinkle of sea salt (to taste)
• 6 large eggs at room temperature
• 3 teaspoons fresh chives, finely minced
• Pinches of:
•             black pepper, freshly ground
•             ground clove
•             ground cinnamon
•             ground ginger
• 3 teaspoons pure maple syrup

 
Special equipment: small bowl, medium sized mixing bowl, whip or hand-held electric mixer, rubber spatula, tablespoon, kitchen knife, measuring spoons, large shallow cooking pot, metal egg rack, tool for cutting egg shells, 6 egg cups, kitchen towel or paper towels, teaspoon, 6 small plates and miniature spoons for serving.
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Servings: 6 as a small appetizer

1. Chill the mixing bowl, whip or beaters in the freezer until they are very cold. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold in one teaspoon of sherry vinegar gently with a rubber spatula. Place the eggs in a metal egg rack. Use an egg shell cutting tool to remove the top, or tapered end of each egg. Carefully pour the egg white out of each shell into a small bowl, holding the yolk back with the top of the shell or a tablespoon. Save the egg whites for another use. Replace the shells with the egg yolks into the rack.
2. Sprinkle small pinches of each of the four spices and the minced chives onto each egg yolk. Bring about an inch of water to a simmer in a large shallow pan. Place the eggs in the rack into the simmering water just until the yolks start to set around the edges, about 3 minutes.
3. Remove the egg shells from the water, dry them carefully, and place them in egg cups. Spoon the whipped cream mixture over the yolks, just up to the rim of the shell. Drizzle each egg with approximately ½ teaspoon of maple syrup. To serve, place each egg cup on a small serving plate with a miniature spoon.

Although Wayne and I now live in Hawaii, our son David, along with all of our siblings, nieces and nephews live in California. This makes at least one yearly return trip to the golden state mandatory. California’s Mediterranean climate encompasses only two seasons, winter with six months of heavy rain leading to lush green foothills dotted with golden poppies, and summer, with no rain at all until around the end of October. The hillsides grow drier and drier until the characteristic “gold” of the dead grasses covers the entire state. But the glorious California live oaks and coastal redwoods with their deep roots survive the rhythms of rain and drought and stand as ancient giant totems from south to north in this beautiful land.

When we arrived this summer, California had endured a winter of historic rains that ended an agonizing seven-year drought. The oleanders along the freeways were in bloom, and the hillsides still retained a faint touch of green. As our home base, Wayne and I rely on the generous hospitality of my brother, John Murdock and his lady friend, Mari in his home in Milpitas, just north of San Jose, the busy and congested center of Silicon Valley. Our first order of business is always a drive over the coast range to Watsonville to see our sister Margaret and her family—husband Rudy Pedulla, their adult children Peter and Kathleen, and Peter’s wife Tiffany and daughters Amanda and Molly. 

​There is more than one route from Milpitas to Watsonville, the best known being Highway 17, which winds through the mountains from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz with breathtaking views of the redwood forest and the Pacific Ocean as the road connects with Highway 1, the quintessential road trip venue that runs the entire length of America’s west coast. But today, we decided to head south on Highway 101 through the center of Santa Clara County and on to Gilroy’s fragrant garlic fields then west on Highway 152, past the artichoke farms and up winding Hecker Pass to Mt. Madonna. This beautiful rural journey took us through redwoods, woodlands filled with oaks and areas of low growing manzanita where quail families nest and forage for food. Hawks soared overhead as we descended into the coastal farmlands of strawberries and lettuce on the outskirts of Watsonville, an old agricultural town that has changed little in the last fifty years.
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Watsonville is home to world famous Martinelli’s apple juice, and we are always treated to a glass of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider the moment we arrive at my sister’s house. A tour of the Pedulla family rose garden is another treat. The roses were in beautiful bloom after a winter of generous rain, and the fig, lemon and orange trees in the yard were loaded with fruit. Watsonville’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean creates a cool and misty climate in contrast with the hot central valleys of California. Just about everything seems to grow in Watsonville, especially flowers and berries.

Our lunch reflected Watsonville’s agricultural abundance. To our delight, Kathleen, my niece and co-author of myteaplanner.com, drove down from her home in northern California near Redding, to join the family gathering. And she took on the responsibility of preparing the meal in her parents’ home. The dining room table, always set with cloth napkins and a tablecloth, was graced with a lovely bouquet of roses straight from the yard. The main dish, served from the table in a large colorful crock, was a local shrimp and vegetable stew, bursting with fresh herbs from the garden, summer tomatoes and squash, garlic and green onions. This lovely Mediterranean style creation was presented over a bed of couscous and other ancient grains. Plenty of California and French wine was offered along with the Sparkling Cider. While my brother was helping himself to second and third servings of the hearty shrimp stew, I spotted a gorgeous fruit cobbler in a vintage oval glass baking dish resting on the buffet. This was my cue to put down my fork and wait for dessert.
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To see Kathleen’s luscious Summer Cobbler for yourself, go to our website, myteaplanner.com and search for her July 2017 blog, “The Cherry Cupboard.” There you will find Kathleen’s photograph of the very cobbler we devoured that afternoon. The bright red juices oozing out of the home-made crust came from a combination of fresh summer blackberries, bottled Morello cherries, rhubarb from the garden and ripe plums. Served with hot coffee and vanilla ice cream, this cobbler was the very essence of good times with loved ones in the long California summer.

More good times were to come when the Higashi clan gathered at the home of Wayne’s sister Joyce on a shady street in an old San Jose neighborhood. Joyce’s forte is fresh fruit salads, which she creates like glittering mosaics of cut grapes, cherries, raspberries, peaches and every other summer fruit she can find. Joyce is also a fan of Trader Joe’s, a specialty California grocery chain which we miss in Hawaii almost as much as we miss our family. Trader Joe’s does not pretend to offer every food item available. Instead, they negotiate special prices on packaged foods such as nuts, dried fruits, cheeses, cookies and holiday pastries, wines and Belgian chocolates. In other stores, many of these products are quite costly, but Trader Joe’s offers these treats at a reasonable cost, adding to the quality of life for ordinary Californians. At our Higashi potluck, we devoured a sumptuous array of imported cheeses, crackers, and condiments, compliments of Trader Joe’s.

Since my mother-in-law Misa passed, we no longer enjoy home-made beef sukiyaki cooked at the table, but Wayne’s brother Steven and his family arrived with home-cooked prime rib to satisfy the meat loving Higashis. As the family member who is always assigned the task of bringing dessert, I was faced with a bit of a challenge, as I was my brother’s house guest and wanted to follow my own advice never to take over my host’s kitchen with a potentially messy and time-consuming cooking project. (See the “Guidelines for Guests” in myteaplanner.com.) I toyed with the idea of baking a pound cake and hauling it onto the plane in a tote bag, but thought better of it in light of today’s security restrictions.

Instead, I brought a large box of assorted Honolulu Cookie Company shortbread cookies. Then Wayne and I made our own pilgrimage to Trader Joe’s the day of the potluck. There we struck gold with Trader Joe’s own Cookie Butter Ice Cream and all the fixings for make-your-own sundaes. These included jars of caramel sauce and chocolate fudge sauce, which only need a few seconds of microwaving to create hot fudge or hot caramel sundaes. A bag of dry toasted sliced almonds provided the perfect topper along with the Hawaiian shortbread cookies. But back to the Cookie Butter Ice Cream. Trader Joe’s seems to have invented the guilty pleasure known as Cookie Butter, a concoction comprised of ground Speculaas (popular Dutch crispy, caramelized spice cookies,) combined with butter and sold in a jar like peanut butter. Trader Joe’s also sells the addictive Cookie Butter Cookies, crispy round sugar cookies sandwiched together with Cookie Butter. It was only a matter of time before the marketing wizards at Trader Joe’s figured out that Cookie Butter could be added as a swirl to premium vanilla ice cream. And without spending a single moment messing up my brother’s kitchen, Wayne and I scored a dessert triumph with which even the loveable but picky Higashi clan could not find fault.

In addition to quality time with David and outings with my brother to view the gorgeous Calaveras Reservoir and the historic Higuera Adobe, both tucked into the Milpitas foothills, Kathleen and I were able to schedule an overnight Girls’ Road Trip. Our destination was the quaint little town of Loomis, east and north of Sacramento in the Sierra foothills. We were invited to visit my dearest friend, Joan Moore, a colleague from my college teaching days, now a widow in her eighties living in a new casita which she personally designed as her final residence on a beautiful plot of virgin land in rural Loomis.

​The drive from Milpitas to Loomis takes only a little over two hours, depending on traffic conditions, so we took a leisurely approach. Kathleen first had to negotiate the traffic between Watsonville and Milpitas to pick me up at my brother’s house. Since she had to drive for well over an hour before our road trip even began, we decided that a respite at a tea room along the way was in order. We chose the charming town of Niles, a short distance north of Milpitas, just off Mission Boulevard. We passed the beautifully restored 1797 Mission San Jose, the fourteenth Franciscan mission built in California. Still active, the lovely old Spanish church serves as a chapel of the newer St. Joseph Church next door. Today, both the Town of Niles and the Mission neighborhood are subsumed into the busy modern city of Fremont.

The Victorian Town of Niles, located near Mission Boulevard and Alameda Creek, seems almost untouched by time as one strolls down the main street, Niles Boulevard. Niles was once home to the silent film industry, where Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson made films before film making moved to Hollywood. Visitors can learn about the early history of cinema at the Silent Film Museum. The boarding platform for the Niles Canyon Railway is also located in the center of town. Another historic gem, the thirteen-mile round trip travels through scenic Niles Canyon along the first transcontinental rail connection from San Francisco east to the rest of the nation. However, our thoughts were on Afternoon Tea, and we chose Tyme for Tea, a charming traditional tea room right on Niles Boulevard.

My brother’s friend Mari joined us for this leg of the journey. A fun loving former kindergarten teacher, Mari enjoys tea parties almost as much as Kathleen and I do. She and my brother found each other as widowed retirees, and the relationship has sparked new life into both of these good-hearted people who suffered through tragedy with the illness and deaths of their spouses years ago. Kathleen and I had visited Tyme for Tea previously and knew we could count on them to deliver perfectly brewed hot tea, fresh warm scones with crème fraiche, lemon curd and raspberry jam, tasty savories and delicious little sweets. Although we found the décor a bit over the top, one cannot really hold that against a Victorian-themed establishment, as excess is the very essence of the Victorian aesthetic. We did appreciate the individual floral teapots and the charming mix of rose-patterned plates and teacups on the well-set tables. 

A high point of our Afternoon Tea was the attentive and very polite service. Our server brought us our hot tea from a wide selection of black, green and herbal teas, and offered to pour it for us. He was happy to provide additional hot water at our request. And he volunteered to bring us clean floral dessert plates when we switched from scones to sweets. The savories were especially tasty, particularly the mushroom pastries and the cucumber and radish sandwiches. Among the sweets were some very good petit fours filled with almond paste. Although not made on the premises, they were outstanding.

We also loved the tea-themed gift shop located in the same space as the tea room. This shop is for serious tea lovers, offering an extensive selection of china tea pots, plates, cups and saucers, attractive cake pedestals and other serving pieces, tea, stationary and cards. Many different china patterns are available, including items made by the Grace China company, which produces tea ware that is both beautiful and economically priced.

We said goodbye to Mari, who returned to Milpitas after our very satisfying Afternoon Tea, and Kathleen and I pressed on to Loomis. This cute, historic town, near the California gold country, lies between Sacramento and Auburn on Highway 80 in Placer County. Loomis was established in 1850 and was once home to the California Fruit Exchange on the Southern Pacific Railroad. In the old days, farmers brought their fruit from all over Northern California to Loomis, where the fruit was packed and shipped to far away destinations by rail. The old railway station and two of the historic fruit packing sheds, the Blue Goose and the High Hand, can still be found in the center of town. The High Hand is now a nursery and café, and well worth a visit. The nursery is famous for its gorgeous hydrangeas, but many other beautiful plants are available. The café offers good local farm food, weekend brunch and olive oils and vinegars for purchase.

​This quiet old town is where my friend Joan Moore intends to spend the rest of her life. Before building her casita, Joan, an historian whose mother and grandmother both lived into their nineties, did an extensive amount of research about gerontology and methods for seniors to live independently in safe and nurturing environments. The small home she designed for herself provides physical, spiritual and aesthetic nourishment. And it displays a profound sense of historic continuity and sensitivity to the natural landscape. Joan chose the Spanish colonial aesthetic as an affirmation of the fact that California was successively owned by Spain and Mexico before joining the United States. Her new home resembles a California Mission, complete with a bell tower at the entrance to the walled interior patio, open to the stars.
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​The interior patio is the jewel of Joan’s home. The adobe entrance wall, surrounded by bird feeders and hummingbirds, contains no stairs or changes of elevation. Once inside, sliding glass doors open onto the kitchen, dining and living area and a bathroom. One wall of the patio features a fire place flanked by two small waterfalls. There is also comfortable seating for reading and a table and chairs for breakfast. Flowers and succulents in containers thrive in this sunny interior space, but the patio is truly magical at night when guests can enjoy the stars and the moon after the heat of the day.

When we arrived for our overnight stay at the casita, Joan treated us to a tour of her herb and vegetable garden where she grows much of her own food. She has also planted lots of flowers, and there are some very old olive trees on the property. Joan’s daughter, Jill Walsh and her family have built a bigger home on the same large plot of land. The two homes are sited in different directions, providing both privacy and proximity. The Walsh section of the family compound includes a swimming pool to provide relief from the very hot and dry summers. This multi-generational living plan encourages family cooperation and bonding, allowing the extraverted Walshes to enjoy their sociable life style while preserving Joan’s quiet and contemplative way of life. 

On the day of our arrival, Joan had prepared a stunning Middle Eastern-themed vegetarian dinner in our honor. She based her menu on recipes from The Jerusalem Cookbook, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, the Israeli and Palestinian chef team who offer harmony and cooperation through good healthy food. Gourmet cooking is another of Joan’s many talents, and among the dishes we really loved were the Butternut Squash Hummus topped with freshly toasted sesame seeds, fresh green bean salad and more squash roasted with summer vegetables and herbs. My very favorite was the starter, Tomato and Sourdough Soup, for which Joan generously provided the recipe, which you will find at the end of this blog.

Jill, her husband Jim and their son Justin joined us on the outdoor patio for this lovely and memorable dinner. Hummingbirds flocked to the feeders next to the al fresco dining table as the scent of rosemary from the herb garden filled the twilight. The pink glow of the sunset reflecting off the Sierra illuminated the evening as the stars came out and the full moon rose in the eastern sky. What a privilege it was for me and for Kathleen to spend this time together, with my dear friend and her family on this eternal California summer night.

Our Girls’ Road Trip was everything I hoped it would be, and I will treasure the time I spent with my family, my friends and my precious niece. After spending the majority of my adult life in California, the golden state will always be in my heart. As I bid goodbye for now, I would like to share a dramatic monologue I wrote many years ago that expresses some of the feelings I still cherish about California, a place like no other place on earth.

​This luscious soup, loaded with ripe summer tomatoes, onions and plenty of garlic, is perfect as a starter for a home-cooked Middle Eastern supper or as the star of a humble lunch. After our return to Hawaii, I served this wonderful soup with grilled cheese and sliced tomato sandwiches on sourdough for an everyday lunch that Wayne and I will not soon forget. What makes this soup so special is the inclusion of toasted cumin seeds and the fact that no traditional thickeners such as corn starch, flour or cream are used to enhance the texture. Instead, bits of fresh, soft sourdough bread are added when the soup is almost cooked, and the mixture is roughly pureed with an immersion blender, creating a thick, slightly chunky and very satisfying presentation. The original recipe calls for chopped cilantro as a topping, but I used Italian flat-leafed parsley, as not everyone in my family is fond of cilantro.

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
• 1 large or two medium-sized yellow or white onions, finely chopped
• 1 ½ teaspoons fresh cumin seeds (or 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 3 cups of vegetable stock or chicken broth
• 4 large ripe tomatoes (or 6 medium-sized,) chopped
• 1 can (14 ounces) chopped Italian style tomatoes in juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons flat-leafed parsley (or cilantro,) chopped, plus more for garnish
• 3 slices of fresh, soft sourdough bread, crusts removed (or most of the soft center of a round loaf of sourdough bread)

 
Special equipment: large soup pot or Dutch oven with lid, kitchen knife, large spoon, immersion blender, ladle
 
Makes: six to eight servings, depending on serving size

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium in a soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the chopped onions and saute for about 5 minutes until translucent. Add the cumin and garlic and stir fry for about 2 more minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.
2. Pour the stock or chicken broth into the pot. Add both the fresh and canned tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir the mixture and bring it to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes. Taste and add more salt, pepper or cumin if you wish.
3. Add the bread, torn into small chunks, and the parsley or cilantro, about half way through the cooking process. Using an immersion blender, roughly puree the soup, leaving the mixture a little coarse and chunky. To serve, ladle into bowls or cups, drizzle a little olive oil over the top, and sprinkle with additional chopped parsley or cilantro.
4. This soup can be made a day early without the bread, and refrigerated. To serve later, reheat the soup, add the bread, cook briefly, and puree.

Our time in South Africa focused on the areas around two of the country’s major cities—Johannesburg and Cape Town. As our plane approached, my first view of South Africa reminded me of a flat and even hazier version of California—golden fields and grasses dotted with bushy green trees, maybe acacias, and some scrubby pines. Unfortunately, the Johannesburg airport did little to lift our weary spirits or make us feel even a little bit welcome. The building is old, grimly gray, poorly lighted and claustrophobic, with heavy, low ceilings held up by squat square pillars covered with gray tiles. An ironic blessing was the fact that when we finally arrived at customs, the officers were standing in two large circles, facing inward and talking loudly among themselves, utterly ignoring the arriving passengers. 
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A taxi took us past generic looking new buildings and business districts in this vast metropolitan area of more than seven million people. We passed a surprising number of brick buildings that struck me as out of place in the African setting. I thought that perhaps the Dutch or the British had introduced brick as a building material although the current population is clearly primarily native African. Our destination was the Ten Bompas Hotel, a charming little boutique hotel in a tree-lined neighborhood which appeared to be an embassy row. 

The quiet, friendly little hotel had an old fashioned, almost Georgian décor with European style couches and chairs upholstered in plaid earth tones of ochre, brown and gold, evoking the colors of the African landscape we had glimpsed from the plane. Our room had some good looking African art on the walls, framed baskets and weavings in the same colors as the furniture. Our room was actually a very comfortable suite, and the furnishings gave us a hint as to the European version of the South African weather and life style. We had a living room with a large dark wood desk and a glassed, china cabinet-like liquor cupboard filled with bottles of hard liquor and a wood burning fireplace. The sleeping area contained a large bathtub with a steam shower and an outdoor patio with views of the peaceful, private garden filled with pine trees and pigeons.

The food at the Ten Bompas was remarkably good. Little bowls of Asian style noodles with vegetables appeared in our room in the evening, apparently just a little snack from the management. We also loved our breakfast and appreciated the friendly service from the very gracious staff. We enjoyed cappuccino, yogurt with fresh fruit and granola and freshly made juice, a wonderful blend of beet, carrot, ginger, apple and orange. We also indulged in the best oatmeal we had ever eaten. It contained peanut butter, honey and dried prunes and pears macerated in rooibos tea. We were well aware that we were not in the “real” South Africa, if there is such a place, but we enjoyed the comforts of the Ten Bompas nevertheless, as though we were in a very nice little Dutch hotel.

Wayne had arranged for us to take a road trip out into the countryside to visit a UNESCO World Heritage Site called the Cradle of Humankind. Our local guide, a young man named John, arrived in a Toyota van to drive us to this paleoanthropological site about fifty kilometers northwest of Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng. Along the way, we passed lots of new suburbs, car dealerships, a Microsoft campus and other signs of economic growth. As we eventually reached the countryside, I noticed many pine trees that appeared to be newly planted. John explained that pines are not native to South Africa and that much of the natural landscape had been deforested to accommodate various commercial ventures and were now being re-planted, not necessarily with native trees. He did point out several Jacarandas, the national tree of South Africa.

Although the landscape appeared to be a mix of farming and natural habitat, John told us that the Big Five South African animals: elephants, lions, cheetahs, zebras and buffalo do live in the area we were passing through. We saw a few zebras, some springboks and a monkey and noticed several wild animals in the same vicinity as domesticated animals.

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At the Cradle of Humankind, we walked through the Sterkfontein Caves where some of the oldest human fossils were found. Walking through these caves was no easy task, as the excursion included very steep and narrow stairs, low ceilings and areas where we had to scoot along on our bottoms through narrow tunnels, bent completely in half. It was worth the discomfort, as we reached the site where a more than two-million-year-old fossil, nicknamed Mrs. Ples, was discovered in 1947. Fifty years later, an even older fossil, perhaps as old as three million years, was also found in these caves. It was discovered as a nearly complete skeleton called Little Foot, and we visited the site where his remains rested for so very, very long.

We also toured nearby Maropeng, an interactive museum and World Heritage Site built as a large mound covered with sod. This museum provides comprehensive information about the development of humankind over millions of years, based on archeological discoveries and ongoing studies in Africa. Displays which I think children would have loved included a boat ride and a strobe lighted vortex, which was visually stunning, though I did not quite grasp its educational purpose.

Before returning to Johannesburg, we made a stop at the Lesedi Cultural Village, a visitors’ center that features information about five of the tribes that lived in the area: Zulu, Ndebele, Sotho, Pedi and Xhosa. A film provides information about the origins of these cultures, and guests are then escorted on a guided tour of the individual “villages” that reenact the housing, styles of dress and customs of each tribe. Local people in tribal attire lead the tours. The experience concludes with energetic dancing and drumming in the various tribal styles. While Lesedi Cultural Village does provide some educational opportunities, I felt that it leaned heavily toward commercial tourism. In one of the villages, a woman was sitting in front of a loom to demonstrate traditional weaving techniques. However, I noticed that she was not really weaving at all, and as soon as the guests left for the next village, she got up and walked off. At the next stop, a woman who was supposed to be demonstrating how to grind corn with a stone mortar and pestle was not at her post when the tourists arrived, and after her tardy arrival made only the most half-hearted effort to grind a little corn. It was a little disheartening to observe that the “tribal people sharing their culture” were just employees who were not very excited about their jobs.

After a long day out in the country learning about pre-historic and more recent human life in South Africa, we returned to the cozy Ten Bompas for dinner in their excellent restaurant, the Winehouse. I enjoyed a three-course meal of gazpacho, an intermezzo of cassis sorbet with crumbled meringue, cauliflower with truffled macaroni and cheese, and a divine dessert of dark chocolate pudding on shortbread with caramel. Wayne relished his meal of pork belly with gorgonzola and figs. Again, we were reminded that South Africa is both a European and an African country.

We learned that Johannesburg is a relatively young city, having been established only in 1886 when gold was discovered on a farm in the area. Today, it is one of the world’s leading centers of commerce. Although gold mining no longer takes place in the city, most mining companies still have their headquarters in Johannesburg. The city also has Africa’s largest stock exchange, and is home to heavy industries such as steel and cement production as well as banking, real estate companies and retail outlets and shopping centers. Tourism, however, is not Johannesburg’s primary industry. 

Our next destination, Cape Town and the surrounding area, provided quite a contrast to sprawling, young and commercially oriented Johannesburg. Cape Town, with its lovely coastal setting attracts far more visitors than Johannesburg. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by both the New York Times and Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Established in 1652 as a Dutch outpost to provision trading ships sailing around Africa, Cape Town is a multi-cultural destination with a long and complex history. Our hotel, the One and Only, was located right on the waterfront in a very upscale shopping and dining area. The cool weather, hilly seaside terrain, sophistication and diversity of Cape Town reminded me of San Francisco, my favorite American city.

On arrival, we decided to seek out a truly African restaurant for dinner, as our previous meals had been European inspired. Wayne found a place called Mzansi, which was highly rated on Trip Advisor. Uber took us there, and it turned out to be located in one of the townships, the South African euphemism for a segregated slum populated only by black South Africans who live in extreme poverty. The townships seem to be left over from the old apartheid days when the races were strictly separated by law, and not much seems to have changed since. However, since America has an almost identical history, I will pass no judgments lest I be accused of hypocrisy, except to say the obvious: All lives matter.

As it turned out, we ate some of the best food in all our time in Africa at Mzansi and met a lot of interesting people. The restaurant is in the home of the owner and chef, who was born in the house. Her front room is set up with a long, communal table, able to accommodate about twenty, where all the guests eat together. The food is served as a buffet. Wayne and I were the first to arrive, so we had to wait for the other guests. The hostess and her staff were extremely hospitable and made us feel at home. Her restaurant seemed to be a neighborhood project with local women working in the kitchen cutting up vegetables, teenaged boys hanging around in the street in front as security guards, an artist working on his projects in the vestibule and a band playing in the adjoining room.

The other guests, all of whom (except us) appeared to be in their twenties, were quite an international lot. There was a group of young people from mainland China, two sisters from Denver, their friend from Norway, and others from various places around the globe. When the food was finally placed on the buffet table, I was delighted by the freshness and variety. As a vegetarian, I was in heaven, but a very tasty looking beef stew was also on the menu, as was fried chicken. Although the food we were served was clearly African, the ingredients were the same as those at any church supper or potluck in the American south. 

Here’s what we ate: lettuce and tomato salad, fresh broccoli and cranberry salad, coleslaw, baked beans, corn stew, creamed spinach with mushrooms (my favorite,) rice, crispy roasted potatoes, eggplant slices rolled up with chunks of pumpkin inside and the chicken and beef stew. Our dessert was served later, and it was a divine Malva Pudding with warm custard. For those of you who read all of my monthly blogs, you may recall that I included a recipe for Malva Pudding with Custard in my July 2017 blog on our adventures in Botswana. Malva Pudding is the go-to dessert throughout southern Africa.

As we ate, the band, which seemed to be a group of neighborhood guys, played African style jazz. There was a saxophone, two marimba phones and two drummers. When we finished eating, our hostess told us her life story, which was indeed a story that needed to be told. Some of the young people at the dinner might not have been all that familiar with the history of apartheid in South Africa, and they certainly got a history lesson. Among other details, our chef/ hostess told us how her husband was arrested and put in prison, like Nelson Mandela, for protesting the government’s oppressive racial policies.

After his wife’s very dramatic monologue, her husband joined us and invited everyone into the next room to have some fun playing the marimba phones and singing. The young international crowd were good sports and had a great old time. 

Our sumptuous breakfast buffet the next morning at the One and Only provided an interesting contrast. This unbelievably abundant spread included the expected breads, eggs and pastries such as hot cross buns and almond croissants, but also oysters and a huge round of parmesan cheese from which the guests could chop off big chunks. Fortified, we boarded our bus for the city tour of Cape Town, much of which included walking through some of the historic areas. We saw the Castle of Good Hope, built in the 1600s, the Company’s Garden, now a botanical garden but originally used by the Dutch Trading Company to supply its ships with fruits and vegetables.

After strolling through this lovely garden, we walked past the Parliament Building and visited St. George’s Cathedral, home church of Bishop Desmond Tutu. The church was decked out with large palm fronds for Palm Sunday the next day, and a cantor and chamber orchestra were practicing, presumably for the Easter services.

The next stop on our walking tour was the District Six Museum, housed in an old former church. There we had a living history experience that continued last night’s narrative about the horrible days of apartheid. Today’s speaker was seventy-three-year-old Noor, whose grandfather, a Muslim, immigrated from India and settled in District Six, once a multicultural and multi-religious neighborhood of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Black Africans, Whites and “Colored” people, including Indians and other Asians. Noor remembered his childhood in District Six as a happy time of cultural diversity, creativity and peaceful co-existence. Then he told us the story of the South African government’s decision, in 1966, to evict all of the residents of District Six and bulldoze the neighborhood to prevent inter-racial mixing. It is easy to see the stupidity of this policy in retrospect and to view it with righteous indignation. It is much more difficult to recognize stupid policies that are being implemented in real time before our very eyes.  But we must learn from Noor’s story, from the owner of Mzansi’s story, be vigilant and take appropriate action.

Our tour continued with a bus ride up Table Mountain, one of Cape Town’s most stunning landmarks.  This flat rock formation, high above the city, affords a spectacular view of the entire metropolitan area and the beautiful waterfront. Unfortunately, coastal fog had rolled in and obscured the view. Still, it was a lovely drive up and down the mountain among the pine trees.

​The sweets included homemade marshmallows, caramel eclairs topped with edible gold, milk tart cupcakes, flourless chocolate mini cakes topped with whipped cream and berries, a vast variety of colorful macarons, soft caramels wrapped in paper, pistachio and cranberry nougats, soft peanut butter cookies, pistachio, hazelnut and cranberry biscotti, amoretti cookies, small round vanilla bean cheesecakes, fried pastry bites called Koeksisters, a South African favorite, and the house specialty called O&O cookies—soft round chocolate sandwich cookies filled with chocolate ganache.

We were seated at a pretty table with a view of a picturesque and serene duck pond, canal and garden behind the hotel. We ordered Rooibos tea, which we had been drinking throughout our adventures in Zambia, Botswana and South Africa. This comforting, caffeine-free herbal elixir, also called bush tea, comes from a plant that is native to the Western Cape area of South Africa and has been a popular beverage for generations among the southern regions of the African continent. Ours arrived in an attractive square iron teapot. 

Overwhelmed by the number of choices at the buffet table, I asked our server what her favorite item was, and she recommended the O&O cookies, which did turn out to be a good recommendation with their luscious double dose of chocolate. The peanut butter cookies were also outstanding, as were the very fresh and perfect little scones, served in the traditional manner with Devonshire cream and strawberry jam. Wayne enjoyed the savory samosas, the gazpacho and the little burger sliders. Considering our meal at Mzansi, the sumptuous breakfast buffet and the astounding array at the Afternoon Tea buffet, it seems that abundance is a South African motif. I was also pleased with the multi-cultural aspect of the Afternoon Tea offerings, including traditional British and Dutch items along with African ingredients and Indian and European favorites.

Believe it or not, we still had another meal ahead of us that evening, where we would again experience the abundance theme in all its glory at the home of a local chef. And we would meet the Koeksisters and milk tart once more. We were invited, along with our travel companions from Zambia and Botswana, to a traditional South African braai, or barbeque. Our host was Brett, the owner of Stir Crazy Catering and Cooking School, who along with his wife, welcomed us into his home in the pretty coastal suburb of Hout Bay. Braai, is the Afrikaans word for “to grill,” and gathering for a braai is a widespread social custom throughout southern Africa. Cooking the meat is usually done by the men on their outdoor grills, and Brett was grilling chicken and sausages when we arrived. 

​The menu also included, for starters, samosas, curried pickled fish, corn bread with whole kernels of corn, focaccia, pickled pepper dews in a cream cheese spread, and pureed mushroom and cheese soup. In addition to the grilled meats, the main dishes were: angel fish baked in garlic butter, South African lamb stew with rice and raisins, coleslaw with raisins, carrots, apples and curry, garbanzo and lentil salad, roasted vegetables with sage, roasted potatoes and a very fresh tomato and lettuce salad. Among my favorites were the pickled pepper dew spread and the interesting and very flavorful coleslaw. I also enjoyed tasting some of the same items that we ate at Mzansi and noticing the similarities in cooking styles. I was charmed by the familiarity of these homey yet elegant dishes that reminded me of family potlucks back in the Ozarks.

For dessert, we were served freshly made Koeksisters, the ever-popular South African pastry of Dutch origin. These little dough fritters, soaked in homemade syrup, are ultra-addictive, and since I didn’t have room to try them at the Afternoon Tea buffet, I had my opportunity at the braai. Milk Tart was also on the menu, a simple, old fashioned comfort food, sort of a cross between flan and custard pie. Milk Tart is also one of South Africa’s favorite desserts, and Brett was kind enough to share his recipe, which I have adapted for American cooks. You will find Brett’s recipes for Milk Tart and South African Corn Bread at the end of this blog. If you make either of these for your next neighborhood potluck, I’m guessing no one will know they are from far away South Africa.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, was Brett’s version of Malva Pudding. We first tasted this southern African classic in Botswana, and also enjoyed it at Mzansi. I made Malva Pudding at home shortly after returning from Africa, and I hope to make it many more times in the future. You can find the recipe at the end of my July, 2017 blog, “Beautiful Botswana.” I also encourage you to review both the American Southern Tea and the Ozark Farm Harvest Tea in myteaplanner.com. The Southern Tea includes a recipe for cornmeal muffins, and the Ozark Tea has a cornbread recipe. In reviewing the menus for both teas, you will notice many of the same ingredients that we ate at Mzansi and at the Braai. There is a definite kinship between the home cooking of America and South Africa. 

We had only one more day in South Africa, and we were eager to spend our final few hours in a natural setting. We headed out of Cape Town toward the Cape of Good Hope, the continent’s most southern point. The bus ride with our travel companions was beautiful, the weather cool and balmy. It was autumn, moving into winter, and when we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, the cool weather had turned chilly and the winds from the south Atlantic were strong. The shoreline was rocky, with lots of kelp in the water and vegetation along the shore.

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​Cape Point is a separate location nearby. Both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point are located in the Table Mountain National Park. There are monuments at Cape Point to honor both Bartolomeu Dias, the Portuguese explorer who in 1488 first sailed around the Cape but got lost in False Bay and returned to Portugal, and his countryman, Vasco da Gama, who gets most of the credit for sailing around the Cape in 1497 and finding the route all the way to India.

​From Cape Point we drove up the east side of the peninsula to Simon’s Town, a quaint historic village built by the Dutch in the 1600s and later taken over by the British. It is now the seat of the South African Navy. Here we visited a penguin colony that lives at the Boulders, a sheltered cove that is also part of the Table Mountain National Park. The penguins nest in the sand, wander around the beach and swim in the ocean. A boardwalk has been built just above the sand, so visitors can get a good close look at the penguins without disturbing them, and the penguins can walk freely under the boardwalk. There were lots of rocks and boulders around as well as cypress trees and manzanita, and the penguins didn’t seem to mind at all being stared at by the visitors leaning over the rail with their cameras. It was a large community of penguins. We saw mothers sitting on eggs in the sand, adolescent penguins, and fuzzy brown chicks.

​We are grateful for the time we spent in Zambia, Botswana and South Africa. South Africa has many similarities to America, especially the American South. Both have struggled and continue to struggle with the curse of racism, yet both embrace a capacity for reconciliation, compassion and resilience. All of the countries of southern Africa are beautiful beyond belief, and we were privileged to meet and appreciate some of the people and animals who live in this ancient cradle of civilization, where human beings first walked on this earth.
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South African Corn Bread
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​South African Corn Bread is sweeter and much moister than the more salty and drier corn bread we are used to in America. This one is almost like a dessert, but it really is wonderful served with savory dishes such as beans or meat stews. And we loved it with the mushroom and cheese soup we were served in South Africa at a braai, or family barbecue. I made this recipe at home, after our return from South Africa, and Wayne and I both loved it. This Corn Bread is extra delicious because it contains whole kernels of sweet corn in addition to corn meal.

• ​1 cup flour
• 1 cup yellow corn meal (fine grind)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup half and half
• 2 cups whole corn kernels (frozen and thawed or cut from 3 cobs of fresh corn)
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• ¼ cup honey
• ¼ cup sugar
• cooking spray for the pan
• butter for serving

 

Special equipment: large mixing bowl, medium sized mixing bowl, sieve or flour sifter, whisk, rubber spatula, glass measuring cup, 8”x8” square baking pan
 
Preheat oven to: 350°F
 
Makes: 8-10 servings

1. Spray an 8”x8” square baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, corn meal, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Whisk the eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl until lightly beaten. Add the half and half, melted butter, honey and sugar, and whisk the mixture to combine thoroughly.
2. Add the corn to the egg mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until the kernels are evenly distributed. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with the spatula just until moistened, not more than 10 seconds. Do not beat. Do not worry if the batter is lumpy.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean and the edge of the bread has started to separate from the pan. Serve warm with butter.

​Milk Tart
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​Milk Tart is a favorite South African dessert. Called melktert in Afrikaans, this homey cross between custard pie and flan was brought to South Africa by Dutch settlers who came to the area around Cape Town in the 1600s. Many of these early arrivals were dairy farmers, which explains the large amount of milk in this recipe. This clever recipe produces a batter that creates its own crust on the bottom of the tart as it bakes. This tart is wonderful served plain with a cup of rooibos tea, or for special occasions, serve it with shortbread cookies and fresh berries.
 

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 4 ¼ cups whole milk
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• cooking spray for the tart pan
• ground cinnamon for sprinkling

​Special equipment: large mixing bowl, 2 medium sized mixing bowls, hand held electric mixer, whisk or immersion blender with whisk attachment, flour sifter or sieve, 1 quart glass measure, measuring cups and spoons, rubber spatula, waxed paper, foil covered cookie sheet, 11-inch tart pan or pie pan or two 8-9- inch pie pans, wire rack
 
Preheat oven to: 350°F
 
Makes: 1 large round tart, 8-10 servings

1. Spray the tart pan(s) with cooking spray and set aside. Separate the eggs, placing the yolks and whites in two medium sized bowls. Bring the separated eggs to room temperature. Place the melted butter, honey, vanilla and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat the mixture with an electric mixer until well combined. Beat the egg yolks for about 4 minutes until they are light yellow and foamy. Using a rubber spatula, add the egg yolks to the sugar mixture in the large mixing bowl, and beat lightly to combine.
2. Using a whisk rather than the electric mixer to avoid splashing, add the milk, a little at a time, whisking and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder onto a sheet of waxed paper. Gently add the flour mixture to the milk mixture in the large bowl, and whisk carefully until all lumps disappear.
3. Wash the beaters for the electric mixer, and beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Gently whisk the egg whites into the milk mixture until well combined, but do not overbeat. Pour the mixture into 1 large or 2 smaller prepared tart pans, place them on a foil lined cookie sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour for a large tart and 50 minutes for 2 smaller tarts.
4. Turn the oven off and leave the tarts in the oven for another 15 minutes to allow the custard to firm up. Remove the tarts from the oven, sprinkle them with cinnamon, and place them on a wire rack to cool. When cooled, refrigerate for 1-2 hours to allow the tarts to set before serving.

After ferrying across the Zambezi river from Zambia to Botswana, we were met at the border check station by Fuzzy, the ivory sniffing Cocker Spaniel, trained to detect illegal ivory in people’s luggage. This was our first indication that Botswana is serious about protecting its elephant population. Indeed, Botswana has the largest African elephant population on earth, with at least 50,000 elephants living along the Chobe River in the dry season and many more in other areas of the country, including the Okavango Delta. Elephants in Botswana receive military protection, and poaching is not tolerated. We were pleased to learn that Botswana is a safe and well-managed democracy, providing education and health care for all its citizens. Botswana is listed as the least corrupt country in Africa by the watchdog group, Transparency International. The diamonds that were discovered in Botswana in 1970 are mined and managed by public-private partnerships in which the government holds equity positions.

The history and culture of Botswana have become better known to non-Africans through popular media, notably the film United Kingdom and the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series of detective novels by Alexander McCall Smith. United Kingdom, starring two very handsome British actors, David Oyelowo (who portrayed Martin Luther King, Jr. in the film Selma,) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl,) chronicles the courtship and marriage of Botswana’s young king, Seretse Khama to a British woman, Ruth Williams. Their inter-racial marriage caused outrage in neighboring South Africa, which had established a policy of apartheid, or racial separation. At that time, Botswana (then called Bechuanaland,) was a British protectorate, and the degree to which the British government, based almost entirely on racism, persecuted and manipulated Seretse and Ruth, is shockingly portrayed in the film. The happy conclusion to this story is the fact that Seretse and Ruth ultimately returned to his homeland, where he helped to transform Bechuanaland from a kingdom and British protectorate into a Democracy, and in 1966 was elected the first President of Botswana. A bit ironically, Seretse was also knighted in 1966 by Queen Elizabeth II. Sir Seretse died in 1980, and in 2009, his and Ruth’s son Ian was elected President in a landslide.

The seventeen No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels, which have sold more than twenty million copies in English and have been translated into forty languages, provide a charming insight into the lives and values of the people of Botswana through the adventures of the heroine, Precious Ramotswe. Mma. Ramotswe is a compassionate, attractive, wise and very smart woman whom it is impossible to dislike. She solves mysteries by sitting in the shade under a tree, thinking and drinking bush (Rooibos) tea in front of her agency in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital. Readers also learn to love Precious’ gentleman admirer, Mr. JLB Matekoni, proprietor of the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors Garage (the best auto mechanic in Botswana) and Precious’ energetic secretary, Grace Makutsi. People who like television more than books can meet all of these delightful characters and more in the 2008 BBC production which is now available from HBO Go. Sadly, the series lasted for only a year, but it is addictively decent and genuinely entertaining. Our friend, David Oyelowo, (Seretse Khama of United Kingdom) even appears in one of the episodes. The American blues singer and actress, Jill Scott, shines as Precious Ramotswe, and Lucian Msamati is perfection as Mr. JLB Matekoni. I must give a shout out to my cousin, Marny Pickett, who told me all about the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels when I emailed her that I was preparing to go to Botswana. I was grateful that I had the time to read the first two novels and watch the entire television series before leaving on my journey. When I arrived in this friendly and peaceful country, I immediately felt right at home. 

Our time in Botswana was focused on experiencing the people and the wildlife in three specific areas: the Moremi Game Reserve on the Khwai River, the Eagle Island Camp on the Okavango Delta and the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park near the Khalahari Desert. Each area had its own unique human culture, wildlife and ecosystem. Our first adventure in Botswana was a riverboat safari which included lunch on the Chobe River. It was here, as we floated along admiring the elephants feasting on the long grasses in the river among the water lilies, that I had my first bite of Malva Pudding. 
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The woman who had prepared our lunch at a nearby lodge joined us on the boat to make sure the buffet was in order. After a tasty and healthy meal of baked river fish and steamed vegetables, I approached the dessert table and noticed a rather plain looking dark brown single-layer cake which no one had yet tried. I asked the cook what it was, and she said, “Malva Pudding.” I had never heard of this dessert and asked her what was in it. Her reply startled me, “Apricot jam.” Intrigued, I tried a slice, with pourable custard sauce (crème Anglaise in France) from a pitcher placed immediately in front of the cake. It was divine in a subtle, moist, and surprising way, and it was love at first bite. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to taste Malva Pudding on two future occasions before returning home from Africa, and I learned that it is southern Africa’s most popular dessert. At the end of this blog, you will find the recipe for Malva Pudding, which I made to add to the Easter dessert table immediately after our return home.
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​After our brief sojourn on the Chobe, we flew to Khwai, where we discovered that the airstrip at our next destination, the Khwai River Lodge at the Moremi Game Preserve, was flooded due to excessive rain. Our resourceful Tour Director, Susan Wahlen, had already arranged for us to fly to the camp by helicopter. It was thrilling to look out of the copter at elephants, not far below us, feeding with their babies in peaceful family groups. The lodge turned out to be a lovely place, with separate “cabins,” actually very comfortable lodgings right on the river. In a charming touch, our names were written on our bed with small river pebbles and encircled in a heart that read, “Welcome.” On our arrival at the lodge, we were greeted by the entire staff who sang, “Dumela,” which means, “hello and welcome,” in a rousing traditional African style call and response lead by a soprano with the other women and the men as her booming backup singers. They also sang the lyrical “Beautiful Botswana,” in the same antiphonal style. After the songs, every member of the staff shook hands with every guest and introduced him or herself, and we introduced ourselves as well. I felt as though we were long lost family members, and they were offering us enthusiastic and heart-felt hospitality.

As it turned out, we also arrived just in time for Afternoon Tea, which the chef had elegantly laid out in the community meeting area. We were treated to savory Sage Scones with grated cheddar cheese and unsweetened whipped cream, vegetable and mozzarella kabobs, apple pie pastries, and iced Rooibos tea. The British influence from the old protectorate days is still evident in the Afternoon Tea custom, celebrated throughout the country, as well as the decorous politeness, which may have been part of the culture before anyone from England ever arrived. In any case, the people of Botswana seem to have preserved the best of their former “protector’s” culture while eliminating the worst. Imagine Britain with all its quaint traditionalism and homey charm, without a whiff of class consciousness, snobbery or racism. Surprise! You’re in Botswana!
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We climbed into our open-sided safari vehicles for our afternoon into evening game viewing drive. Our driver and expert safari guide was a young man named Goms, who turned out to be very proactive and passionate about finding as many animals as possible and was willing to drive our fancy new vehicle off road and even through lakes to find the closest view. He also exhibited an encyclopedic knowledge of every species in the park. Just a sampling of the animals we saw included elephants, zebras, impalas, mongoose, warthogs, big cats and many gorgeous birds.
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Sunsets in Africa last for a long time; it was glorious to watch the deep pink glow filling the night sky along with the sound of the river and the evening insects.

​The next morning, we were off on another game drive, and this time we saw the lions who were sleeping yesterday afternoon, wide awake and ready to hunt. There were two females, working together, watching a herd of impalas and a nearby group of zebras. Stealthy and quiet, the lions crouched in the grasses, patiently waiting for their opportunity. Lions are not fast runners, and they need to attack from a very short distance. As a result, they often wait for long periods of time for their prey to move close enough for them to make their kill. I was relieved that we chose not to spend the entire morning waiting to see a lion kill an impala or a zebra.
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Lunch back at the lodge included locally grown beets served as a salad with feta cheese, white asparagus with sweet pickles and red peppers and a nice vegetable casserole with yellow squash. Dessert was squares of pineapple cake that looked exactly like American cornbread. We left this lovely lodge on the Khwai River and boarded our helicopters for our next destination, the Eagle Island Lodge on the Okavango Delta. As we were waiting to board the copters, two elephants came out of the foliage across the river, and we could see them browsing, flapping their ears, and facing us across the water. Looking down from the helicopter, we saw another elephant and two hippos in a pond. The helicopter afforded us a stunning view of the entire landscape, a vast flat terrain of mopane and acacia trees and wild sage bushes dotted with little pools and lakes created by the recent unexpectedly heavy rain. This unchanging landscape stretched all the way in every direction to the round horizon, with no variation, no hills. 

Our short flight took us to another world. The Okavango Delta is a lush, watery habitat fed by waters that move slowly south from Angola in the rainy season. This is a place where elephants, hippos, crocodiles and thousands of beautiful water birds, including the African Fish Eagle, thrive. After a familiar and comforting Afternoon Tea, we boarded a barge for close-up views of hippos, cormorants, herons, pygmy geese and the glorious malachite kingfisher, a small, brilliantly colored bird that perches in tall grasses, right on the water’s edge.
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​The sun set while we were returning to the lodge, and a luminous red glow covered the water and the entire horizon, creating stark silhouettes of the dark, bushy trees. Hundreds of dragon flies came out to feast on smaller insects right in front of our barge, just as the sun went down.
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Our time on the Delta included an early morning motor boat ride through the watery grasses among the hippos and crocodiles and another helicopter sightseeing ride, one of the highlights of our trip to Botswana. From the copter, from which the doors had been removed, we could view the entire landscape, populated with large numbers of land animals as well as aquatic. Botswana’s well-protected elephants, large herds of mothers and babies, were everywhere, as were many pods of hippos, family groups of giraffes, warthogs, baboons, wildebeest, zebras, antelope, saddle-billed storks and fish eagles and a large crocodile, swimming down a narrow channel. It was exhilarating to see so many healthy animals in their family units in a safe natural environment where they had generous amounts of space to thrive and reproduce.

​Our final adventure at the Eagle Island Lodge took us from the wide lens view of the helicopter to the microscopic perspective of a makoro. A makoro is a traditional dugout canoe that can carry two seated passengers with a man standing in the back wielding a long pole to push the boat through the shallow water and dense vegetation. A makoro not only provides transportation from one village to the next; it also allows for very close viewing of small animals, birds and insects that live among the aquatic plants near the water’s surface. We saw tiny painted reed frogs and long reed frogs, clinging to the plants right next to our canoe. We also spotted a red eyed dove and a woodland kingfisher. And as our little boat glided past a thorn tree, we saw that it was filled with gorgeous green parrots.

 During our leisurely float through the water world, our boatman, who introduced himself as Jimmy along with the customary handshakes and introductions on our part, explained in exact and scientific detail how the villagers in the surrounding area harvest large numbers of termites, cook, prepare and powder them to obtain a year’s supply of edible protein.
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​We left the Okavango Delta, flying for about an hour in a small plane, to the third ecosystem we planned to visit, the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park near the Kalahari Desert. This large area of salt pans, surrounded by dry savanna, was once covered by a salty lake that dried up thousands of years ago. Now it is home to hardy plants, animals and birds, as well as ancient tribal people who have learned to survive in this harsh landscape through adaptation and resourcefulness.
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Upon our arrival at Camp Kalahari, we were greeted by our three local guides, Bart, Bones and Jonas, who along with the rest of the staff, welcomed us with the now familiar handshakes and introductions all around. Our “tent” in this camp was elevated on a high platform with a wooden stairway leading up. There were canvas walls with zippers separating the bathroom area from the very comfortable sleeping room. We learned the importance of these zippers on our final morning in the camp when we carelessly left a zipper undone and a genet, escaping the chilly pre-dawn, sneaked in and jumped onto Wayne’s lap during our morning meditation. I don’t think Wayne had ever been so startled, but he did admit that the uninvited genet had very soft fur, like an oversized and very fluffy house cat.
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​Another pleasant surprise was the quality of the food at Camp Kalahari, where the chef makes her own chili sauce with local red and green peppers, and even bakes homemade crackers. Our first lunch was an elegant salade nicoise with fresh rosemary focaccia. For dessert, we enjoyed pears and grapes with very good cheeses, brie and bleu. We could almost have been in another dry landscape—the south of France. Throughout southern Africa we noticed an appreciation of European cuisine as well as local game and African style vegetable stews. 
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On our afternoon game drive with Bart, a Belgian who seems to have lived in the Makgadikgadi Pans for many years, we were surprised by a sudden downpour of rain with thunder and lightning. 
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I was intrigued by this desert landscape of salt pans, occasional little lakes and water holes, thorny acacia trees, thin tall palms and wildflowers. We saw an amazing amount of wildlife in this seemingly harsh environment, including ostriches, vultures, zebras, wildebeest, rare red hartebeest and springbok. As we drove along, the sky darkened and became hauntingly beautiful. We saw both a rainstorm and a sandstorm next to each other on the horizon. The thunder and lightning continued into the night.
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A high point of our time in the Makgadikgadi Pans was our morning visit with the meerkats. We had to rise very early to position ourselves on the dry and chilly ground near the holes leading to the subterranean tunnels that these little carnivores share with vegetarian ground squirrels and snake eating mongoose in a sort of underground inter-species apartment building. We learned that near a remote village there were several families of meerkats who had become accustomed to human beings wandering through their habitat. These are not tame animals, nor are they in captivity. They are completely wild, but as we learned, they will initiate interactions with humans if they feel so inclined, though we were strictly forbidden from touching them. We hoped they would interact with us as we waited for them to wake up and come out of their holes to greet the day. Our patience was rewarded.
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I was thrilled when the first meerkat came out of the hole right where I was sitting. Then, one at a time, all nine members of the family emerged, including the pregnant alpha female and four youngsters. I was sitting with Susan, our Tour Director, and the meerkat family stayed right around us for some time, standing up and looking around, soaking up the sunshine, chattering and even climbing up on Susan’s legs. Eventually they moved on into their morning routine. The youngsters played by running and jumping on each other, and after a brief play time, the adults began searching for food. The entire family spread out together, each youngster accompanied by an adult who was teaching him how to dig for beetles, grubs and small frogs. The adults shared the food they found with the babies. One youngster actually caught a frog on his own, and his patient mentor stood beside him as he ate it to make sure no one else from the family snatched the frog away from the little one.

Soon enough, the meerkats’ arch enemy, an eagle, appeared, circling overhead. All of the adult meerkats stood at attention while the young hid in the brownish grasses, the same color as their fur. They were prepared to scamper back down their holes, which dotted the landscape as their escape routes, but fortunately for this family, the eagle flew off elsewhere.
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​On our way back to the camp, Jonas, our guide, pointed out a large flock of about seventeen ostriches, black males and brown females, flapping their wings and “dancing” around to get rid of parasites. We also saw a large herd of zebras, several wildebeest, bustards, quail, lapwings and even some wild melons growing on the ground, having been planted by elephant droppings.
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Our time in Botswana, one of the most charming places I have ever visited, concluded with a late afternoon desert field trip accompanied by a group of local San Bushmen.  Their ancestors, among Africa’s first human residents, lived in the area as long ago as 200,000 years and survived in the Kalahari as hunter-gatherers. If possible, this extended family was even friendlier than the many other friendly and interesting people we had met in Botswana. This cheerful and fun loving group arrived in their traditional attire, animal skins tied around their bodies, hand-made sandals and beaded headdresses, necklaces and bracelets. The multi-generational family included infants carried by their mothers, grandmas and various adults, both male and female. There were greetings, introductions and handshakes among all of us. Then this energetic group lead us on a walking tour in the desert to demonstrate to us first-hand the ancient hunter-gatherer lifestyle of their ancestors.

​As we wandered through the desert, various members of the family showed us how to dig up tubers and bulbs that could be used as medicine or to provide drinking water during the dry season. They also showed us how to trap a bustard on the ground and how to use an egg to lure and catch an adult bird. Famous for their use of poisoned arrows to hunt kudu and springbok, they brought their arrows along and pointed out where they obtained the poison from caterpillars that live in a specific tree. We observed the San to be very chatty and sociable. They kept up a running conversation in their melodic language, filled with the famous clicking sounds, and some of them spoke to us in English. There appeared to be no specific leader in the group, and the women were clearly as important to the family as the men. 

​The group stopped at various points in our field trip just to entertain themselves and us and have a little fun. One young man insisted on digging up a scorpion from its hole in the ground and putting the scorpion in his mouth. Then he put the scorpion back in its hole unharmed. It was admirable and remarkable how small a footprint the San people left on the landscape. Every time they dug up a root or tuber to show us, they placed it back in the ground and covered it up again with dirt so it could continue to grow. Two men and a woman demonstrated how to make a fire by rubbing dried branches together, and after the fire had started, the entire family sat down around the campfire, sang and played a game similar to “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” leaning over the fire, laughing and responding to each other’s gestures and body language. The closest translation we could get to the name of this game was “Lightning and Springbok.” They got up and all started dancing just as the sun went down.

Our time in beautiful Botswana had come to an end, and the next morning, after Wayne’s encounter with the genet in our tent, the guides at our camp told us that the animals were responding to the coming of winter with its chilly nights. They said they heard jackals yelping during the night, and both a male and a female lion, roaring. 
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Malva Pudding is a popular dessert throughout the countries of southern Africa, although food historians say it is of Cape Dutch origin, and thus South African. However, we were served Malva Pudding on three different occasions during our African adventure, and the first time was in Botswana. Malva Pudding is one of those magical desserts, like Tres Leches Cake from Spain and Mexico, that is deceptively simple yet apparently complex and mysterious. It does not readily reveal its ingredients and simply looks like a dense, moist, plain looking brown cake. The woman who baked the Malva Pudding that we ate in Botswana revealed to me that the secret ingredient was apricot jam. Yes, Malva Pudding does contain apricot jam, but there is more to the story than that. For one thing, the pudding is infused with a syrup which contains Rooibos Tea, also called Bush Tea, a popular beverage in Botswana. And finally, Malva Pudding should always be served with homemade custard, preferably still warm.

For the Pudding:

• 1 cup milk, at room temperature (not low fat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup flour
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam, plus 2-4 tablespoons more for glazing the cake
• cooking spray

 
For the Syrup:

•  1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup milk (not low fat)
• ½ cup boiling water or hot brewed Rooibos tea
• ¼ cup (half a stick) butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 
For the Homemade Custard:

•  6 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups very hot milk or half and half (not low fat)
• ½ cup flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Special equipment: electric mixer, 2 medium sized mixing bowls, sieve or flour sifter, 2-cup glass measure, 8” square glass baking pan, rubber spatula, bamboo skewer, 4-cup glass measure, wire rack, medium sized cooking pot, immersion blender, plastic wrap
 
Preheat oven to 350°F
 
Makes: approximately 8 servings

1. Make the pudding: Spray an 8” square glass baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. Combine the milk and baking soda in a 2-cup glass measure and set aside. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
2. In another medium sized bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the brown sugar and egg together until fluffy. Add the vinegar and 2 tablespoons apricot jam and mix well. Add the flour mixture and milk mixture alternately until well combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
3. Bake for 30 minutes or until a bamboo skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. While the cake bakes, prepare the syrup: Combine all the syrup ingredients in a 4-cup glass measure and stir to dissolve the sugar. Microwave the mixture at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until the syrup starts to boil. Remove from the microwave before the syrup boils over.
5. Place the baked cake on a wire rack and poke the hot cake all over with the bamboo skewer. Slowly pour the hot syrup over the entire cake. It will absorb all the liquid. When the pudding has cooled slightly, microwave 2-4 tablespoons of apricot jam and pour it carefully, a few drops at a time, over the pudding as a glaze. Serve the pudding warm with warm custard, or refrigerate overnight and bring it to room temperature before serving.
6. Make the custard: Pour 2 cups of milk or half and half into a 4-cup glass measure and heat in the microwave until it just starts to boil. Set aside. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale yellow and forms a slowly falling ribbon when the beaters are lifted, about 4-6 minutes.
7. Add the flour and mix well. Slowly add the hot milk and continue beating on low speed, scraping the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is smooth. Transfer the custard batter into a medium sized cooking pot and cook on medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture starts to boil. (I use an immersion blender to prevent the custard from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.)
8. Lower the heat and continue cooking and whisking for a few more minutes until the custard is boiling and very thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla until the mixture is well blended and the butter has melted. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the custard to prevent a skin from forming. If serving immediately, transfer the custard to a decorative bowl with a serving spoon and serve with the Malva Pudding. Custard can also be refrigerated and served cold.