Tea and Travels

Autumn’s arrival is a joyous event in every year, and this year, cooler mornings and cleaner air are especially welcome after unprecedented heat waves, wildfires and storms. But even greater than this sense of relief is the secret expectation that something glorious and wonderous is taking place, something felt deep in our bones and in our dreams.
 

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One of the glories of an autumn evening is watching the Harvest Moon fill a pumpkin patch with golden light, turning the round pumpkins into mirrors of the moon. For me, nothing says “autumn” like pumpkins. The deep, earthy orange color, the plump abundant roundness, the preview of feasting and celebrating the harvest, are all embedded in the pumpkin’s very essence. And our website is bursting with pumpkins.
 

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“An Autumn Afternoon Tea” in the Afternoon Tea and the Four Seasons section of this website offers charming little Pumpkin Cream Tartlets along with other seasonal sweets. In the Calendar of Tea Parties section, our October tea party menu, dedicated to the Mexican festival, Dia de Los Muertos, features Pumpkin Empanadas, little half-moon shaped pastries with recipes for both sweet and savory versions. And our September menu, An Ozark Farm Harvest Tea, includes my favorite Pumpkin Bread. The recipe for this moist, spicy quick bread can be found in my October 2018 blog, “Glorious October,” available on this website. I make this totally autumnal Pumpkin Bread every year. It is great for Halloween or Thanksgiving and perfect for fall tea parties, as it can be cut into little tea sandwiches filled with whipped cream cheese.
 
Pumpkin and cream cheese seem to be natural partners, as evidenced in my October 2019 bog, “Pumpkin Time—Savory and Sweet.” This blog includes the recipe for Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, a splendid and festive cake that will be the star of any autumn gathering.
 

 
For those of you who like to plan ahead, in my November 2016 blog I share the recipe for an extra-special Pumpkin Praline Pie that will turn your family’s familiar Thanksgiving menu into something both traditional and excitingly new. The word “traditional” is an understatement when applied to pumpkin. As we know, pumpkin, or more likely some related form of native squash, was included in the first Thanksgiving feast of 1621, but pumpkins and other forms of gourds have been around far longer than that.
 
Pumpkins belong to the Gourd family of flowering plants, with the scientific name of Cucurbitaceae. This includes hard-shelled gourds such as pumpkin, butternut squash and kabocha squash, and soft-shelled vegetables such as zucchini, cucumbers and summer squash. Evidence of Bottle Gourds, which may have been native to southern Africa, were found in an archeological site in Peru and dated to 13,000 B.C. Pumpkins and other forms of squash native to Central America and Mexico, were present before the arrival of human beings. And scientists believe that vegetables in the Gourd family were the first domesticated plant species, grown for food in the Americas even before maize and beans.
 

 
In fact, gourds have been part of the culture of almost all native people of the Americas. A major food source, gourds and squash have also been used as tools, musical instruments and objects of art. In more recent history, I think we all remember playing with maracas as children and carving Jack o’ Lanterns out of pumpkins. Pumpkins are truly fascinating vegetables which are being used more and more these days for artistic purposes, as porch, table and textile decorations to mark the autumn holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving. Pumpkins can also grow to an astounding size, winning prizes for the growers at Pumpkin Patches and Harvest Festivals throughout the country. One winner in 2009 grew a pumpkin that weighed 1,636 pounds!
 
Edible pumpkins and other squashes are also appearing more frequently in recipes and restaurant menus as savory vegetables, not just as “traditional” pumpkin pies. Eaten in Africa for generations, Squash and Peanut Stew, made with Butternut Squash, is delicious, healthy and easy to make. Recipes for this fabulous vegetarian dish are easy to find online. You are also invited to use the recipe for Ifisashi with Nshima (Zambian Peanut and Vegetable Stew with Corn Meal Mush,) from my June 2017 blog, “A Zest for Zambia.” I learned about this fabulous dish, featuring Butternut Squash, on my adventures in Zambia.
 
Asian recipes are also filled with pumpkin and squash. In fact, Kabocha, a Japanese variety of winter squash, is often referred to in Japanese menus as “pumpkin.” I love kabocha as part of a selection of Vegetable Tempura, and it is also wonderful in Vietnamese and Thai vegetable curries. And let’s not forget that zucchini and other squashes are everywhere to be found in Italian and French cuisine. However, I must admit, that when autumn rolls around, no matter how much I love savory squash dishes, my heart returns to baking, and sweet pumpkin desserts fill my heart again.
 
All the pumpkin cake, bread and pie recipes in our website and my blogs call for canned pumpkin. The Libby company, by far the largest producer of canned pumpkin, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson variety for its canned pumpkin. And those fifteen-ounce cans seem to contain just the right amount of cooked and pureed pumpkin to make a perfect pie or cake. No sawing open a pumpkin, scraping out the slimy, stringy seeds, peeling off the hard shell, chopping up the vegetable and cooking and mashing the pulp. I admit to being a lazy baker, but if you want to make your special pumpkin pie or cake from scratch, you are a better person than I am. You will find plenty of recipes online for “from scratch” pumpkin pies, but most of them just tell you to use a “pie pumpkin” or a “sugar pumpkin.” What does that mean? There are a vast number of pumpkin varieties, and your best choices for baking include Baby Pam, Autumn Gold, Ghost Rider, Baby Bear, Cinderella, or Dickinson, the kind used by Libby’s. Good luck to you!
 

Meanwhile, I am happy to offer you one more recipe for a luscious pumpkin dessert using Libby’s canned pumpkin. And now we come to October’s crowning glory—Pumpkin Cheesecake, the triumphal pairing of pumpkin and cream cheese. My co-author Kathleen and I are both fond of Cheesecake and included Pumpkin Cheesecake in the menu for “A Tea for Our Elders” in the Afternoon Tea for Special Occasions section of this website. Most Pumpkin Cheesecake recipes call for a graham cracker or gingersnap crust, which is quite delicious, but years ago I found a recipe that uses a Lemon Cookie Crust, which I thought lifted this glorious autumn dessert to a whole new level of gourmet elegance. I have made this special Sherried Pumpkin Cheesecake numerous times over the years when fall arrives once again in its splendor. I think you and your family will love it too.
 

 
I cut this recipe for Pumpkin Sherry Cheesecake out of the San Jose Mercury News years ago, presumably from the food section, but the column which I cut out contains no date. The unsigned introduction to this article suggested this recipe and an interesting sounding recipe for Light and Dark Holiday Pudding, a steamed dessert combining spices, cocoa and candied fruits, as substitutes for the traditional Mince and Pumpkin Pies for Thanksgiving. Every time I have made this lovely pumpkin cheesecake, which subtly melds the flavors of lemon, autumn spices and cream sherry, my family has showered me with gratitude. Don’t we all love compliments?
 
Read the recipe carefully before you begin to make this beautiful cheesecake. Both the Cookie Crust and the Filling require lemon zest. You will need one medium to large sized lemon to produce the two teaspoons of lemon zest required—one teaspoon each for the crust and the filling. Also, make sure that the eggs and the cream cheese are both at room temperature before you begin making the filling. This will reduce the chances of ending up with a crack in the top of your finished cheesecake, as will not overbaking. But if your lovely Pumpkin Sherry Cheesecake should end up with a cracked top anyway, just cover the crack with a luscious pile of freshly whipped cream immediately before serving.
 
​For the Lemon Cookie Crust:
 

​For the Filling:
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For the Whipped Cream Topping:
 

 
Special equipment: large mixing bowl, flour sifter or sieve, hand-held electric mixer, citrus zester, small bowl, 9” springform pan, parchment paper, disposable kitchen gloves, foil-lined baking sheet, wire rack, medium sized aluminum mixing bowl, rubber spatula, cake pedestal or decorative serving platter
 
Makes: 1 nine-inch cheesecake, 12 servings
 
Preheat oven to 400°F for the Lemon Cookie Crust and 325°F for the filled Cheesecake
 

 
September is here, but in many areas, the heat remains, along with the drought and smoke from the wildfires. But in some places, September brings whispers of autumn, cooler breezes at dawn, acorns falling and orange pumpkins in the fields. The earth’s shift between summer and fall is one of nature’s most delicious times. Crops ripen, colors change, and all the world feels an energetic impulse to create, to build, to harvest.
 

 
As I mentioned last month in my August 2021 Blog, “Chocolate to the Rescue,” one product that is welcome in every season is chocolate. As the whiff of autumn enters the air while summer lingers, chocolate will always be here, ready to partner with the last strawberries from the fields or to welcome the first golden pears of fall.
 

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As you may have guessed, I have a long and loving relationship with chocolate.
 

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Though this poem may be a bit sarcastic in tone, it attempts to highlight some common misunderstandings about chocolate. Chocolate does not originate in Belgium, Switzerland or France. Chocolate is the product of the Cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which generates pods, each containing about forty beans, which are harvested, dried and roasted and ultimately processed into chocolate. Cacao trees (also known as cocoa trees,) are tropical evergreen trees native to Mexico and Central America. Botanical archeologists consider the history of the Cacao tree to cover about four thousand years. Chocolate, processed from cacao beans, was familiar successively to the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec cultures of Mexico, where it was consumed as a hot or cold beverage, sometimes flavored with honey or chilis and used for religious rituals.
 
The Spanish conquistadores took chocolate back home with them, and Spanish royalty were the first Europeans to enjoy hot chocolate. Several centuries later in, 1847, an Englishman named Joseph Fry developed the process for mixing chocolate powder with sugar to produce bittersweet chocolate bars. Other European chocolate bars quickly ensued, with Cadbury in 1849. In 1875, Henry Nestle was the first to create milk chocolate bars. And in 1879, Rodolphe Lindt refined the chocolate bar to melt in the mouth. The first American milk chocolate bars were produced by Milton S. Hershey in 1900. My husband Wayne and I both grew up eating Hershey bars, and all of these chocolate candy bar makers are still in business.
 

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However, we must remind ourselves that chocolate does not originate in Europe or America, except a limited production of some artisanal chocolates grown and produced in Hawaii, where tropical Cacao trees can be commercially grown. Today, the four biggest producers of Cocoa beans for commercial purposes are the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria. Chocolate, along with coffee, are two of America’s favorite addictions, both the products of tropical climates and economically depressed countries where family farmers and agricultural workers receive very low wages. This brings us to the subject of “fair trade chocolate and coffee.” While I will leave you to research and reflect on this concept yourself, I will simply say that really good chocolate—better than Hershey bars—costs money, and I am willing to pay for it.
 
As a young couple living in Silicon Valley in the boom days of the birth and commercialization of the computer, Wayne and I saw our friends indulging their considerable incomes in the local California wine industry. Many of our friends were wine connoisseurs, or thought they were, and there was no limit on what they were willing to spend on a cellar full of good wine. But early in our marriage we made the decision to live alcohol-free lives, and we have remained true to that decision, except for a few bottles in our spice cabinet for making special desserts. At about this same time, since we shared a love for chocolate, we slowly came to realize that the chocolate bars of our childhood really didn’t taste that good. What brought about this change of awareness?

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Maybe it was See’s Candies, produced in California, and sold in charming little black and white candy shops by cheerful employees dressed in cute little white uniforms with black aprons. Maybe it was the fact that every time you bought a box of See’s candies, you got a free sample. Maybe it was the fact that you could just walk into a See’s Candies store and create your own box of chocolates by simply pointing out your favorite flavors from the glorious variety of choices in the spotless glass cases. My favorites became Dark Chocolate English Toffees, and Soft Centers, including Dark Marzipan, Dark Bordeaux, Dark Butterchew and Dark Raspberry Cream. These were so much better than the chocolate covered cherries from the drug store, dripping with sugary fondant, that I craved as a child, and admit I do still like.
 
See’s Candies is one hundred years old this year, and for many years these luscious chocolates were available only in California. Today, See’s is widely available, and we even saw a See’s Candy shop in Tokyo the last time we were there. See’s Candies was founded in 1921 by Charles See, a Canadian chocolate salesman who moved his family, including his mother, Mary See, to Los Angeles to start his own Chocolate shop using his mother’s recipes. While the number of high-end artisanal chocolate companies has increased exponentially in the last few years, See’s has maintained high standards of quality while remaining reasonably affordable.
 

 
Another old family-owned chocolate company we discovered in our travels is Rogers’ Chocolates of Victoria, Canada. Victoria itself is an Afternoon Tea lover’s paradise with the Empress Hotel as the standard bearer of Afternoon Tea as it was meant to be. Murchie’s Fine Tea and Coffee is another charmer, where visitors are treated to perfect scones, tea sandwiches and sweets in the traditional English style. Just a few steps away from Murchie’s is Rogers’ Chocolates. Wayne and I wandered into this quaint old-fashioned candy store right on Government Street, the main street of Victoria, on our first visit to this charming town. We sampled Rogers’ signature chocolate, Victoria Cream, a luscious dark chocolate with a buttery vanilla center, and fell in love.
 
Little did we know on this first visit, that Rogers’ is the oldest candy store in Canada and still the leading gourmet candy maker in the country, founded in 1885 by Charles “Candy” Rogers. Charles Rogers originally sold a few chocolates in his grocery store but expanded to the present shop because his chocolates were so much more popular than the vegetables. Today, Rogers’ sells fine quality chocolates made from Fair Trade Certified Cocoa and provides world-wide shipping. The inventory is ever-changing to appeal to contemporary tastes. Our favorite is the iconic Empress Square, a perfectly textured dark chocolate filled with roasted almonds and caramel. A Sea Salt version of the Empress Square is also available. I don’t mind telling you that I have three boxes of Empress Squares in my refrigerator at this moment, shipped in perfect condition from Victoria to Hawaii as a birthday gift from Wayne.

Wayne has led the way in our evolution as chocolate aficionados. In November of 2005, he read an article on Gourmet Chocolates by David Rosengarten, editor of The Rosengarten Report published in Bottom Line, Inc. In this article, Mr. Rosengarten claimed that “…possibly the nation’s best chocolates” were produced by Ortrud Munch Carstens Haute Chocolature of New York City. The article continued, “Because she prefers to work alone in her New York studio, she turns away many would-be buyers. She charges $100 per pound for her ‘Barks’—ultra thin sheets of chocolate containing nuts and fruits—and as much as $180 per pound for specialty items. The minimum order is $150 plus $20 or so for overnight shipping. Phone orders only.”
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Wayne phoned Ortrud immediately. She told him, with what seemed at the time as typical “New York rudeness,” that it was too much trouble to ship her chocolates all the way to California and she didn’t have time for him. “Goodbye.” But at the last moment, Ortrud suggested that Wayne could send a friend over to her studio to pick up his order and have that person mail the chocolates to him. Wayne thought about the only person we know who lives in New York City, my cousin, Nell Snaidas.
 
Nell’s husband, Tom Fervoy, answered the phone and was intrigued at the prospect of discovering the “…nation’s best chocolates.” When Tom arrived at her studio, Ortrud was much more charming to Tom than she had been to Wayne. A chat ensued, and Ortrud mentioned her love for opera. When Tom replied that his wife was an opera singer, it turned out that Ortrud knew Nell’s work and was a fan. From then on, both Tom and Wayne were on Ortrud’s good list, and Ortrud was happy to take all of Wayne’s orders and ship them herself. Nell’s glorious mezzo-soprano voice saved the day! Thanks, Nellie!
 
Ortrud’s chocolates really were the best we had ever eaten. The texture was perfect—not too hard and crunchy and not soft and messy. They created an ideal bite in the mouth, slowly melting on the tongue. They were not too sweet, and the deep, rich complex cocoa flavor was not adulterated with any of the dreaded additives found in the popular chocolate candies of our youth. A Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, for example, contains, in order of volume: sugar, milk, chocolate, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin, PGPR (what is that?) emulsifier, vanillin (an artificial flavoring,) and artificial flavor (presumably in addition to vanillin.)

L.A. Burdick Chocolates
Founded in 1987 by Larry Burdick, an American who was trained in Switzerland, this Walpole, New Hampshire-based fine chocolate company produces innovative and high-quality chocolate delights with an emphasis on the seasons and the holidays. Burdick’s signature item is Chocolate Mice, adorable little creatures with sliced-almond ears, chocolate covered, of course, and cute little silk ribbon tails that can be used like lollipop sticks to hold the mice as you devour them. Newer additions to the Burdick inventory include Chocolate Elephants and Chocolate Penguins, in white and dark chocolate. Most of the L. A. Burdick Chocolate shops are on the Eastern Seaboard, including Boston, Washington, D.C., New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts, but anyone can shop from their attractive website, which includes creative gifts, at a range of prices, such as a single Dark Chocolate Elephant for $6, a Gourmet S’mores Kit, for $38, or a Connoisseur’s Collection, including a wide variety of chocolates for $140.

 
John and Kira’s Chocolates
One of our favorite chocolate makers, John and Kira’s was founded in Philadelphia in 2002 by John Doyle and Kira Baker Doyle. This chocolate company specializes in unique flavors sourced from herbs and spices grown on family farms. Their best-selling Every Flavor Chocolate Box includes fifteen luscious pieces of dark chocolate ganache in flavors such as star anise, bergamot, whiskey, lavender and ginger from a family farm on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.
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John and Kira’s also features whimsical Chocolate Honey Caramel Bees and Chocolate Ladybugs, filled with almond and hazelnut praline filling. Both of these sweet little chocolate insects are brightly decorated in yellow, red and black to resemble the creatures who inspired them. But our favorite John and Kira creation is the Chocolate Fig, a brilliant pairing of Spanish Figs, filled with whiskey flavored ganache and dipped in dark chocolate. You can order these rare delights in boxes of 12 for $39.95, or splurge on a Fig Tower Grande, 12 Chocolate Figs and a 28-piece box of Every Flavor Chocolates for $90. I have discovered that a single Chocolate Fig is a deeply satisfying treat, enjoyed at sunset, surrounded by the sounds of twilight and reflections of the day that is coming to an end.

 
La Maison du Chocolate
This French chocolate chain, now world-wide, creates their chocolates by hand in their factory in Nanterre, near Paris. They produce tiny, bite-sized chocolates packaged in charming little brown boxes tied with chocolate-brown bows. The small size of each individual chocolate allows chocolate lovers to sample a variety of flavors in a single sitting without over-indulgence. La Maison du Chocolate specializes in a wide array of chocolate candies, pastries and treats, including truffles, fruit flavored chocolates and even divine little bites of dark chocolate-covered candied orange peel. So good!
 

 
Z Chocolat
This artisanal French chocolate company was founded in 2000 by Jean-Philippe Khodara in Forcalquier, Provence. Unfortunately, their headquarters and manufacturing facility were burned to the ground in May of this year, and they will not be able to fill orders until about mid-September. As a gesture of good will to their loyal customers, they plan to double each order at no additional cost. They are accepting orders now.
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I have eaten many Z chocolates and find them truly exceptional. They contain no alcohol, no preservatives, low sugar, high cocoa content and 100% pure cocoa butter, originating in a variety of growing areas, including Venezuela, the Ivory Coast and Madagascar. Each of their twenty-four uniquely flavored chocolates is created in the same flattened pyramid shape and numbered, except their signature chocolate: Z. These extra special Z chocolates are filled with roasted hazelnut praline and sweet-salty caramel and covered in either dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate.
 
Every order of Z Chocolat arrives in excellent condition in a cute little drawstring bag containing the chocolates and a little black book describing each chocolate in minute detail, including the origin of every ingredient, calorie, sugar, salt, fat and protein content and even possible allergens. One of my favorites is #13, “A rich and smooth cinnamon ganache drenched in Venezuelan and Madagascan blend 70% dark chocolate.”

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September brings a kind of wistfulness to the air as summer comes to an end and autumn looms. This is the season when we realize that the holidays are right around the corner, and we are way behind in our planning. Once again, Chocolate is here to save us. Since fine quality artisanal chocolate is never a disappointment, Afternoon Tea guests will welcome a few of John and Kira’s Chocolate Honey Caramel Bees along with the traditional Shortbread on an attractive tiered server, or perhaps even some of Z Chocolat’s Pates de Fruits (100% natural fruit jellies from Provence in cherry, orange, lemon or apricot) on the table near the Scones, the Devonshire Cream and the Lemon Curd.
 
For an intimate and festive dinner, Burdick’s elegant but diminutive 6-inch Chocolate Cakes provide the perfect conclusion to a special occasion meal for four. The Chocolate Raspberry Cake would delight your guests, as would the Chocolate Lemon Cake or the Earl Gray Mousse Cake, all priced between $38 and $48. Gourmet Chocolates are also much appreciated hostess gifts or party favors. If every child at a birthday party found a Burdick’s Chocolate penguin, mouse, or elephant, or a John and Kira’s ladybug next to their slice of birthday cake, how happy they would be! And at a Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Year’s Eve dinner, a Rogers’ Chocolate Empress Square, still neatly wrapped, next to each place setting, would add a new level of holiday cheer.

If you choose to include Artisanal Chocolates in your home entertaining, be sure to serve them at room temperature. Fine Chocolates should be kept at a cool and dry room temperature, like a wine cellar, but here in Hawaii, where rooms can become very warm, I refrigerate my chocolates and let them come to room temperature for about half an hour before serving them. If you are offering assorted chocolates, do not leave them in the box. They deserve to be placed in beautiful candy dishes, bowls or serving trays like any other elegant dessert. You may leave them in their paper candy cups if you wish, and if they are individually wrapped, as Empress Squares are, leave them in their wrappers but place the wrapped candies in an attractive dish.
 
For Christmas and other Holiday gifts, there is nothing like a box of candy. Think about what your recipient really likes and try to avoid any ingredients that may be allergens. In California, showing up with a two-pound box of See’s Dark Chocolate Nuts and Chews guarantees a hearty welcome. If you are not sure what to give, all the candy companies I have discussed have beautiful websites with an amazing array of chocolate gifts for any occasion, gifts you may never have dreamed of! Let the innovation, expertise and genuine love of these dedicated chocolatiers inspire you. Your friends will love you for it!
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As August rolls around, slowly I may add, those of us who live with seasonal heat and humidity are tempted, like a caricature of the eternal Southern Belle, to clutch our sweat-soaked pearls, and announce with mournful self-indulgence, “I just don’t know if I can make it through the summer!”
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​As we are sweltering in profound and historic human-generated August heat and misery, our eyes teary from smog and smoke, or our yards flooded, we should spend some time in serious reflection on what we can do to reduce our carbon footprints and encourage our family and friends to do the same. Meanwhile, how are we going to make it through the summer? Chocolate!
 

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Three months ago, in my May 2021 blog, I wrote about the lovely and ubiquitous Lemon, the fruit that complements every kind of meal in every season. Chocolate, which on the surface may appear to be Lemon’s polar opposite, is in fact its fraternal twin. Chocolate is also fabulous in every season. It can be enjoyed hot, warm, cold or frozen, to help us through every weather challenge. And in Mexico, the birthplace of Chocolate, this luscious brown substance, the child of the cocoa bean, is used to prepare both savory and sweet comestibles.

Fortunately, our website and blogs are filled with all sorts of chocolate delights for all four seasons featuring chocolate combined with a plethora of other flavorings, including, fruits, nuts and spices. Among many other options, you might want to try Grasshopper Mousse, pairing the flavors of mint and chocolate featured in Kathleen’s July 2016 blog, or for a very elegant presentation when the weather grows cooler, you will find Chocolate and orange-flavored Grand Marnier Truffles with Gold Leaf in our Winter Tea menu in the “Afternoon Tea and the Four Seasons “section of our website.

However, it is still summer, and we still need cool, refreshing desserts. If it weren’t for the fact that my birthday, and my husband’s are both in August, and no matter how old I get, I still love presents and Birthday Cake, I would be whimpering and whining about the oppressive heat like everybody else. But the thought of ice cream, especially chocolate ice cream, never fails to cheer me up. For the August birthdays on your calendar, look no farther than Kathleen’s July 2021 blog, “Summer Celebration Cake,” where she recommends Chocolate Layer Cake with Blackberry Jam Filling, surrounded by fresh blackberries, my father, Patrick Murdock’s favorite. This easy creation, which can be made from a cake mix, highlights the gorgeous fresh blackberries that will still be available in August. And it avoids the dreaded slipping and sliding that can occur in the hot summer with layer cakes that are held together with buttercream icing.
 
For a perfect hot weather birthday presentation, you will need to add ice cream, preferably chocolate, but don’t stop there. Spend a little quality time in the frozen foods aisle of your local air-conditioned grocery store and peruse the chocolate treasures that beckon. The ice cream industry has expanded exponentially beyond the old vanilla, chocolate and strawberry options that were once all we could hope for. Ben and Jerry, the patron saints of ice cream, have developed an astonishing number of flavors that include chocolate, starting with the ever-popular Cherry Garcia, composed of Cherry Ice Cream with Cherries and Fudge Flakes. According to the Ben and Jerry’s website, Cherry Garcia, is their most famous flavor and the “First ice cream named for a rock legend.”
 
This website features a breath-taking array of cleverly named and innovatively composed ice creams. Here is a sampling:
 

      Chocolate Shake It Truffles
            Chocolate Malt Milkshake Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookie-Covered Fudge Truffles and                      Marshmallow Swirls 
      Karamel Suta Core
            Chocolate and Caramel Ice Cream with Fudge Chips and a Soft Caramel Core
       Netflix and Chill’d
            Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Sweet and Salty Pretzel Swirls and Fudge Brownies
       Oat of the Swirled
            Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes and Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookie Swirls
       Brewed to Matter
            Coffee Ice Cream with Fudge Chunks and Brownie Butter Swirls

Clearly, the dream team at Ben and Jerry’s has figured out that chocolate is good with almost any other flavor, as this quick survey reveals. Here we find chocolate combined with marshmallow, caramel, peanut butter, salt, cinnamon, coffee, brown butter and oatmeal, and this is just the beginning. Ben and Jerry’s competition, Haagen-Dazs, has latched on to this principle and is quickly following suit. This high-end European sounding brand, actually owned by the Dryer’s Ice Cream Company of Oakland, California, is generating chocolate-infused ice creams similar to Ben and Jerry’s. Haagen-Dazs Caramel Cone ice cream, for example, contains, “Crunchy, chocolaty covered cone pieces and ribbons of caramel folded into caramel Ice cream.” Hmmm. Does that sound anything at all like Karamel Sutra Core?
 
In 2011, Magnum, a Belgian brand of ice cream and ice cream bars was launched in the United States. Magnum advertises their dark chocolate-covered ice cream bar as the “#1 indulgence ice cream bar in America.” Magnum also produces a wide variety of ice creams made with Belgian chocolate. One flavor, Double Chocolate and Ganache, made my head spin, just reading about it: “Chocolate Ice Cream with Swirls of Chocolate Ganache Sauce and Milk Chocolate Shards in a Crackling Milk Chocolate Shell.”
 

Lactose intolerant chocolate lovers can also find relief from this brutally hot and insect-abundant summer with dairy-free frozen desserts, produced by both Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs as well as Magnum, whose non-dairy flavors are vegan and contain no animal products. Another frozen chocolate dessert option is Chocolate Sorbet, a water-based frozen dessert that can be made without dairy products. If you own an ice cream maker, you can make Chocolate Sorbet at home. The recipe for David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Sorbet is available at food52.com. This recipe calls for nothing but water, sugar, Dutch-process cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate and vanilla extract.
 
Alternatively, you can buy a pint of Talenti Dark Chocolate Sorbetto at Safeway for $4.50 ($6.49 in Hawaii.) This delicious tasting dairy-free but non-vegan frozen dessert is marketed to sound like an Italian Gelato but is in fact an American product made by Unilever in Dallas, Texas and Marietta, Georgia. I liked it, but food purists might be disturbed by the long list of ingredients, including water, sugar, cocoa, dextrose, coconut oil, egg yolks, egg whites, chocolate liqueur, carob bean gum, sea salt, pectin and the ever popular “natural flavor.”
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​As a life-long chocolate devotee, I could write many more pages on this addictive subject, but I have decided to continue the Chocolate Chronicles next month with more news and recipes about chocolate and more chocolate, as it will still be hot in September, and we will still need chocolate. For now, I am happy to share two luscious chocolate desserts that feature generous amounts of chocolate paired brilliantly with coconut and coffee. The first is Tibok-Tibok, a Filipino uber-chocolate pudding that is both dairy-free and vegan and can be served chilled with toasted coconut on top for a life-saving summer refresher. The second is an over-the-top chocolate and coffee dessert that I have been making for twenty years, Chocolate Mocha Cake. This memorable creation is fabulous in every season but can really lift our spirits served in the summer with fresh cherry sauce and Cherry Garcia Ice Cream.
 

Any person who has ever enjoyed a Mounds Bar will attest to the fact that dark chocolate and coconut is a heavenly combination. And fortunately, food lovers who need or want to live gluten-free, dairy free and or vegan will love this recipe, as Tibok-TIbok is all of the above, and anything but a sad alternative to “real” dessert. This deeply flavored chocolate and coconut pudding is a true tropical delight. Once you’ve created a batch of Tibok-Tibok, you might be tempted to get carried away as I did when I assembled a “Tropical Trifle” in which I substituted Hawaiian Banana Bread (recipe in my May 2017 blog,) for the Pound Cake and Tibok-Tibok for the Vanilla Custard and layered the ingredients with toasted coconut, broken macadamia nut cookies and slices of fresh papaya topped with piles of whipped cream. The end result was neither gluten-free, dairy-free nor vegan, but there were no complaints from my omnivore friends and family.
 
I adapted this recipe from one I found in Bon Appetit magazine. To make this pudding, you will need a double boiler. I have never owned one, so I usually make do with a large saucepan and an aluminum mixing bowl. Fortunately, I now own an electric whisk which comes in handy, as the pudding needs to be whisked constantly as it thickens. The idea is that the water in the bottom saucepan should be simmering briskly before the pudding in the top of the double boiler is placed over the water, but the simmering water should not touch the bottom of the pudding pan. This is the only aspect of making Tibok-Tibok that is even remotely stressful, as the rest of the process is simply pouring the ingredients into the bowl.
 

• 2 (13.5- ounces each) cans unsweetened coconut milk (not reduced fat)
• ½ heaping cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1-2 cups toasted angel-flake coconut, optional

 

Special equipment: double boiler (or large aluminum mixing bowl and large saucepan,) rubber spatula, whisk, foil covered baking sheet, trifle bowl or 6-8 decorative dessert glasses or sherbet cups plastic wrap, wire rack.
 
Makes: 6-8 servings
 

​Chocolate Mocha Cake with Fresh Cherry Sauce
 

Earlier in this blog, I referred to the amount of chocolate in this Chocolate Mocha Cake as “generous.” That was an understatement. This dense, one-layer European style torte contains one pound of dark bittersweet chocolate combined in the cake and the icing. Clearly, it is meant to be served in small portions, and this nine-inch cake can serve twelve to sixteen happy recipients, depending on the size of the slices. I am visualizing a small wedge of cake with a scoop of Cherry Garcia Ice Cream on the side, both topped with Fresh Cherry Sauce. This is one of my favorite desserts of all time. I have been making it for twenty years, and I served it again recently for a small family gathering.
 
Chocolate Mocha Cake also supports my theory that chocolate is wonderful in all four seasons and that chocolate is good with everything. The original recipe, entitled Chocolate-Espresso Cake with Mocha Glaze, which I found in the 2001 December issue of Bon Appetit magazine and have adapted, was part of a Swedish Christmas menu that also included Beet and Apple Salad with Creamy Chive Dressing and Swedish Ginger Cookies. Obviously, this cake was intended to be part of a sumptuous Christmas feast. I hope you will save this recipe when Christmas rolls around, as it is ridiculously easy to make. You can adapt it for a winter presentation by topping or surrounding the cake with candied cranberries or marrons glace, festive European style candied chestnuts. I think this cake is great in the summer with Fresh Cherry Sauce, as chocolate and cherries are a classic combination that can never be surpassed. But as the seasons roll by, dried cherries can also be paired with chocolate with delicious results.
 
Start making this fabulous cake a day before you plan to serve it, as it improves with a night in the refrigerator.
 
For the Chocolate Mocha Cake:

Special Equipment: 9-inch springform pan, parchment paper, foil-lined baking sheet, 1-quart glass measuring cup, whisk, bamboo skewer, wire rack, hand-held electric mixer, large mixing bowl, heat-proof rubber spatula, medium sized mixing bowl, medium sized saucepan, disposable kitchen gloves, small paring knife, attractive cake platter, cake dome or waxed paper, covered glass container for the cherry sauce.
 
Serves: 10-16, depending on serving size
 
Preheat Oven to: 350° F
 

 
Summer is full of celebrations, and that means dessert! Most of us are already planning our Fourth of July festivities, whether a picnic in the park, a barbecue in the back yard or the traditional family gathering at Grandma’s house. Throughout my childhood, Independence Day always started before dawn and lasted well into the night, because this holiday was partly about Grandma’s fabulous Potato Salad and Deviled Eggs but mostly about fireworks! In the rural area of the Ozarks where my grandparents lived, nobody spent one second thinking about the dangers of letting children play with matches and explosives for hours on end.
 
On July 3, Grandpa would drive me and my sister and brother to the state line and let each of us fill up our own huge paper sack of fireworks to shoot off all by ourselves all day long on The Fourth of July. We always called this special summer holiday The Fourth of July, not Independence Day, and I didn’t realize until I was in my eighth-grade civics class that this was a patriotic holiday. I was so excited and obsessed about waking up at sunrise and literally spending the entire day shooting off strings of firecrackers in the alley that I didn’t even notice that my grandfather always hung his American flag on the porch that day and every year we drank red soda pop, ate red watermelon, and stuffed ourselves on Gram’s bright red Strawberry Short Cake, made with pie crust, not biscuits.
 

 
For me, year after year, the pace of this hot summer day revolved around managing my personal supply of fireworks to create the maximum amount of loud noise during the early hours and later morphing into the glorious multicolored lights of the sparklers, fountains, and Roman candles that we hoarded all day until darkness fell. I remember running through the warm dark night with Margaret and Johnny, swirling our sparklers like magic wands, lighting new ones off each other’s, as each golden sparkler fizzled and went out. The fountains, which we had to place on the ground, like little teepees, sent showers of bright red, blue and gold stars into the night with loud fizzing and whistling sounds, even to the delight of the grownups who, after eating all day, sat on the porch, surrounded by citronella candles, and watched. Finally, the Roman candles, which we held in our hands and aimed up at the starry sky, sent booming rockets of red fireballs into the darkness and scented the summer night with warm, lingering smoke.
 

 
As I mentioned, our desserts on Fourth of July always included cold watermelon, which we ate in thick wedges, held in our hands with watermelon juice dripping down our chins and even our elbows, equally juicy red strawberry shortcake and warm blackberry cobbler, one of my all-time favorite summer desserts. You can find my recipe for Blackberry Cobbler with Almond Streusel Topping in my August 2020 blog on this website. My grandmother’s Independence Day menu also featured piles of Fried Chicken, Corn on the Cob, and sliced tomatoes from the garden along with just pulled green onions to accompany the Potato Salad and Deviled Eggs. Sometimes there was also a beautiful jiggly red Jello salad.
 

 
Independence Day menus differ in various regions of the country, but the Fourth of July, and summertime in general, are the time for Iced Tea and cool, refreshing desserts. It is my pleasure to share with you two luscious, chilled desserts that you can make in advance and serve at any summer celebration or Tea Party to the delight of your family and friends. The first of these is appropriately named Summer Pudding.
 
Summer Pudding is a simple, old-fashioned dessert that beautifully highlights the jewel-like red, blue and purple colors of fresh summer berries. The sweetened and slightly cooked berries are layered between slices of day-old white bread, which soak up the juices for a gorgeous summer presentation that can be served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or both. For those of you who like to go with red, white and blue on the Fourth of July, this is the dessert for you. Though you will be celebrating America’s independence from the British Empire, you might be surprised to discover that Summer Pudding actually originated in England in the 1800s.
 
If you have visited England, you are aware that the countryside is crisscrossed with hedges and ancient stone fences, perfect havens for wild berries to thrive. While my Summer Pudding recipe calls for raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and dark Bing cherries, many other varieties of berries grow in rural England, and perhaps in the region where you live. Black and red currants, gooseberries, elderberries and mulberries are among the plethora of wild berries that grow in England Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Don’t hesitate to include any summer berries that are available in your area in your Summer Pudding, such as huckleberries from Oregon and olallieberries from the California coast.

 
Like their Scandinavian neighbors to the north, the British also include copious amounts of dairy products and baked goods in their diet. Milk, butter cheese and cream, along with breads and pastries show up at almost every English meal. And in a culture where Afternoon Tea is a daily occurrence, there are bound to be leftover cakes, cookies and bread. Some of England’s most famous and indeed most delicious desserts were developed as ingenious ways to use up leftovers, especially an over-abundance of garden produce, wild fruit and berries, baked goods or extra dairy products in the long summer growing season. One such dessert is Trifle, named for its humble origins as an innovative way to layer leftover pound cake with fruits, berries, jam, custard and broken cookies. Served in a footed glass bowl, this colorful and easy dessert looks like a gourmet creation. Our website features several different trifles to highlight the produce of every season. This summer, you might want to make our luscious Peach and Raspberry Trifle from the Afternoon Tea and the Four Seasons section of The Tea Book. Summer Pudding is a variation of the traditional English Trifle, a milestone in culinary frugality.
 

 
Summer Solstice
 

As a species without fur, with no tail to keep our balance,
We must rely on signs, look to the stars as they move
Through the heavens, note the phases of the moon
And the shifts in the sun’s risings.
We must listen to the elders who remember
Winters so cold even the foxes and the wolves
Drew near to our fires, and the dogs who had come to live with us
Lay down beside us to share their warm coats
With our freezing bodies in exchange for a bone to gnaw.
 
The old ones also recall summers so hot that nothing mattered
More than water, and wildfires were more deadly than
The bitter driving snow and the avalanche
That could take a whole village away.
 
We have learned to be the watchers.
We see the first crocus pushing through the snow,
The new leaves on the dogwood,
The fireflies flitting through the warm night air.
These are the gifts we must never squander--
Bright red berries in the healing sunlight,
Golden crowns of corn in the long summer days
And every drop of water that falls
From the generous sky.
 

 
The second cool summer dessert I am sharing this month is an American classic: Key Lime Pie. As one could easily guess, this refreshing treat originated in Key West, Florida and features the juice and zest of Key limes that grow in the region. Smaller and more aromatic than the more familiar Persian limes, Key limes produce a very tart, pale yellow juice, rendering the creamy filling for this pie a soft yellow color, though I must admit that I used large Persian limes, as Key Limes are not available in Hawaii. Local legends claim that Key Lime Pie first appeared in the Nineteenth Century, but food historians have not found any written evidence to support this theory. Instead, most researchers believe that Key Lime Pie was developed around 1931 when the Borden company started producing canned sweetened condensed milk, a central ingredient for this pie. The original recipe included condensed milk, egg yolks and the juice and rind of lemons. By 1933, lime juice replaced lemon juice, and the pie became associated with the Florida Keyes. My recipe is an adaptation of a seemingly miraculous pie from the website: Mom On Timeout that requires only lime juice and zest, sweetened condensed milk and sour cream to create a perfect pie filling. I exchanged the graham cracker crust with a ginger snap crust, which I perked up with a little minced candied ginger and extra lime zest. Feel free to toss in a little toasted coconut if you wish, but this pie begs to be slathered with chilled and freshly whipped cream.
 
I have already made three Key Lime Pies this summer, as they are so popular at our weekend family meals that they keep returning to the menu due to popular demand. Francis Blanco, the father of our surrogate granddaughter Willa, even declared, “2021 is the Year of Key Lime Pie!” I was so charmed by that generous compliment that I baked him his own personal Key Lime Pie for Father’s Day while the rest of us enjoyed our Summer Pudding. Key Lime Pie is ridiculously easy to make and only requires a few minutes of oven time to heat up your kitchen on a hot summer day. However, you must be patient, as it takes time to squeeze the juice from at least three large limes to give this pie the perfect balance of tart and sweet. This is the same leisurely summer patience you will need to pit a pound of cherries by hand for your Summer Pudding.
 

 
Summer Pudding is a type of Trifle, a layered dessert designed to make use of extra berries and leftover baked goods. The original Summer Pudding was a molded dessert in which berries and juice were layered in a mixing bowl with white bread, then chilled with a weighted plate on top and later unmolded and served on a platter like a dome-shaped cake. To make this old-fashioned version successfully, it is best to line the mixing bowl with plastic wrap to assist with the unmolding process.
 
I prefer to make an easier version of Summer Pudding by just layering all the ingredients in an attractive clear glass bowl or a footed Trifle bowl. And I do not limit myself to stale white bread to soak up the juices. Various recipes recommend lady fingers, cookies or cake. For the Summer Pudding I made recently, I used a one-pound loaf of frozen Sara Lee Pound Cake. The list of ingredients for this recipe is just a series of suggestions, as Summer Pudding is essentially a bunch of berries, juice and cake mixed together and topped with pillows of whipped cream. There is no wrong way to make Summer Pudding.
 

 
Special equipment: colander, paring knife, large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, glass measuring cup, heat-proof rubber spatula, attractive glass bowl or footed Trifle bowl, plastic wrap, hand-held electric mixer, medium mixing bowl, individual serving bowls.
 
Makes: 6-12 servings
 

Key Lime Pie is a cool, refreshing summer dessert that requires a few hours of refrigeration before it is served. Recipes that call for egg yolks in the filling usually include a meringue topping to use the egg whites. However, the recipe I am recommending requires no eggs or butter whatsoever, resulting in an astonishingly creamy, firm filling created by the smooth coagulation of the three primary ingredients—lime juice and zest, sour cream and sweetened condensed milk, during a very short period of baking followed by at least three hours of chilling in the refrigerator. For this version of Key Lime Pie, I prefer a whipped cream topping, added shortly before serving time. And because this recipe calls for a cookie crust rather than a pastry crust, it does not need to spend the night in the refrigerator, as a cookie crust can become a little soggy after too much time in the fridge. Make sure that you have at least four large limes on hand before you begin. I make my Key Lime Pie first thing in the morning and serve it at the evening meal. There is nothing like Key Lime Pie on a summer night!
 
For the Cookie Crust:

For the Filling:

 
For the Topping:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lime zest for decoration

 

Optional Add-Ins:
 
Sprinkle I cup of toasted sweetened angel flake coconut over the bottom of the baked crust before adding the filling
 
Add 1 teaspoon of finely minced candied ginger to the filling before pouring it into the crust
 
Special equipment: 1 nine-inch pie pan, food processor, medium sized glass mixing bowl, 2 glass measuring cups, wire rack, citrus zester, citrus juicer, rubber spatula, medium sized metal mixing bowl, hand-held electric mixer, waxed paper
 
Makes: 6-8 servings
 
Preheat oven to 375° F for crust and 350°F for filled pie

1. Prepare the lime zest and lime juice in advance: Wash and dry at least 3 large limes. You may need 4 or more, as limes are unpredictable in the amount of juice they will produce. Zest 2 of the limes and wrap the zest in a slightly dampened paper towel to reserve for the filling. Zest the third lime and reserve the zest separately in another damp paper towel to use in the crust and whipped cream topping. Cut each lime in two and squeeze the juice by hand using a citrus juicer. Be patient. Limes do not release their juice as readily as lemons or oranges, and this will require serious hard pressure on your part. Squeeze out every drop you can get until you have ¾ cup of juice. Save the juice in a glass measuring cup and set aside.
2. Make the Ginger Snap Crust: Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a microwave safe medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside. Pulse the Ginger Snaps in a food processor until they are pulverized into small crumbs. Transfer the crumbs into another 2-cup measuring cup until you have 1 ½ cups of crumbs. Add the crumbs to the melted butter in the mixing bowl and stir with a rubber spatula. Add 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of reserved lime zest and 1 teaspoon of finely minced candied ginger and mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Lightly spray the bottom and sides of the pie pan with cooking spray. Press the crust mixture into the pie pan and press firmly to cover the bottom evenly and form a uniform crust around the sides and the top rim. You might want to cover the bottom of the crust with a sheet of waxed paper and press hard all around the bottom and sides with the bottom of a jelly jar to make sure all the crumbs are tightly tamped down. Bake for 7 minutes in the pre-heated 375°F oven. Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes.
4. Make the filling: Reduce the oven temperature to 350° F. Wash and dry the glass mixing bowl and add all the filling ingredients: 2 cans (28 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup of sour cream, the reserved zest of 2 limes, the reserved ¾ cup of lime juice and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Gently stir with a rubber spatula until the mixture is completely combined. If you wish, add 1 teaspoon of finely chopped candied ginger and mix it well into the filling. If you are adding coconut, sprinkle the toasted coconut over the pie crust.
5. When the crust has cooled, gently pour the filling evenly over the crust and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly on the wire rack. When the pie is no longer hot, lay a square of waxed paper gently over the top and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. In a small bowl, combine about 1 teaspoon of sugar with 1 teaspoon of reserved lime zest for the topping and set aside at room temperature. Place the metal mixing bowl and the beaters for the hand-held mixer in the freezer.
6. Prepare the topping: A few minutes before serving the pie, remove the mixing bowl and beaters from the freezer and beat the heavy whipping cream just until soft peaks begin to form. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until the peaks are slightly firmer.

Remove the pie from the refrigerator, pull off the waxed paper, and spread the whipped cream over the pie with the rubber spatula, completely covering the top with decorative swirls. Sprinkle the reserved sugared lime zest over the center of the pie and serve immediately. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Summer is here and everything has changed. Those of us who are vaccinated can gather without masks, eat in restaurants, and attend cultural events once again. We can even think about traveling to visit our loved ones after more than a year of absence. In this new time of possibility, we remember past summers and the simple joy of road trips with family and friends.
 

While we long to “get back to normal” and reclaim the “good old days,” we know in our hearts that after more than a year of a world-wide pandemic which killed shocking numbers of our fellow human beings, we will never ever be the same. We will be different, and there is hope that we can even be better. We have learned that the world is a single globe, and an illness anywhere is a danger to all of us everywhere. Maybe we can reclaim the simple skills of sharing and caring about everyone who lives on our Earth.
 

 
We can look for small signs, little changes that can lead us to a happier and healthier path as we move into this new future. Even the way we eat could shift in quiet ways. We could try being a little more adventurous, or perhaps just a little bit less picky. Here’s an idea. Let’s welcome every kind of food into our daily meals. And let’s treat the food we eat with respect and reverence. Let’s slow down and appreciate every bite. Remember what fun potlucks were when you were a child? Whether it was a school, a church, a neighborhood or an extended family, people would get together, and every group would bring a favorite dish to share. Potlucks went on for hours, and no one was ever in a hurry to leave.
 

 
In those days, no one would dream of showing up late at a potluck with a pint of coleslaw in a plastic container from Safeway, a bag of potato chips, or worst of all, empty handed. People took the time to make their specialty, something that everybody looked forward to. Women gained their reputations for making the best fried chicken, the best flan, the best potato salad, the best chocolate brownies, the best chicken adobo, the best butter mochi, the best enchiladas, the best baklava, or the best Chinese chicken salad, and the list of “the best” never seemed to end. Every item on the potluck table was eaten, appreciated, and talked about.
 
Most of these memorable dishes were made from inexpensive ingredients but required time and careful attention to every detail of preparation, flavor, and presentation. Many were based on old family recipes, cherished for years and handed down by parents and grandparents. Some of these special foods originated in some faraway land and became household treasures. Because a potluck is a gathering that celebrates and respects the heritage and traditions of every family present, there were unspoken “rules” that made every potluck a grand occasion:

 
As I think back fondly on all the potlucks I loved as a child, I can see now that the unique charm of a potluck is its eclectic nature. No one at a potluck would ever say, “Hay, what’s that Prune Cake doing on the table? This is a Chinese buffet!” But when we eat in restaurants, we usually choose a particular type of food, perhaps of national or regional origin: Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Indian, Chinese, American or Southern Barbecue. Even at home we seldom serve different types of cuisine at the same meal. Why not? Isn’t a food item that is delicious and memorable always good, no matter when or where it is eaten?
 
While I am familiar with the nuances of menu development and the selection of harmonious foods based on the season, the terroir (environmental factors affecting crops and livestock in a specific area,) color, texture, flavors and compatible ingredients, I still think there is plenty to learn and appreciate through the inter-cultural sharing of foods in a single meal. It might be fun to apply this principle to a family dinner or even a Tea Party.
 
As you know, our website is all about Afternoon Tea from the international perspective. As I look back over our blogs and our Tea Party menus from countries all over the world, I am thinking how delightful it would be to bring many cultures together in a single tea party. Here is a hypothetical Afternoon Tea menu including some of my favorite foods from faraway places I have visited in my travels.

Hot Chai (India)
 Genmai Cha (Japan)
Iced Rooibos Tea (South Africa)

Artichoke Cheese Frittata
(California: Rose’s January 2020 Blog)
  Isaac’s Roasted Tomato Salsa
(California Mexican Heritage: Rose’s August 2019 Blog)
 Tea Smoked Eggs
(China: Rose’s February 2020 Blog)
Open-Faced Smoked Salmon Sandwiches on Swirled Rye
(Russia: Website: A World of Tea Parties: A Russian Tea)

Breads and Cheeses
 Margaret Murdock’s Irish Soda Bread with Kerry Gold Butter and Orange Marmalade
(Ireland: Website: March: A St. Patrick’s Day Irish Tea)
Hawaiian Banana Bread with Cream Cheese and Guava Jelly
(Hawaii: Rose’s May 2017 Blog)
 Cheese and Condiment Platter
 Manchego with Quince Paste (Spain)
Jarlsberg (Switzerland) with Cucumber Namasu
(Japan: Website: January: A Japanese New Year’s Tea)
Cheddar with Branston Pickle Relish and Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers (England)
 
Sweets
Malva Pudding
(Botswana: Rose’s July 2017 Blog)
Mexican Wedding Cookies
(Mexico: Also known as Russian Tea Cakes: Website: October Dia de los Muertos Tea)
Chocolate Almond Torte
(France: Rose’s April 2019 Blog)
Baklava
(Greece: Website: August: Greek or Mediterranean Family Reunion Tea)

I hope you will enjoy all these flavors together in a single festive Tea Party. Of course, you are welcome to add or subtract items depending on the size of your gathering. As you can see, I have substituted a Bread and Cheese course for the scones usually served at a traditional Tea Party. Feel free to include your own international touches based on your preferences and experiences. For example, adding some good French Brie or some excellent Italian Salami to the cheese tray would not be a mistake. I am thinking that your guests can spoon some of the very spicy Isaac’s Roasted Tomato Salsa over the relatively mild flavored Artichoke Frittata, but don’t hesitate to include corn chips with the salsa if you wish. The Chocolate Almond Torte is one of my personal favorites, and I believe that every Tea Party should include at least something chocolate in the Sweets course. However, you can certainly simplify by substituting some good quality store-bought Belgian chocolates.
 

Finally, for those of you, who, like me and Kathleen, enjoy reading Victoria magazine for its lovely aesthetics and polite charm, we are happy to announce that both of us have been published in the July and August issue. Look for the section called “Reader to Reader,” which invites readers to submit mini essays on a specific topic, in this issue, “Cherished Heirlooms.” Turn to page 11 for Kathleen’s essay on a treasured girl’s wine-colored velvet dress that has been in our family for decades and which both my sister and I wore as children. My essay is about the pink Depression glass I inherited from my grandmother, and which I use every time I host a Tea Party.
 

Lemons, along with tea, are among the many precious gifts that Southeast Asia has given to the rest of the world. And fortunately for all of us, this luscious fruit is available now almost everywhere all year round, not just on the glorious Amalfi coast of Italy, where the world-famous lemon liqueur, Limoncello, is produced. Believe it or not, there are botanical archeologists in this world, working diligently to discover the origins and migration patterns of plants. They have revealed the journey of lemons from India to Italy and on to the orchards of Florida and California.
 
In fact, lemons are an ancient hybrid of citron and lime, and have been cultivated in Southeast Asia for 2,500 years. They flourished in ancient China and India and traveled to Persia and the Southern Levant in the Fifth to Fourth Centuries BC, then on to the Western Mediterranean about two hundred years later in the Early Roman Period. Scientists discovered the first evidence of lemons in Italy on an archeological dig in the Roman Coliseum. Interestingly, the citron preceded lemons on the journey along the Silk Road, while oranges arrived centuries later.
 

 
Apparently, lemons were initially viewed as “elite products” only available to people of high status, rich enough to include them in private gardens. They also appeared in the art of the ancient Middle East and the Roman Empire, in wall paintings, reliefs, mosaics and coins. The artistic value of lemons is not at all surprising, as their exquisite oval shape and intense yellow color form a timeless design, simple and eternal in its elegance. It seems that in the Mediterranean region, lemons were first appreciated for their beauty, and perhaps also for their pleasing aroma and the charm of the sun-loving and glossy-leafed evergreen trees which produce them. Renaissance still life painters certainly loved to include lemons among the carefully arranged vignettes of flowers, fruits, and even insects so typical of that era’s appreciation of the natural world of the senses
 

 
It was not until the 1800s that large groves of lemon trees were planted in California and Florida for commercial purposes. This sun loving subtropical tree thrives in temperatures from 77-86 degrees and is very sensitive to frost. Today, in addition to America, the big producers of commercial lemons include Italy, Uruguay, India, Mexico, China and Argentina.

 
Diligent home gardeners in the right climate zones can raise lemon trees in their yards, and the reward will be a year-round bonanza of beauty: shining dark green leaves, fragrant white blossoms welcoming the bees and plump yellow lemons to enhance your home cooking, both savory and sweet. And you can avoid the hefty prices for lemons in the supermarkets.
 

 
The demand for lemons certainly increased as home cooks along the Silk Road discovered over the centuries that lemons are more than pretty little aromatic orbs. Lemons are now a foundational ingredient of Mediterranean as well as East Asian cuisine. Today, one cannot imagine eating a Middle Eastern, Greek, Italian or French meal that contains no lemon. And Tea Parties around the world would not be Tea Parties at all without Lemon Tea Bread and Lemon Curd to grace warm buttery scones enjoyed with steaming cups of fragrant tea.
 
Lemons are like the very best kind of neighbor. They are quiet and lovely, yet always welcome. Their cheerful yellow color harmonizes with every other color in the spectrum. Never obtrusive, lemons are always ready to help. They are filled with Vitamin C to protect your health, happy to clean and shine your skin, your hair and even your kitchen sink, and when you are feeling low on a cold winter night, lemons are ready to mingle their juice with honey in a cup of hot water to soothe your sore throat. Lemons are team players who never push themselves out in front. In every season they are a cook’s best friend. For a savory meal, they blend in with salt, garlic, pepper and every kind of herb. In spring and summer, lemons mix with olive oil, tomatoes and all the fresh vegetables from the garden. And they undergo a magical transformation when their strong sour juice is combined with sugar for an infinite number of sweet desserts. Even their peel can be grated to add a subtle undertone of clean, bright flavor that makes any dish somehow more wonderful.
 

I have not forgotten that May is the month for all sorts of festivities with Mother’s Day, this year on May 9, at the top of the list. Our website and blogs are filled with ideas and treats to make your mother feel special, starting with our “Mother’s Day Tea” in the calendar section of the “Tea Book” chapter of our website. This elegant menu, developed by my co-author Kathleen, includes the classic sweet and tart Tea Party accompaniment, Lemon Curd. You can make your own Lemon Curd and Lemon Tea Bread using freshly squeezed lemon juice and just-grated lemon zest. Both of these recipes are available for free in the “Tea Menu Basics” chapter of this website. I recently made the Lemon Tea Bread, which makes two loaves. These make wonderful gifts. I gave one away and served the other, dressed up a little, at our weekend family meal. I added a lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze and sprinkled freshly grated lemon zest mixed with yellow sanding sugar crystals decoratively on top.
 ​

 
And since we were able to find some luscious red raspberries from Watsonville, California, (Kathleen’s hometown,) in our local grocery store, I made some quick and festive Raspberry Coulis to pour over the top of the Lemon Tea Bread, served with vanilla ice cream. To make your own Raspberry Coulis, just microwave ½ cup sugar with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of water for about 30 seconds and stir to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Put 12 ounces of fresh raspberries into a blender, pour the hot syrup over, add a tablespoon of Chambord if you have any, and blend. Raspberry Coulis is beautiful served in a clear glass or crystal pitcher, and like so many other special treats, it is enhanced by the invisible presence of lemon juice.
 
Savory dishes are also frequently enlivened by the secret presence of lemon juice and lemon zest. One of my favorite lemon-inspired savory dishes is the world-famous Greek Lemon Soup, Avgolemono, which would make a lovely focal point for a Mother’s Day lunch. Asparagus spears with a lemon juice and olive oil vinaigrette including lemon zest and fresh herbs would be a perfect complement to this late spring menu. If your mother really loves lemons, I recommend my favorite lemon pie, Lemon Chess Pie. The recipe for this old Southern classic, with the addition of toasted coconut, is available in my November 2019 blog.
 
Our website includes many other lemon-inspired recipes, including Victoria Sponge Cake with Lemon Curd Filling in the Classic British Tea in our “World of Tea Parties” chapter. And if you are uncertain about measurements and equipment related to working with lemons, and what exactly lemon zest actually is, you are welcome to read “About Lemons,” in the “Tea Menu Basics” chapter following the “Scones and Tea Breads” section.
 

 
As you prepare for Mother’s Day and other late spring and early summer celebrations in the month of May, don’t forget the aesthetic value of lemons. Be sure to read Kathleen’s blog this month, “The Darling Buds of May.” She includes beautiful photographs of flower arrangements, many including branches of lemon leaves, and shows you how to incorporate floral arrangements into table settings for tea parties and other special gatherings.

 
Finally, I’m happy to share a lemon-themed treat that my husband recently found in, of all places, Costco: Lemoncello Chocolate Almonds produced by the Sconza Family of Oakdale, California. These delicious pale-yellow morsels are described on the package as “Roasted Almonds Covered in White Chocolate and Lemon Cream.” I can testify that they are delicious and quite addictive with a bright lemon flavor. And they are truly beautiful. The additional beauty of these elegant little candies is that the host or hostess does not have to do anything but share them with their grateful guests, although I am also picturing them as party favors tied up in little mesh bags with yellow ribbons for Afternoon Tea or any event that needs to be especially memorable.

​

 
Greek Lemon Soup
(Avgolemono)

 
Avgolemono, or “Egg-Lemon,” so popular in Greece, is actually of Sephardic Jewish origin. It is based on the culinary technique of combining egg yolk and lemon added to broth as a thickening agent. This method is also used in Arabic, Turkish, Balkan and Italian cuisine. As in so many other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern savory dishes, this delicious soup relies on lemon also to combine with vegetables and herbs to create a pleasantly complex flavor. Avgolemono can be prepared as a vegetarian soup, or with the addition of shredded chicken, it can be the central dish at a hearty meal. It is wonderful served with crusty bread, a little dish of olives and maybe a Greek salad with some Feta cheese.
 

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ½-1 cup finely chopped carrots
• ½-1 cup finely chopped celery
• ½-1 cup finely chopped green onions
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup rice
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (optional)
• ½ cup lemon juice, from about 2 lemons
• 2 large eggs
• Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

 

 
Special equipment: large stock pot, wooden spoon, medium sized mixing bowl, hand-held or electric whisk, ladle
 
Makes: about 8 servings

1. In a large stockpot on medium heat, saute the chopped carrots, celery, green onions and garlic in olive oil until soft, about 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
2. Add the chicken broth and bay leaves and heat to boiling. Add the rice and salt and pepper (about ½ teaspoon each,) turn the heat down to medium low, and simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is tender. Add the shredded chicken. Add more salt and pepper to taste if you wish.
3. Combine the lemon juice and eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl and whisk to combine thoroughly. While whisking, add 2 ladles of hot broth from the soup. Continue whisking.
4. Stir the lemon, egg and broth mixture carefully into the soup. Turn off the heat and serve immediately, garnished with chopped parsley.

 

​April is the month of glorious rebirth in the natural world, a time when new leaves appear, flowers bloom, and birds are chirping everywhere, as they build nests for their chicks. And this year, April starts in Holy Week, when traditional Easter celebrations begin. In fact, this year, April 1 falls on Holy Thursday, the first day of the Triduum, or three-day liturgical commemoration of the final three days in the life of Jesus prior to His resurrection on Easter.
 

​During the past year as we were sheltering and dining at home only with the members of our family “bubble,” we entertained ourselves by exploring a variety of culinary cultures in our weekend family meals. This was our form of virtual travel. One of my favorite menus was a Portuguese lunch I hosted based on happy memories of the time Wayne and I spent in beautiful Portugal, a place where Easter is celebrated with enthusiastic traditional religious torchlight and candlelight processions, ancient rituals and festivals filled with fresh flowers. Although we ate this meal in November, all of the items we enjoyed, including Green Soup, Egg Yolk Tarts and Little Orange Cakes, would fit in perfectly at any Easter feast.

​The central item in this menu, Vinha D’alhos, or Portuguese Marinated Pork, is also the star of every Easter Sunday meal for the Hawaiian families of Portuguese ancestry. My April 2017 blog on this website, “Easter on Oahu,” includes the recipe for Vinha d’alhos. And for those of you who might still be looking for ideas for your family’s Easter meal, our “Hawaiian Tea” in the “World of Tea Parties” section of this website also includes the menu for an Easter Brunch.
 
For a more detailed virtual culinary trip to Portugal, you are welcome to explore the “Portuguese Tea” on this website. In addition to a menu of Portuguese foods you can enjoy with Afternoon Tea, this chapter of “A World of Tea Parties” includes a discussion of Portugal’s role in introducing tea parties to the rest of Europe and Portugal’s influence on the foods of several Asian countries. Because Portugal was the leader in European explorations in Asia in the 1500’s, we place Portugal second only to China, where tea originated, in sharing tea with the rest of the world. As you read “A Portuguese Tea,” you will find photographs of Hawaiian Sweet Bread (which originated in Portugal,) Caldo Verde, the famous Portuguese Green Soup and Pasteis de Nata (sometimes called Pastel de Nata,) the famous and uber-delicious Portuguese Egg Yolk Tarts. Hawaiian Sweet Bread is easy to find in your local grocery store. You can order the recipes for the other items from our “Portuguese Tea” from our website if you wish.
 
For your Easter Basket, April Tea Party or Special Spring Lunch, I am happy to share the recipes for two last-minute treats that I think are a lot more delicious than marshmallow chicks and chocolate bunnies: Bolinhos de Laranja (Little Orange Cakes) and Salame de Chocolate (Chocolate Salami) a favorite sweet in Portugal at Easter time.
 

​ 
These grownup gourmet “cupcakes” derive their ultimate lusciousness from freshly grated orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice along with a generous amount of butter. This recipe calls for sprinkling the tops with sanding sugar at the end of the baking process. Sanding sugar is a large crystal sugar used to decorate baked goods. It comes in a variety of colors and creates a sparkling effect. White crystal sugar looks prettiest on Bolinhos de Laranja, but if you don’t have any in your pantry, just use regular white granulated sugar. You can make these lovely little orange cakes in a muffin pan using decorative paper cups, but if you happen to own a mini-Bundt pan, your cakes will be even prettier, with the sparkling sugar on the bottoms. This subtle detail will not be lost on your appreciative guests.
 

Preheat oven to 350°F
 
Special equipment: 2 muffin pans or mini-Bundt pans, or 1 of each, decorative paper baking cups if using muffin pans, 1 large mixing bowl, 1 medium sized mixing bowl, fork, sieve or flour sifter, small microwave-safe bowl, hand-held electric mixer, rubber spatula, 2 wire cooling racks, citrus zester, citrus juicer, small ladle, parchment paper
 
Makes: about 24 little cakes
 

 
Salame de Chocolate (Chocolate Salami)
​

This Easter confection is hugely popular in Portugal, although it is obviously Italian in origin, as it is designed to look exactly like Italian salami. Salame de Chocolate is easy to assemble into long round salami-sized logs, and it requires no baking. This recipe makes 2 logs, each approximately 16 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide. These can be refrigerated for several days, rolled in parchment paper, and they freeze well. Serve it sliced, just like a cold cut, on a decorative plate along with other Easter treats. Chocolate Salami is also an attention-getting addition to the sweets at Tea Parties, and any time something special is needed to serve with coffee.
 
Although the shape is different, the ingredients in Chocolate Salami are similar to its British counterpart, Chocolate Biscuit Cake, a favorite tea-time treat of Queen Elizabeth II. Both desserts are essentially good quality dark chocolate melted and mixed with roughly crushed tea biscuits such as Marie Cookies or Mc Vitie’s Digestive Biscuits. Since neither of these was available in any grocery store within a few miles of my home, I used Diamond brand Original Hawaiian Royal Cream Crackers. Some recipes for Portuguese Salame de Chocolate also include chopped toasted nuts and a generous splash of Port. I chose toasted almonds and a teaspoon of Rum.
 
The logs are wrapped in parchment, then rolled in powdered sugar before slicing The result is little round flat slices in which the dark chocolate resembles the meat in salami and the bits of cookie look like flecks of fat. The unevenly distributed coating of powdered sugar mimics the whitish coating on the outside of a Salami. What fun!
 

Special equipment: 1-gallon zip-lock bag, rolling pin, half-gallon glass measuring cup or medium sized microwaveable bowl, rubber spatula, sharp serrated knife, parchment paper, disposable gloves, sieve or flour sifter
 
Makes: 2 logs of Chocolate Salami, 6-8 dozen slices

 
March has arrived, and the calendar tells us that spring is here, yet chilly weather remains in many places and the coronavirus lingers. It has now been a year since my husband, Wayne, and I began sheltering in place in our home.
 

It is true that we have been comfortable here on the beach, though our dream of traveling to Japan once again to see the cherry blossoms near Mount Fuji has been postponed at least until 2022. But gratitude should be our response to this year of silence and isolation. I know the horrors that others have suffered during this terrible pandemic, and we too have experienced loss and sorrow, but I am amazed that we have received many blessings as well.

The imagery in this poem comes from California’s landscape, where I lived when I wrote it many years ago. But the circle is a universal symbol of completion and unity that occurs in every habitat, time period and culture, as Black Elk so wisely pointed out.
 
The Circle of Sky has been my refuge for the past year, and certainly one of my richest blessings has been the privilege of living in constant connection with the natural world.
 

The eight haiku above were written in March and April of 2020, before and after the pandemic arrived in Hawaii. They chronicle ordinary events as all of us slowly became aware that this virus was changing our lives in unexpected ways. Our final social event of 2020 was the third birthday party we hosted for Willa and her friends on March 14 at our beach home. Wayne and I have been caring for Willa since her birth, and as she turns four this month, she will have spent a quarter of her life waiting for “the sickness” to go away. Our birthday gift to her last year was an inflatable waterslide, a source of unbelievable joy to her and her many little friends, none of whom she has seen since. The big event our country is hoping for on Willa’s birthday this year is the passage of the Covid Relief Bill.
 
A year ago, if someone had told us that we would spend at least an entire year in isolation, sheltering at home and not touching another soul except the people we live with, we would have treated that ridiculous idea like the plot of a cheesy science fiction movie. But what if we had known and understood? Would we have looked for the blessings hiding behind this horror?
 

 
I cannot take credit for any of the blessings that have come my way during the past terrible year, but looking back, I can see them. Willa herself is a priceless blessing to me. I have become her teacher and her constant companion as her school closed due to the pandemic and her parents went back to work on adjusted schedules. As an older woman with no daughters and no grandchildren, I have been given an unimaginable gift. Thirty-five years as a college professor did little to prepare me to teach a three-year-old, but Willa and I are learning together. Based on the briefest orientation to her previous school curriculum, we have set a schedule that starts at 8:30 AM on Monday morning; technology and a few school supplies help us along the way.
 ​

Willa has learned to call upon Alexa to play “Reveille,” we get out our small American flag, and say the Pledge of Allegiance, (which I fear I had not recited in years,) together. Morning prayers follow, all of which she has memorized, and I am reminded how good children are at memorization, unlike elderly women and men. Then we have a chat about the calendar, the day, the month and the year. Yes, she knows that it is 2021. Before we get to the “academics,” of course we have to discuss the weather report. Here in Hawaii, the weather is always “warm,” with a very rare “cool” day, but we have plenty of clouds, rain and wind to observe by looking out the large windows facing the sky and sea.
 

Of course, we have to have a real snack after sailing with Captain Seasalt, and Uncle Wayne comes to the rescue with steaming cups of miso soup with plenty of tofu and seaweed. Then he and Willa change into their swimming suits and jump onto the beach where endless opportunities for learning await. She has spotted sea turtles, seaweed, coral and lava rocks, lots of shells and a large number of imaginary orcas, great white sharks and dolphins, not to mention mermaids and various assorted swimming lions, bears and underwater volcanoes.
 
What a joy it is to enter the world of magical thinking with a child! Many other blessings came my way unexpectedly, in the past year. Among these were the opportunity to explore my creative passion, poetry, spend more time reading and learning with an on-line book club, be a better friend and family member by reaching out through zoom, text messages, emails and even hand-written notes, and nurture myself physically and spiritually through yoga and meditation. I am guessing the same or similar opportunities presented themselves to everyone else during this year of involuntary free time.
 
During this past year, I have joined a monthly (every second Tuesday) virtual poetry reading with the Union Poets, originating in the state of Washington. This open microphone event is hosted by the prolific poet and author, Sterling Warner, my former colleague at Evergreen Valley College. The poets who participate live all over the country, from Alaska to New York, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Hawaii. We are an eclectic group, from a young schoolteacher in Alaska to an octogenarian journalist from Texas. One of the poets combines her poems with photography; another plays a native flute as we read her printed poems on our computer screens. We have formed a supportive little band, listening in respectful silence as each person shares a poem in turn.
 
At our most recent gathering in February, I was thrilled to greet, though virtually, two of my former students, whom I had not seen in years, Roohi Vora and Danny Le, invited by Sterling to join us. Roohi and Danny (who goes by the professional name Dandiggity,) have both evolved from college students to successful poets and professionals. Roohi is now an English Professor at San Jose State University where she has received the Lecturer of the Year award, and Danny is a librarian and dynamic performance poet who helps to organize artistic events in the Bay Area. Hearing them read their poetry among this distinguished group was more than music to my ears. The greatest reward for a teacher is to see her students succeed!
 
I have also had time, at last, to work on my other website: mybestpoetry.com. While it is still a work in progress and may never feel complete, this website contains a large collection of the poetry I have written over the years, organized into categories: Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Monologues, Haiku and a textbook called Finding the Poet. This text, all about poetry, is designed for students who want to learn to read, understand and appreciate poetry as well as for poets who want to learn more about their craft and to master the art form they have chosen. All of the readers of myteaplanner.com are more than welcome to peruse mybestpoetry.com at their leisure.
 
As you experience another March, still in lockdown mode, you will probably not be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in a crowded Irish Pub drinking liberal amounts of beer, dancing a jig and listening to an Irish band with a penny whistle. But we can still honor our favorite Irish Saint, as everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. Why not enjoy the simplest of Irish meals at home with your loved one? Irish Brown Bread with Irish Vegetable Soup is as humble as a meal can be, but trust me, it is delicious.

This hearty and healthy Brown Bread falls into the same category as Irish Soda Bread, featured in our St. Patrick’s Day Irish Tea in the March calendar section of this website. Both of these wonderful quick breads are leavened with baking soda rather than yeast. This means that there is no waiting for the dough to rise, and you can whip this up in your food processor and bake it while you make the Vegetable Soup.
​

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons toasted wheat bran
• 3 tablespoons toasted wheat germ
• 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
• 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) salted butter, chilled
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• Cooking spray for the loaf pan

 

Preheat oven to 425°F
 
Special equipment: food processor, 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, parchment paper, 1-quart glass measuring cup, wire cooling rack, wooden skewer or sharp knife, kitchen mitts, serrated knife
 
Makes: one loaf, approximately 8 servings, or about 12-15 2-inch scones
 

​​This tasty Vegetable Soup is the essence of Irish cooking, simple root vegetables from the garden combined with the ever-popular cauliflower and a few fresh herbs to create a meal that will satisfy. Serve it with Irish Brown Bread and Kerry Gold Irish butter. Some Irish Cheddar would be a nice addition to complete the meal. Any of the desserts from our St. Patrick’s Day Irish Tea Menu would turn this simple supper into a feast. Or check out Kathleen’s March 2021 blog for two fabulous Irish-inspired pies: Buttermilk Irish Whiskey Apple Pie or Vanilla Malt Pie with Pretzel Crust.

​​ 

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 sweet yellow onions
• 3 leeks
• 4 potatoes
• 5 carrots
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence, or 3-4 tablespoons of fresh herbs from the garden such as parsley and rosemary
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 quart of chicken or vegetable broth

Special equipment: large cooking pot with lid, paring knife, cutting board, immersion blender or potato masher
 
Makes: 6-8 servings

February is here, the shortest month of the year and one of the loveliest. It is a time of promise when winter’s dark landscape begins to show the tiniest signs of spring. I wrote this poem when the world around me seemed to celebrate both winter and spring. I love these times of dynamic transformation when opposites merge into something new and beautiful.

 
When the crocuses emerge from the cold ground, tiny green leaf buds appear in the top branches of the oaks and bright pink blossoms arrive on the bare quinces, what else will happen in February? Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, is February 16, the culmination of the Carnival season and the day before Ash Wednesday when the long austere season of Lent begins. Traditionally, Mardi Gras is a time for lavish parades, dancing in the streets and parties with copious amounts of rich food and drink, lots of music and crowds packed together in frenzied festivity. However, this year there will be no Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans. The mayor of New Orleans, La Toya Cantrell, has announced that while Mardi Gras cannot be canceled because it is a religious, not a governmental celebration, it will be very different in 2021. No parades will be permitted, and all public activities will require masking and social distancing. Perhaps we should just stay home and create our own little party.
 

​ 
Another February holiday that cannot be canceled is Valentine’s Day on Sunday, February 14. Like Mardi Gras, St. Valentine’s Day, as it was known traditionally, is also religious in origin. This festival was celebrated by the ancient Romans as the Lupercalia, a fertility rite involving naked men jumping around and sacrificing animals. At the end of the Fifth Century, after Roman Catholicism had been firmly established in the Roman Empire, Pope Gelasius re-named and re-purposed the festival of Lupercalia as St. Valentine’s Day in honor of one, or perhaps two martyred saints named Valentine. Legend has it that in the Third Century, two Catholic priests, both named Valentine, were executed by the Emperor Claudius II on February 14, but not in the same year. One of them is said to have been beaten to death with clubs and beheaded in punishment for secretly performing marriages for young Christian couples to save the husbands from going to war. This story explains why Valentine’s Day is associated with love and marriage, although the strong emphasis on romance among unmarried lovers did not evolve until the Fourteenth Century, a time when Courtly Love was in vogue.
 
Because historic documentation to substantiate the legend of St. Valentine cannot be found, the Catholic Church removed him from the General Roman Calendar in 1969, but St. Valentine is still listed in Catholic liturgical calendars on February 14 as “traditional,” and this day is commemorated as World Marriage Day. Several miracles are associated with St. Valentine, including the restoration of sight to a blind girl to whom he wrote a letter signed “from your Valentine.” In addition to being the patron saint of lovers, St. Valentine, for unknown reasons, is the patron saint of epileptics and beekeepers. Over the centuries, St. Valentine’s Day became a time for husbands, wives and sweethearts to express their love for one another through letters, handwritten notes, poems and other small tokens of affection.
 

​ 
For the artistically inclined, these little gifts often included symbols and visual images, especially hearts, turtledoves and pictures of Cupid shooting his arrows of love into the heart of the beloved. Red, the color of passion, came to dominate the composition of commercial valentines, and the custom of sending red roses to a loved one added an element of extravagance to the expression of love. Red heart-shaped boxes of fine chocolates soon followed.
 

 
Today, Valentine’s Day has become a hugely commercialized event in which couples are expected to demonstrate their love through extravagant and uber-expensive gift giving, including jewelry, champagne dinners in the finest restaurants, trips to Hawaii and even orchestrated public proposals of marriage. Voices in popular culture have begun to point out the tastelessness of this trend, which excludes single people and stereotypes private expressions of love between two people into public shows of status. While I hesitate to criticize any form of celebration that brings happiness to the participants, I do believe that true love is the secret realm of two people who have found something sacred, often expressed in ephemeral moments of kindness.
 

​

A happy Valentine’s Day memory I carry with me is the custom practiced in public elementary schools in my childhood. Every class had a Valentine’s Day party at school, and all of us were expected to give a valentine to our teacher and to every one of our classmates. How did this happen? Our mothers purchased simple printed valentines with the usual pictures and expressions, such as, “Will you be my valentine?” with plenty of red hearts and cherubs. Our job was to write on the back of each card, in our own handwriting, the name of the classmate to whom we were sending the valentine and “From” followed by our own name. This was not optional. Our mothers did not allow us to decide that one of the boys or girls in our class was creepy or dumb and not worthy of a valentine. Our mothers also did not write the names for us. Our job was to write the name of every classmate and sign the card with our own name. We all brought our signed valentines to school in a paper bag on the appointed day, and the delivery process began. By the end of the day, each of us had a bag of valentines, one from every boy and every girl in our class. Even today, decades later, I love the generosity of this simple custom. Although the school and our parents may have coerced us into giving valentines to some kids we may not have liked very much, there is something noble about affirming the value of every child and getting on the high road by naming names and putting that value in writing.
 
Perhaps in 2021 we can reclaim some of the simple purity of Valentine’s Day, a time when we let others know that we love them. Because the coronavirus has not yet been eradicated, big parties and dinners in fancy restaurants are not appropriate, but we can express our affection in quiet, humble ways. What could be sweeter than tea for two with our loved one or any special friend or family member? My niece and co-author Kathleen and I are happy to help. Our “Valentine’s Day Tea” in the February calendar section of “The Tea Book” on this website contains a beautiful tea-time menu developed by Kathleen with a treasure trove of romantic sweets, including Strawberry Charlotte, Battenberg Cake and Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies with Sour Cherry Filling. Kathleen’s February 2017 blog, “Valentine’s Day” features stunning photographs of hand-made valentines which she created and equally gorgeous photos of some of the valentines that my grandfather gave to my grandmother, as described in my poem, “Tokens of Affection.” I think you will be happy to know that this entire collection of now historic valentines is protected in Kathleen’s safekeeping. And for those of you who love the elegance of simplicity, this same blog features Suzi’s Sugar Cookies, heart shaped and tinted pink ready to share with your true love this Valentine’s Day.
 
This year I plan to serve my true love, Wayne Higashi, a Black Bottom Pie for Valentine’s Day. Shortly before New Year’s Day this year, Wayne told me early in the morning that he dreamed that we had Black Bottom Pie for the New Year. I can recognize a hint when I hear one, but I didn’t have the ingredients on hand at that time to create a Black Bottom Pie. He had to wait a while, but I hope he enjoys his valentine.
 

​Black Bottom Pie is basically a single crust refrigerated pie with a lining of dark chocolate on the bottom of the crust and a layer of whipped cream, meringue or custard on top, frequently flavored with rum. This luscious American dessert was developed early in the Twentieth Century. Like many American desserts, its origins are somewhat murky. Some food historians speculate that it is southern, like Mississippi Mud Pie, and that the names of both of these over-the-top pies refer to the dark, swampy lowlands along the Mississippi River. The muddy black imagery in both cases describes the generous amount of dark chocolate lining the bottoms of both pies. Other, perhaps more reliable, sources credit the “Pie King” of Los Angeles, Monroe Boston Strause (1901-1981) with inventing not only Black Bottom Pie, but also Chiffon Pie and Graham Cracker Crust.
 
Mr. Strause inherited a bakery while still a young man and became an enthusiastic promoter of pies. In 1939, he wrote Pie Marches On, a book of pie recipes aimed at professional bakers and now available only as a pricey collector’s item on Amazon and other online sources. People who own a copy of this book consider it a treasure. Mr. Strause apparently developed Black Bottom Pie in 1926, possibly inspired by earlier southern versions. It is often made with a Graham Cracker Crust, another of Strause’s inventions. The Fanny Farmer Cookbook’s recipe for Black Bottom Pie recommends a crumb crust made from one and a half cups of graham cracker, gingersnap, vanilla wafer or chocolate wafer crumbs mixed with one-third cup each of sugar and melted butter. Fanny Farmer’s filling is a custard fortified with gelatin and whipped egg whites and divided in two. One half, which becomes the “black bottom,” is flavored with melted chocolate, and the top half is flavored with rum. The entire pie is then covered with whipped cream.
 
I prefer a more intense layer of bittersweet chocolate for my Black Bottom Pie, so I recommend covering the bottom of the crust with ganache. And my filling is a rich custard rather than a light, airy chiffon. The Black Bottom Pie recipe I am sharing here is actually a Banana Cream Pie with a traditional pastry crust and dark chocolate on the bottom. I also like to make this same recipe as a Coconut Cream Pie or even a Toasted Almond Cream Pie. I do agree with Fanny Farmer that the top of this American classic should definitely be covered with a generous layer of whipped cream. The recipe for Vanilla Custard to make this pie appears in my May 2020 blog, “Afternoon Tea with Children and Teens” on this website. I have included the ingredients and equipment needed here for your convenience.
 

For the pie crust shell:

• 1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust
  ​
  

For the ganache:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (I use Ghirardelli’s 4-ounce bar
  
  

​For the banana cream filling: See May 2020 Blog for Procedure

• 1 cup sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• ½ cup flour
• 2 cups whole milk (or half and half)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large ripe banana

 
For the topping:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 
Variations:

Substitute 1 cup of either toasted sweetened coconut or toasted slivered almonds for the sliced banana and sprinkle over the ganache layer.
 
Special equipment:

9-inch pie pan, pie weights or dried beans and aluminum foil, wire cooling rack, 1-quart glass measuring cup, 2 medium sized heat-proof bowls, heat-proof rubber spatula, medium sized saucepan, electric whisk or hand-held whisk, hand-held electric mixer, plastic wrap, medium sized metal mixing bowl.
 
Makes: 6-8 generous pieces of pie
 
Preheat oven to 450°F for the pie shell
 

1. Preheat the oven and follow the directions on the package of refrigerated Pillsbury Pie Crusts for a One Crust Pie Baked Shell. Use a 9” pie pan. Place one round of dough carefully into the center of the pan, press it gently into the bottom and sides and crimp the edges decoratively. Your challenge will be to weigh the shell down, so it does not blister or shrink as it bakes. Use pie weights if you have some, or just press a layer of aluminum foil over the bottom of the pastry and partly up the sides of the pan. Then scatter some dried beans over the foil to keep the dough in its original shape. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are lightly browned, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Remove the pie weights or foil and beans.
2. As the crust bakes, start making the ganache. Break the 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate into small pieces into a medium sized heat-proof bowl and set aside. Pour 1 cup of heavy whipping cream into a 1-quart glass measuring cup and microwave at 30-second intervals until the cream just starts to boil, watching carefully to make sure it does not boil over. Immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces and let stand for 2-3 minutes. Stir with a heat-proof spatula until the mixture is smooth and no pieces of chocolate are visible. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool but not hardened.
3. Make the Vanilla Custard using the ingredients listed above and following the procedure at the end of my May 2020 blog on this website. (myteaplanner.com) Refrigerate the custard in a medium sized bowl, covered with plastic wrap, until it has cooled.
4. To assemble the pie, spread the cooled ganache evenly over the bottom of the baked pie shell using a rubber spatula. Slice a large ripe banana over the ganache, distributing the banana slices evenly. Pour the cooled custard over the banana slices, cover the pie with plastic wrap, directly on the custard, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.
5. Shortly before ready to serve the pie, place the beaters of a hand-held electric mixer and a medium sized aluminum bowl in the freezer for a few minutes. Remove the bowl, assemble the mixer, and beat 1 cup of heavy whipping cream on medium speed until soft peaks form. Add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and continue to beat on high speed until slightly stiffer, but do not overbeat. The whipped cream should remain soft and pillowy but not runny. Spread the cream completely over the pie up to the edges of the crust and use a spatula to form soft swirls. Serve immediately and refrigerate any leftovers.

 

The December 14, 2020 issue of Time Magazine featured a stark white cover with the numbers 2020 in bold black print and a large red X slashed through the numbers. Below, in smaller print, were the four words: THE WORST YEAR EVER. Was it? For many Americans, the answer is probably, “Yes!” Well over seventeen million of us contracted the Covid 19 virus, and more than 320,000 of us died of this terrible pandemic. Millions of others lost their jobs or businesses, and now ordinary Americans are struggling to make their mortgage or rent payments, cover their monthly bills and even feed themselves and their families. The year 2020 may not have been worse than 1347, when the bubonic plague, known dramatically as the Black Death, arrived in Europe and killed a shocking 200 million people over a four-year period, half of the entire population. But for most of us, 2020 was the worst year of our lives so far. What can we do to make 2021 better?
 

​The human species has endured the horrors of war, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, droughts, famines, plagues of locusts and countless other disasters, yet we have bounced back every time, using our energy and creativity to achieve wonders of exploration, innovation, artistic beauty and scientific discovery. The human race has been gifted not just with opposable thumbs and analytical minds, but also with the ability to cooperate and most of all, to hope.
 
This year, as 2021 rolls around, hope is on the horizon. Vaccines have been developed and are being made available incrementally to health care workers, first responders, educators and others who are essential to the orderly reconstruction of society. The elderly and vulnerable will also be vaccinated. This process of vaccinating a large segment of the US population, and indeed the entire world, requires organization, patience and cooperation, human qualities which suffered tragic neglect in the year 2020.
 

 
As we welcome the New Year, let’s think about how Americans have traditionally celebrated this holiday. New Year’s Eve in America involves dressing up and attending big parties with crowds of other party people, consuming lots of champagne and other festive beverages, staying up until midnight and counting down until the clock strikes twelve. Some of us are simultaneously watching a glittering ball descend at the appointed moment in Time’s Square in New York on television. Then we hug and kiss the person we are with and everyone else in the room, clap, shout and make plenty of noise. Maybe we even rush out into the street, chilly in our evening clothes, and set off a few fireworks. This goes on for several more hours, with more drinking, more horn honking and more firecrackers to the chagrin of every dog in the neighborhood and the annoyance of everyone who is actually trying to sleep.
 
The next morning, New Year’s Day, we lounge around the living room with a head-splitting hangover gaping at all the flower-decked floats in the Rose Parade on television and, still on the couch, snooze through the Rose Bowl game, also on television. On January 2, filled with remorse from two days of alternate over-indulgence and lethargy, we make our New Year’s resolutions:
​

1. I will stop drinking
2. I will lose twenty pounds by Valentine’s Day
3. I will limit myself to only 10 cups of coffee a day
4. I will stop obsessing over my ex’s Facebook posts

 

And the list goes on. What’s wrong with this picture? What happened to patience and cooperation? What happened to hope? And why does every New Year’s resolution start with the word “I?”
 

 
While my summary of New Year’s customs in America may have been a tad facetious, it might be helpful to remind ourselves that the world does not revolve around us as individuals, and we share this planet with billions of other people, plants and animals. And when trouble comes, all of us hope for a better life and a better world.
 

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In many cultures, especially in Asia, the New Year is a time to clean our homes, throw out anything, material or emotional, we no longer need, pay off any debts that remain and reconcile any conflicts we may have with family members or friends. Then our homes will be welcoming places, free from stress, anxiety and old grudges. This view of the New Year presents a wide, ethical perspective that includes others along with us and provides a vision for harmonious living and hope for the future. You are welcome to review “A Japanese New Year’s Tea” in the January calendar section of “The Tea Book” on this website. You will also get some insight into the way my family celebrates the New Year in the Japanese tradition, including a detailed menu of special foods that are shared every New Year.
 
A traditional Japanese New Year celebration is an open house, and friends and neighbors are welcome to drop by any time during the day for food and conversation. This year will be different, as we will gather only with our small “family bubble,” still waiting with patience for the lingering coronavirus to dissipate. It will take a long time for enough people to be vaccinated so that everyone feels safe, but we live in hope.
 

​One of my hopes, as I clean my home for the New Year, is to do what I can to help clean up the mess that our country has become because of this virus and our response to it. All of us need to help by letting go of anger, throwing out misconceptions, seeking reconciliation and not starting every sentence with the word “I.”
 

​For your New Year’s celebration this year, I offer a traditional dish that my grandparents, parents, siblings and I ate on New Year’s Day. Hoppin’ John, a southern American dish of African origin, is a simple combination of rice and black-eyed peas, symbolizing the hope for luck and prosperity in the year to come. Hoppin’ John also confirms the fundamental truth that two very different things can be combined to create something better than either one individually. As you greet this New Year, I hope you will spend a few moments reflecting on your ancestors’ resolutions and what they hoped and prayed for with each new year.
 
Every ancient culture had some form of ritual or ceremony to mark the arrival of the New Year, no matter what kind of calendar they used. Their hopes and prayers included success in hunting and fishing, plenty of rain to help the crops grow, healthy livestock and the birth of children into their families. None of these “resolutions” started with “I,” as ancient people knew they needed to cooperate with each other and with the natural world, their home. May your resolutions include the words, “service” and “silence,” and may 2021 be filled with faith, hope and love.
 

Hoppin’ John is a traditional southern American dish with origins in west Africa. One of the first printed references to this combination of rice, black-eyed peas, onions, bacon and salt appeared in The Carolina Housewife, published in 1847 by Sarah Rutledge. The popularity of this delicious dish spread from the Carolinas to the entire southern region of the country. My mother’s ancestors, who originally settled in Virginia, carried the tradition of eating Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day with them when they left Virginia for Arkansas and Missouri after the Civil War.
 
Food historians suggest that the custom of eating Hoppin’ John at the New Year evolved from a visual association of black-eyed peas with coins, symbolizing luck and prosperity. For a balanced New Year’s meal, Hoppin’ John is eaten with cooked collard greens, associated with the color of money and cornbread, the color of gold. Symbolism aside, this is a classic southern Soul Food menu which combines several essential food groups and tastes wonderful.
 
I make Hoppin’ John every New Year, and I admit it makes a somewhat incongruous side dish to our traditional Japanese buffet. However, our son David has always loved it as much as sushi, ozone soup, burdock root and all the other Japanese specialties, and none of my in-laws ever complained. I view Hoppin’ John as a free-wheeling creation that really doesn’t need a recipe, as it is just a combination of staple items that the cook might happen to have in the house. Hoppin’ John can be made as a vegetarian dish, but you can add chopped ham, bacon, andouille sausage or any meat that you like. I will provide you with an outline with many possible variations, and you can feel free to claim Hoppin’ John as your own. Good Luck!
 

 
Special equipment: rice cooker or medium saucepan for cooking rice, skillet, large cooking pot or Dutch oven with a lid, wooden spoon, paring knife, disposable gloves
 
Makes: about 12 generous servings
 

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1. Cook the 2 cups of rice in a rice cooker or saucepan and set aside. (Use 2 2/3 cups of water to 2 cups of rice in my rice cooker.)
2. Place the rinsed black-eyed peas and the can of tomatoes, undrained, in a large Dutch oven or cooking pot and add about 4-6 cups of chicken broth. If you are cooking dried black-eyed peas, bring them to a simmer and cook on medium low heat for about 1 ½-2 hours. If you are using canned black-eyed peas, just bring the mixture to a simmer.
3. While the black-eyed peas simmer, chop the onion and cook it in a skillet on medium heat in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 10 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon to prevent over-browning. Chop and partially seed the jalapeno, wearing disposable gloves, and add to the onion in the skillet. Cook for a few more minutes, stirring.
4. Add the cooked onion and jalapeno to the black-eyed peas and stir. If you are adding chopped bacon, ham or sausage, add the meat to the skillet and stir gently, still on medium heat, just to render out some of the fat.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Add the meat and any of the herbs and spices that interest you into the pot of black-eyed peas and stir. Simmer for about 20 minutes until the mixture is well incorporated. Taste and adjust the spices.
6. Remove the pot from the stove and gently fold the cooked rice into the black-eyed pea mixture. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more chicken broth or water. I like a thick, oatmeal-like texture for my Hoppin’ John. Put the pot in the oven, covered, for about half an hour to let all the ingredients meld. Serve with cooked collard greens and cornbread, or just eat the Hoppin’ John alone.

 

​A pot of Hoppin’ John will last for several days, refrigerated and can even be warmed up in a bowl in the microwave or reheated in the covered pot in the oven at 350 degrees F for about half an hour.