Bannocks -- A Tribute to Marion Cunningham (Reposted from my Dinner Place blog)

A little apricot preserves...

 I never knew Marion Cunningham personally, but after my Mom, she pretty much taught me to cook and, perhaps more truly, to bake.  She died this last week (July 11, 2012--Read the LA Times obituary here) at the age of 90 after a lifetime of cooking, writing, and testing recipes for her cookbooks (Fanny Farmer, Fanny Farmer Baking Book, The Breakfast Book, etc.) and for her long-lived column in The San Francisco Chronicle.  She encouraged several generations of home cooks to... well, to just go on and cook.  Set the table and eat at home, please and thank you.

Trading Granola for Eggs - My Urban Barter Tale

I was on the road a couple of weeks ago and checking my computer when my I-Spy Radar saw an email with a subject line that had something to do with too many fresh eggs and trading cookies for them.  I try and stay off email a lot when I'm away seeing my kids or on vacation, but I couldn't NOT look at this one.  Backyard eggs just hook me right in.  And, of course, cookies fall right out of my oven.

My siblings and I grew up with fresh eggs; my dad either traded produce for them or shelled out a little cash to his Swedish farmer friend Munson.  When our  parents retired and took it (ha!) easy on a little "hobby" farm,  they had their own chickens and, hence, their own eggs, to say nothing of a garden that produced tomatoes the likes of which I've never again tasted.  When Dave and I visited as newlyweds, we had fresh eggs (fried in bacon or sausage grease) every morning early.  Why would you want anything else?  And why not at 6am?  There, of course, were also biscuits.  With sour cream and honey or molasses.  Unending pots of coffee.

Figs, Figs, Figs or Bring me some figgy what?

  Bring me some figgy.... oh, just bring me some grilled figs.  With blue cheese and thyme.
                                           

I missed you, blog.  Travel.  Work.  Kitten-sitting.  Cooking for folks.  Uh, writing for other websites (sorry.)

But I'm back.  And I'm back with figs.  If you haven't grabbed fresh figs yet this season, the season is, my friends, waning.  (If it were early in fig season, would we say the season was waxing?)  Cheap?  OH NO.  Guess not.  So you better make the most of every biteful and not let one single one get too mushy to eat.

My little pint made it through two courses and I'll share them with you.  After I tell you that I ate figs at Tyler Florence's new restaurant, Wayfare Tavern, in San Francisco last Friday at lunch.  (Along with halibut and berry pound cake served with cabernet sorbet.) Of course, figs are a bit more available in California (just a tad) and Tyler had featured them as a starter with burrata cheese, onions and honey.  Were they good? Yes.  But why not save that buck (a little more than a buck to get to SF) and do something sweet at home?

Did we see Tyler? Yes!!!  Really.  What a day.  (Other spots we ate and loved in SF:  Scala Bistro-dinner and breakfast-wow; Cliff House --lunch at the bistro; dinner in the dr-best view in town!--a whole local sole-so fresh and perfectly fileted by the waiter at table; Tea House at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park; AT&T Park--what beats a beer and a dog?)

Anyway, back to our (your) figs.  I grew up eating fig preserves or stewed figs my mom put up in the summer.  I can't figure out where she got figs, but get them she did.  And how did we eat them?  In a little bowl to the side of a nice, big breakfast or right on top of a big plate of buttered biscuits that often were piled high with...sour cream. 

Nowadays, I often have dried figs with cheese in the winter.  Or I poach them in a little wine and serve them with honey and goat's cheese or mascarpone or...blue cheese.  I have a youza youza recipe with puff pastry, reconstituted figs and blue cheese that is a slamdunk dessert with port in the winter.  But today.  This weekend.  It's fresh figs in Colorado.  Get yours today.  Eat them plain.   Split them with a little knife and take off the stem or just eat them whole while holding the stem.  Or, you can do what I did:

Recipe 1:  Figs on the Grill   2 servings

1/2 pint fresh figs
2 ounces blue cheese (I like Maytag for this, but any blue would be fine.)  cut into pieces 1/4x1" or so

2-3 T honey

2t fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1/2t freshly ground black pepper

Heat grill, indoors or out, to medium-high temperature.  Slice figs in half and place cut side down on grill.  Let cook about 2-3 minutes until golden and sizzling with grill marks. 

 Turn over and let cook about 1 minute.  Place a tiny piece of blue cheese on each fig half right in the middle of the fig, pressing down a little to make sure the cheese stays put. 

 Cook until cheese is softened and just barely getting gooey.  Remove figs from grill, using tongs,  and divide between two plates.  Drizzle with honey and dust with thyme and a little black pepper on each.

Drink?  Ruby port. 

Fig "recipe" #2  Oatmeal with Fresh Figs and Almonds

Make your favorite oatmeal exactly as you like it.  While it cooks, slice some fresh figs into 1/4" slices and toast 1/4 c sliced almonds.  When the oatmeal is done, sprinkle each serving with Vietnamese cinnamon and about 1T brown sugar.   Add some sliced figs on top and shower with toasted almonds.  Add about 1/3 c hot milk and chow down your goodferya breakfast.  Ahhhhhhh...perfect.

Drink?  Coffee, I'd guess.

Two-Dog Kitchen + 1 Kitten... and Around the Hood

Skippy Jon Jones is visiting Aunt Alyce and Uncle Dave for a few days while Mom goes to the mountains.

A few bloody clawmarks.

A little cat litter eating by the dogs.

A little catfood eating by the dogs.

Much general merriment.

Love. 

Mostly.

We're thinking Skippito.

The fam in San Fran

Check out all the pics on my fb page

Rhyan brings dad for a hamburger and rootbeer float lunch on Saturday.

We still have to watch "The Incredibles"

Grandma never tires of it.  Well, not too much.

Sing a new song; eat a new fig,

Alyce