Fruit

Dimming the lights and flambéing a dessert tableside makes an exciting end to a meal. If you are doing this for your grand finale at a dinner party, practice in the confines of the kitchen a couple of times first. If your flambé doesn’t ignite you might be left blushing tableside. Overdo it on the rum and you will have rosy cheeks for sure.

I’m keen on freestone peaches. I’m also keen on this shortcake, which comes together quickly. The simple recipe is a great showcase for just about any summer fruits and the little zip of ginger adds a nice dimension.

I try to keep my carbon footprint in check and buy local and all, but every now and then I throw caution to the wind and buy a fresh pineapple from a long way away. Recently I was talking to some fourth-grade kids in the town closest to the farm. Not one out of the fifteen or so kids had ever seen a fresh pineapple other than the one SpongeBob lives in; they just knew they came from a long way away or in a can.

Spice and fruit and caramel cakes all rolled into one. This cake brings in a lot of money at a bake sale.

Sauternes and melon fluff spooned over ripe cubes of cantaloupe make a fabulously mature dessert for a late-afternoon luncheon. When the fruits are at their aromatic best and you want a dessert that is not overly sweet or directed at the kiddies, this comes together with remarkable sophistication.

Satsuma mandarins are a hardy little citrus grown all along the Gulf Coast areas south of I-10 from Satsuma, Texas, on through Satsuma, Alabama, to Satsuma, Florida. The juice is very sweet and low in acid and the fruit easy to strain, with only a seed or two found in each one. Look for satsumas along roadside stands.

The week of July 9, 1955, “Rock Around the Clock” bumped “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” off the top of the charts. That was the week rock and roll became king. This combination of Granny Smiths and cherries rocks.

Miss Ethel Smith was a dedicated member of the Mississippi Daylily Society. Her home was No Mistake Plantation and it was a gathering spot for daylily people. In 1983 Miss Ethel developed the ‘Yazoo Soufflé’ daylily, a ruffle-edged, double, apricot cream flower. Organic daylilies are edible and make a beautiful addition to desserts, like this one, in which cream and apricots are fluffed up. Even though this dessert is really a mousse I call it a soufflé in honor of Miss Ethel’s lilies.

I love berries and lamb. The deep flavor of tender spring lamb takes on the essence of first-of-the-season berries, blending a perfect combination of sweetness with just enough tartness to make you pucker up.

I was a boy-crazy preteen when I went on a trip to visit my friend’s grandmother Beauxma in Saint Martinville, Louisiana, in the sugarcane-growing region of the state. I was so taken by the story of the Evangeline Oak. In 1907, St. Martinville author Felix Voorhies wrote Acadian Reminiscences: With the True Story of Evangeline, inspired by tales told to him by his grandmother. The account of Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux is said to be about the real people behind Longfellow’s tragically romantic poem “Evangeline,” about a woman looking for her lost love, Gabriel. In 1929, Hollywood came to town and filmed the movie Evangeline, starring Dolores Del Rio in the title role. After the filming, a statue of Evangeline (looking a lot like Dolores Del Rio) was erected on the spot marking the alleged burial place of Emmeline Labiche. As a whole, Southerners have never let the truth stand in the way of a good story; and now the stories of Emmeline and Louis and Evangeline and Gabriel have fused into one story told time and again beneath the spreading branches of the Evangeline Oak. In fact, Louisianans have taken the story so to heart that the Evangeline variety of sweet potato is fast becoming one of the state’s most popular sweet potatoes.

The sweetness of peaches and sugar snap peas makes them pair up quite well. A bit of seasoning sends the duo down a chutney path.

Thanksgiving Thursday starts off before dawn with Donald tiptoeing out of the house dressed in camouflage and with me making Aunt Mary’s congealed salad of ground cranberries, apples, and navel oranges that I should have done the day before. (It’s the recipe from the Tchula Garden Club Cookbook—except you would have to go across the road and get Mary’s penciled-in revisions.) Instead, I sat by the fire drinking wine, catching up with extended family, and watched the kids pick up pecans. Now I’m hoping this sets before two o’clock dinnertime, which, thankfully, it does real nice.

Holt Collier led the hunting expedition when Theodore Roosevelt visited Mississippi in 1902. The story goes that the president was desirous of a black bear to add to his trophy collection and was in a hurry to do so. Roosevelt was stationed in a blind, and Holt led chase to the elusive black bear with a pack of forty dogs. The impatient president left the stand to have lunch. With the success of the hunt resting on his shoulders, Holt took the initiative, captured the bear with a lariat, and tied it to a willow tree by the Little Sunflower River in an effort to save his dogs from the bear and fulfill the president’s wishes. Moments later Roosevelt arrived on horseback and surveyed the scene. He declined to shoot a bear tied to a tree but was impressed by the bravery and abilities of Mr. Collier. The Washington Post editorial cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman ran two drawings on the front page of the paper of a cute little cub that in no way resembled the ferocious bear captured single-handedly by Collier. The story became a national sensation and an enterprising Morris Michtom sewed up a small stuffed bear cub and nicknamed it the Teddy Bear, selling them for a buck and a half each. By the next year Mr. Michtom had founded the Ideal Toy Company and was selling thousands of Teddies a year. Today you can visit the first national refuge named for an African American, the 2,033-acre Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge near Onward, Mississippi. Each fall when the pears are ripe, the honey is in, and the Great Delta Bear Affair festival rolls around I think of that November hunt and that amazing American, Holt Collier.

A tangerine, sometimes called “kid glove orange” because of the way its loose skin will slip off, has such a sweet, bright flavor when at its peak around November. This salad is fine-looking with light variegated shades of green set with vivid sections of citrus and golden challah croutons dusted with tarragon.

When something is really impressive, it is declared “plum good.” As summer wears on and I grow tired of plum pies and tarts, I crave this simple, colorful salad. It is such a pretty mix of green and purple flecked with creamy white. The flavors offer sweet and sour, and the combination of textures—smooth, crunchy, and juicy—is really plum good.

When I go to New York, I often eat at Serafina Restaurant, which makes an amazing lemon spaghetti dish that is so good that I was again inspired to get the recipe. The chef kindly obliged. This version is a little simpler and creamier than the original. As with most other pasta dishes, you want the sauce to be ready before the fettuccine is so that the hot noodles absorb the creamy, lemony sauce (the longer it sits, the less saucy it will be). Note that the broth and cream will need to simmer for a good long time so that they are well reduced. Be sure to grate the lemons before you juice them. This is wonderful served with grilled chicken brushed with Steak Grill Sauce (page 164).

Traditionally, Long Island Iced Tea is made with clear liquors and a splash of cola to give it an iced tea color. Instead, my version depends on a fabulous vodka that my friend Virginia from Alabama gave me: sweet-tea-infused vodka from a small distillery called Firefly.

We had lemon trees and mint all over our ranch when I was a kid. I don’t remember when I tasted the two together for the first time, but since then I’ve never liked lemonade any other way. For kids or anyone not drinking alcohol, it’s a fabulously festive and beautiful nonalcoholic treat. Or add a shot of rum or vodka to each glass and make a cocktail out of it!

We felt so fancy and elegant as children, sipping “virgin” strawberry daiquiris out of beautiful glasses. I still enjoy these without the rum, but when I do add it, I always choose a flavored rum for the delicious tropical fruit flavor it adds.

The limes we grew in Texas are almost a hybrid lemon-lime and we used them to make “ades.” It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized other people usually used lemons, not limes. This is the recipe I grew up with, and it works just as perfectly with the limes you can buy at the store as it did with the limes we grew.