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Fig & Ginger Jam

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What do Really Children Like?

Posted on August 8, 2016 by judyhudson@shaw.ca

August is going to be all recipes because in August it feels like all I do is cook. But it’s the kind of cooking enjoy, with fresh veggies and preserving fresh fruit. Most of those recipes will relate more to The Good Neighbor, book two that’s coming out at the end of August (August 23 to be exact!) because it’s set in August and September and Sean’s a great cook.

But before we get to that, I want to finish the Saga of Children’s Delight because in Summer of Fortune it was Maddie’s signature recipe.

My old-fashioned recipe had cinnamon, cloves and raisins and in SOF, the wonderful aroma of sugar and spice became one of Augusta’s calling cards.

The problem was, the general consensus of my millennial children (who I have to say were perfectly happy to eat those cookies when they were young) was that children these days wouldn’t like cookies like that. Everyone’s a critic.

Vania making cookies — Vania making cookie dough into little “towers” to assure perfectly round cookies. She’s amazing!

So I charged my daughter-in-law Vania, baker extraordinaire, to come up with a new version of Children’s Delight that today’s children would love. My only caveat was that the new recipe have a component of spice.

I have to say, her new recipe is delicious. Totally different with peanut butter and chocolate chips, but what’s not to love?

Here’s the recipe – you be the judge.

I’ll sign this one, “Obviously eating way too many cookies in the name of art,”

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:2]

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Enjoying Vancouver’s West End

Posted on August 1, 2016 by judyhudson@shaw.ca

Vancouver has an amazingly livable downtown. The area known as the West End is snugged between fabulous shopping on Robson Street, the beaches of English Bay and the forest of Stanley Park, all within walking distance to hotels, the art gallery and the commerce district of the city. People live on these streets lined with mature shade trees, where street-corner gardens are in bloom and everyone and their dog are out on the streets enjoying the hip urban atmosphere.

I’m lucky to be able to visit my daughter Rosey in her lovely third-floor walk up, like so many of the beautiful old apartment buildings in the West End. Some of the large, old, three-story houses from Vancouver’s prosperous early days still remain, many now converted to condos but still looking lovely, along with a sprinkling of taller apartments (see the video at the end). A fabulous safe place to walk and people watch, night and day.

I went over on the ferry last Wednesday to catch Australia’s entry into the Celebration of Lights, a eye-poppiing fireworks and music show held out in English Bay every year to the delight of hundreds of thousands of happy Vancouverites who converge on the beaches at dusk three times over the course of a week for the three shows. A must-see event! We walked down from my daughter’s apartment in fifteen minutes to snag a great spot on the beach to watch the show and, when it was over, walked back with a hundred thousand of our closest friends. Amazing.

Friday morning I walked over to Hamburger Mary’s on Davie Street for breakfast and enjoyed the people out getting ready for the start of the Pride Celebration that night. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay, and caught a ferry that night for the Island again.

It’s all on my facebook and instagram pages. Friend me if you haven’t already.

Love, love, love Vancouver’s lovely West End. Check it out if you get the chance.

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The Saga of Children’s Delight

Posted on July 27, 2016July 26, 2016 by judyhudson@shaw.ca

A story is woven from the threads of a writer’s life.

The recipe for Children’s Delight cookies has been in my recipe binder forever. Just looking at the old card, written in my mother’s scrawl, brings back a rush of memories. The recipe card is stained and had comments written in after the fact (more butter!). And up in the corner, in brackets it says “Raylene Ewing”

Raylene was my good friend in Toronto, while I was in grades seven and eight. Just seeing her name is always an emotional blast from the past.

I didn’t plan to put the recipe in Summer of Fortune, but there it was. (You writers out there know what I mean.)

On the top shelf rested a wooden box. Stretching to her full height she carefully brought it down, wiping the dust from the top. She held it in one hand, studying the scenes of the lake carved into the lid. Inside, yellowing recipe cards were written in a spidery hand: Sunday Blackberry Cake, October Relish, Children’s Delight Cookies.

An old fashioned drop cookie, they make the kitchen smell like cinnamon and cloves, an aroma that, in the story, comes to introduce the presence of Aunt Augusta the previous owner of the cabin who is, ahem, no longer with us.

The recipe also provides an introduction to Maddie’s backstory.

Maddie didn’t have any hand-me-down recipes. Most of hers came from magazines. These recipe names conjured up visions of a woman in an apron with streaks of flour on her face, like a character in an old movie. Her own mother had never cooked and Maddie was sure she didn’t own an apron. She had spent most of her time on the couch, watching her soaps with a beer in her hand.

Maddie inhaled deeply the unfamiliar scent of cinnamon and cloves that lingered in the box, and then, closing the lid, she placed the box on the windowsill over the sink where she could admire the carving.

Maddie ended up making the cookies, again and again, a sensory lure her handsome landlord couldn’t resist and a symbol of her move to another kind of life.

Here’s the recipe. Enjoy! (Are you out there Raylene?)

What mundane everyday things have inspired you?

Until next time,

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:3]

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