Good Food and Neighbors
Few things in life these days are as wonderful as good neighbors. When Kit and I moved to our home in the Sierra Foothills four years ago we did not know a soul on our little magic crescent of a road. Now we pop in and out of one another’s homes with news, books, cooking magazines, and more often than not food to be shared in thanks for the gift of friendship we add to each other’s lives.
One day last week, a text arrived from my neighbor Carol who needed of a cube of butter. I always have lots of butter on hand and a few minutes later she was on her way home with butter and a copy of Bon Appétit magazine with recipes I thought she might enjoy. That same day, about the time when I needed something to dunk in a cup of late afternoon coffee, Carol returned with three delicious homemade peanut butter cookies in a container from my kitchen that recently was filled with a slice of chocolate Bourbon laced pecan pie for her to enjoy. Under her arm, she had Richard Osman’s fourth novel in his The Thursday Murder Club series that her husband Jim had borrowed and was returning.
The next day, Nora (a nurse at the Lodge where Kit resides) brought me a bag filled with a bounty of beautiful vegetables that she’d picked that morning from her enormous garden. She had over planted lemon cucumbers that she loves to eat right out of the garden and thought I might like some. She also included tomatoes, a Japanese eggplant, an ornamental squash and a handful of green beans. Gardeners love sharing summer provender and I was delighted to receive the bag of veggies she arrived with that day. In exchange, I took her a box of Baklava that is one of her favorite desserts on the planet. I wish I could say I made them myself, but alas I did not. However, I keep a box of them on hand to share with friends and know where I can always get more.
Late that afternoon I dropped in on my neighbors Anita and Dolores to see how they were doing. Anita had just harvested peaches from a volunteer peach tree in her yard that is now ten years old. Some of the peaches had quickly ended up in a cake. A generous slice ended up being my dessert that night with a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream. Dolores had cooked up a lovely tomato sauce that she shared and I enjoyed over the next few days with pasta and Nora’s veggies.
As we visited, Anita bemoaned the fact that deer had eaten all of her parsley the prior night. I have plenty growing in a pot on my deck and also, I had a big bag of dark sweet cherries and some green cukes to share. Before long, Carol and I both ended up in Dolores and Anita’s kitchen again. Carol had cooked up a frittata recipe she’d found my copy of Bon Appétit and wanted to share slices of her colorful creation with the three of us.
The next day, the rest of the dark sweet cherries went into a batch of almond poppy seed muffins topped with coconut crumbles that I took hot out of the oven to four of our neighbors. Good food and good neighbors. One can’t ask for more.