The hard part was over. I'd figured out what to make for Food Revolution Day, Jamie Oliver's global day of action to help keep cooking skills alive. I'd made the biscuits - a life skill if there ever was one, passed down by hand through the generations.
Now, where to take the biscuits? My friend Betty would be an excellent prospect. She's the tallest member of a group of women I call "The Beautifuls." Each week they pull on their tap shoes and dance together in a small studio. They're perfectly coiffed, smartly dressed and always accessorize - the rest of us are ragamuffins in comparison. Did I mention they're from The Greatest Generation? Some of their early dance steps were beside visiting soldiers during World War II. They know how to live. They cherish the moments that bloom as memories.
Betty had missed a few classes, so what better excuse than to ring her doorbell, hand over the biscuits and check on her? Remember my goal to "think small" in the previous post? Baking for just one person has a power all its own. Very strong magic.
Hoping to amuse Betty, I dressed like a mom from the 1950s, baked Dorie Greenspan's Saint-Germain-des-Pres Onion Biscuits from her cookbook "Around My French Table" (and in case she needed some chocolate, also the Korova cookies from Greenspan's book "Paris Sweets."). I had lemon curd on hand, I had strawberry rhubarb jam, so those went into a basket, too. Once I got going, I just wanted to share it all. And that was the point of Food Revolution Day: Cook it, share it, live it.
To my delight, Betty and her husband, Bill, were at home. They placed the Korova cookie on a stunning china saucer, which sat on a silver tray, covered with white linen.
They poured out tea and with it, their stories.
I've never felt so regal, so rewarded.
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