June 18th, 2011 by Dawn Becker

I almost felt very sad for a second. I’m going to Karen’s for dinner tonight and to meet her beautiful baby Max. It’s a great day and I’ve been looking forward to this visit for a while. I offered to bring something for dinner and Karen requested dessert.

If you know me, then you know that desserts are not my forté. Problem being I’m not much of a sweets fan so why bother perfecting how to make them. Not wanting to be difficult — after all Karen’s mom is planning to bring what will surely be a delicious main course of lamb, and Karen’s hands are full with Max and entertaining friends — I figured I should be able to buck up and bring a decent, if not simple, dessert.

While still lying in bed, I was scanning through the small file of successful desserts I’ve made, in my head. Not much time spent there. Crème brûlée. Hmm, too late to borrow a kitchen torch from Richard. Trifle. Don’t have any fresh fruit, or canned fruit for that matter. No time to shop. What do I have? Eggs, milk, cream, sugar, raisins, maple syrup, Nutella, slivered almonds and cinnamon.

I could easily make some crêpes which have always been a hit, but maybe too finicky to finish. I like to assemble these à la minute, warming the crêpe shells, whipping up some fresh cream for filling and topping, spreading selected filling say Nutella in this case, folding them into fluffy little triangular pillows and then plating with a drizzle of maple syrup and a fat dollop of little sweetened vanilla whipped cream and a dusting of icing sugar. Okay, it’s doable but today I think something I can make here and serve up easily will be the best bet.

Most of us have a binder or box that holds some of our most cherished recipes so I went to my trusty tome to dig out a recipe. The recipes in this binder are an odd collection of torn magazines and newspaper clippings, short-hand notes from jotting down family recipes as told by friend’s parents, uncles and grandparents, many of these odd pages yellowed and grease splattered and some decades old.

One of my recipes is so old, my own childlike penmanship is barely recognizable. Each letter methodically written, rounded little o’s and perfectly crossed t’s, not the sloppy mess my writing is now. If memory serves me, I was probably around 9 when I wrote that. And I’m not even sure that the recipe for “SteAmed CAke” is any good or not. I can picture my mom cooking up a giant, white, fluffy, cake-like steamed bun that was sort of sweet. I’ll have to try this out and show you the results one day.

My near sadness came when I had finally decided to make my ex-mother-in-law’s Rice Pudding “Gonzo”. That’s what she called it though I’m not sure where the name came from. Joan is a very generous cook and a great one at that. She allowed me to spend countless days on her kitchen stool as she prepped and unfailingly answered every question I had. And I had lots. She made cooking look easy and fun and I relished her guidance and cooking tips. She taught me how to cook celeriac. I had never seen celery root before, as it’s also known, and that brainy-shaped root vegetable is now one of my fall favourites.

But the recipe for her version of Rice Pudding “Gonzo” had disappeared and my heart sank because I knew that I would never get it back. You see, sometimes when you get divorced, it’s difficult and sometimes even impossible to talk to the ex-family any more. I don’t blame anyone for a minute. But I know that I’ll never be able to ask her to give me that recipe again. And all the wonderful memories that I had collected over the years sitting in Joan’s warm and welcoming kitchen suddenly felt like they had disappeared, lost with wherever the Rice Pudding “Gonzo” recipe had decided to sneak off to.

In truth, those days in Joan’s kitchen were some of my favourite memories of married life, days spent hanging out and eating. I guess I haven’t changed much. In the end it wasn’t about the recipe itself. It’s what the recipe written by Joan’s own hand represented: a sweet time that had passed.

So that’s why I felt sad for a moment. Almost. Because just as this wash of tearful nostalgia was about to come over me, I saw a little “o” at the top of a recipe card hidden behind a series of other old and tattered favourites. The “o” in Gonzo. Oh joy! And I have a dessert to bring to Karen’s.

Here’s the recipe as Joan has written it:

Rice Pudding “Gonzo”

2 quarts whole milk

1 cup long grained (sic) rice

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs beaten

1 cup heavy cream (whipping)

1/2 cup raisins optional

In a 3-4 quart saucepan cook milk, rice, sugar, raisins in using, butter, vanilla, and a pinch of salt over med—low heat. (MY NOTE: Cover the pot and simmer.) Stir every 3 minutes until rice is cooked, 45 minutes to 1 hour. DO NOT OVERCOOK. Remove from heat. Whisk 2 cups of rice mix slowly into eggs. Add eggs and rice mix to a pan and then stir in cream. Pour into an 11 x 13 pan and sprinkle with cinnamon. Chill 3 hours. Cover and continue to chill. Lasts 3 days.

June 9th, 2011 by Dawn Becker

I have to apologize to my wonderful and loyal readers for being remiss in posting in May. And June is now flying by fast. My work as a conference planner has kept me ridiculously busy these past weeks and I have to reveal that I took a much necessary and rejuvenating trip to Cuba last month.

If anyone has heard anything disparaging about Cuba, where I went was not a foodie destination, and was never meant to be one. Thus not much reporting there. It was completely about renewal and I had the luxury of spending a week with a colleague who has now become a very good friend.

After that, a trip to Ottawa at the end of May revealed another new friendship that will surely prove to be a lifelong one, at least if I have anything to do with it. I will admit a tearful goodbye at the train station made for a very European-summer-vacation departure. All the tears on my part if I am to be true. Don’t you ever wish you could combine your travel friends with your day-to-day friends in one lovely group and keep them all close. But then I suppose that changes the parameters of travel friendship.

I suppose what I’m saying is that time has passed in good measure. However the sad the cost of this time away, making these amazing personal connections, is that I haven’t been able to share my latest food and culture explorations. Trust that those have never stopped and I have missed sharing. I plan to compensate with a good series of follow up posts… after the PROFIT 200 CEO Summit next week.

I have many interesting places in Toronto to write about including a review of Khao San Road at 326 Adelaide Street West and the Ontario Spring Water Sake Company in the Distillery. So stay tuned because BananaViews will keep you entertained (with my personal antics) and informed (based on my personal opinions… as it always has been). Much love and “soon come” – the latter being a Jamaican term I picked up during a conference I worked at in Ocho Rios, which essentially means “wait patiently and don’t fret because all will be well dear one and no amount of jumping up and down is going to change that you are waiting for 20 boxes that cleared customs last week so stop asking me”.