LUCY BURDETTE: I'm so pleased to introduce you to one of my favorite writers! I first heard Diana Abu-Jaber speak at the Key West Literary Seminar's conference on food writing. Then I began to inhale her books. She writes both memoir and fiction and today she's sharing an easy but delicious dessert recipe, and giving away a copy of her new memoir. But win or not, I hope you all take the chance to enjoy this lovely book!
DIANA ABU-JABER: Food memories are at the center of much my second memoir, Life Without a Recipe. And the reality
is that I wasn’t raised with recipes but apprenticeship—watching my immigrant
father at work in the kitchen, translating his personal history into dishes. I
still prefer this approach to cooking—eclectic, improvisational, led by ingredients,
climate, seasons, rather than a plan.
In my father’s Jordanian culture, baked desserts, like
baklava, tend to be reserved for special occasions. Coffee, sweet tea, oranges,
dates and almonds are more typical daily treats. Such simple fare would never
satisfy my dessert-crazy grandmother or mother, though. This recipe is a great compromise—based on
berries and little else. I got the idea from a recipe for Strawberry Ice at www.Food52.com. It’s wonderfully refreshing in
the middle of the summer and so easy, I can make it on a daily basis with
whatever berries I’ve got in the freezer. It’s also so simple, I rather call it
a non-recipe—a preparation so direct and intuitive it pretty much isn’t a
recipe at all.
Iced Cherries
Serves two
½ C Heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar (optional)
1¼ C frozen cherries
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons chopped chocolate chips (optional)
Start by whipping about a half cup of heavy cream with a half-teaspoon
vanilla. My daughter and I like whipped cream, so we make extra. You could add
a teaspoon or two of confectioner’s sugar, but to me that’s just gilding the
lily.
Throw a good-sized cup of frozen cherries into the blender
(this also works with frozen blueberries, raspberries, strawberries—whatever
you have stashed away in the freezer.) Add a tablespoon of sugar. Pulse until
it’s ground up into a coarse mix.
In theory, you’re now supposed to freeze the berry mixture
for a few hours before serving, but we always have this straight out of the
blender. 
Place berries in two bowls with a couple of good-sized
dollops of whipped cream and you’re done. If you’re feeling decadent, you can
sprinkle some chopped chocolate chips on top of the whipped cream or stir it
into the cherries. It’s light, liberating, and best of all, it’s delicious. It’s
also a nice switch up from ice cream. I could eat this stuff all summer
long—and pretty much I do.
Life Without a Recipe is
Diana’s celebration of journeying without a map, of learning to ignore
the script and improvise, of escaping family and making family on one’s
own terms. As Diana discovers, however, building confidence in one’s own
path sometimes takes a mistaken marriage or two―or in her case, three.
It also takes a good deal of angst (was it possible to have a serious
writing career and be a mother?) and, even when she knew what she wanted
(the craziest thing, in one’s forties: a baby!), the nerve to pursue
it.
Finally,
fearlessly independent like the Grace she’s named after, Diana and
Scott’s daughter Gracie will heal all the old battles with Bud and, like
her writer-mom, learn to cook up a life without a recipe.
Diana Abu-Jaber is the author of two memoirs: Life Without A Recipe-- an Indie Next pick--and The Language of Baklava, as well as four novels, including Birds of Paradise; Origin; Crescent;
