MOLLY MacRAE: Fun
trips over Spring Break aren’t always a thing – but wouldn’t it be great if
they could be? I can only remember two trips in my life that qualify
as “Spring Breaks.” Both were to islands, though, so how cool is that? The
first, when I was a kid, my family zipped up the Door County peninsula in Wisconsin
and took the ferry across Death’s Door in Lake Michigan to Washington Island. A
great trip with ice and snow (and the word death in it - perfect for a future mystery writer)! The second, during the year I attended Edinburgh
University, a student group I belonged to traveled by ferry to the Isle of Iona,
one of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. We stayed in
the restored abbey and spent the week tramping around the 1.5- x 3-mile island. Gorgeous,
atmospheric, and so much fun.
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| My friend the Highland cow on the Isle of Iona, 1974 |
So now let’s try something – let’s pair dream Spring Break destinations and desserts (or drinks, snacks, entrées, whatever). I’ll go first. If I could go anywhere for Spring Break, I’d choose a warm island (I’m not picky – any warm island will do) and something delicious with figs.
The trip is only happening in my dreams, but that’s okay because the MLK archives can set me up with fig recipes. Here are three I plan to try. Lucy Burdette’s Upside Down Roman Fig Cake, Daryl Wood Gerber’s French Pear Tart (with fig preserves), and Krista Davis’s Fig & Blueberry Clafouti.
What about you? Where would you go for your dream Spring Break and what incredible edible would you indulge in?
LESLIE KARST: April in Paris! Oui, oui, that’s where I’d go if I could be spirited off for a week or two. The ornamental cherries will be in full bloom, the tourists (except for moi) will have not yet arrived, and most important of all, I can start each day with my very favorite breakfast in the entire world: café crème avec une tartine.
This most perfect of meals consists of strong, dark-roast coffee mixed half-and-half with warm milk and served in a bowl (the café crème), along with a chunk of crusty-outside-chewy-inside baguette—the kind you can only get in France—smeared liberally with that full-cream, tangy butter that tastes a bit of the grass on which the cows were grazed—which you can also only seem to get in France (the tartine). And if you like, a dollop of Mirabelle plum jam on top of the butter goes very nicely, as well.
Is it breakfast time yet?
But it was a winter break to attend my son's wedding, and mostly we ate vegetarian, locally grown food, including this delicious Puerto Rican dinner prepared by my new daughter-in-law's grandma, aunt, and mom (Sonia), who replaced meat with chick peas to please the bride and groom.
My most memorable (and only) spring break trip was in March, 1974, when this southern California girl headed to Baja California - yes, in a rickety VW van - with a bunch of friends. In a beach town on the Gulf of Baja I ate my first fish taco from a street vendor. A warm, soft, flour tortilla was wrapped around freshly caught grilled fish, chunks of ripe tomato, sliced cabbage, and fresh salsa, washed down with warm Tecate beer. It was heaven, and out of all the fish tacos I've tried since, it still ranks as the best.
Note: I'm giving away a copy of Murder Most Fowl, my fourth Local Foods Mystery, which takes place in the spring.
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TINA KASHIAN: I would choose a warm tropical island! A couple years ago, we went to an all inclusive resort at Turks and Caicos. What a dream! Here I am just arriving at the resort. I ran into that turquoise water!
Since then, I have wanted to go back. Maybe someday! Our closer to home trips over spring break have been to Wildwood Crest or Ocean City, NJ. The water is too cold to swim (we just put our toes in), but the beach is lovely and many of the boardwalk shops are open. My Kebab Kitchen mysteries are set here. We don't have plans for spring break this year, but hope to make it somewhere. Happy vacation!
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On my birthday, we had a special delivery. Breakfast by canoe. This was one of the loveliest meals I've ever had. There's something about your fresh papaya being served with just-picked plumeria and hibiscus that makes you want to put on your coconut bra.
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LUCY BURDETTE: We of course live 6 months of the year in one of the spring break capitols of the world--Key West! Mid-March is a very busy, crazy time of year so we don't go out on the town until it passes. How about a little cruise ship instead? I picture myself sitting on a deck chair overlooking the water sipping a mojito. This ship was docked on Mallory Square this morning when Lottie and I went for coffee
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MAYA CORRIGAN: When my daughter was in college, she studied in Valencia, Spain, for a semester. My son was in high school at the time. During his spring break, we took him with us to visit her in Valencia—where paella originated. On that trip we tried different varieties of the rice dish: paella valenciana made with chicken and rabbit, paella de mariscos made with shellfish, and paella mixta, a combination of meat and fish. I bought a paella pan as soon as I went home. Though I’ve made paella de mariscos and paella mixta as a company dish, I also make a simpler variation of it as an everyday dish. I started with a recipe from Gourmet magazine for squid paella. I’ve made the squid version and sometimes added chicken to it. I’ve also used shrimp instead of squid and shared my recipe here. Because saffron isn't an ingredient, it's not a traditional paella, but it’s easy and delicious. Any dish good enough for Gourmet is fine with me.
MARCH
GIVEAWAY!
> Murder Most Fowl by Edith Maxwell
(aka Maddie Day)
your email address.
