In Love with France, At Home In Italy

Sent:  Sunday, August 01, 2010 To:  DF, my gourmet-cooking neighbor Subject:  PLUMS galore! Missing you! Well, here I am, all by myself (except for a million plums), drinking a Finkbrau alcohol-free beer, and thinking what all these plums might become in the magic hands of you-know-who. In fact, I have a dream of cooking with you here in this beautiful kitchen. Hope it comes true.     In the meantime, thank you for being so generous to J with your cooking gifts. There's lots of good food here, but your "restaurant" is still Number One with me!---baci, d PS: I didn't pick for two days, and look what happened! In response to my plum photos, DF wrote: What great pictures! I think you have to get a cart, a babushka, and your plums and go to market! You’ll never be able to use them all. But look on line for plum compote recipes as well as all the baked ones. It’s been fun for me to have your husband to table...he loves to eat, unlike B, who eats to li...

Remember when you asked me what I was going to do with all those plums? I don't think I gave any details about the misadventure I alluded to in "reaching down INTO a ditch is better than getting stuck in one," so they are included here.     My neighbor in America, D, who is the very best cook and also a marketing genius had some ideas for me (see way below). She was SO right about me and the plum situation. On Saturday, we walked through the woods to a festa in B, a tiny village of 54 people, of whom I knew 2. This being such a small world, these same lovely people often pop up on my very limited traffic pattern.      One, I first encountered after stalling and falling into a ditch. I didn't know who the heck she was, but we met as I was walking home after having to abandon the car in the middle of what can only loosely be termed our "road" (and with the non-working phone with which I had intended to call Farmer G for help). Something made me say to ...