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11/14/2018 11:01 PMNow, for those of you readers who are men, don’t send me letters and say I am not correct when I say that widows learn how to take care of themselves, but widowers are often reattached in weeks or months.
My sister-in-law died in March of 2018.
The memorial service was in April.
A few months ago my brother mentioned that he wanted me to meet Lois.
A couple of weeks ago, I flew to Pittsburgh to do just that.
As I walked down the Pittsburgh airline’s escalator, I saw them holding hands.
And I am here to tell you that my brother has found, very simply, the nicest person I have ever met. She is around his age (he is 83) and they met playing duplicate bridge.
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about the fact that one of two duplicate bridge partners once shot the other after a bad bid. My brother does not take bridge that seriously, nor does Lois, and neither has a gun, so that is all good.
Anyway, I had a wonderful few days.
One evening we had dinner at an inn where we shared French fries dressed with truffle oil, served with a ramekin of srirachi. My entree was a small pork tenderloin with mashed potato side so delicious I had to ask what was in it: the sous chef said it was maple syrup and chipotle. The second night, Lois’s three daughters and their husbands brought pot-luck to my brother’s house and called it a party. Lois’s daughters are as nice as she is, as are their husbands, although one of them showed me a picture of a ten-point buck he’d killed that afternoon.
Now I am home and the holidays have begun. In the past two columns, I gave you my recipes for turkey, gravy, stuffing, and a new cranberry sauce. Although pies are de rigueur, why not make a lovely autumn cake and, if you have some extra, make a trifle? I will be driving to Newburyport, Massachusetts, for the day, but feel free to email me if you run into problems. And next week’s column will include recipes for turkey leftovers.
Lee White of Old Lyme has been a food editor and restaurant reviewer for more than 25 years. You can email her at leeawhite@aol.com.
Old Fashioned Spice Cake
Adapted from Linnea Rufo of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Yield: serves 10 to 12 people
1 cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) butter
½ cup currants or raisins or dried cherries (optional)
½ cup candied ginger, chopped
2 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a 10-inch tube pan.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
Pour batter into prepared tube pan. Set on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until cake pulls away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool cake in the pan, set on a rack, for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan and spread on icing at once, while cake is still warm.
Espresso Icing
1 ½ cups of confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon of espresso (use a teaspoon or so of cold coffee)
1 tablespoon milk
Whisk icing ingredients together.