bringing back good memories (photo archives The Patty Duke Show)
I admit I’m prone to certain avenues of nostalgia. They are like following the lines on the palm of my hand. Since yesterday I’ve gotten to thinking about the tv shows and movies I watched when I was a kid. Yes, as my kids remind me constantly, that WAS in the last century! Not only that, it was in the last millennium – oh my gosh. Well yes, that says a lot about me and how long I’ve been traipsing around on this earth. And as go the years go the memories……
Of course, this came about as a result of the announcement of the passing of Patty Duke, child and adult actress, yesterday at the very young age of 69. It saddened me to think of her dying and a flood of memories came back – not the least of which involved the tv shows we watched back then. It also reminded me of how substantively life has changed. Just take a long look at that picture. Can you remember when kids looked like that? Honestly, it brings a lump to my throat. But, for me, it was nice.
Yes, I remember black and white tvs, rabbit ears and yes, the age of innocence. While some people like to recall the 60s in the image of Mad Men – so purposefully brought to our attention in the form of drinking, smoking, the lurid intrigue that even the theme song evokes, scheming, dealing and all sorts of carousing, I actually prefer to remember those years as the age of innocence. Part of that remembrance comes to mind in the form of the up-beat sitcoms of the period, such as the Patty Duke Show and Gidget.
I feel grateful that I had those precious times to consider that life was good and substantively un-tragic. We were post WWII babies that were sandwiched into a special time before the Vietnam era. We were born before the unrest of 68-69, ban the bra and riots, LSD, the assassinations of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King. Right in the middle there, there was a period, albeit, a short one, when life seemed idyllic, at least on the outside. I was happy to have this time when what echoed back at me from the tv, and movies was yes, basically, comfortingly innocent. It gave me a foundation of thought that indeed life could be simple, unadulterated and comforting, even if it was contrived and bordering on silly.
This too was still the age of delivery men. Yes, we had our milk delivered by a man in a little truck. We had fresh bread delivered by a man in a truck. Occasionally, we had some other baked goods delivered too. Does anyone else remember this time?
This brings me to the muffin man nursery rhyme. I don’t know why but it just popped into my head in conjunction with this time in my life – as if in reminder of swinging on swings and singing songs in the sun in second grade. We skipped. We jumped rope. We rode bikes with abandon and scandal – after dark!
Back in Victorian times, circa 1820 when this was written, there were muffin men and apparently one lived on Drury Lane. And hence, the “Do you know the muffin man………” No, I wasn’t around then, but we did actually learn little rhymes such as this and sang them – this and the other one I have written about – Lavender’s Blue, Dilly Dilly (https://kitchen-inspirational.com/2015/03/12/lavender-blue-dilly-dilly-tea-for-chanel-at-downton/). Ok, so I lost just about 99.9% of you……..
Well anyway, that’s my little story for today about my thoughts concerning the Patty Duke Show – and Gidget with Sally Field. These shows were a little bedrock for me that I apparently held onto, and tightly. I’m not sorry. I’m happy about it. It was fun watching those shows and pretending that was what life could be like. Yes, life seemed very simple back then.
Memories of simpler times call for a simple recipe. And so, just because, to honor that little age of innocence that Patty Duke then portrayed, and that “Do You Know the Muffin Man” ditty, here are my Simple Strawberry Muffins. I might go sit on a swing and have one.
MY STRAWBERRY MUFFINS –
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
3/4 tsp almond extract
zest of 1 orange, divided
1 3/4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped into 1/2″ pieces
orange sugar
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12 cup cupcake tin with paper liners and set aside. Make orange sugar by combining 1 tsp orange zest with 1 tblsp sanding sugar with your fingertips.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all but 1 tsp of the orange zest. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, yogurt, almond extract and cooled butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently mix with a rubber spatula just until the flour disappears. Add the strawberries and gently mix in just to distribute. Scoop with an ice cream scoop into prepared pan. Sprinkle orange sugar over each muffin.
Bake 25 minutes or until the muffins are nicely browned, firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a light crumb. Remove from oven and let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and cool. Serve with fresh cream butter. Enjoy!