Spring is here!(That title by the way, is to be sung to the iconic music of the play on Broadway, taking liberties with the rhyming of Bergamot and Camelot, in case like some in my house who didn’t get it.) I didn’t think I needed to point that out, but apparently I did.
Well here we are. In an unprecedented time. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. It is time for pause for us all. Whatever your beliefs, it is a time for prayer and hope. It is a time to reach for the best in all of us and to hope that we will all come out of this time all the better. It is a time to look to leaders that inspire. We will all remember this time for the rest of our lives. And hopefully, we will all learn a lot from this experience.
As it is indeed a time of great concern and forced suspension of one’s normal daily patterns, we may find that the ones we love may feel deep and imposing worry. Depending where you are or if someone you know is ill, it may be downright scary. Perhaps unusual coping mechanisms are due. And, if you are like me, it might just be a Camelot moment. A moment to escape into the fantasy if only for a few short moments – a place and time of happiness and freedom from worry, like Jackie did. A place where the climate is perfect – it only rains at night and the fog clears in the morning – surely if anything, that is the place for me.
take a gander here and return to the time when Richard Burton’s lilting baritone rang over Broadway https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o3g5XaHv5yw
I’m still in California and as of last night we are in what is essentially a statewide quarantine. Over the past couple of weeks we have seen life begin to shrink up a bit. But all I have to say is, if there was ever a place to be stuck in, this is it. I’m exceedingly grateful.
In these days I find an ever stronger than normal need to indulge in the little vocations that help to occupy and sustain me. For those of you who follow me you may have realized that I have some odd musical affinities where songs will pop into my head (along with words sometimes), which somehow tie together things I’m doing. Many may not get my sense of humor or my sense of musical ties or errant waves of brain – it just is. And, right about now also, any levity helps.
In the particular situation we find ourselves in today, many may experience a sense of doom and gloom. I can’t explain it but presently, I did not think I was feeling that way. However somehow the notion that popped in today was that of Camelot. I guess you could say it was an unconscious thing, related to my way of preferring to suspend myself into other spaces while all of this goes on – it may be flowers, it may be food, it may be music, it may be nature. Coping mechanisms are so important I have found – and I have found a few that work for me. I hope you have, too.
Back to the Camelot thing. Somewhere suspended in the backchannels of my mind and in my current kitchen, the sound of Richard Burton singing the chorus came drifting in. At the same time, I decided to engage in the relative mundane activity of baking banana bread. Hmmm, doesn’t everyone turn to their ultimate comfort foods in times like this? I was mixing along with Camelot humming in the background when “Bergamot! Bergamot!” seemed to be the new lyric – along with appropriate up note. Ok, good thing all those with on the white jacket brigade are currently otherwise occupied. So, I can just continue to have a good time on my own.
I have long been a huge fan of bergamots (maybe some day I’ll go back to Italy to find them) – even though I have the hardest time finding them in this country. Once in a while I have found some at Eataly in New York. I have inquired after them from my favorite citrus purveyors at the Saturday Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market where I was told they have one or two trees but I have missed the boat by now. My favorite marmalade is the Bergamot from Balthazar Bakery in Englewood, NJ. Seriously, you don’t want to miss this.
Here is what came along with the “Bergamot! Bergamot!” Refrain:
by all means add the chocolate chips – I don’t have any today and I’ve already been to my allotted visit to the grocery store
The “Bergamot! Bergamot! Banana Bread – adapted from Joy of Baking
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
contents of 1 Earl Grey teabag – I prefer Tazo for its extreme scent
zest of one small orange
3 large bananas, over ripe, mashed with a fork
3/4 cups sugar
2 ex large eggs, beaten lightly
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a standard size loaf pan, place a piece of parchment paper in bottom and butter it – set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- In a medium bowl, to the mashed bananas, add the eggs, butter, vanilla, and orange zest. Blend.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently with a wooden spoon just until the dry ingredients disappear. Add the nuts (and chocolate chips if using) and mix in.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool in pan.
- Serve with best sweet cream butter and a cup of steaming tea.
,
Hope we can all look ahead to better days. We are on the upswing! Be well everyone!
my Italian Parsley is looking good
……..In short, there’s simply not
A more congenial spot
For happy ever aftering than here
in Camelot…………