A visit from Maggie and Pearl.

family, food and cooking, summer, , ,

I’m still enjoying the afterglow of having Pearl and her daughter Maggie here for a couple of days last week. Just we three, three generations, happy to be together, however briefly. I don’t think I mentioned at the time that Maggie came by herself for two nights last May; on her way home from college she stopped here.

This time they were headed back in the other direction. We shopped a little bit for things she’ll need in her dorm suite, and Maggie took her car for an oil change. We cooked a lot, and it is so fun to cook with helpers who go on to appreciate everything on the table. Other times, Pearl very wisely suggested sitting outdoors with our tea or whatever, and there is nothing like being in the garden with people I love.

One afternoon Maggie told us mysteriously that she was going to run a quick errand, and when she came back she was bringing three It’s It ice cream sandwiches. It seems these treats aren’t available except in California.

The weather was fairly warm, but Maggie and Pearl had come from a hotter and more humid Wisconsin, so no one was bothered much. We ate the goodies on the patio, at dusk. It typically cools off here even before the sun sets, so to be gifted a rare balmy evening, coordinated perfectly with our desire to sit out in the most leisurely way — that was the icing on the cake, or the ice cream between the oatmeal cookies.

There had been cake, too, which I’d baked beforehand in honor of both their birthdays, belatedly. I used a Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, which I found on someone else’s site, and changed just a little bit. It used the zest and juice of three whole lemons, and was the best lemon cake I’ve ever eaten. I forgot to take a picture, and I sent the leftovers along with Maggie.

Maggie got the idea to make lavender lemonade: She used several lemons from my tree, and dried lavender flowers I had sitting on the kitchen counter. It was just the right amount of sugar, and the nicest accent of lavender — yum! I sent her back to school with a few more lemons, and a lavender plant in a pot, for her balcony. So it was a pretty lemony visit all around, with plenty of sweetness to bring out the flavor.

Joaquin Sorolla, My Wife and Daughters in the Garden

9 thoughts on “A visit from Maggie and Pearl.”

  6. The Lemon Sheet cake sounds so good and also the lavender lemonade. One of the gifts I received for my birthday was a jar of Apple/Lavender jelly. It had a sprig of lavender in the jar on top of the jelly. Very delicate taste.
    Nice that you had this lovely time with dear ones.

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  7. This sounds like the best visit! I love that you cook together. The lemon cake sounds amazing — do you have the link for it? And so does the lemonade. I’ve never heard of It’s It bars. What a great idea! I had to laugh at hot and humid Wisconsin. We’re just across the lake and this summer has been anything but! This morning when I woke, it was 45 degrees! We might get to 70 today.

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    1. It’s strange, I can’t find the site from which I printed it, and its URL is not on the pages, either. But this looks like the same cake: https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/cake/lemon-buttermilk-sheet-cake.html

      I decreased the sugar in the cake by 1/4 cup, and I prepared only 2/3 the amount of glaze called for. That extra topping sprinkled on the cake at the end is not to be missed, though; it gives it an extra tasty crunch. That being said, the cake would be yummy without any topping.

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  8. All of you are enjoying the treasure of friendship across the generations. What a gift you all must be to each other and it appears you all appreciate that wonderful gift too. I felt relaxed just reading this post and I loved the artist’s painting you included.

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