Saturday Tidy Up

 Cantaloupe blossom (oh boy!)

In the enthusiasm and frustration of posting yesterday, I completely forgot that it was Free Range Friday...oopsy! Last night Ann was telling a few of us about a fantastic dessert she had at a dinner party the other night and it sounded so good, I went searching this morning to see if I could find anything close to it. While I don't think what I ended up with (and the search isn't over yet!) was anything like what was described, it sounds very yummy and summery to me. Presenting Mango Fool.

From a wide lot of recipes (making fool is like making potato salad I've discovered), I've ended up with this one. Some were only about three ingredients long, which appealed to my love of simple, but a few of the spices involved in some of the others just made my mouth water when thinking of the combinations...so here you go.

Mango Fool (fool? who you callin' fool? and why?)

• 2 mangoes 
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon chai masala (see recipe below) 
• mint leaves for garnish (optional)
• 1/2 cup confectioners suger
• 1/2 teaspoon lime juice 
• 1 teaspoon zest of lime 
• 1 cup whipping cream 

1. Peel  and cut (save some slices for garnish) mangoes into small pieces, blend to a puree in blender
2. Add the ginger, chai masala, sugar and lime juice to blender, blending until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, whip the cream and lime zest until peaks form
4. Fold the mango mixture into the whipped cream, a bit at a time.
5. Stir, then gradually add more, until they are all mixed together  (you can layer it if you prefer)
6. Pour the mixture into bowls and chill for one hour before serving
7. Garnish with mango slices and mint leaves 

Chai masala (if you don't feel like making this yourself, you can buy bottled Garam Masala to substitute - either  Penzey's or Vann's make a wonderful blend if you can't find something good in your local market)

Grind up the following in a spice grinder/coffee bean grinder or blender. Keeps bottled for - a pretty long time!

• 2 whole star anise
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cardamom
• 12 whole cloves 
• 2 cinnamon sticks (broken up) 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (use fresh if you like, say a 1 inch or so piece)
• 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns 
• 2 bay leaves 

Buen provecho!

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The second loose end is about a bridge. Mathers Bridge to be precise, which I've mentioned *cough* a few times before on this blog. But I had to go back back back (because yes, I'm a compulsive freak, it's true)  and see if I could find a photo of when it was still a wooden bridge. I got close but couldn't quite crack the code so I wrote to My Florida Memory and asked if they had any such photos. As luck would have it, they did have a few - thank you very much, Mr. Neal Adam Watson - apparently taken just before work started on the bridge in 1981. No more clickity clacking across the wooden planks. No more jumping on one side to see if you could make another fly up. No more splinters in your arms or butt while fishing....No more hand cranking it open from that giant crank, with the cranky but nice bridgetender (though I think that actually had stopped years before since I was about 10 or 12 when we still got to do that). Can you imagine in these days letting 10 or more kids crank open a swing bridge while boats went through? With the bridge wide open to nowhere but the water, we'd dangle our legs over the edges until the boats got through, hopping up to get back on the crank and close it before running off to fish or jump off the pilings... It might sound like Little House on the River Prarie but it wasn't that long ago...oh dear god, I sound like my 95 year old Aunt...'it seems so fresh in my mind'. Shoot me now.

Looking toward the road home...

if you kept going about a mile and 1/2, you'd hit the beach on the other side

View looking toward S. Merritt Island and the restaurant that, alas, is gone as well

So there it is...the place where at my father's hands I learned to bait a hook and catch a fish, net crabs and shrimp under full mon, with dangling kerosene lanterns hung down over the side of the bridge. The place I had my first *real* date; we went fishing. The spot I fell in love with dolphins and all things rivery.

The Banana River...it never sounded like a funny name until I moved away and would mention it, getting quizzical laughter in response. But it is the biggest spring habitat for manatees and the largest pelican rookery on the Atlantic coast....it has about every sort of water eco system you can imagine in such a small area, hey, it's where I saw my first horseshoe crab, damn it! What's so funny? Yes...yes nurse, I know it's time for my meds, just a minute, I'm almost done.

Across Merritt Island, which at the point of this bridge end is probably about 50 feet wide, if that, is the Indian River, and then the mainland of Melbourne. But you have to go to another bridge for that; this spot is the end of the end...and apparently I keep seeking out those spots in my life, having lived at End of the World places more than a few times before I found Culebra. With its bridge. Yeah. Thanks, Dad!

This morning has been silver shine sun on white/grey clouded skies and finally a nice little shower to cool off the air. I can delay chores no longer...unless the radar says I can!