Graduation. What a strange ritual it was this year as creative and supportive schools, parents and graduates devised ways to mark this rite of passage in a safe, non-contagious way.
The boulder in the road was COVID-19 and how to avoid it, but the ways around it were plentiful. There were a lot of smiling faces and enthusiastic cheers on The Esplanade as Chico High graduated the class of 2020, and I’m sure the same was true for Pleasant Valley and all the other local high schools. I guess the point is, very little can dampen a true celebration, and there is cause for joy even in the midst of nationwide protesting and a global pandemic.
I was missing graduation speeches — the principals and valedictorians, but also the graduation celebrity speakers like Obama, or Bill Gates, maybe Sean Spicer? I picked up a book of college graduation speeches given by Kurt Vonnegut, a possible literary ancestor of Mark Twain in common sense and crankiness. In a speech given to the graduates of Butler University in Vonnegut’s hometown, Indianapolis, he admonishes the class to become the “kind of saints who make life worthwhile”, and “don’t forget where you came from.”
The nugget in this 1996 speech comes here: “Notice when you’re happy and know when you’ve got enough. As for throwing money at problems: that’s what money is for.
“My Uncle Alex Vonnegut, an insurance salesman who lived at 5033 North Pennsylvania, taught me something very important. He said when things are going really well, we should be sure to notice it. He was talking about very simple occasions, not great victories. Maybe drinking lemonade under a shade tree, or smelling the aroma of a bakery, or fishing, or listening to music coming from a concert hall while standing in the dark outside, or, dare I say, after a kiss. He told me that it was important at such times to say our loud, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”
His advice to Generation X, which applies equally to the 2020 graduates of Generation Z is this: “that you set as your goals the putting of some small part of the planet into something like safe and sane and decent order. There’s a lot of cleaning up to do. There’s a lot of rebuilding to do, both spiritual and physical.
“And, again, there’s going to be a lot of happiness.
“Don’t forget to notice!”
There are lots of little things to be happy about right now — beautiful June weather and unexpected thunderstorms, the brief but tasty reappearance of corn dogs at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, and at my house, a banner crop of ripening blackberries.
Fresh berries are such a treat, it doesn’t take much to make them a dessert. I like to toss washed strawberries, blueberries and blackberries with a little sugar and a tablespoon or two of Grand Marnier in a pretty glass bowl with some fresh mint leaves and call it amazing, but for birthdays and summer barbecues nothing beats a fresh blackberry cobbler with a rich biscuit topping — this recipe, an amalgamation of many different ideas on the topic, is our traditional Fourth of July dessert and my favorite birthday “cake.”
Lindahl’s Blackberry Cobbler
Ingredients:
- 10 cups or 5 pints of washed blackberries
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 3 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 1⁄2 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1 pinch salt
Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine all ingredients and put in a buttered 3-quart lasagna-style pan. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile make drop biscuits.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3⁄4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into 1⁄4-inch cubes
- 1/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt plus a couple of extra tablespoons
Directions: While fruit is baking, pulse flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in food processor to combine. Scatter butter cubes over and pulse until mixture looks like coarse meal — approximately 10 1-second pulses.
Transfer to medium bowl and mix in yogurt with a rubber spatula. Gentle! Don’t over mix or dough will be tough. If dough seems too dry, add an extra tablespoon of yogurt to make it moist enough to handle. Make about 6 equal dough mounds and put on top of hot fruit. Leave at least 1⁄2-inch between mounds — don’t let them touch. Sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of biscuits. Bake until golden brown and fruit is bubbling — about 16-18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm with ice cream.
Blackberries, blueberries and strawberries are in full season and this looks like a great berry year. It’s always a good idea to wash berries just before you use them — rinse gently under running water for 30 seconds or so in a colander. Let drain until completely dry, or gently tumble out onto a baking sheet lined with a couple of layers of paper towels. As for storage, berries are prone to growing mold and rotting quickly. If the berries aren’t to be used immediately, prepare a mixture of one-part vinegar, (white or apple cider), and ten parts water. Dump the berries into the mixture and swirl around, drain, rinse if you want, (the vinegar mixture is so diluted you can’t really taste it), and refrigerate in a paper towel lined airtight container. The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the fruit, so raspberries last a week or more, and strawberries keep in the refrigerator without getting moldy or soft.
The cobbler was made from the last of the berries I froze last year. I washed them and lined them up on a baking sheet. When they were frozen, I’d toss them in a freezer plastic storage bag. If I was really smart, I’d have measured them into the bags, so I’d know exactly what I had for a recipe – always something to learn. This is a good way to freeze a few in small bags to use in smoothies or for blackberry sundaes too.
Kurt Vonnegut’s book, “If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? — The graduation speeches and other words to live by” from Seven Stories Press.
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June 10, 2020 at 05:31PM
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This cobbler is a wonderful graduation treat | Sweet Basil and the Bee - Chico Enterprise-Record
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