Sweet Orange and Coconut

Last Monday would have been Grandma’s 82nd birthday. This was the first year I didn’t get to call her, hear her laugh, and share in another year of her life. Since Gram’s birthday was typically around Easter, we always double downed and did 2x the celebrating. If you’re part of the Yoder clan, every birthday my mother (or grandma) will cook you a dinner and dessert of your choice. Seriously, one of the biggest perks ever. Anything and everything. Nothing is off limits. My gram’s always requested orange cake with whipped coconut icing. It was her favorite.

New Orleans in Half a Day

New Orleans is just one of those destinations that you look forward to your eating. Kate’s top pick and recommendation was K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen and man, I don’t know how anyone could be disappointed with a meal here. I’m seriously still in a delicious food coma. We had the most wonderful waitress named Sheila. She gave recommendations (Kate asked her to pick her favorites and surprise her with dinner), showed us how the chef wanted us to eat meals and made the whole dining experience amazing. Every time a new round of food came, forks were passed around with little bites of everyone’s dish. I’m pretty sure we would have licked the plates if it wasn’t frowned upon.

Strawberries and Cream

It’s curious, every time I sit down to write out a recipe I spend a little time thinking about what grams would say. What memories would she remember about these recipes that I don’t? How did she create or find a recipe? I would say a good half of all the recipes in gram’s books are from friends, relatives or other cookbooks and this one is no different. It’s on an old piece of type paper from 1978 from her friend Shirley MacKay. Gram’s binders are filled with torn out pages from magazines, recipe cards ‘from the kitchen of’ various friends or jotted down notes from a restaurant she’d visited and she convinced a chef to share with her. Grams was funny like that. She could pretty much talk anyone into giving her a good recipe.