Figs on My Mind

I've got figs on my mind

I've got figs on my mind

I've got figs on my mind

And there's nothing particular wrong

It's a feeling I feel inside

When I woke up early this morning

It was staring me straight in my eye

Natalie Cole sang about love. I am singing about figs. Last week I was picking up some produce in Whole Foods and I paused beside the display of figs. An employee stocking fresh lettuces shared with me her favorite way to enjoy figs. Slice the fig in half, insert a bit of goat's cheese, wrap with a slice of prosciutto, and grill for 1 minute. Brilliant! Country Living recently had 3 fantastic ways to prepare figs. The first, from Nancy Oakes, chef-owner of Boulevard in San Francisco, suggested tossing a pint of figs into an ovenproof dish, roasting the figs for 10 minutes at 350F and then drizzling then with an aged balsamic vinegar. Stephen Pyles, chef-owner of Stephen Pyles Restaurant in Dallas, combines 2 tablespoons each butter and sugar, a pinch of salt, and 3 tablespoons sweet Spanish sherry in a skillet over medium heat. Once the mixture is lightly caramelized, add 8 whole figs, toss to coat and cook until the fruit is soft. Serve over vanilla ice cream. Sheila Lukins, of the Silver Palate Cookbook, suggests halving fresh figs, slathering them with mascarpone and sprinkling with chopped pistachios. The edible fig is one of the first plants that was cultivated by humans and subfossil finds suggest that the cultivated fig may have been planted and cultivated intentionally, one thousand years before crops such as wheat or rye. The Romans were fig aficionados and used figs, among other things, to fatten geese for the production of a precursor of foie gras. Interestingly enough, the word sycophant (Greek roots skon phainein) mean to show a fig, so if one was attempting to gain someone's favor, they brought them a platter of figs. I would love a good explanation of where the expression "I don't give a fig" originated.

I have been bitten badly once again by the crafts bug. That is a great deal better than getting bitten by a spider. Yesterday I heard of 2 dastardly occurrences of spider bite. My cousin, who was to visit for dinner on Wednesday, was bitten by a spider over the weekend. This resulted in a trip to the hospital and he is now medicated and unable to travel. Another acquaintance suffered a spider bite that required 3 stitches. What the hell.... I would have been much more afraid of cleaning my basement if I had heard this news earlier. My basement was "Spider Central." While there are 12 venomous spiders in the U.S., the two most common spiders to cause such problems in the Northeast are the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. While these photos make the spiders seem gigantic, they are usually between 1/4" and 1/2" big. Spiders like to hide amid cardboard and clutter, so if one must clean crawlspaces and basements, gloves may be a good protective idea. I tend to lead with my vacuum hose, sucking up dust, debris and spiders before they can get to me. If you do get bitten and the site hurts or has a bluish tinge, seek immediate medical treatments, because what you want to protect yourself from is a staph infections, which can accompany a spider bite.