FIGS! Oh joy~

Anybody who knows me knows my fig fetish.
I particularly love eating them when someone like my friend Lee, AKA Kitchen Goddess on her fabulous blog, presents them so beautifully.

Like Lee, I had a grandmother who put up fig preserves.
Our big sprawling fig tree was a perfect spot to hide under and pick the figs right off that tree.

Today's blog from Lee has sent me back to those days.
How I wish I were eating them wrapped in prosciutto and stuffed with cheese right now (my current adoration).

CLICK HERE to read her recipes and remembrances.

I'm so jealous that she has a tree, complete with figs.

To tempt you even more, here's a picture from today's post.
You know you want to read how to make your food look so beautiful.
Go ahead, click away.

Fig Appetizer

 I've written about figs before, in case you hadn't noticed...
You can type FIGS into the search box of this blog or click the link in the previous sentence.
Or just read Lee's post and enjoy. Big time YUM.

Friday Favorites

Figs.

Love 'em or hate 'em. I love them. A lot.

So of course I had to check out the country's largest fig tree, located in Santa Barbara, California.
Where I just happened to be last week.

Click that link if you'd like to read more.

The tree looks like no other fig tree in my experience.
It's not the southern fig from my grandmother's backyard.

BUT there were figs on it.  They were terrible. 

Okay, yes, I picked a ripe one and opened it up and maybe I even kind of tasted it.

I've written about figs before.
Maybe some would say I've over-written on the topic.

But if you're a Fig Freak also, here are a few things I've said on the topic.

FIGS, on my own blog, here: http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2012/07/figs.html

A FIG recipe, here: http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2012/07/fig-recipe.html

And another FIG recipe, from my friend and food blogger, Lee Hilton.
I'd love to make preserves like this.
If I could get enough figs and if I could keep from eating them right out of the little baskets.
http://spoonandink.blogspot.com/2012/08/preserving-summer.html

And WAY back in 2008 when I first joined a great gang of Southern Writers on A GOOD BLOG IS HARD TO FIND, I wrote this about my Great Fig Fiasco. My failed attempt to break into NPR.
http://southernauthors.blogspot.com/2008/10/great-fig-fiasco-im-writer.html

And if you're still reading? Here's the essay that put the whole Fig Fiasco thing in motion:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0830/p18s02-hfes.html

I'll bet there are still a few figs out there just waiting to be turned into a Fig Garlic Pizza.
So easy and delish. (Recipe's on my Pinterest board.)

Fig Recipe

For those of you who saw the picture yesterday and requested the recipe, it was simply figs, goat cheese mixed with a little honey, and thinly sliced French bread.

But here's another good one!
I've also drizzled this with honey, in place of the olive oil at the end.


EASY FIG AND PROSCIUTTO APPETIZER

Ingredients
8 Black Mission figs
1/2 cup blue cheese, cut into cubes
8 prosciutto (thinly sliced, cut in half lengthwise)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Preheat grill. You will need medium to high heat for grilling. The key is to crisp the prosciutto quickly and leave the blue cheese just melted with the inner part of the fig cool in temperature.

Cut the figs in half and place a piece of blue cheese on each fig half. Wrap the prosciutto around each fig half, covering the cheese. The ends of the prosciutto should overlap.

Grill each piece until the prosciutto begins to color and crisp, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from grill, lightly drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Serve warm.

FIGS

Each summer about this time, I feel compelled to mark the fig season. 

To tip my hat to one of my favorite foods.
It may be a while before they turn up in my New Jersey Farmers Markets,
but the ones in my sister's yard are almost ready to be plundered by the birds.

I'm collecting recipes.

I no longer have a childhood backyard tree, 

and it's not that easy to time visits to my Mississippi relatives to pick figs.

Instead, I have a bowl of ceramic figs near my front door, 

and more preserves, candles, and soap than I'll use in a lifetime.

They're not really the same as ripe, juicy figs fresh off the tree though, are they?

This summer, I was sorely tempted by a small Fig Tree at our local Stop and Shop. 

In New Jersey! In early June! 

A few tiny figs had started to show themselves. 

Fortunately I came to my senses and passed up the little tree. My sister just reported that she has plenty on her tree, as yet unripened. Maybe there's time to beat the birds to her fruit.

If you care... there's a bit about my Great Fig Fiasco HERE. 

Alas, the Good Blog is Hard to Find people have disbanded that group blog of terrific Southern writers, but the old posts are still there to read. 

Or, if you're lucky and have a tree full of figs, go ahead.
Enjoy that fig and prosciutto appetizer. 

Save your reading for another day.

Things I Love

Figs! 

For so many reasons.

And when I can't get to my sister's to pick her figs and the New Jersey Farmers' Markets just sold their only basket, I have these ceramic beauties my daughter brought me from her summer studying in Florence.

Her cousin showed us the shop. I bought two. But they are heavy-ish, and we pack light in our family. So imagine my surprise when my daughter came home with more figs--and even two peaches--  for my birthday that year.

They live in the bowl I gave my mother the spring my husband and I lived in California.
It's mine now.

Many things to love in this picture.

Here's a funny (I hope) blast from the past about My Great Fig Fiasco, my first blog post ever on the Southern Writers Blog: A Good Blog is Hard to Find.

The Great Fig Fiasco

I'll admit it. I'm a fig fanatic.

My sister just emailed me that her figs are almost ready. Since I've searched my own Florida neighborhood and see nothing but bushy trees and tiny fruit, I'll look forward to traveling to Mississippi in time for fig season. If I hurry, and she's vigilant, I may beat the birds to the feast.

With that on my mind, I just reread my funny fig fiasco story, the first essay I wrote for A Good Blog is Hard to Find. If you need a good laugh, or love a good fig, check it out.

Southerners have a thing for the fuzzy fruit. Whether it's the memory of playing under a grandmother's fig tree, a nice glass of something accompanied by a tasty fig and goat cheese appetizer, or a scary memory featuring glass jars of preserves lined up in the pantry, love 'em or hate 'em, we can't seem to escape figs.

Fig thoughts, anyone?

NPR in the NYT

I'm a big fan of NPR. Even though they once bumped an interview with me, I've moved on. (Just wish I could find another use for that material that went from journeying to my sister's backyard to pick figs to searching for the perfect fig in my New Jersey neighborhood, with photographs...)

Today's papers are filled with financial news, of course. Here's an interesting article about This American Life, worth reading. Smart use of Craig's List resources, no?