Post by horseyrider on Aug 5, 2018 18:32:24 GMT
When I was a child, a couple moved in across the street with their two preschool children. They were transferred to our town on business, from France. They were a lovely couple, and as soon as I was old enough (not old enough these days, but back then if you were over ten, you could do it) I would babysit for their children. The mother became friends with my mother, and this lovely Frenchwoman had Mom and some of her friends over for luncheons and such. This was in the mid to late 60s, and Mom's crowd were surprised and delighted with the meals they were served.
Georgette was raised in the Alsace region of France, and was old enough to remember WWII in her area. She knew about the resulting devastation, the poverty, the struggle to rebuild a war torn nation and the struggle to hang on to traditional ways. She introduced us to quiche before anyone had heard of it, to delicate creamed sweetbreads in puff pastry, to REAL French bread (not those long batons of plain white bread bent in a different shape), and to the pantry goods that every good Frenchwoman made for her family herself. The traditions of cooking in pre-WWII France are old, the industrialization of food had not yet happened during Georgette's childhood and young adulthood, and those things were frowned upon by the matrons of her area as inferior. As they truly are. Pure, locally grown, handled with loving care, the tables were set with bread, cheeses, vegetables and fruits and a few cured meats that were shockingly delicious.
I think of those times whenever I make this stuff. I think of the women who went before me so many years ago, the ones who carefully, lovingly, but frugally served high quality nutritious meals to their families. These women awakened a longing for the delicious meals from before the industrialization of food here in the 1950s.
This is EASY. I thought I'd pass it on after we had the glass jar thread. This is Georgette's recipe for Tutti-Frutti, or Brandied Fruit. I hope you enjoy.
"TUTTI-FRUTTI
" Put 1/3-1/2 bottle of good brandy in the bottom of a gallon jar. As fruit comes into season, add a few cupfuls with equal amounts of sugar. Use peaches, pears, pineapple, strawberries, seedless grapes, oranges, etc. Stir daily. In late fall, when all has had time to ferment, put in freshly washed jars and seal. Keeps indefinitely."
"Note: Good on ice cream and cup custard."
Would it surprise you if I tell you that once it sets a bit, I dig right in? I've never canned it up; I just eat it. It's a lovely treat in a tiny dish on a cold winter evening. And every bite has a memory of summer in it.
Bon appetit! 
