We Are Floridians

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We are Floridians. Born here or transplants, we all share certain traits; but, like the change of the seasons, you have to know the signs.

            We are water babies. Oceans, rivers, lakes, springs, swamps, marshes and the one and only everglades make water equal to the land in our fair state. Floridians interact with water in so many ways and so routinely that we can’t imagine our lives without water. Ask a Floridian if they could live away from it and they just shake their heads. Heck, on some days it’s so humid we swear we’re breathing the stuff. Many of us are armed with towels, swimsuits, flip-flops, fishing rods, just on the off chance that we’ll get to hit the water, whatever form that takes. Water is so integral, it's even featured on our state seal.

            We expect sunny days. Rain is for cooling us off and keeping us green but we don’t expect it to last longer than an hour so. We are the sunshine state, after all. Sunscreen is sold year round. In a parking lot, it isn't the closest spots that are taken first; it’s the shadiest. And if you want to see a real sun obsession, just check out the number of sunrise and sunset photos Floridians take.

            We grow stuff year round. Natives know when to plant the warm season crops and when to start their cool season crops. Newcomers get to know the “old timers” and find out right quick that the rules from back home won’t work here. We know which varieties of ‘mater will bear the heat and which type of rose can resist the dread spot. Floridians garden year round so they know to pace themselves and listen to the rhythm of the earth. If you move to Florida, eventually the desire to grow something will bloom in you.

            We are private. This is the heart of why Floridians are a bit hard to pin down. We’re friendly, but because we are partly a tourist state, we've learned that fortunes come and fortunes go. We've been built on booms and busts and it’s happened more times than it should have. Whether you were a Cracker eking out a living or a Seminole escaping removal to a reservation, a political refugee or just someone in need of a warm home for your weary bones, you look to Florida to give you peace. Millions found it, and made this their place in the sun.

            In the coming posts, we’ll explore more about what makes us Florida.

Florida Cranberries, aka Jamaican Sorrel or Roselle

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One of the old-time traditions of Florida is making a come back: Florida cranberries (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Once you experience the delicious fruitiness of this healthful treat you will wonder, "Why did it ever go out of favor?" The reasons are simple... Too many new people moved into the state who had never heard of it and it looks like something from an alien planet. The calyxes are the part you cook and they are freaky weird. However odd looking sorrel may be, though, none regret growing, cooking and eating this wonderful plant. (People have been known to tear out patches of grass in favor of Florida cranberries.) Sadly, it is an annual plant and you have to wait until soil temps are warm enough to plant it again. Jamaica has this as a cash crop and sorrel can be found dried in Caribbean groceries and on-line.

The plant comes from West Africa and this is why it does so well in Florida. The way you prepare the calyxes is you slice it along the side and you cut off the base, then peel the calyx away from the seed pod. You don't eat the seed pod (which is green). The calyx is a lovely deep red color.

Two recipes traditionally made for the holiday season are cranberry sauce and holiday punch. The cranberry sauce is very simple:

1 part cranberries (calyxes only) plus one third to half as much water. Bring this to a boil and then reduce to cook down as you would apples for applesauce. Add brown sugar to taste. You can add spices if you desire but this really gives you an idea of how the actual cranberries taste on their own.

A fancier recipe for Florida cranberry relish can be found here: http://www.floridasurvivalgardening.com/2014/11/thanksgiving-florida-cranberry-relish.html

The second recipe is for Holiday Punch:

4 cups fresh Florida cranberries (calyxes only)

6 cups water

1/2 inch piece ginger sliced thin

1 stick cinnamon

2 cloves 

3/4 cup brown sugar or to taste

Put the first five ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil gently, partially covered for 15 minutes. (Sorrel stains so be careful of spatters.) Remove from heat and allow to steep for four hours. Strain and add sugar. Refrigerate. This is good for up to three weeks and can be frozen or you can add alcohol and prolong the lifespan. 

There are many, many variations of this recipe. Change it to suit you. Some people add citrus. The health benefits are amazing. The plant is very easy to grow. Truly, one of nature's gifts. 

You can get the seeds at: http://www.onaleeseeds.com/

Stella's Teapot and Giving Thanks

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People are often asked what they will grab if there is a fire and they can only grab one thing. But is it really the "thing" we are preserving?

A person on FB told the story of how her mother had saved a few pieces of the Four Points building when it was torn down in West Palm Beach. Anyone who came to town afterward would never know about the building, but all the people who had shopped there remembered. Her mother understood that as they held those chunks of cement, they would say, "Remember when..."

Museums have photos of humankind's achievements, but it isn't until they have interactive exhibits and we can touch, that we feel connected. When we visit a place, we collect souvenirs so that we can remember our visit. That place is now a part of us and any time we hold the memento, we are there with those who shared that experience.

In this time of thanksgiving and of sharing, another story is brought to mind. While attending a fund-raising event for literacy, I bought a raffle ticket. The prize was a teapot and much to my surprise, I won. The teapot bore the imprint "Made in occupied Japan". I asked about the teapot and learned that it had belonged to Stella, the mother of Jane, the president of the group of women running the event. While Jane spoke of her mother, her gaze grew soft and she smiled. Time lost meaning. We laughed. We nodded. We sighed together. When I asked why she was giving away her teapot, she said, "Because literacy was a cause my mother believed in so this would have made her happy." This was a teapot about love and looking out for others, of giving instead of holding on. This was Stella's teapot.

At Distinctly Florida, we hope that you take time to take care of yourselves at this special time of the year. So many voices shouting for your attention, but the only ones that count are the ones that build memories and history and love. We give thanks for you, our customers. Take time to be with those you love. Be at peace. Blessings and may the warmth of the Florida sun always be with you.

Florida (con)Fusion Cooking

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The strong identity of any people is their cooking culture. What influences that is the environment and the spirit of their own palate. Florida has had a long history of many different peoples from the Native Americans (Timucua, Calusa, Apalachee, Creek who came to be known as Seminoles, Tequesta, etc.) to the Europeans, Asians, and Africans. Every culture has contributed a little something to our cuisine in Florida and depending on where in the state you stop, you can be treated to quite a different take on what nature has to offer. It is with this in mind that I present what I have come to think of as FLORIDA ConFUSION COOKING. It is our version of fusion cooking, just a little mixed up and hopefully in a fun way. It is a play on words because in Spanish "con" means "with" and so we are all with each other in this adventure. My first fusion meal is called the Florida Cracker Tortilla. It takes the wonderful mix of bacon, onion and collard greens and adds it to the tradition of a Spanish tortilla or omelet. These are served in Spain at any time, not just for breakfast and can be made very large and cut into sections for tapas. Below is a single serving recipe.

FLORIDA CRACKER TORTILLA

2 strips bacon
2 eggs (scrambled with a little splash of milk or cream if you like)
1 T. diced onion (or to taste--I like a lot and I use frozen for convenience)
2 T. chopped collard greens (or to taste and I use frozen for convenience)
salt & pepper to taste

Fry your bacon until very crisp. Drain & reserve most of the oil leaving some in the pan for the vegetables. Saute the onion until just starting to caramelize then add the collards and continue cooking until they soften. If you need to add a little of the bacon fat back to keep the vegetables from sticking, go ahead. Crumble your bacon evenly over the vegetables and then pour the scrambled eggs over the whole bacon/vegetable mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook until the bottom is firm. To get the top of the omelet cooked, you will either need a tortilla pan (also known as a frittata pan) or you can slide the omelet off the pan onto a plate, invert the pan over the plate so that the uncooked part of the omelet is now facing the pan and the plate is acting as a "lid" and just flip. Continue cooking and should have a perfect unbroken omelet.

Growing Up In Florida...A Sampler

What did it mean to grow up in Florida?

It meant that you got your orange juice, freshly squeezed, every morning in an eight ounce glass.

It meant that after school you went to the beach to study and you always kept a beach bag full of all your beach things including a portable radio.

It meant that the defroster was for when it rained to get rid of the condensation INSIDE the car windows.

It meant that the cold water tap was NEVER too cold.

It meant that bugs were a part of your life and you found ways to use them or avoid them. You chased your mother with the palmetto bugs or tossed them to waiting lizards, hunted down mole crickets in their tunnels, fed ants to doodle bugs, and learned to paint clear nail polish on chigger bites after climbing ficus trees.

You went cane pole fishing and learned that catfish will hit on anything including Lifebuoy soap.

You remember the smells of Coppertone and the ocean better than anything and when your sunburn healed you would have your sister/brother/best friend peel the skin off your back and marvel at how thin it was.

As hot as it was, we were always outside riding our bikes, climbing trees, hunting, snorkeling, water skiing, surfing, fishing, scuba diving, playing tennis, racket ball, skating, volley ball, hand ball, water polo, synchronized swimming, canoeing, hiking, golfing, riding horses, or just plain swimming, swimming, swimming because water is everywhere. It should be against the law in Florida to not know how to swim.

It seemed like everyone had a Florida room with jalousie windows that were impossible to keep clean or fully closed and the crank ALWAYS broke.

If you stuck a stick in the ground, it grew or got moldy. If you left something metal out, it got rusty and in a week it was covered in vines. Good luck finding it.

It always rained at three o’clock to cool things off and made the walk home from school a puddle hopping adventure.

Sinkholes are a fact of life, just like ‘gators, sharks, Portuguese man o’ war, sea lice, chiggers, water moccasins, brown recluse spiders, and I-95.

Lizards were earrings and we were always sucking on the base of some flower or chewing on some plant. It's a wonder we didn't die.

It meant that thunderstorms and tropical depressions held no special meaning but you prepared for hurricanes a couple of days ahead and filled the bathtub with water and collected all your supplies.

It meant that you could eat fried catfish and hush puppies one night and Ropa Vieja with black beans and rice the next and think nothing of it.

It meant the people around you were always changing but you never met a stranger because this was the land of sunshine and whomever you met received your smile.

Welcome to Florida.

Cocoplum Nut Butter? (Yes, I know it's a seed.)

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In my ongoing quest to be the George Washington Carver of cocoplums, I decided I'd make cocoplum nut butter. Of course, I wanted it to be healthful so I used what I thought were healthful ingredients: light olive oil, light salt, honey and my fresh picked and hulled cocoplum seeds. Hulling the seeds is the most time consuming and tedious part of this recipe so I would suggest you do it while watching something entertaining like FLORIDA CRACKERS. (Ha, ha. Get it? Crackers. Cracking the hulls... Then you spread the nut butter on crackers and... Oh... Never mind.)

I treated the cocoplum seeds exactly as though they were peanuts and used a recipe for peanut butter: 

15 oz. of nuts

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons honey

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

(my second batch was made with regular sugar and coconut oil and tasted better)

Blend until it reaches the consistency you prefer. Taste and adjust to your liking. This has a very distinctive, strong flavor and I liked it. I am certain, however, that this will prove to be the kind of nut butter that people either like or hate. My second batch was made with coconut oil and tasted better, but I wanted to share the process of my experiment with you. You could try other oils; try it without sugar; try it with added spices. I'm imagining something along the lines of tahini sauce (made from sesame seeds). I'm not a chef but I hope someone out there who wants to make a name for him /her self starts to experiment with this. Come on. Let's get the ball rolling.

The cocoplum nut butter is really good on crackers and would make unusual and savory hors d'oeuvres.

A sophisticated, grown-up Florida version of peanut butter and jelly, this cocoplum nut butter and cocoplum jam is the ultimate in taste and distinction. Wow.

Using the nut butter the way I would peanut butter, I made these cocoplum nut butter thumbprint cookies. The recipe will be in an upcoming post.

Wherefore Art Thou, Floride?

Florida has a strong auto racing history.  Daytona, Sebring, Homestead-Miami, St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay all hold major racing events. In fact, Florida is host to more top-level racing than any state in the nation. Automakers pay homage by naming cars for Daytona and for Sebring. It should not be surprising to discover cars named for our state. Still, considering our history, you might wonder why there aren’t more. The following story could have part of the answer.

In 1959, a car named for Florida was introduced but most Americans would not know it by that name.  It was the Renault Floride, a sport model built on the Dauphine platform, designed expressly for the American market and immediately popular here.  But, as Sports Car Graphic reported in October 1959, the name was quickly changed.

“Dealer reaction to the car was wholly favorable except for one contingent from California that asked, ‘Why Floride? That’s only one state among [at that time] 48. We like the car but does it have to have that name?’

“Renault officials looked upon this as a serious matter. ‘After all, California took a large percentage of Dauphines and if sales were to suffer due to statehood pride we had better have some discussions about it.’ They did, and during the last course of dinner on the Bateau Mouche, as it made its way down the Seine River, asked for a show of hands to three different names that had been nominated. A resounding cheer went up for the name, ‘Caravelle,’ and although no promises were made the California group went home fairly secure in the thought the Floride would have a new name.

“Now the car is ready for the public – and with the new name for the United States market. In France, it will still be known as the Floride.”

The Floride / Caravelle became the flagship of the Renault line and remained in production through 1967.

Did Florida racing start with something more exotic? :-)

Racing Ostrich postcard pillow