Something sweet to drink on a hot day:

Combine a 12 ounce can of frozen orange juice, melted… with 2 quarts of 7up.

Add 1 pint of orange sherbet and 1 pint of vanilla ice cream on top, by spoonfuls.

Serves 12.

My introduction to halva came in the seventies while I was living in San Francisco. One great thing about living in a big city is access to wonderful international treats. San Francisco provided the opportunity to find and enjoy excellent halva.

Halva is a middle eastern treat that can be made with many different flavors, depending on what you put in it. Cardamom, coffee, saffron, and vanilla are popular additives as well as nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit. The halva that I’ve tried most often was dry and crumbly - this type is called ’sesame halva’. There’s another type that is gelatinous, called ’semolina halva’.

Here’s a simple recipe for semolina halva:

Combine two cups of sugar, eight cups of water, and a teaspoon full of saffron. Leave this sitting, uncooked, for half an hour. Put 12 ounces of unsalted butter in a large pot and melt on very low heat. Slowly add 2 cups of wheat flour, stirring constantly. Continue until the color of the flour is caramel colored.

Then slowly pour the water/sugar/saffron mixture into the pot, stirring constantly until the entire mixture is like a sauce, then add a tablespoon of rose water and stir again. (If you have no rose water, try vanilla.)

Pour the mixture into a flat serving dish and let it cool. When cool, you can sprinkle cinnamon on top.

And now for a recipe for sesame halva:

Boil one and one-half cups of sugar with one-half cup of water, and the juice of half a lemon. Add flavoring which could be saffron, chocolate, vanilla, or whatever you like. When the mixture gets to the ’soft ball’ stage, let the syrup cool for a few minutes. Do not stir; instead, warm the tahini to about 120 degrees fahrenheit, stir it well, then add it to the sugar syrup, stirring vigorously. Next knead the concoction until it begins to set to help form sugar crystals. Then place it in an oiled rectangular baking pan, and cool. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

For Mother’s Day this year, my oldest daughter sent me a dream catcher and a bar of Madagascar Vanilla Cherokee Soap from Cherokee County, Georgia. I hung the dream catcher up above my bed and set the soap aside. It sat here on my computer table for a few weeks, and then when I ran out of Dr. Bonner’s soap, which I can buy locally, I asked Bob to bring me some soap from my desk, and he brought this bar of Cherokee Soap into the bathroom for me.

I’m rather picky about soaps because I like soaps made without animal ingredients. I was delighted to see that this soap is made with vegetable ingredients such as olive oil, soy oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and castor oil. It also contains cocoa butter and shea butter, and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans.

The scent is heavenly and the soap lathers just like the Dr. Bonner soaps do. It’s a great gift and I’m very likely to buy more soap through the online store at Cherokee Soap. The only complaint I have is that there’s no affiliate program so I can’t make any money off this recommendation. But take a look at the site; if you love elegant soaps, you’ll be impressed.

My grandmother made rice pudding for us when I was a child. Back then, we looked forward to it… but I rarely hear about anyone eating it these days. Here’s a simple recipe for delicious rice pudding:

Boil one cup of already-cooked rice with two cups of milk. As soon as it boils, turn down the heat! Then add half a cup of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. Some people might want to add a beaten egg yolk at this point however I don’t do that. Cook it over a very low flame, stirring constantly so it won’t burn. After it is quite thick, remove it from the heat. At this point egg-users can whip the egg white into a froth and fold it in. Add half a teaspoon of vanilla or lemon juice. If you like, before serving you might want to add some raisins or canned peaches, or some other type of fruit.