Professor Butter Beard and “Bridges of Madison County”

There's a boat that leaves Napoli
Every Thursday in the morning
And a nervous bride can share a bed with her soldier from the States

For a week the ocean carries them
Over lost and churning water
And they land in Royal Harbour
And in Pennsylvania Station
Where they board a train that slices
Like a scythe through the fields of America

This is Albany
This is Buffalo
This is Cleveland
This is South Bay
This is Chicago
This is Osceola Station
Where a track will take them deeper into Iowa
To winter sun
And three hundred acres
Waiting to be tamed

And blade of grass
By blade of grass
And ear of corn
By ear of corn
And bale of hay
By day by day
They build themselves a home

And day by day
And year by year
From boy to man
From calf to steer
What's lost from there may not grow here
But comes the sun
Look what they've done
They've built themselves a home

At 21 a girl begins
To grasp the world and how it spins
She grabs a box of safety pins
And builds herself a home

And home is safe
And home is fair
The porch, the bath
The kitchen chair
The sharp and unfamiliar air
That blow by blow
She comes to know
To build herself a home

With a son
And a daughter
And the million miles between
The fire she used to set
The hearts she used to break
The lies she used to tell
And the woman she grew up to be

I learn to speak
I learn to sew
I learn to let the longings go
The tractor wheel, the foot of snow
I build myself a home

I change my words
I change my name
The fields go dry
The horse goes lame
The county fair, the football game
For 18 years
It stays the same
For 18 years
I'm proud I came
And built myself
A home

-        Jason Brown, songwriter, “Bridges of Madison County”

“Bud’s Favorites”

Five dozen cookies

(My interpretation of “Milanos”)

• 3 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• 12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar

• 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves (the younger the better)

• Zest of one large lime

• 2 tsp vanilla paste

• 10 ounces mini chocolate chips

• 8 ounces dark chocolate

 1)     In a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle), grind together the granulated sugar and the mint until fully chopped and the sugar turns a pale green.

2)     Place the minted sugar, the confectioner’s sugar and the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer and cream together on low for 5-8 minutes.

3)     Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line four sheet pans with parchment paper.

4)     Whisk together the flour and the salt.

5)     Add the vanilla and lime zest to the creamed mixture and mix for 1 minutes. Slowly add the flour on low speed until fully incorporated – do not overmix.

6)     Add in the mini chocolate chips and mix briefly on low until evenly incorporated.

7)     If you have time, divide the dough into two pieces, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.  You can go ahead with the recipe if you are in a hurry.

8)     Roll ½ the dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼” thick. Cut into 1 ½” circles and place them on the baking sheets about 1” apart.  Gather the scraps and roll again and cut into the circles. Then do the same with the second half of the dough.

9)     Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the edges are just beginning to brown. Remove them from the oven, let them cool 5 minutes on the pans and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

10) When the cookies are cool, melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler, or microwave in twenty second zaps until smooth.  Dip the edges of the cookies into the chocolate and place them on a sheet of parchment to fully set.