Death and Pineapples
After all these years I still stubbornly think that we all live forever. I was there in the room when both mother and dad took their last breaths, and my thought was 'Wait, no! This is impossible!' There are people, the pragmatic ones, who talk about death in a way that is so false and unappealing I just won't listen.
They say, 'Nobody gets out of this alive.' and they think it's funny. I think it's incorrect. It's not funny, and it's just plain wrong. The entire generation that goes before me, my parents’ friends...the uncles and aunts...all dead. I simply can't swallow it.
And then there are the pets I have had who, one day, are just not there anymore. This is even more unacceptable. Now, I'm not talking about cruel fate here, or posing the question 'How could God approve of this plan?' I just stick to my guns and will not buy it as any kind of reality in this universe. Everyone lives forever and that's that.
My father lived for 45 years in a big apartment on 82nd street around the corner from Broadway. That's where I would stay when I visited New York. The place was filled with light and his plants thrived there. In his big dining room, he had a round white table by the bank of windows facing north. It was crowded with plants he had grown from pineapple tops. He would chop off the spiky crown, suspend it in water for about 10 days until roots started to spring from the bottom, then plant it in soil and tend carefully. That table looked like a tropical dream...so unlike anything else in Manhattan.
I have that table now in my dining room in Los Angeles. Someone told me it's a Knoll table, worth a lot of money. It's over by my window facing south. I keep it clean and there's nothing on top. I don't eat there or sit there. It just exists and is beautiful.
Pineapple Marmalade
This is a very simple recipe with room for mistakes, variations, and interpretation.
One medium-sized pineapple, with tough skin and core removed diced into ½ inch pieces.
A chunk of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped fine, about 1 Tbs.
¾ cup brown sugar
Juice of one lemon
A pinch of salt
A pinch of cayenne pepper (tiny little pinch)
Put all these ingredients in a non-reactive pot. Do you know what I mean when I say non-reactive? It's something that is not metallic...aluminum, cast iron, etc. The metal will leach into any acidic ingredients and sour the taste, so use enamel. Simmer for about an hour. The mixture will thicken in the pot and then even more when it is cooled. I told you...so easy.