Kristine sent me a link to a chocolate-chunk cookie recipe with feves by Valrhona in it–oval shaped bits of dark chocolate, available from Whole Foods. I wrote back that I was embarrassed to say I actually had some in my cupboard.
And we’re off to the races with another story…
Years ago, I really got into baking cheesecakes, back when the kids were very little; so much so that I bought a copy of “The Joy of Cheesecake.”  And in it, I found, at a stage when I was reading Dr. Seuss to my kids, a recipe for Oobleck Pie.
Avocado lime honey cheesecake. With wheat germ sprinkled on top.
It was almost impossible to buy a good avocado in New Hampshire, where we were at the time, so my hubby and children were spared; I didn’t try it.
We moved to California, and a few years later I found myself with a lupus diagnosis and doing swim therapy every day at a local indoor pool. You had to have a doctor’s prescription to use the place. It made for a close-knit community, where people tended to know each other and look out for each other.
Which is how one guy who loved to cook got told about the Oobleck Pie, and decided that that was just too weird: he had to try it. I don’t think I told him about the wheat germ when I gave him the recipe. Some things go far enough as it is.
So. He actually baked one. (No wheat germ.) And then he brought it to the pool and handed it to the staff in the office, intact, unsampled, beautiful, slightly green at the gills, and whole.
I, totally unsuspecting, walked in the door, went to check in, and one of the lifeguards grabbed the thing from the desk, shoved it at me, and said, This is your fault. You have to take the first piece.
What, no wait an hour after swimming? You guys trying to ground me from doing my laps? Heh.
The first bite was a shock. You know what’s coming but you don’t really, and then there it is. After that, after you get past the “but I wanted cheesecake” mode, it’s actually, kind of, um, good.
Oobleck, for those who don’t remember, is the green sticky stuff that King whateverhisnamewas ended up with after telling his magicians he was tired of the same old stuff, rain, snow; he wanted something new. They chanted and eye-of-newted till the oobleck filled the skies, superglueing everything and everyone it touched to everything else it touched. This quickly became a massive, kingdom-wide problem.
And it stayed that way till the king admitted he’d made a mistake and said he was sorry. At which point the sticky Oobleck gunk all magically melted away.
My sweet husband and I were at Flea Street Cafe for I think our anniversary, several years ago, when Jesse, the owner, came over and chatted a moment. She had angel food cake with lavendar flowers in it on her menu, and I told her about the Oobleck Pie.
She really wanted that recipe. I went home and mailed it to her.
Whether she ever used it, I don’t know, but if she did, it was probably from avocados and limes she grew herself and honey from a local beekeeper. I love California.
