PROMPTuesday #123: Like Sangria for Paella

Just yesterday, as I was straightening my ill-used and under-utilized cookbook pile, a piece of parchment fell to the floor. I couldn’t tell which book it’d shaken loose from, and I didn’t recognize the script, the recipe, or the name written on it. I hadn’t bought a cookbook in many moons, and as far as I know, none of the ones I do have are passed down from generation to generation, so how this paper made it to my possession, I will never know. As I read the ingredients listed on the page, a warm sense of rootedness overcame me, the delicious feeling you get when you know you are in the presence of something old and timeworn and beloved. Truth told, I don’t know how old this recipe is — it seemed to have been written in the last two decades — but it certainly has made it from woman to woman to woman over the years. I am going to post its contents here in a moment, but first, today’s PROMPTuesday.

Do you have a recipe that has stayed in your family for generations? Please post it, and if you are so moved, write a story to go with it. Who passed the recipe on to you? What does it remind you of? Does your family enjoy it as much as you do?

If you don’t have an actual recipe, tell us a story connected to food. What recipe brings you back to childhood? What reminds you of grandma? Or that summer in Cape Cod?

Please post your story in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.

First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit about it here. Want to see what’s been written in the past? Catch up on the PROMPTuesdays archive here.

But first — Here’s the recipe that made its way to me through channels unknown, but much appreciated:

Laura,

A friend spent the summer in Spain and stayed with a family. The mother gave her this recipe — passed down for generations. She said it was a “lover’s drink.”

INGREDIENTS:

• Some good, loose tea like apple or mango
• Vodka
• Cloves or cinnamom or ginger
• Cheap red wine
• Orange juice
• 7-Up or Sprite
• Cut-up fruit

*Like all good family recipes, there were no quantities given, so I guess it takes some experimenting to figure it out. I’ll be a guinea pig if you need one.

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Steep tea in vodka (roughly one bottle for one gallon of wine — there’s a reason this is a lover’s drink!)
• Let vodka and tea infuse for a day along with cloves or cinnamom.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and put in fridge for a few hours before serving.

The fact that this particular recipe appeared to me from seemingly nowhere? Doesn’t seem to be an accident.

Thank you Universe. I needed a good lover’s drink. Such things can’t go unforgotten.