Main Ingredients:
grandfather
party planner
lime
grapefruit
hickey

Spice Pack:
1/8 dollop of frivolity
1/4 tablespoon of sentimentality


Grandpa in those old photos rode a bike across the country with two dollars in his pocket. He was 6 foot 6 and would have been an NBA star but they were poor farmers in Kansas and he had work to do and then that dust bowl came. He for decades dyed his hair green and served a buffet in their front yard for whoever came by.

He died of a heart attack in his sleep while in the hospital for valley fever (that little mold that goes airborne from the central valley in big santa ana or post storm winds). He was 87.

The party planner called about Grandma's birthday party and said she wanted a cake made to look like a stack of burgers and if maybe she was joking or off her meds. I told him to make it 100 mcgriddles made of cake and to add spam all around with fondant as best he could.

He seemed puzzled until I told him the story. He said he got it but he also mistook cherry lime ricky on the drink list and instead thought it was to make lime juice shaped like a giant hickey.

Grandpa once said he swore foods had vocabulary, a language that could almost be read when eaten. He gave away food once a year as poems of love to humanity and all who came by swore they felt they read a book when finished while the tall man smiled and waved goodbye.