Ten Olives on Ten Fingers

This is my entry for A Fruit A Month originated by Maheswari
of Beyond the Usual.
This month's host is Priya of Priya's Easy 'n Tasty Recipes.
















This month's subject is olives.
The thing about olives is
that they are perfect on their own.
I always thought
of olives as a huge luxury, something you
get maybe at Thanksgiving.
I love black olives,
green olives, olive salad, when you are surprised by an olive in your salad,
anything olive.

When I was a child I lived for several years in Hawaii.
One day my mother said we were going to visit a woman
and her daughter. My mother told me the woman
was unbelievably frugal and made her daughter
comb her hair with a barrette. I never could figure that
one out. I was sure the girl must be a dork and I would
be bored out of my mind. When I met her she was
just ordinary looking. She was wearing a barrette and her
hair looked perfectly neat. While my mother and the woman sat
in the living room talking the girl took me into the kitchen.
She asked me if I liked olives. She went in the cabinet
and took out a can of black olives and opened it. A can
of black olives back then was an unheard of luxury.
Anyhow, we ate the whole can. She asked me if
I liked to drink the olive "juice." I told her I'd never tried it.
So we drank up what what was left in the can.
I was completely in awe of this girl after that.

So for my recipe. Take ten olives and stick one on the
end of each finger. This is easier to do if you are a kid.
Then eat the olives one at a time.


In honor of this month's fruit my husband composed the following poem.

Mémoire

An olive for each finger,
a finger for every year,
blossoms that do not linger
of cherry, plum, or pear,

sunlight on everything
about this little game;
of years long lost I sing:
and sunlight alone's the same.


How do you like my camel? He's made out of olive
wood from Bethlehem.