[Jamestown1630]

My favorite ‘collectors’ were a couple I saw featured in a magazine many years ago - it may have been in ‘Vanity Fair’, I’m not sure. They collected excellent examples of ancient antiques. They were not wealthy - if I recall, they both worked as librarians, or something like that. (I saved the article, and will try and find it again.)

Their apartment was almost empty, except for these very few, valuable, individual items for which they pinched and saved. It was a very focused obsession - not about ‘ownership’ but about a kind of reverent Love for art, style, and workmanship.

I’ll try to find the reference in my ‘stuff’, and post a link, if the article is archived somewhere. (I suspect that if they are no longer alive, their collection is in a museum somewhere, now. Curators would have been salivating over it.)

[Liz]

A great appy, easily converts into a salad or a fast, magnificent dessert. Succulent figs
make a scrumptious dish in a flash. CHEF TIP Can use berry-flavored balsamic.

FIGS, GOAT CHEESE, Caramelized Spiced Pecans
PREP choose best looking med-firm ripe figs, wash/destem;
halve top to bottom. Plate; top each w/ dollop creamy goat cheese.

Garnish platter w/ bit balsamic glaze; coarse-chp mint, Spiced Pecans.

SERVE warm as an appetizer (or as a dessert). Add greens for a salad.

CARAMELIZED SPICED PECANS toast handful pecans on low-med
flame. Add several tb raw honey, heavy dusting of cayenne. Stir/blend well.
As honey melts, squeeze/stir balsamic glaze over pecans. Quickly becomes
gooey and fragrant, ready to be spooned over figs.