The practice of decorating eggshells is ancient, predating Christianity. Engraved ostrich eggs found in Africa date back 60,000 years. Decorated ostrich eggs, also replicated in gold and silver, have been found in 5,000-year-old graves in Egypt and Sumeria. [Source]

The Christian custom of decorating eggs at Easter has been traced to the early Christians of Mesopotamia, sometime after 100 B.C.E.

But you don’t need a religious context to decorate eggs. On a hot summer day, it’s a quiet activity that can be done while in the shade—or in the air conditioning. For summer themes, think beach, birds, blue sky, butterflies, flowers and yes, palm trees.

Cook a batch of eggs and let family and friends paint away. Take a vote afterward and give a prize for the “people’s choice.”

Then, you can peel the eggs for protein-rich snacking, or turn them into sliced egg sandwiches or egg salad.

You don’t have to hard-boil the eggs, either.

You can keep raw painted egs as art by removing the innards. Simply pierce each end of the shell with a thick sewing needle. Then, blow strongly on one of the holes. The contents will be expelled through the other hole.
 
WANT TO HARD-BOIL EGGS MORE EASILY?

Here are tips on how to make hard boiled eggs from the American Egg Board.
  

[1] Pisco Portón, one of the finest pisco brands (photo © Caraved Pisco).

[2] Pisco Punch. Here’s another version of the recipe using pineapple gum syrup (photo © Liber & Co.).

Pisco is made by distilling fermented grape juice into a high-proof spirit. It was developed by 16th-century Spanish settlers as an alternative to orujo, a pomace brandy that was being imported from Spain.

For Pisco Day, here are two Pisco punch recipes that aren’t the Pisco Sour. Punches are good for a crowd, can be made a day in advance, and are easy to pour from a pitcher.

Make the punch a day in advance, you can chill it thoroughly in the fridge so less ice will be required (it dilutes the drink as it melts). The larger the cubes, the slower they melt.

> The history of Pisco.

> The history of Pisco Punch is below.
 
 
RECIPE #1: EASY PISCO PUNCH

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE the lemon peels and sugar together and let sit for at least 90 minutes. Muddle the lemon and sugar again, then stir in the lemon juice.

2. ADD the pisco and the water and stir. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

3. CUT the star fruit into ¼ to ½ inch slices right before serving. To serve, pour into a glass pitcher and float the star fruit slices. Add ice cubes as needed.
 
________________

*Juice the three lemons after you cut the peels.
 

RECIPE #2: PINEAPPLE PISCO PUNCH

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MIX all ingredients in a punch bowl or pitcher.

2. SERVE in rocks glasses; garnish with pineapple and strawberry squares and mint.
 
 
PISCO PUNCH HISTORY

While Pisco and the Pisco Sour are native to Peru, Pisco Punch was created in San Francisco in the late 19th century.

It’s believed that Pisco Punch was invented in a bar called the San Francisco Bank Exchange and Billiard Saloon, located where the Transamerica Pyramid is today.

Different people are credited with inventing Pisco Punch: John Torrence, one of the early owners of the bar; Duncan Nicol, the bar’s last owner; and Professor Jerry Burns, also of the Bank Exchange. (The bar opened in 1853 and closed in 1919 with the advent of Prohibition.)

Difford’s Guide credits Burns, but says the origin could lie with bartenders who made the drink aboard steamships of the late 1800s. These ships stopped in Peru en route to San Francisco.

Wherever the true origin, the San Francisco Bank Exchange’s recipe was a closely-guarded secret.

Today’s Pisco Punch is made with a combination of Pisco, pineapple gum syrup, lemon juice, and distilled water.

The recipe is based on one found among the papers of John Lannes, who took ownership of the San Francisco Bank Exchange right before it was forced to close due to Prohibition.

[4] An 1894 poster advertising Vin Mariani by Jules Chéret, a master of Belle Époque poster art who has been called the father of the modern poster (public domain image via Wikipedia).

According to Taste Atlas, there is also another ingredient that has been lost due over time, although it may have been Vin Mariani, a coca wine and patent medicine created in the 1860s by Angelo Mariani, a French chemist from the island of Corsica (image #4) [source].

It was made with Bordeaux wine. The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves. (You can still buy Vin Mariani, although today’s recipe uses decocainized coca leaves.)

Today there’s no Vin Mariani in the basic recipe, although if you want to buy a bottle you can play around with it.

When you drink a Pisco Punch, you join the ranks of Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling, who both enjoyed it at the San Francisco Bank Exchange.

In his 1889 book From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel, Kipling wrote that the drink was “compounded of the shavings of cherub wings, the glory of a tropical dawn, the red clouds of sunset and the fragments of lost epics by dead masters.”
 
 

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We were surprised not too long ago when a friend mentioned she liked figs, but had only eaten figs in their dried form. Why, we asked, since they are easily available?

“I didn’t know what to do with them,” she replied.

Today’s first tip: Never let unfamiliarity stop you from trying a new food. Buy it, bring it home, look it up.

A sweet, soft and moist tree-ripened fig is luscious, eaten plain, with cheese or yogurt, or in many recipes. Just as with, say, fresh versus dried mango, it’s a completely different experience.

And the season is now: In the U.S., figs have two seasons: a short season in early summer and a main crop that starts in late summer and runs through fall.

Fresh figs are fragile and don’t travel well: The think skins easily split and the flesh can bruise. This makes fresh figs even more of a treat, worth seeking out.

THE HISTORY OF FIGS

Man has been cultivating figs for more than 11,400 years. It is now believed to be the first food cultivated by man, in the Near East* some 11,400 years ago. This is roughly 1,000 years before the other “earliest crops,” barley, legumes and wheat were domesticated in the region. [Source]

The fig is a member of the Moraceae binomial family, sometimes called the fig family. It’s the family member that’s most familiar to us: Other members include the banyan, breadfruit, mulberry and Osage orange (which not an orange).

There are almost 200 cultivars of figs, in a wide range of shapes, colors and textures. While most of think of figs as having skins that are brown, green, red or purple, take a look at the lovely yellow Tiger Stripe Fig.

Figs are now grown in warm, dry and sunny climates in around the globe (fig trees can’t tolerate temperatures below 20°F).

The top 10 fig producing countries are, by crop size, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Iran, Syria, United States, Brazil, Albania and Tunisia.

HOW TO ENJOY FRESH FIGS

Since figs are sweet, we think of them in the context of desserts or sweet snacks. But sweetness is also an excellent counterpoint to bitter, salty and spicy/hot foods.

Eat up: Figs are among the richest plant sources of calcium and fiber. They are rich in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins B6 and K, and are a good source of flavonoids and polyphenols (antioxidants). They are sodium-free and cholesterol/fat-free.

Don’t peel the figs. Enjoy them with breakfast cereal, yogurt or cottage cheese; sliced on sandwiches with fresh or aged cheese; chopped and added to rice; stuffed with cream cheese or goat cheese as an hors d’oeuvre; or raw or grilled as a side dish, cut in half and served with grilled meat or poultry.
Figs For Breakfast

Fresh figs with a sweet mascarpone dip; figs dipped into chocolate fondue. Photo courtesy California Figs.

 
Figs In Appetizers, Hors D’oeuvre And Salads

Cocktails With Figs

 
 
Dinner Courses With Figs

Desserts With Figs

 
TOO MANY FIGS?

If you have too many ripe figs, you can place them on paper towels, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for a few days. Or, place them in a freezer bag and freeze for up to six months.

Or, purée the ripe figs and use the purée in cocktails (mixed with white spirits, for example), smoothies, or as a topper for ice cream or sorbet (add sweetener as necessary).
 
Hungry yet?