Cooking with Hayden
What a week it has been! For Kit’s 85th birthday, our son Hayden flew in from Madrid, Spain where he has lived and worked as an architect for the past 28 years. His visits are always warmly anticipated by those whose lives he touches—his father Kit, his sister Heidi, our neighbors, the staff and residents at the Lodge where Kit’s rehab continues, and me.
Our times together are wonderfully simpatico. In the jampacked week that Hayden was in town, he spent hours every day reading aloud to his Dad on the patio, joining in mealtime conversations in the dining room, guiding him on his walker and wheelchair around the grounds and hallways, and infusing Kit’s world with lightness and laughter all the while.
Each morning began early with this routine. Hayden juiced Valencia oranges as a starter. That was followed with cups of Nespresso coffee with steamed milk, slices of toasted Rosemary Meyer Lemon sourdough artisan bread baked with a hint of salt flakes and served with pots of strawberry and apricot jam. Then before the day kicked in full speed, we sat together in the living room and read in silence—he from The Lost Uplands: Stories of Southwestern France by W. S. Merton and me from This is Happiness by Irish author Niall Williams. Then it was off to the Lodge where Hayden kept an ever-increasing circle of us laughing out loud as he read from Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America.
Because we both love wandering the grounds of botanical gardens wherever we are in the world, we spent a morning exploring the beautifully tended grounds of Empire Mine State Historic Park in Grass Valley. The mine opened in 1850 and continued unearthing gold from a complex network of 367 miles of underground tunnels until it closed in 1956. On the grounds of the owner’s home, we walked amongst heritage roses with perfumed fragrances cultivated in the 19th and early 20th century.
Because Kit, Hayden, Heidi, and I became a family and were all devoted moviegoers during our decade together in Los Angeles in the late 70s and early 80s, we took Kit to several summer blockbuster matinees during his birthday week— Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (which we all loved) and Barbie (not so much). It turned out that the 1930s Del Oro theater in Grass Valley where we had bought tickets, popcorn and Milk Duds for Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning didn’t have ADA access for folks in wheelchairs to the balcony level theater where it was being shown. Faced with our own mission impossible, we wheeled Kit outside, around the corner sidewalk, back into a side door of the theater, and into the downstairs theater where Barbie was showing. There was one handicapped spot at the back of the theater’s stadium seating. We took it and were to have arrived at last.
Happily, we managed to get Kit to our house on two occasions that week—one being an afternoon with neighbors, carrot cake illuminated by lots of candles, and toasts to Kit’s remarkable life.
After returning from the Lodge each night around 8 p.m., cooking with Hayden got underway. Each creation he made was from an assortment of fresh vegetables paired with some type of pasta. Farfalle (bowtie-shaped pasta). Orecchiette (flattened little pasta shells called “small ears”). Spaghetti (long noodles). And Penne (cylinder-shaped pieces that come to a small point at both ends).
My favorite dish of all that week was Hayden’s spaghetti creation made with three ingredients—garlic (lots of it), sweet corn, and ripe tomatoes.
Directions:
Cook spaghetti pasta as directed on the package in a pot of salted water
Dice 8-10 garlic cloves and set aside
Parboil 4 ears of fresh sweet corn, drain ears in a colander, and cut from the cob.
Boil 8 medium sized ripe tomatoes about five minutes and slip them from their skins.
Sauté garlic in olive oil in a large skillet until opaque.
Add tomatoes (after they’ve been boiled and skinned) and cook until juices have been reduced.
Add the corn.
Finally, toss the cooked, drained spaghetti in a large bowl with olive oil.
Add the cooked spaghetti to the skillet and toss with the tomatoes, corn, and garlic.
Plate and serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano.
Perfecto!
It is delicious with a bottle red wine from the Côtes du Rhône wine-growing region of France or your favorite red varietal.
This simple dish was such a hit that we enhanced what was left over with more spaghetti noodles and tomatoes the following night. We agreed it would thenceforth be a regular summer meal at our house in Nevada City and Hayden’s home in Madrid when August days are long and sweet corn and ripe tomatoes are available at local markets.
Hayden has now returned to Spain and is off on holiday in Portugal with his family. This week, my nephew Christopher and his adorable daughters Simone (7) and Sofia (5) have been exploring Nevada County for the first time. Stay tuned for news of our adventures, and know that we will be cooking spaghetti with tomatoes and sweet corn and baking a fresh peach cobbler while they are in town.
Boy howdy!