— Fran Costigan

So, uh, Fran, uh, it might be the new date queen, I don't know. Uh, and yes, two raises and prunes. Well, Fran and I have a, a love relationship with prunes, and unfortunately, these are the things instructors talk about when students aren't around. Prunes have a very bad rap because they're associated with, uh, intestinal health, shall we say. Fran and I, because of our families of origin, grew up loving prunes. Your grandmother made stewed prunes. You had them for dessert. They were absolutely delicious. A couple of years ago, they changed the name of prunes to dried plums thinking that Americans would just jump on the bandwagon. And the last time I checked at the grocery store, they're back to being called prunes. And I also love actually making a, a prune paste. It's very, very nice. If you're making a salad dressing with prune paste, even date paste, I would suggest to use a white vinegar, because otherwise, if you use something like a balsamic, it gets really, really, really dark. So you wanna lighten it up a little bit.