When I was 24 I worked at a bait and tackle shop in San Diego called Hook, Line & Sinker. I learned how to tie knots, how to tie lures, and how to clean and repair fishing reels. It was a fun job while I took classes at the community college, and a job I held onto for several years while I worked other part time jobs as I struggled to make ends meet.

I met a lot of people in the fishing industry through that job, and when my boyfriend and I started up a kayak fishing magazine we were able to reach out to many of those contacts for advertising and support. There was a local lure manufacturer whose products were popular with our readership, and he would pay for advertising with product. Most of that product we would package up and send out with our quarterly subscriptions.

Except for one box of lures.

Those would go to me.

I would take them to the independent coffee shop on campus, where I would trade them with the owner for store credit.

And once a week, every week, I would go in and pick up a cottage cheese parfait that was sitting in the refrigerated case waiting for me.

Usually it had pineapple. Sometimes strawberries. But it was always fresh, and it was always tasty, and the owner always had stories of his weekend fishing trips.

The bait and tackle shop has closed down and we haven’t published an issue of the magazine in 15 years, but I still love cottage cheese parfaits.

I make them at home now, using whatever fruit I have on hand. I start with half a cup of cottage cheese, then add a quarter cup of diced fruit. I sprinkle on granola or crushed nuts, then tie everything together with a drizzle of honey. It’s sweet and creamy and tasty, and easy to customize it however you want.

And you don’t even have to trade any fishing lures for it.

Cottage cheese parfait

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of cottage cheese

• 1/4 cup of fruit

• Granola or crushed nuts

• Honey

Directions

Put cottage cheese in a small bowl and smooth it out so it’s in an even layer. Place fruit on top of cottage cheese. Top with crushed nuts or granola, then drizzle with honey.