Monthly Archives: February 2009

$26.00

26 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by in American recipes, Food, Uncategorized

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BOOKS!  Who doesn’t love ’em?  Is there anything better than holding a new (or gently used) book in your hands, flipping through, tasting a paragraph here, devouring an illustration there?  Much as I love bits and bytes, books will always win the race for my heart…

In 1957 the VNSA held their first book sale in Phoenix and raised $900 to benefit the Visiting Nurses (the VN of VNSA). The sale has been held every year since, though since the transfer of Visiting Nurses to a large hospital corporation, the VNSA now stands for Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association.  This year the sale benefited three Valley agencies: Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation, Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County, and Toby House, Inc, an agency that helps adults with severe mental illness.

The sale is held in a 50,000 square foot building on the Arizona State Fairgrounds for two days at the beginning of each February (some great pictures of the 2004 event are here).  People line up for entry to the sale hours ahead, some bringing flashlights to read through Friday night in order to be among the first to enter Saturday morning.  Fire regulations dictate how many hundreds may be in the exhibit hall at any one time, so sometimes the wait can be long.  We go on Sunday, when everything is half price and the crowds are somewhat diminished. This year there were over 600,000 items for sale (books, records, cd’s, dvd’s, maps, etc.) and the VNSA expected to raise in excess of $350,000; there was plenty left for us to buy on the second day of the sale.  Here’s what I bought with my $26.00:

books-purchased

Notice that book up at the top, Working a Duck?  What a find.  Written by Melicia Phillips and Sean O. McElroy (Doubleday, 1993, $25.00) it tells you everything you could EVER want to know about preparing and cooking any part of a duck.

The Captain was not thrilled with the Christmas arrival of two more cookbooks.  “Maybe we have enough cookbooks,” was his comment.   Damn, I thought, that leaves only golf for next year.  Oh well.  BUT – he was well pleased with the duck book, because it filled an empty space on the cookbook shelf (right between crabs and eggs).  In fact, can one ever have enough duck recipes?

Ever the culinary adventurer, the Captain dove right in and two nights later served up Fried Noodles with Duck, Ginger, Garlic and Scallions, a recipe with a definite Eastern accent (and I don’t mean Vermont). It takes a bit of preparation, but if you, too, are an adventurer you can find the recipe (slightly changed) here, or over on the right under Recipes.

Just in case the Duck book wasn’t a hit, you’ll notice in the photo above there is also a great big golf book.  One must cover all the bases…

Apache Trail in the Snow

21 Saturday Feb 2009

Posted by in Arizona, Driving in the U.S., Photographs, Travel, Uncategorized

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(Map courtesy of http://www.americansouthwest.net/arizona)

Last week it snowed here in Arizona.  No, not down here in the ‘Valley of the Sun,’ but in the Superstition Mountains and the peaks of the Tonto National Park.  The radio instructed us not to drive north for several days as many roads were impassable.  Exciting!

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We waited, as instructed, and then set out on the Apache Trail. What is it and how did it get that name? Briefly, according to Tom Kollenborn’s article on the Trail, the general path of the trail was used back in 900 AD by the Salado Indians.  Later the Apache Indians used it in raids against the peaceful Pima Indians who lived in the valley.

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Theodore Roosevelt Dam at the top of the trail was built from 1905-1911, and there was a need to connect the dam site at Roosevelt with the Valley towns of Mesa and Apache Junction.  The road was built from 1903-1905, but access was restricted until completion of the dam.  Ironically, the laborers for the road-building project were also Apache Indians.  Today the Apache Trail, also known as Arizona Route 88, is one of the loveliest roads in the state, but it is narrow and rugged. One end is in Apache Junction, and the other in Globe.

My pal Mary Ann and I set out at about 9 a.m., and got home sometime after 5 p.m., having covered only 150 miles.  We stopped briefly in Tortilla Flat, which is completely touristic and hilarious. (Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat was in California.) It is full of visitors who have enjoyed the scenic ride past Canyon Lake; not many venture farther, especially when the road is under water. (!) Here’s a photo of the dollar-bill papered dining room of the small restaurant there.

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We especially wanted to visit Tonto National Monument on the other side of Roosevelt Dam, but didn’t get there until 2 p.m., and we were starving, having not seen a building since leaving Tortilla Flat.  Did I mention it’s a really isolated part of the world?  So we took a quick peek at the ancient cliff dwelling visible from the Visitors’ Center and motored on in search of a sandwich.

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After The Best Pre-Packaged Sandwich I Ever Ate we continued on to Globe where we visited the Besh-ba-Gowah ruins.  They are the remnants of a Salado settlement, dating from about 1200 AD. They have been well reconstructed, and one is able to walk through the settlement and imagine what it might have been like to live there 700 years ago. The visitor’s center is extremely interesting and there’s an excellent video and a museum stuffed with archaeological finds from the site.  Here’s a model of the ruins:

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Evidently they liked ladders.  The dark hole labled ‘central corridor’ was a long, dark hall that gave access to the areas within.  The ‘tree’ seems all out of proportion to me – it must have been huge.

It was a breath-takingly beautiful drive, especially the old road from Apache Junction to Roosevelt Dam.  If you’d like to see more photos, click here, or over on the right under Photographs – Apache Trail in the Snow. As always, I recommend the slide show. You will see there a rare shot that captures both the male AND female jackalope.

Rustic Bread

12 Thursday Feb 2009

Posted by in American recipes, Food, Uncategorized

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There are many things we miss about Italy when we are in the States (just as there are things we miss about the States when in Italy).  Aside from missing friends, a lot of our pangs for Italy have to do with food, especially bread.  Good bread is available here, but it is quite expensive.  At home in Italy we routinely visit one of two bakeries for our daily loaf, as well as for assorted pizza treats, and sweeties to accompany tea.

The first bakery we fell in love with in Rapallo is called Paneficio Campo (Via Trieste) and is owned and operated by Nino and Maddallena and their three daughters. They are originally from Calabria, and are true artists with their rustic loaves.  The Captain, who has spent no small amount of time on his bread recipes, has dubbed Nino a Genius.

Our ‘local’ bakery,Panificio Schenone Giorgio on Via Betti, is closer to our house, and makes killer pizzette, which are excellent for a before dinner treat.  They also make very nice ciabatta, the shoe-shaped loaf which originated in Liguria, but which is now common throughout the boot. We don’t know the proprietors, but it is clearly a family operation.

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What to do about bread while in America?  Easy! We make our own.  Last year we discovered the wonderful La Cloche Covered Baker, a domed ceramic baking pot which we bought from King Arthur Flour. (You can see from the photo above it’s received a lot of use).

How’s the bread that’s cooked in La Cloche?  Fantastic!

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The loaf above was made from a very simple bread recipe (with a surprise ingredient) developed and given to us by Sherri Harris, about whom you’ve previously read in these pages.  The recipe is over on the right, called ‘No-Knead Bread (Almost).‘  Also on the right is another recipe which was sent along with the cloche by King Arthur (himself!  really!!): ‘Rustic Hearth Bread.’

Making your own bread is such a pleasure. If one didn’t want the expense of the cloche there is surely something one could substitute: perhaps a heat-proof bowl upside down on a tile-lined baking sheets? The house smells wonderful during and after bread-baking, and nothing tastes better than a warm slab of fresh bread with a lot of butter on top.  Oh yum!

Buon appetito!

Cats and the Metro

06 Friday Feb 2009

Posted by in Arizona, Cats, Photographs, Travel, Uncategorized

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But cats don’t like to ride on the metro, I hear you say. True. But no sooner did I grouse about the lack of good public transportation in the US than lo and behold! The Phoenix Light Rail system opened.  This is more like it!  The Metro offers a very inexpensive and convenient way to travel around metropolitan Phoenix, including outlying Tempe (home of Arizona State University) and a bit of Mesa.

The grand opening was on December 27-28, 2009.  As luck would have it the Captain and I were attending a cat show (I know.  But we like cats.), and we stumbled serendipitously into the gigantic street fair celebrating the opening just outside the Phoenix Convention Center.  As it turned out, there were festivities of one sort or another at almost all the major stops along the 20-miles of Metro.

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It took twelve years to build the system, and it was gravely inconvenient for many businesses and residents during construction.  But now, everyone seems well pleased. The Metro web site gives all the information you could need to take advantage of this service.  The fares are ridiculously low – $2.50 will buy you an all-day pass, which includes some amount of bus transfer.  If you’re over 65 your day-pass costs only $1.25.  There are Park and Ride lots at many stations which offer free parking during the Metro’s hours of operation.

In addition, some fun blogs have sprung up around Light Rail: RailLife.com, Blogs about Phoenix Lightrail, and my favorite, found by the now-famous Mrs. Harris (bread, pumpkin ice cream), PHX Rail Food, which is a great guide for places to eat within easy walking distance of each Metro stop. You Are Here gives an urban stroller’s guide to metro Phoenix, with guides to culture, shopping, sports, events, dining and nightlife all along the Route.

Speaking of Mrs. Harris, she had the brilliant idea that we should take a day and ride the Metro from one end (Sycamore and Main in Mesa) to the other (Montebello and 19th Ave. in Phoenix).  So that is exactly what we did a while ago, and it was loads of fun.  We met a lot of people, all of whom were pleasant and chatty.  We stopped in Tempe for a walk-around and ended up giving our opinion on speed radar on the freeways for a PBS show (our 15 seconds of fame). Then we took a mid-day break and visited the Phoenix Art Museum where, in addition to walking through several exhibits, we ate a delightful lunch.

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We rode to the end of the line, then jogged to the other track and rode straight back to where we began.

If you’re interested in some photographs of both the cat show and the festivities outside the Convention Center at the Metro’s opening, click here, or over on the right under Photographs (Cat Show and Rail Opening)(You’ll see that I was fascinated by the break dancing.).

If you’re interested in some of the sights along the Metro, click here, or over on the right under Photographs (Riding the Light Rail).  These photographs are in three sections: sights along the rail ride, people we met, and some of the art at the Metro stops (each stop has at least one piece of art incorporated in its design).

And if you need to get your cat somewhere, you can probably take her on the Light Rail, but she’ll have to be in a cat-carrier.  She might even enjoy the journey! We did.

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cat show and rail opening pics