The Two Faces of Mother Nature

When you picture Mother Nature, does she have a kind, benevolent face?  I picture her dressed in flowing robes, tenderly caring for colorful, fragrant flowers in the garden.

But yesterday I saw the evil twin of Mother Nature when high winds, with gusts up to 50 mph, visited my home town of El Paso, Texas.

The winds should not have been a great surprise to anyone who is familiar with springtime in the Desert Southwest. We can't escape our typical seasonal weather pattern, with temperatures warming up to the 80's to tease us, followed by cold fronts moving in to drop temperatures and stir up clouds of dust.

But when I awoke this morning, Mother Nature had been extremely mischievous in our front and back yards.

A large yucca plant had blown over and was blocking the front steps to the house.

The chinaberry tree, that I had been checking every day for signs of its heavenly scented blossoms, had cracked, and one of its large limbs had fallen over a walkway. 

Not too pretty, Mother Nature!  But she had also left delights in the garden this springtime.

A large Wallflower "Bowled Mauve" (Erysimum) that I thought had died during our long, hot summer, came back to life, putting out purple spikes in all directions.

A very large Cassia shrub in the pool yard has been a mass of aromatic yellow blossoms for at least three weeks now, perfuming the whole area, especially if we are lucky enough to have a hint of moisture in the air.

Climbing roses against a stone wall are an early springtime delight and are always good for a sweet whiff as you pass by. 

But maybe the plants I truly respect are the rough, tough native plants that give so much beauty with so little care. Mother Nature must love them.

Such impressive flowers from a small, thorny cactus.

And the gangly creosote bush in the front yard has recently put on a show of small yellow flowers. Creosote bushes (Larrea tridentata) are well known in the Desert Southwest for emitting an aroma similar to that of witch hazel after a spring shower. This must have been the year for creosotes, because we have probably twenty volunteer plants on our property.  I'm not going to chop down a one.   

I may have to modify my image of Mother Nature, realizing that she (like all of us, I suppose) occasionally has a bad day and puts on her ugly face.

I'm hoping she stays in a good mood until summer  arrives, bringing us long,leisurely days, colorful sunsets, and cool desert evenings.

A hometown dining adventure

Does this conversation ever happen at your house?  "Do you want to go out for lunch?"  "Yes, but where?" And do you often end up by default at tried and true local restaurants?

On a recent warm springlike day, my husband Wayne and I agreed that we were looking for a new dining adventure for lunch. A flyer had arrived with the morning newspaper, announcing a restaurant and bar in an older area of our home town of El Paso, Texas. The restaurant had the intriguing name of  "The Frutas Avenue Fraternal & Social Club."  

The Frutas Avenue Fraternal & Social Club

The location was part of a historic property that had been established in 1904 as a brewery and had changed owners (and products during Prohibition years) until closing in 1967 as the Falstaff Brewing Company. The flyer explained that the restaurant property was a remodel of a Falstaff VIP party property created as a mock German Village.

Mock German Village

The current restaurant description included a German Beer Garden, which was a patio with shade trees and hanging colored lights.

German Beer Garden

  

 

Outdoor Bar

I was especially interested in the history of the establishment.  And Wayne checked the menu carefully, especially the descriptions of daily plate lunch specials such as Grandma's Pot Roast, Stuffed Bell Peppers, and Homemade Meatloaf.  Sandwiches and desserts were also on the menu.  

We arrived at the restaurant about 1:00 pm on a Monday. Wayne fortunately got the last available plate of pot roast with vegetables, bread and dessert.  My choice was the vegetarian sandwich. We ate a quiet lunch indoors.

Indoor restaurant

Conversations with the owner and an employee reflected a vision of what they intended the Frutas Avenue Club to be - a quiet, welcoming place (no music allowed) with home style food and friendly service.  The free pool table in a back room would be perfect to entertain a bored teenager.

Pool table in former Starting Cellar

I have already "liked" the establishment on Facebook so that we will receive future messages about the twice monthly barbecue offerings in the patio. And we will return on one of El Paso's picture perfect summer evenings. sit in the patio with a glass of iced tea, and solve life's problems with stimulating company and conversation.

Seeing My Home Town Through New Eyes

Out of town visitors were on the way!  I live in El Paso, Texas  a mid-sized city on the US-Mexico border. My home town has its attractions, but it is not New York City by any means. What could we do to entertain our Canadian visitors to repay the hospitality they had shown us during a visit to Quebec province?

My husband Wayne and I sat down to plan, trying to see our city as visitors might see it.  We brainstormed activities in several categories- outdoors, history, and dining.

Mother Nature was kind in mid-February and favored us with several days in the 70 degree range and, most importantly, calm winds. The first activity with our visitors was a picnic in Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, located a few miles east of El Paso. I warned our visitors that this park did not fit the more usual image of a park, with trees, flowers, and grassy areas. But the spectacular rock formations and natural rock basins were new and intriguing.

Next, a dose of old El Paso.  Our city and the surrounding area are rich in more than four centuries of history that include native Indian tribes, Spanish conquistadors, the establishment of missions, the arrival of the railroad, gunfighters, madams, gamblers, and the Mexican Revolution of 1910.  We visited the Magoffin Home State Historical Site in downtown El Paso.  

      

I never tire of this historical site that is beautifully restored and decorated with many original furniture pieces of the Magoffin family from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The thick adobe walls and images of graceful living found here always bring a peaceful feeling to my soul.

Our next stop was for more panoramic view of history provided by Digie, the digital wall located at the El Paso Museum of History.  It is a collection of images and videos of past and present El Paso that are presented on 3D touch sensitive TV screens.  We clicked on our personal interests, be they sports, dance, or music.

We hope our Canadian visitors liked spicy food, because as we considered our menu options, chile kept popping up as a main ingredient.  Wayne cooked and served his favorite breakfast dish called migas in his outdoor kitchen.

Migas are eggs scrambled with onions, garlic, tomatoes, jalapeño chiles, and tortilla chips.  And they are delicious.

We also wanted to have a  bread on hand for tea and coffee breaks.  Wayne remembered an old recipe of his mother's called Hobo Bread, baked in coffee cans.

I tweaked the recipe for more modern tastes.

Combine two cups of dark raisins, two cups of boiling water and four tablespoons of soda.  Let stand overnight.  In the morning, add the following ingredients.

two cups sugar (I used one cup sugar and one cup Splenda)

four tablespoons oil

one-half teaspoon salt

one teaspoon nutmeg

one teaspoon cinnamon

four cups flour (I used three cups regular flour and one cup whole wheat flour)

one cup chopped pecans.

Then comes the fun part.  Grease and flour three one-lb coffee cans (or other similar cans), fill

one-half full, and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Let cool for 30 minutes.  You have a cake that can be sliced into rounds for serving.  It has a taste similar to gingerbread and freezes well.

We gained a new respect for our home town and all it can offer, using an open mind and a little creativity.  Now I'm inspired to seek out some more hometown adventures as winter slowly turns into spring.

Seasons and Seasonings of the Southwest

Am I the only person who looks forward to the changing of the seasons?  Surely not.  As each season makes its appearance year after year, I can't help feeling a surge of energy, an anticipation of newness-the temperature rises or falls, plants bloom or go into hibernation, seasonal dishes appear in the kitchen, and even the colors of clothing offered for sale in stores become paler or darker.

So I  decided to put together a book about enjoying life in each of the four seasons in my area of the United States. I entitled the book Seasons and Seasonings of the Southwest. Some may claim that the Southwest doesn't have four true seasons, but my belief is that we do, although the transitions between seasons may be less dramatic than in other parts of the country. 

The book includes commentary, short essays, and recipes for each of the four season.  A few sample entries are included below.

S P R I N G T I M E

In my home town of El Paso, Texas springtime is practically non-existent.  The spring I am daydreaming about is one with gentle breezes and yellow daffodils putting on a show.  But in El Paso, one day it is winter, and the next day suddenly it is summer.  Recently I forgot that fact and ordered some big, wooly clothes on the Internet. Our weather had been in the 50’s in the daytime and the 30’s at night for what seemed like an eternity.  I was fed up with winter and being cold.

About the time the UPS man delivered my new sweatshirt and long fleece lounger, the mesquite trees in the front yard started to show signs of life.  When the mesquites leaf out, winter is over in this part of the country, no matter what the calendar says.  In what seemed like a very few days, my husband Wayne was talking about having the home air conditioners serviced.  First we had days with highs in the 70’s, and very soon they would be climbing into the 80’s. 

What spring does bring to El Paso are the winds.  And oh my, how they do blow, often bringing swirling dust and pollen. We watch the nightly TV weather cast religiously, not to find out the temperature highs and lows, but to prepare for the wind speed.  I myself am not satisfied with anything over 10 mph.   I make plans to be in a dark mood when the winds kick up. So, into the kitchen I go to create a little of the springtime I dream about. 

S U M M E R  

Mango Guacamole  I found the recipe below recently on the children’s page of the local newspaper.  Just my speed, I thought!  I made some alterations and came up with a pretty good lunch dish for a hot summer day.  Mangoes are plentiful this time of year, and they have such a lovely aroma and taste when ripe.

Mash three medium avocados.  Add one-fourth cup diced red onion, one diced mango, one tablespoon fresh lime juice, one-half tablespoon salt, and one minced clove garlic.  I didn’t have the three tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro that the recipe calls for, so I added three tablespoons of cilantro paste that I found in the refrigerator.  Chill for one hour and serve.

The recipe calls for serving the dish with tortilla chips, but since my husband and I are on a health kick, I heated some corn tortillas in a tortilla warmer for two minutes in the microwave instead.  My husband pronounced the dish as tasty, but a little lacking in flavor, so we added red chile powder until the dish had a slight kick.

 

I was glad that I had recently bought a new bag of red chile powder in New Mexico. The flavor was far superior to the one that had been in the freezer for more years than I care to count.

I'm hoping for suggestions and comments from readers of this blog as to whether the type of book I am in the process of compiling may have some appeal. What would you do differently and what other types of information would you include?  Responses will be appreciated! 

Texans admire Robert Burns too

Just to get you in the mood for this blog post, I hope you will listen to Dougie MacLean singing "Auld Lang Syne". My husband Wayne and I did just that when we held our own private celebration of Burns' Night this year.

The lyrics to "Auld Lang Syne" were written by Robert Burns, 18th century Scots poet,

whose birthday is commemorated each year on January 25th.  Burns' Night celebrations, held worldwide, are often formal dinners with attendees sporting tartans and taking part in rituals, speeches, music, and dancing.  We decided to celebrate at home by preparing a special Scottish dish, listening to Scottish music, and exchanging memories of trips to Scotland.

The dish was called "Roasted Root Vegetables," from A Year in a Scots Kitchen by Catherine Brown. My version of the recipe is included at the end of this post, and I promise you it is tastier than the name may imply!

We couldn't let Burns' Night pass without a wee nip of a ten year old single malt whisky, Glenmorangie, from a very small souvenir bottle.  We left enough in the  bottle for several more years of celebrations.

As I was writing this post, I began to wonder if celebrating Burns' Night might appear as an affectation to our fellow Texans and South Westerners.  So I researched Scots heritage in our region and found some amazing facts and connections.

First, some statistics.  Forty per cent of Stephen F. Austin's colonists were of Scottish ancestry. Four Scots and 26 men of Scots descent fought at the Battle of the Alamo, including Piper John MacGregor.  Ten men from Scotland financed the building of the Texas state capitol and were awarded 150,000 acres, which became the XIT Ranch (Ten in Texas).  Over half of Texas counties are named for persons of Scottish ancestry.

And you may be familiar with these names, especially if you are a native Texan:  Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Jim Bowie, Daniel Boone, Big Foot Wallace, and J. Frank Dobie - all are of Scottish heritage.

Here are three little know facts that caught my eye.  The word "spread" used in Texas for "ranch" is said to derive from the Gaelic "spreid" (flock of sheep) and "spreidith," cattle or livestock.  "Y'all," much beloved in Texas, often used as a plural form of "you," but even as a singular form sometimes, may derive from the Gaelic "sibh vile," which translates to "you all."  And did you know that the official state tartan for Texas is the Texas Bluebonnet Tartan?

 I didn't, but I am now looking for a source for this cloth to decorate our Scottish-themed guest room.

Why didn't I learn about the Scots and their influence on the Southwest in my high school Texas History class, I wonder?

Here's the recipe I promised.

Roasted Root Vegetables (serves four)

Buy:

one small turnip

four small parsnips

four small carrots

four medium potatoes

four small onions

one bulb fennel

You will also need one-third cup extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, two sprigs fresh rosemary, one bulb garlic and one tablespoon sesame seeds.

Heat oil in a roasting pan in a 450F oven for five minutes.  Cut all vegetables into large chunks of similar size.  Place vegetables in pan, coating with oil. Add garlic bulb with top cut off, salt and rosemary. Cook for 40-45 minutes, basting with oil halfway through.  Press the cloves out of the bulb and mix garlic with vegetables. Add sesame seeds.asty

My favorite Mexican breakfast

Cold winter mornings in the Southwest are a good excuse to eat a hearty breakfast. My favorite winter breakfast (actually any season of the year, if the truth be known) is a dish called huevos rancheros (ranch style eggs).The easiest path to huevos rancheros is to a nearby Mexican food restaurant, where you order coffee (hopefully laced with cinnamon) and sit back and enjoy your meal, the only decision being whether to order flour or corn tortillas on the side.

But you may feel the urge to create your own huevos rancheros at home. The procedure is easy enough if you have the ingredients at hand. I must admit the kitchen gets a little messy making this recipe, but the authentic taste is worth the extra trouble.

The number of recipes for huevos rancheros is probably equal to the number of different cooks who prepare this popular breakfast or brunch dish. But I’ve never had a plate of huevos rancheros I didn’t like. Here are the basic directions. Feel free to put your personal touch on them.




Ingredients:

softened corn tortillas (two per person)

cooked eggs (one to top each tortilla)

sauce or topping to spoon over the cooked eggs

grated cheese




Soften each corn tortilla by dipping gently in hot oil for a few minutes. Place an egg cooked to specifications of diners on the tortilla (I like my eggs over hard, but most people like them a little runny). Cover the tortilla and egg with a sauce or topping. Here is where your creativity can run free!




For my taste, the most authentic huevos rancheros are made with thick red chile sauce.

 However, some restaurant cooks prefer a topping of mostly sauteed green chiles.

 

Other restaurants serve the dish with a topping of vegetables, tomatoes, chiles, onion, and garlic that have been sauteed and seasoned.

Any type of grated cheese works for a topping, but I find that white cheeses, like mozzarella or monterey jack work well because they don't compete with the tastes of other ingredients. Some delightful Mexican white cheeses also work well if you are fortunate enough to find them in your home town.

Huevos rancheros are usually accompanied by side dishes, which can be Spanish rice, refried beans, hash brown potatoes, and perhaps a small dab of lettuce and tomato salad (just in case you are trying to eat healthy!)

My husband Wayne and I make a sport of ordering huevos rancheros in new restaurants in new cities of the Southwest, just to see which rendition will arrive at the table.

Do you have a favorite version of huevos rancheros?  I would love to hear about it. 


















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Serendipity in Santa Fe

"We've definitely got to find an exotic location to celebrate Christmas this year," I complained to my husband Wayne several months ago.  As much as we love our home town of El Paso, Texas, after decades of spending Christmas at home, we had pretty much partaken of all the holiday spirit that is offered locally.

So that's how we found ourselves this December in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  A short drive (in West Texas terms) of six hours took us from an altitude of about 4500 feet to 7000 feet and from about 50 degrees daytime high temperatures to the 20's and 30's. I pulled jackets, sweaters, boots, and gloves out of the back of the closet.  I even found an old pair of long underwear that I tossed in the suitcase at the last minute.

A four day stay at the lively La Fonda Hotel on the Plaza was plenty of time to discover small pleasures that are often not mentioned in travel guides. The first afternoon we sat for a quiet moment in the ornate Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.  Soon the very entertaining dress rehearsal of a Christmas pageant began..The leader instructed children with angel wings to position themselves on the top row of platform, the shepherds to take the middle row, and the animals to position themselves on the bottom row.  Delightful!  

Rehearsal at St. Francis

     

The next stop was the lounge in La Fonda, always an opportunity for great people watching. Chips and salsa and tea sustained us until dinner that evening.

View down the bar at La Fonda Lounge

Dinner  at La Fonda gave us a decorating inspiration for our home.  Why couldn't we (or rather Wayne) paint some of our glass window panels like the ones adorning the hotel dining room?

Decorated glass panels at La Fonda

And why was the guacamole concocted and served fresh at our table so much better than the guacamole we make regularly at home?

Dusk arrived early, but the views around town were memorable.  Our room with a balcony overlooked a quiet side street.

View from our room

The main plaza turned into a wonderland of lights in the evening.

Main plaza

And the Basilica of St. Francis was especially inspiring at night.

St. Francis Basilica

But the highlight of the trip was joining 30,000 revelers in making a Christmas Eve walk, with a full moon adding to the magic. Bundled figures of all ages ( and some magnificent furry dogs) made their way slowly up Canyon Road, stopping to admire houses and art galleries adorned with farolitos and Christmas lights.  Groups of carolers joined in spontaneous singing of Christmas carols around small campfires. The Ghost of Christmas Present must have sprinkled the revelers with magic dust, because a holiday spirit hovered over the crowds.

Canyon Road with moon peeking through tree

We had a memorable Christmas holiday, enjoying the serendipity of small delights in Santa Fe.  I hope your Christmas was a merry one as well.