Bring on the comfort food!

Well, it's finally here with a vengeance.  Fall weather - short days, long nights, colder and often windy weather.  I find myself wanting some good old-fashioned southern comfort food.  But what would that be exactly? Maybe something warm, tossing calorie counting and healthy eating to the winds, and with faint remembrances of grandmother in the kitchen?

The recipe that caught my eye appeared in the November 14-16, 2014 edition of USA Weekend, "Spoon Bread with Cranberries."  First of all, be forewarned that I didn't notice this recipe feeds 10 people! I"m now looking for creative ways to use the leftovers.  I suggest reducing the recipe by half for smaller households.

First butter a 9-by-13 baking dish and sprinkle fresh cranberries in the bottom.  Then mix the dry ingredients -  one cup yellow cornmeal, 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon kosher salt. and a pinch of nutmeg.  In a separate bowl, combine the liquid ingredients - 3 cups buttermilk, 3 large egg yolks, 3 tablespoons melted butter, and zest of 1 orange. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients.  Then beat 3 egg whites until soft peaks form and add to bowl.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes.  Serve warm by spooning from baking dish.

The recipe goes together quickly.  My husband Wayne took on the role of sous chef and grated an orange for the orange zest, made buttermilk from buttermilk powder, and whipped the egg whites.  I did the easy parts!

The taste was ...interesting!  The combination of the soft, soothing bread with a sharp, unexpected taste of fresh cranberries kept us sneaking just one more bite from the pan. But finally we decided - more sweetness - that's what the dish needed! We added sweetener until the dish tasted more like a dessert, maybe a bread pudding,  than a bread served with the main meal.

The first time I make a recipe, I  follow it exactly, measuring every ingredient and stirring and mixing exactly according to directions.  The second time, I like to play around with the recipe.  Plans for my next try at spoon bread with cranberries are to increase the sugar to 3 tablespoons and perhaps add golden raisins. Right now, I need to get creative with the leftover spoon bread still in the refrigerator and even in the freezer.  Sweetened whipping cream for a topping?  Some type of orange glaze?  A fruit topping?  

The spoon bread has a wonderful texture.  The cranberries are festive and seasonal, a true taste of southern comfort. Bring on the winter weather.  We are ready for you!       

Ah! A Magical Saturday!

Sometimes I question our family decisions to drive an hour for morning coffee in a special location, but when we arrived at The Bean in Mesilla, New Mexico, I knew we were on the right track for a great Saturday getaway.

The Bean, Mesilla New Mexico

It was, after all, my birthday celebration, and my husband Wayne and I decided to take advantage of all our neighboring state has to offer.

The Bean is a small. slightly quirky cafe that offers coffee and pastries as well as lunch items.  It has both indoor and outdoor seating.  We like to sit outside at a table under an umbrella to observe the many interesting Bean patrons and the comings and goings of this quiet, historic New Mexico  town.

Fueled by coffee and a large Good Morning muffin, we drove to downtown Las Cruces to the Farmers' Market, held every week on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.  What a feast for the senses!  Locally grown vegetables piled high on tables, handmade arts and crafts, music by street musicians, food trucks, cafes, native plants, and family pets out for a stroll.

Irresistible!

 A stop at the Robledo Vista Nursery display of native plants is de rigueur.

So many plants, so little time

We bought a small damianita plant for our new "Tucson Garden".  This is what the plant should look like when it grows up.  I have my fingers crossed for our tiny plant.

Damianita in full bloom

The indoor/outdoor cafe, called The Bistro, looked like a great spot to enjoy the market.  We'll have to explore it next visit.

The Bistro Cafe

But this Saturday, we already had our tummies set for lunch at Peppers Cafe, located in the historic Double Eagle Restaurant located on the plaza in Mesilla. We admired the renovated bandstand

Bandstand  in Mesilla

and the calming presence of  San Albino Basilica.

San Albino Basilica

Next stop after lunch was the Fountain Theater for a showing of "Magic by Moonlight," starring Colin Firth and Emma Stone and directed by Woody Allen.  

Wall mural in historic Fountain Theater

I admire the talent of Woody Allen to create an atmosphere that takes me out of the ordinary world ("Midnight in Paris" is a favorite of mine).  But the real experience of spending a perfect Saturday in New Mexico also brought touch of  magic to my life. 

New thoughts about Southwest Cacti

Autumn in El Paso, Texas.  Days getting shorter.  Nights getting longer.  Dusk arrives around 4:30 in the afternoon and by 5:30 it is pitch black.  I feel a frantic need to garden as much as possible before winter sets in.  This  melancholy thought inspired me to attend a recent Saturday workshop presented by the El Paso Cactus and Rock Club.  I was looking for inspiration for the southwest life style that my husband Wayne and I enjoy, and I found it.

Jim Hastings, "The Gringo Gourmet," had set up a table for his presentation, "Not Your Mama's Nopalitos."   

Jim Hasting's display table

Nopalitos are the diced pads of prickly pear cacti.   I have often seen packaged nopalitos in the produce departments of local markets and have even bought a package or two through the years.

Packaged nopalitos

But I could never get past their sticky texture to create a tempting dish. Jim convinced me to give the nutritious nopalitos another try.

He demonstrated how nopalitos sauteed in a frying pan with a little water added from time to time for steam could get rid of the mocos (if you don't know this word in Spanish, we won't gross you out by translating it).  Then you add the cooked nopalitos to a variety of dishes, limited only by your sense of adventure.  There are tempting recipes available on the Internet for nopalitos with scrambled eggs, nopalito tacos, and nopalito salsa, to mention only a few.  Jim combined nopalitos with squash and corn, cooking up an attractive vegetable side dish that he passed out in small tasting cups to the audience.  I found myself wanting more than just a taste. 

I'm intrigued by the idea of joining the national movement to use more local produce and am looking forward to visiting Jim's web site, http://www.thegringogourmet.com for inspiration .  If I have any nopalito cooking success, I'll share the recipe on a future blog post.

After this feast for my taste buds, I found a feast for my eyes in a Bishop's Cap cactus for sale. It was love at first sight. 

Bishop's Cap Cactus

Isn't it a beauty?   This is the Astrophytum myriostigma.   It is called the "star cactus" when it is young.   And this specimen was just about to flower.  Bishop's Caps usually only flower when they are five or six years old, so I knew I had a mature specimen.   I had to buy the Bishop's Cap to live in our new outdoor area we are calling the "Tucson Yard." 

Now I'm looking forward to fall projects of cooking and planting, thanks to the El Paso Cactus and Rock Club.  If  the sun would only peek out today, I would be completely at peace with living in the Desert Southwest.