kitchen chez freak

here's a little something the senora daggett and i whipped up on my day off last week. yah, those are key limes being squeezed with pliers. we spend a lot of time wondering how cooks and gastronomes of the ages have pulled off any kind of tastey meal without spending a lifetime in the kitchen. any insights?

i wrapped the tamales and it was pretty fun and relaxing. we were preparing food in honor of the cutest person in the world who happened to be coming to visit us that weekend. stay tuned for a report in the next post.

the tamal: one hoja filled with masa consisting of harina, cornmeal, fresh roasted corn, mucha mantequilla, fresh roasted poblanos y jack cheese and a filling consisting of fresh ground lamb with sauteed onions, habaneros, roasted pasillas, NM red pepper flakes y red chile powder, pine nuts, raisins, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom etc. we also made goat cheese filled ones with mint and three chopped peppers. results were less than thrilling and we can't figure out why. we've done it before with my mom franco on our trips to the sierras, and they've been to die for, especially with homemade mole! theory: we had to freeze the tamales for a few days and the masa lost its fresh corn flavor, if it ever had any. maybe the traditional use of lard/manteca preserves better. as we all know, fat tastes great almost any time. note: the red sauce rocked and the key lime pie was amazing and decadent with a gingerbread crust and fresh whipped cream. so much so that johnny d. ate all of it without any recollection. he kept asking for it the next day and all we could say was, you ate it, dude!

they do look pretty. very different from the mass production my gramma bamma does. we only made 30, whereas she makes like a 100 or so, which freeze beautifully for the whole year. i really wonder where diana kennedy gets her ingredients. lucky woman!

wally thinks we are still the smartest people in the world. as long as your dog still respects you, everything's going fine.

hot wally sees loretto chapel

actually hot wally had to stay in the car looking baaaaad. she only saw the chapel from the outside and that was quite enough. when you are this cool it is best to lay low...

...and lick your chops. sometimes dressing up makes wally sleeeeeeeeepyyyyyyyyyy!

dear gramma bamma, i finally went inside the famed loretto chapel and saw the miraculous windy staircase. it's beautiful in there, but that german guy sure ruined it with those nasty barristers... excuse me, i mean banisters as my brainy husband just informed me, although there were probably many lawyers involved in supervising the construction defect litigation for this otherwise miraculous edifice... jutting off from the sides! we got a book on it called the sisters of loretto and their chapel which looks very interesting. for those who haven't been keeping up with "unsolved mysteries," the loretto chapel was built in 1878 without access to the choir loft. woops! there was no easy architectual solution in such a small space so the sisters prayed and a mysterious carpenter showed up on dia novena of their prayers. he worked quietly for 6 months and the end result was a staircase with two 360 degree turns, without any center support and apparently no nails, just wooden pegs. architects are still baffled by it today. the carpentero disappeared without pay or thanks even though they sought for him in newspapers etc. since then it's caused a stir, but the woman who wrote this book, thinks she may have figured out who he was. we'll keep you posted. it's surely a sight to see.

thanks to that tenacious french archbishop jean baptiste lamy, this chapel was installed with stained glass ordered from paris. bravo, m'sieur lamy!

downtown santa fe is always full of visual stimulation like this mud-riddled jeep. someone was having fun!

hils and i had a nice break walking around downtown after dropping johnny off last sunday. then it was back to a busy week at work teaching and planning civics activities including a letter writing campaign to a NM state senator who is on one of the congressional committees working on the stimulus package. most students admitted that the economy was hitting them hard and they were happy to write letters in support of continuing their education. the letters were written by engineers, magazine and newpaper editors, mechanics, bakers, moms, teachers, and many who only finished 6th grade coming from all over the world. they all passionately want to learn english and get their citizenship, own a business, find an american girlfriend etc. it was a delight to read and send their stories to washington d.c.

as for my n, things have been rough. he has lost some weight so we're very concerned. he is still loving his physical therapy pool, and i am so grateful he has something that brings him joy. i know an amazing grace is upon us, but it's very intense. thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers towards us.

"the witness in the sky in faithful" (Psalm 89:37) just like Jesus. i trust Him and i am thankful for His nearness which is getting us through each day.

professor joffrey

all week the moon was doing lovely things: rising in fullness over the pecos valley at sunset, setting like a grand balloon over hills and highways as southwesterners drove to work, quietly crawling out of blackness over glorieta mesa in a radioactive yellow-greeness which reminded me of a wedge of cheese. the sky is always entertaining us here in new mexico, but this week i could barely keep up with all the tricks of earth's wonderous satellite.

one afternoon hilary and i took the dog on a walk at the "top of the world," as n likes to call it, which doesn't overlook more than a slice of lamy and the haunting and vast galisteo basin. they want to start drilling for oil there and there's a huge mix of emotions over it as it's a very historical area. we don't have mineral rights here in the wild west so it's a scary prospect. i'm sure it will all come down to money, but there are many activists fighting hard to preserve this dry and ancient land. we shall see.

we tried to hike down to lamy proper, but couldn't make it because of hil's feet and wally's legs. here is the lonely view of the basin; i don't know if you can see the tiny cluster of edifices that are "downtown" lamy, but they are there. it was the old railroad stop off for this area. many artists and easteners of the early/mid 20th century were deposited in lamy off long train rides then weathered rough roads to get to santa fe and ghost ranch to bask in the romance of pueblo culture, stunning geography, campouts on horseback etc. i can't say i blame them!

speaking of easterners drawn to the southwest, i received a voicemail one day from our dear friend, geoff, that he was to be in town leading a group of fellow drew ph.d. candidates on a two week journey through the southwest in a study of pueblo religions. of course he did not get to stay at a dude ranch like his intellectual compatriots of the past, but i picked him up at the best western and took him promptly to lamy. n greeted him with a huge hug and a detailed house tour, and was making great efforts to visit all night even though he was very tired. i know geoff appreciated it. in fact, one of our local pastors stopped by to pray for n that night (he and his wife do so as often as they can- they are another treasure to us!) and i know that helped him stay energized.

when g.p. first arrived i whisked him off to a walk with wally in hopes of decreasing her martyrdom for the evening. as you can see they were not quite sure of each other at first.

but they warmed up to each other.

especially when we got to talking southwest history and wally donned her special necklace replete with grizzly claws, old italian glass beads, a civil war button, and an arrowhead- a gift to n from our other history-loving friend jeffrey of glorietta pass. can't you just see tubbery in it?

geoff is such a dear friend to us. we treasure him like a brother and i can never forget how he helped me plan my whole homespun wedding! he, meag and mel worked behind the scenes buying and hanging japanese lanterns, tulle, and white christmas lights from the 50 foot high warehouse ceiling at our old church. to say the least! poor geoff. i think he will never plan another wedding. i know i sure don't want to. but n and i always reacall our wedding supper serenade from tim and him on guitar and violin singing one our favorite robert burn's tunes, sweet afton, with "roxie" sung in place of "mary." ay. as warren testified, there wasn't a female in the room who wasn't teary eyed that night for all the music and blessing of God in the room.

and what a blessing is our friend, geoff. for anyone else who treasures this fellow, you know there is no one else who will cook for you or help you complete a task with such sincere beads of sweat budding on his professorial forehead. like old friendships, it felt like only a few weeks had passed since we were having dinner together in tacoma. what a gift it was to see our delightful friend! we love you, geoff!

christmas with the kooks

we had a great christmas with n's sister the feebird visiting us. hils wanted to greet her with a prisitine, little tree nesting a few vintage ornaments. ha! look what i talked her into! victory! i don't have a photo of my jimi hendrix outdoor tree, but just try to imagine it glowing in our snowy front yard. what would i do were i left alone to decorate?

next photo: wally has some problems with her ACL in her back legs so fee came up with this nifty idea for hiking. clearly we did not go with her plan, but we were impressed with her ability to get flora into the living room.

here is our kiva fireplace decorated with mini-luminarias (paper bags with sand and candles- they also have plastic electric ones) which people love and hate here. they are beautiful, but not many people put them up because they are a lot of trouble. you do get the craving for some fun Christmas lights twinkling up and down the streets, but hardly anyone does that either. but nothing, nothing is like tacoma with its inflatable elves, snowmen, revolving santa sleighs and reindeer, carols pumping from loudspeakers, and whatever else you can fit onto a roof above a manger scene. when i lived there i even bought a giant frosty at a lawn ornament garage sale once with the hopes of eventually leaving it on tim and abby's lawn, but it never happened. yes, meag. you can most certainly mark the holidays in t-town. franco (my momma) made these stockings.

our tree on Christmas morning.

n opening his gift from fee- a book about an irish country doctor. excellent choice, lassie!

materialism takes over...

....followed by a feast: when fee was 4 years old she attended a dinner at a friend's home and when served her plate she promptly asked, "where's the sauce?" we had a christmas dinner potluck at our neighbors' richard's and stacey's house, and when richard, who roasted the turkey, was asked by fee about the gravey he said he was over it. well, she wasn't. stacey tossed her an apron and she got right to work separating fat and reducing stock. she is her mother's daughter after all. you can't escape those norman bloodlines no matter what they tell you!

after christmas day, fee and i went on a beautiful hike in glorieta which is about 20 minutes from lamy. the snow was deep so we pooped out quickly, but the highlight was stumbling upon a clearing with horses feeding without the fences which normally hedge them in.

it was wonderful to pet these majestic creatures and run our fingers through their wiry winter coats. it was sad at the same time because they obviously associated us with treats of which we had none, and they were all out of food. i will definitely go back to check on them... with a backpack full of carrots to be sure!

here is fee bird with, yolanda (our pick), the pony who wanted to adopt us. at first we thought she was a boy and named her alfonso. she ran right up to us when we first came into the clearing and tried to eat our coats, pants and even slurped up my backpack string which i had to pop out of her chomping horse teeth. we were cracking up. on our way back she was very excited to see us again and tried the same antics. we were so touched by her we were giving her kisses and i reached up under her perfectly colored, femme fatal bangs and did some massage on her forehead and around her ears. well, after that she proceeded to follow us down the trail. fee had to push her back 3 times and the last time she stood at the edge of the clearing and watched us until we were out of sight. and my camera battery was dead! you know i'm going back to see her! God's creatures are exceedingly special and i can't wait for a day when they are all treated right!

therapy pool and other rejoicable things

here are some pictures of n in the therapy pool with his physical therapist, donna. nathanael is a water person and i love to see him move around in a setting so comfortable for him. these pictures are precious to me.

n's blood pressure got low after a few exercises. the pool is 95 degrees so he has to be careful as his b.p. runs low in general. i opened some windows and doors to let in some snowy air and donna led him in a break doing some acupressure on wrists which helped.

i absolutely love the way donna works with n. she has a gentle voice interrupted by a contagious, bellowy laugh which errupts at anytime. however, when she does watsu she looks like a serious mother lullabying her son.

there is grief in these photos, too. hilary always said that one of her worst fears was to be in the place of one of those all-too-common african mothers we see photographed cradling a gaunt and starving child in a refugee camp. when we look at the pudgy, baby pictures of n on the fridge in her arms with carrot juice all over his face, we can't believe how things have turned out.

even our most wonderful african friend, damaris, who has seen such things in africa as described above, burst into tears upon meeting hilary (having known our story beforehand). she was as shocked and upset as we have ever been about nathanael's condition.

thankfully we are not in a famined state in africa. we have above and beyond our share of comfort and privilege in this trial. this we have in terms of physical and heavenly provisions. but nonetheless, there is heartbreak about nathanael's ongoing condition, and damaris, who has seen the real thing, weeps with us as do many of you. especially all of n's mothers and fathers and aunties and uncles out there.

n turned 31 this month and we rejoice! moreover we rejoice in knowing the source of eternal life, JESUS, whom God sent into the world, "not to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:17. wow. Jesus said that to nicodemus, a jewish leader. it's certainly something to think about this week and beyond.

MERRY CHRISTMERRY!

let it snow!

i woke up early to take johnny to the airport shuttle. and being the non-coherent morning person that i am, i didn't think clearly about how he was going to get to albuquerque, let alone how we were going to make it to town to catch the shuttle. i did see a flurry of white rushing horizontally past every window and piling up on the porch and sticking to the windows, but was still stunned when he said to me, "you know i'm not going home today." "what? huh?" duh. of course not. i happily went back to my cozy rollaway bed in my walk-in closet (that is another story) and lay in smiling semi-conciousness for another 2 hours. then i awoke to hilary folding egg whites into a small batch of batter ... "i'm making lemon ricotta pancakes." olympic cheer! score. try to remain calm. this is after she made morning stir fries for her, johnny and n and before cooking a chicken dinner later on. maybe it was the relief of having j.d. around for a few more days because this doesn't happen everyday, folks. i was in momentary...the recipe calls for honey on top, but dude, pancakes without syrup?! and all we had was this specialty stuff aged for years in bourbon casks etc. um... incredible... yes, you can taste the liquor though none is in there. yummmmmm. and it went, perfect with the lemon zest ricotta flavor rolling all over your tongue with a side of bacon. as lauren would say: i was jealous of myself!

they don't look like much, but that is hardly the case!

kimmie, do you like my hat?

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas. i can't wait to see fee! i will try to put my inordinate love of food aside for a few days and derive outdoor adventures for our beloved sister in the new mexican tundra... just give me a good meal and i can do almost anything.

wally power! isn't she a fierce, winter beauty?

celebramos

this past week i had the pleasure of taking my conversation class on a field trip to the state capitol. the halls were full of beautiful, new mexican art while behind closed doors legislative committees were busy trying to figure out our state budget crisis, i presume.

here i am with 6 of my 10 "lucky ladies" as one student has called our all female conversation class. these women were all very shy 12 weeks ago. each week i had the honor of watching their timidity unravel as they bravely shared stories of survival from their homelands, confessed their loneliness and problems in the u.s., and cracked jokes about themselves and each other. we discussed everything from politics to homemade noodles. it was such a joy to meet with them twice a week. here we are learning about how a bill becomes a law in the land of enchantment. it seemed frightenly/delightfully simple???

here is the final celebration with my other class. we always tie up our semesters with a no boundaries pot luck filled to the walls with posole, tamales, taquitos, pasta salads, pizza hut boxes, sushi, gallons of sunny d and fresca, costco sized, but local tres leches cakes that are gone in an hour etc. this prefaces an informal ceremony of shaking hands and rowdy applause as completion certificates are handed out one by one to all of the classes in each section.

here i am with my life skills 4 class. they are intermediate students who are waiting to see if they will move up to the next session of esl classes...grammar classes. i can't even express what a delight it was to teach this marvellous group. this job is truly a blessing to come to each day. it's just what my family and i needed.

here i am with hector who was very appreciative of our class and my teaching. our class was very bonded, but i was shocked in one of the last classes when he came to the front of the room and they all raised one hand and said in deep voices: "how." thankfully he smiled right back and raised his hand: "how." this led to a great student led talk about first impressions, native cultures and families. it's so refreshing to forget political correctness and get to the point:)!

adios, kimosabes!