Dipping

From the late Barbara Tropp who departed too soon but left us with wonderful things to cook and taste: Spicy Szechwan Peanut Sauce. I haven't made it yet from this recipe but I approve of this blogger's adaptations to make the measurements more precise. We dipped raw veggies in it, carrots and zucchini were my favorite. This was my gateway to loving cilantro 30 years ago. I was raised by a parent who gets the soap taste and rigorously avoids all contact with cilantro. I expected the worst but was taken in completely by the strong unexpected flavor of these pungent ingredients.

And maybe you need a little pan bread today: Easy Yogurt Flatbread. I sometimes make up some yeast dough and cook it as pan bread. This is quick too. 

Pot of soup: Green Gumbo or Gumbo z'herbes. I hadn't heard about adding another leafy green for each new friend you want to find in the next year. More good food magic. 

At long last

A new entry. I can do it. I can arrange words on a page. I can use my body to do work and become stronger. I can make something I've never made before. 

Heard on KHFM back in November - Leilehua Lanzilotti, Forever forward in search of the beautiful. Brian Horton, tenor sax; Leilehua Lanzilotti, viola. That's an amazing use of those two instruments. Sometimes the prevalence of what I think of as weepy or squeaky violins in classical music puts me off. But the lower range of strings are so beautiful. This piece spends time in the ominous realm but it resolves with gentleness.  

I made a list in college or shortly thereafter of things that were good without significant side effects. It was part of becoming an adult and seeing the cost of it all. Only two things qualified for the list: potatoes and baking soda. Maybe I'll add: thrift stores, electric kettles. Can't remember something I thought of to add while recuperating from norovirus around Dec 13. 

Stomach flu kicked my ass and I didn't drink coffee for about 10 days after. It felt like winter was laying me low, even before the solstice arrived. Nod's currently all congested. The Danish was ill for two full weeks and is just now getting better. Right after xmas K tested pos for covid at urgent care and then had fever for a couple days. But after the fever left she never tested positive again. Our theory is that she had covid in Chicago before coming to NM and then maybe got flu here. One xmas dinner guest had fever and felt crappy for a few days after. No one else tested pos for covid. Shrug. 

We are invited to the heartland but I don't think we'll go in January. Dark and cold and so many germs to possibly bring. I'm going to discuss with MM today and make a plan for the future. Immediate gratification is not outweighing my other concerns for now. I think socially it'll be better for all four of us to get together when Nod can not resent winter the whole time. And D2 has the drama of the blood thing and feuding docs.     

My intentions are - To breathe deeply. Make art and spend time with people. More plants. Work back up to jogging. 

Clearing the decks for action

Or at least to have clear decks. 

Tres Pistoles Spring trail Nov 2024, looking south over Tijeras

I have unpublished everything back through Covid. Didn't realize it had been that long since I hid stuff. Seems like a good idea to start again from time to time. Esp. as I continue to make oblique references to my scandalous seniority.

Last evening I heard an owl as I jogged past a tall pine near the golf course track. A long hoooot and then  two short. I stopped but couldn't see them. Still I was enchanted. I'm thinking about getting a reflective jacket or maybe some tape to sew on. It'll be pretty dark for the next two months, even when I leave the house close to 4:30. I'm getting closer to running all the way around. And now I think I have to add another partial lap. This feels surprising. 

I've been thinking about wording to ask my primary doc for a PT referral for intermittent knee pain and running. I don't think much of this doc after she refused to prescribe Paxlovid last winter. But it seems worth a try to get insurance to pay.

M2 report that D2's health is improving. Cautious optimism for travel to come. Messages from M2 are a reliable mood lifter for me. Looking forward to tests of strength and more resistance laughter. I hope I can see V as well when we go out. I just enjoy her company so much. Nod said he really liked the me he saw while she was with us in Nov.  

Motoring into my watch list as the cosy season takes over. Started Hacks, always good to spend time with Queen Jean and her sidekick Hannah. I'd binge Somebody, Somewhere but they're doling it out once a week so I'm on for Mondays until the end. Looking forward to (reactivating appletv and) watching the end of Slow Horses. Sort of looking forward to Severance but with added dread. 

Got an appointment for the flu vax this week finally. Good to have that and the latest covid before we go up to my brother's to breathe on each other at Thanksgiving.  

   

Moony Twilight Ephemera

This week, when I have gone to walk/jog around the golf course, it has been fairly dark once I'm done. If I get out right after I'm done with work at 4:30 I can start at sundown and finish in dim twilight. The skies have been gorgeous. I keep trying to capture the quickly changing light and color in the skies. To pretty much no avail. Here's a nice moon through dead branches picture. But if you were there with me, the moon was so much more beautiful...

Last night the moon rose full and pearly bright over the pink mountains against a twilight sky that ranged from brickdust to pale turquoise and I gnashed my teeth as this was the only shot I got. 

Trust me, it was worth seeing. 

But the dark comes on apace now that we're not saving daylight. I am not sure how much dark jogging I'll do in December. Guess I'll take it as it comes. I saw a person on an electric scooter on Lomas last night with a full reflective jacket. The brightness in the headlights made them look like an animated image, rolling along the sidewalk. 

Falling faster

Cool it

Cooler now after the balloon fiesta is over. This week will finally get us out of highs in the 80s I hope. We had three of Nod's college pals stay with us for balloons. They saw a lot and everyone fit into our little house better than I expected. What sweet and smart men they all are.  

Bake it

Chocolate banana bread is worth doing if you like those flavors. I looked at a few recipes and came up with this high altitude version:

Preheat oven to 360, grease a loaf pan

First bowl, whisk dry ingredients:

1 cup + 2 Tbsp flour 

scant 1/2 cup cocoa powder

2/3 tsp baking soda

scant 1/2 tsp kosher salt 

Second bowl, beat wet ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir dry into wet, mix until combined.

Pour batter into loaf pan, top with 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Bake 40 minutes. Test with toothpick. I left mine in the oven for a few more minutes after turning the heat off. 

Vistas

Took the visitors up into the Jemez Mountains and walked around the Valles Caldera meadow, Valles Caldera National Preserve. What a stunning place. It was privately held as ranch land when I was a kid in Los Alamos. So happy to see it as public land now. We were delighted to see elk browsing at the far edges of the meadow. A coyote trotted past near sunset. We had to be alert to not trip over the prairie dog holes, plenty of them popped in and out of our vision. Trout fingerlings jumped in the stock tank/pond canal. I want to go back right now. My youthful desire to ride across the Valle Grande on a horse is gone - the prairie dog holes would make it stressful unless you had a smart and observant horse.