Tuscan Cookie Caper

I spent a delightful week in Tuscany in a watercolor workshop. The group, organized by Il Chiostro, that runs a variety of programs in Italy and elsewhere, housed us at Borgo San Fedele, near Radda in Chianti.

Restored Borgo San Fedele

The Borgo, once a large Romanesque church that had fallen into near total disrepair, has been entirely restored. The marble stairs throughout including those up to my attractive second floor room provided an excellent workout. The property hosts private and corporate events, workshops and weddings.

Between bouts of painting we went to several nearby Tuscan towns including Gaole in Chianti, (near where my husband and I rented a villa for our family twenty-two years ago), Castellana and Radda. One mildly rainy day we drove to Sienna where I went inside the Picolomini Library, tucked into the black-and-white striped Duomo.

In Picolomini Library (These folks got the memo about matching outfits)

Inside the Library are manuscripts and terrific frescos including one depicting Raphael, the painter, in chic maroon tights. The cathedral itself is a jewel and the library a special treasure.

 

 

 

At a vendemia, (grape harvest), we watched workers wielding scissors to clip bunches of grapes off the vines before dropping them into plastic buckets. Filled buckets were tossed into a tractor-truck heading to the mechanical crushing area, Gone are the days of barefoot grape stomping rendered so hilariously by Lucille Ball.

 

Who did not love Lucy?

 

 

 

There is a newish (2006) archeological museum in Castellina exhibiting finds from Etruscan burial mounds. The museum is next to the fortress that has a walkway at the top for a wonderful view which I skipped as time ran out. Vaguely scholarly note:  the Etruscans, who peopled ancient Italy, passed on many cultural and artistic traditions to the Romans and occupied

Ancient Etruscan settlements

what is now Tuscany and a great deal more of modern Italy.

During the week I ate lots of pasta, gelato, various riffs on salami and what I’ve incorrectly been calling biscotti for years.  Biscotti  translates as ‘cookie’; cantucci are specific ‘cookies.’ (Think of ‘cookie’ being the category and ‘chocolate chip’ the specific kind of cookie.) The traditional way to eat cantucci is to dip them into Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine, but I happily inhaled them  out of the bag.

Here’s a video of making cantucci although the presenter refers to them as biscotti.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx9FnQ0G0t4

Typically, biscotti  are very hard – a treat for the dentist, hence the classic dunking. To complete your experience, corral a bottle of Vin Santo and listen to a snatch of Italian opera, maybe something by Puccini.  Think of the rolling hills of Tuscany.

 

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Bucks Redux

This is the third August that I’ve rented in Bucks County. This years’ house was terrific, a stone beauty from the 18th century with all mod cons, well-appointed and set on a 100 acre conserved farm. The front of the house faces a little creek and the property includes numerous outbuildings including a large barn. Finding places to plug in all ones’ electronics is a little bit of a challenge but manageable, more than offset by the wonderful kitchen, good showers and comfy beds.

Sake, my cat, came with me and had an A+ vacation. After vanishing for a day and a half dealing with the terror of being in unfamiliar quarters, she ventured out to enjoy prime cat

Sake watching a good channel

TV via the bird feeders close to many windows, had her first experience with stairs, and interacted with the company.

On my first morning at the property I managed to run out of gas, thankfully in the driveway.  It took some time to rouse assistance (hello AAA) but finally a local guy came with two precious gallons, enough for me to get to a gas station for a full tank.

My daughters, along with one’s husband and the other’s partner, came for Labor Day weekend.  On Sunday we went tubing on the Delaware where I began by not centering my butt in the innertube, causing me to fall into the fairly warm river. Once we

People–not us- tubing on the Delaware

were all launched, the outing was fun although by the last half hour we felt we were ready to get out of the water.

Another day we went to Ringing Rocks Park, an eight acre field of boulders, some of which make a quasi-musical note when struck with a hammer.  If ever you go there bring one.

Scrambling over rocks minus hammer

I had two dinners at the Riegelsville Inn, one with friends, one with family, both lovely. I also met another friend of many years for lunch and a catch-up at the Doylestown Inn. Afterwards I went to the Michener Art Museum, named to honor author James Michener who was born in Doylestown,  and wrote Tales of the South Pacific, Centennial, Texas and The Bridges at Toki-ri among other works. Michener’s third wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, was interned along with her parents in a camp set up by the U.S. government during the early years of WWII.

Altogether, it was a lovely eleven days with interesting things to do and see and many good meals. Having invested heavily in local peaches, I made this peach crisp for one night’s dessert:

Peach Crisp by Yossi Arefi from NY Times Cooking:

3 pounds peaches cut into ½-inch slices (absolutely no need to peel)
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt
1cup all-purpose flour
½ packed cup light brown sugar
½ cup grams rolled oats (the same oats as used to make oatmeal)
½ cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces.

How To:
Heat oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the center
In a large bowl, combine the peaches, granulated sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and a pinch of salt. Stir to combine, transfer to an 8-by-8 inch baking dish and press down gently to compact the fruit in the dish.
In another bowl add the flour, light brown sugar, oats and ¼ teaspoon salt; stir to combine. Add the butter and use your fingers or a pastry blender to mash the butter into the flour mixture until evenly mixed—it forms clumps.
Sprinkle the clumped mixture evenly over the peaches, then bake the crisp until the topping is golden brown and the peach juices are bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes.
Serve at room temp (or warm if just made) with vanilla ice cream.

If you remember the (very) old song, What did Delaware?” sing it. If you don’t, here it is, sung by Perry Como:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udei5HzMnfM

 

 

 

 

 

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Fire

As in Island, not a conflagration with sympathies to those forced to deal with the red-hot kind.

I visited a friend of many years’ standing on FI over the weekend. She’s been coming here since she was an infant, in fact, her father was the Mayor of Ocean Beach in the thirties.  Several of her children and many other relatives also have houses on the island concentrated in the community of Seaview.

Ocean breezes notwithstanding, it was very hot Friday and Saturday; probably marginally cooler than in NYC  although once the sun went down the temp decreased somewhat.

Saturday morning we went to an annual baseball game honoring two Seaview men who lost their lives on 9/11. Most of the players were men in their mid-years with a sprinkling of teen boys and a few young women. Good playing all around but due to the heat we left after five innings.

Later that day we walked to Ocean Beach. There’s a lot of bamboo along the streetsides but so far as I know a panda invasion isn’t threatening. Once in ‘town’ we browsed the shops buying nothing although there is a new store with pretty jewelry and woven baskets. We passed lots of restaurants, mostly noisy and full of beer-drinking young people, as well as a few realtors and other businesses.

That night, the woman my friend shares her house with made a wonderful dinner of Eggplant Stacks served with pasta and a salad with veggies from the garden. More on that later.

Throughout the weekend people dropped by—friends, family and neighbors including one with her dog who has passed the required tests to become a therapy dog.  Fearless deer browsed outside. The place is a kids’ paradise thanks to no cars and a roster of activities.

Among my fave pastimes was enjoying the outdoor shower—there’s something about looking up into trees that makes it special.  My other delight was a long walk Sunday morning on the beach where the waves looked pretty terrifying to me, a fairly capable but far from Esther Williams swimmer. It was about nine a.m., so lifeguards were setting up rescue stations and I was glad I had no plans to enter the water above ankle level so would not need rescuing.

We read, watched the Olympics and hung out. I painted a little and did a quick sketch of my friend who is a knitter extraordinaire, rarely seen without needles and wool in hand. She completed a baby blanket and then embarked on what will be a beautiful scarf, most of her output going to people in need.

It was a great break on a sultry weekend.

Here’s the recipe for Eggplant Stacks a la Carrie N.

Peel an eggplant in strips leaving some of the skin on. Slice it into roughly ¼ inch thick rounds.

Spray a baking dish (a 9×12 Pyrex pan works well) with Pam or olive oil.

Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil.

Bake at 375 flipping once if you want to until slices are soft. Let slices cool.

Coat the pan with ‘red sauce,’ either homemade or out of a jar like Rao’s or Ragu.

Lay eggplant slices on top of sauce. Dollop each with pesto, homemade or bought. Top  each with a piece of mozzarella about the size of a silver dollar.

Start over: red sauce, eggplant slices, pesto, mozzarella. End with red sauce and toss on some fresh basil leaves if you have them.

Bake at 350 covered with foil; remove foil towards the end of cooking which is when the stacks are hot through.

FYI: you can substitute zucchini, cut the long way, for the eggplant.

Serve humming Come on Baby, Light My Fire, if you so desire.

 

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Exploring Coyoácan, Mexico City’s Cultural Heart, Home to the Frida Kahlo Museum

 

This is the link to the published article. Sorry about all the ads and other extraneous stuff which was added by the publication.

 

 

https://www.goworldtravel.com/mexico-citys-coyoacan/

 

No recipe folks. Have a nice Margarita or elotes or a taco….while you watch the Olympics.

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Down the Rabbit Hole

 

Alice Liddell aged seven

Victorians eroticized children even as they considered them total innocents which may have been very convenient for Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. Scholars dispute if Carroll was a pedophile but it is generally acknowledged that his relationship with Alice Liddell, her two sisters and other young girls was unusually intimate. Dodgson may have wanted to marry Alice, one of her sisters or perhaps her governess. Despite many theories nothing has been conclusively proved but one thing is clear: Carroll’s 1865 novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has never been out of print, has been translated into 174 languages and is an endless source of enjoyment in films, art, ballet, opera, musical theater and theme parks as well as board and video games.

Using Wonderland: Curious Nature as a theme, the New York Botanical Garden’s current exhibit attempts to bring it to life. Some of it is wonderful like the White Rabbit,

White Rabbit at the exhibit

(although he’s green as he’s made of plants), in the center of a pond and the rabbit footprints that lead visitors from area to area (which are on a paper map- better had they been painted on the paths.) The exhibit at the Mertz Library, focusing on mind-altering plants like mushrooms and depicting the Victorian interest in science, includes four mini-dioramas and some material from Charles Darwin but would have been even better had more works been included.  The day we visited, the “high tea” served in various locales featured sandwiches on stale bread and lacked the promised clotted cream and jam supposed to accompany the very dry scones.

My “tea’ came in a paper bag with a plastic glass of weak iced tea

The New York Times raved about the exhibit:

www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/arts/design/new-york-botanical-garden-wonderland.html

but my friend and I gave it a B minus feeling there should have been more Alice-related items to see and far more comprehensive signage directing visitors. We noticed these odd-looking plants but thought only that they were peculiar and not set out to “stop and interact {with}. ” (My interactions with plants were limited to getting them into the ground, weeding, watering, and cutting them. We rarely spoke.)

It was a glorious late May day and the garden was  uncrowded. That alone was like tumbling down the rabbit hole. The exhibition runs until October 27th; if it sounds like fun, try to bring a child along. A young companion won’t be jaded and will likely find parts—or all — of the exhibit terrific.

Get into your own Wonderland with:

Crimini mushrooms

 

Mushroom Risotto

4 tablespoons  olive oil

1½ pounds mixed mushrooms, chopped

¾ teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (or less or none; I’m impossible about garlic)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

1½ cups uncooked Arborio rice, rinsed

⅔ cup dry white wine

5 cups warmed vegetable broth

½ cup grated pecorino or Parmesan cheese plus more for serving

Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and several grinds of pepper and toss to coat. Cook, stirring only occasionally, for 8 minutes, or until soft and browned. Remove from the pan and set aside. Work in batches if necessary.

Wipe out the pan and return it to the heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, the onion, and the remaining ¼ teaspoon sea salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 8 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the garlic, thyme, and rice. Let cook for 1 minute, then add the wine. Stir and cook for 1 to 3 minutes, or until the wine cooks down.

Add the broth ¾ cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to be absorbed before adding the next. With the final addition of broth, stir two-thirds of the sautéed mushrooms into the risotto. Cook until the risotto is creamy and the rice has a slight al dente bite. Stir in the cheese and season to taste.

Top with the remaining sautéed mushrooms, garnish with parsley, and serve with more grated cheese.

Maybe it only makes an impact if you watch? Do so: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=i%27m+late+song#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:15cd8ae8,vid:Q93VrYOXSe8,st:0

 

 

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Elk and Moose

These are the animals shown on Michigan’s shield along with a sun rising over a lake. I spent almost a week visiting a friend’s house, bought by her father in 1947, that is literally on the shore of Lake Michigan. Factoid: Some people refer to Michigan as the “Mitten State” because of its shape. If you go with this, her house would be on the bottom of the palm.

While I was there my friend worked on getting the house in shape for upcoming summer renters. We still found time to pick wildflowers, walk on the beach, (some people were in the water which was about 60 so way too cold for this eastern wimp), pick up stones and paint a watercolor of them, cook, have dinner with her friends, eat outrageously huge portions of ice cream at a local stand, visit several Farmer’s Markets and so forth.

In my friend’s parents’ early days the house stood almost alone but over the years others have bought or built around it. There is a lot of construction going on, some building new homes and some fixing or enlarging existing houses. The place has a vibe of beach-cum- rural living- cum- farming with a good sprinkle of independence.

Peonies at a market

Most of our lunches were salads in some form. One day, in a very successful effort to use up a bunch of bits and pieces hanging out in the fridge we had this:

 

 

Salad Lake Michigan

 

Salmon left over from being cooked the day before

Quartered small previously oven roasted red potatoes roasted with olive oil, onions and rosemary

A slice of grilled zucchini cut up

One slice leftover tomato

½ a yellow pepper cut into small dice

1 large radish cut into small dice

Gently combine all the above in a bowl

The dressing was roughly ¼ cup mayonnaise combined with roughly ¼ cup of my standard vinaigrette as follows;

Vinaigrette MG

½ cup olive oil

Less than ½ cup balsamic vinegar

Squeeze of honey (or a few pinches of sugar)

About ¼ tablespoon Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Pour dressing over the salad and toss. Pile the salad over lettuce, preferably from a local market.

Put on mittens and while serving sing a chorus of Hail to the Conquering Hero. If you’ve forgotten it, this should do the job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mURDwg_wilE

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Go-wanuus!

Floating pollutants on Gowanus Canal

For my 2024 involvement with Janes Walk, named in honor of Jane Jacobs, City planner extraordinaire, I went on an excursion billed as a “Gowanus Soundwalk.” Organized by the Municipal Arts Society, my walk was led by delightful Miranda S., a musician whose knowledge made her well-suited to the focus on sound. About twelve people gathered at the starting point, many of them residents of the area we were exploring. We walked for several hours stopping to discuss the sounds we’d heard on each stretch and learning about the Canal.

As to what we heard: even though it was a Saturday there was plenty of construction noise to say nothing of cars, an EMS vehicle, trucks and the accompanying human sounds and yes, on some streets, chirping birds. Inside Powerhouse Arts, a “factory” for ceramicists, print makers and other artists, the sounds were very different partly because we were indoors. Interestingly, the people pushing heavy-looking carts around the Grand Hall didn’t talk to one another much but the noises of their carts and footfalls were audible. (Side note: Powerhouse Arts is well-worth visiting and offers tours. To learn more and sign up: https://powerhousearts.org/about/visit-us/)

Great Hall of Powerhouse Art, the former artists’ and squatters ‘Batcave’

 

 

The Gowanus Canal was designated a Superfund site in 2009; cleaning it up began in 2013. Despite all the work by the EPA and other entities including the City, and the over $1.6 billion and rising funding the work, my impression is that the main beneficiaries will be developers. The area  has had stone and coal yards, flour mills, cement works,  manufactured gas plants, tanneries, factories for paint, ink, and soap, machine shops, chemical plants and sulfur producers operating on its banks since the nineteenth century, all dumping waste into the canal. Waste from area housing is also in the mix.  The lawyers of sewage, locally known as ‘black mayonnaise’ are deep; to add to the problems, climate change contributes to flooding. The air smells awful and apparently on hot summer days it’s awful plus 100. For more details on problems affecting cleanup, click here: https://www.eenews.net/articles/watchdog-to-epa-step-up-gowanus-canal-cleanup-enforcement/

The area was rezoned in 2021 with 8500 new apartments slated to be built over the next twelve years. 3000 units of this new construction will be “affordable” housing; luxury units are also being built.

Black mayonnaise is repulsive so here’s a recipe for the delicious kind:

Homemade Mayonnaise –courtesy Melissa Clark for New York Times Cooking

Makes 1 cup

  • 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon cold water
  • ¾ cup neutral oil such as safflower or canola

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, lemon juice, mustard, salt and 1 teaspoon cold water until frothy. Whisking constantly, slowly dribble in the oil until mayonnaise is thick and oil is incorporated. When the mayonnaise emulsifies and starts to thicken, you can add the oil in a thin stream, instead of drop by drop.

Watch Melissa in action: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12459-mayonnaise (Note: some of the commenters report using an immersion blender. Melissa’s version with a whisk gives you a mini-arm workout as the video shows.)

I’m entirely confident about the recipe, far less so about the Canal.

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Wendy the Welder (Rosie the Riveter’s Cousin)

A friend and I went to see Behind the Mask: The Art of Women Who Weld at The Culture Lab in Long Island City. So cutting edge (or torch) I hear you saying. LIC always seems like it will be a huge trip but from the Upper East Side it’s two simple subways and a short walk, the  trip total about a half- hour  (friend opted for the ferry.)

The free exhibit has about twenty-five works on view, all interesting if not what you might like in your living room, (although there are a few I would welcome.)  Culture Lab operates in a large converted warehouse with two galleries, a theater and an outside venue and is open Thursdays through Sundays starting at 5 PM. There are concerts every Saturday night, dance and comedy presentations, and opportunities for artists to participate in many ways. For more: https://www.culturelablic.org/

We didn’t partake of the Culture Lab offerings for sale (wine, chips, soft drinks) but went to Cyclo, a Vietnamese restaurant a short walk away. https://www.cyclolic.com/

Summer rolls with peanut sauce

The place is very popular with good reason such as delicious food, charming young women servers and reasonable prices  We shared Vietnamese summer rolls and a bahn mi on perfect, crispy French bread,  a must for a good bahn mi. (A woman at the next table was eating pho, the quintessential Vietnamese soup, but that’s a hard dish to share.)

 

 

Pho

 

 

 

 

And now, food as art. This particular recipe is filled with nostalgia. When I was a kid, my parents sometimes hired a waitress when they had large parties. Barbara, the waitress, always made these penguins to decorate the passed hors d’oeuvres plates. They were fascinating then although I don’t expect anyone to make them now—the age of passed food has itself passed and guests for dinner can mean ordering in Chinese.

Herewith,

Barbara’s Penguins

large ripe olives

6 hard-boiled eggs

12 small baby carrots (or pieces of regular carrots)

For the penguin heads, attach one olive to the top of each egg with a toothpick. For beaks, cut six carrots 1/2.in from the pointed end; attach the flat side of a pointed piece to the center of each head with half a toothpick.

For the feet, make a lengthwise cut through the remaining carrots; place flat side down in pairs (trim carrots if necessary). Place a toothpick in each carrot; press an egg on top of each pair.

For flippers, cut the remaining olives lengthwise into quarters; attach one olive quarter to each side of eggs with half a toothpick. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Inspired to make egg penquins (eggguins)? Learn to weld? Visit Long Island City? Why not all?

 

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Mattress

Playbill cover for Encores!2024

 

As in Once Upon A, not the kind from Caspar or Tempur-pedic.

I saw the original show with Carol Burnett as Princess Winnifred, the performance that brought her well-deserved fame. (I’ve had a long affinity for her as people used to tell me we looked alike or ask if I was her. Back in the day there was a sort of resemblance; now she’s been nipped and tucked so that she no longer retains her essence. On the other hand, she’s 90 so she can do whatever she wants.)

 

 

No one ever claimed that Mattress, the one Broadway success by Mary Rogers, was a staggeringly great musical but it was fun.  (As is Mary’s book, Shy, which is highly entertaining and gossipy but also very sad. Her parents, Richard and Dorothy weren’t even remotely snuggly and that, combined with Dick’s depression and Dorothy’s haute approach to life didn’t add up to a cheery childhood.)

 

The Mattress revival at City Center is well-done with a terrific cast including Sutton Foster (very carefully avoiding Burnett’s approach) and J. Harrison Gee of Some Like It Hot fame as the Jester with more numbers than this role usually gets which isn’t a bad thing. His eye and lip glitter aren’t bad either.

And now to food. Searching for “foods to eat in bed,” I found lots of recipes, all of which require cooking. My view of bedroom food is that it should be easy to throw together, portable and not likely to end up all over you, your sheets or the floor. When stuck I used to rely on a peanut butter, Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich, a fave of my first husband’s. Unless you’re on the anti-mayo wagon, don’t scorn it. No need for a recipe: take a piece of decent bread, (side note: bought a loaf of supposed sourdough at Pain Quotidian recently which was ghastly but has ended up as delicious bread pudding), spread with Hellman’s Mayonnaise (no substitutes please), a healthy dollop of your preferred PB  topped with one or two slices of Swiss cheese, preferably one like Finlandia as opposed to those reduced salt versions that lend a new meaning to bland.

Bedtime snack

That’s it. Grab a napkin and you’re set. While you munch listen to Shy, sung here by Sutton Foster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CswHHvTbeV8

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Films, Food and Fun in Palm Springs

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has a certain rakish charm. According to people met on line prior to seeing films, PSIFF, now in its 35th season, is much more organized than in the past. My friend and I stayed at the Palm Springs Hotel, a fifteen room, quirky spot that doesn’t have a restaurant but has a pool and hot tub as well as old-fashioned metal room keys that defeated me for days. The hotel is within walking distance of Rick’s, a popular restaurant for breakfast or lunch; nearby is another Rick’s serving dinner.

Among the films my travel companion and I liked were BlackBerry, Ezra, the Trouble with Jessica, Zone of Interest and, to a certain extent, 20,000 Species of Bees. Despite the presence of Juliette Binoche, I wasn’t as thrilled as critics have been with The Taste of Things–watching a meal being prepared for over an hour felt incredibly slow—I doubt I’ll ever look at veal loin the same way again. But what a relief to not lug metal pots around a 19th century kitchen! (Should you care to watch the trailer and see that veal click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKCGtoIOVY )

In between films we explored the area. Sunnylands, where Ambassadors Walter and Leonore Annenberg welcomed political, business, educational, and entertainment leaders to their 200-acre winter home in Rancho Mirage, CA, is complete with a mansion, guest houses, a nine hole golf course and the greenest grass ever, although they recycle water to keep it that way. The very new Agua Caliente Cultural Center includes a permanent outdoor exhibition with native plants, rock formations and water features; inside are galleries incorporating digital animation, projections, some in a theater setting, and displays of artifacts, all stunning and dealing with the Cahuilla Nation, As Easterners very conscious of saying “Native Americans,” we were struck by the use of “Indian” everywhere including the Palm Springs High School where the team name is —you guessed it—the Indians.

Restaurants abound, some good some not so. One night before a film we ended up dining on soggy sandwiches upstairs in a ‘lounge’ at the Camelot theater, an enormous contrast with the chic white décor and delicious lunch at Eight4Nine in the Palm Springs Uptown Design District. (A stop for a date shake early in our trip was well worth it.)

We arrived at the PS Art Museum just as a wildly enthusiastic docent was starting her tour which we joined, stopping at many exhibits including one devoted to contemporary glass. Another day we went to the Architecture and Design Center to learn about Albert Frey (1903-1998) who introduced Desert Modernism and was involved with NYC’s original MOMA structure.

Walking around Indian Canyon we were greeted by this sign; happily, there were no actual snakes present.

 

 

 

 

 

In keeping with the Agua Caliente Cahuilla spirit, here is a recipe for Three Sisters Stew. The Three Sisters are beans, corn and winter squash usually planted together—the corn stalk serves as a pole for the beans, the beans help add nitrogen to the soil that the corn needs and the squash provides a ground cover of shade that helps the soil retain moisture.

Three Sisters Stew –courtesy Veg Magazine

1 large butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 bell pepper green or red, cut into short narrow strips
14 ounces canned diced tomatoes with liquid
2 ½ cups canned pinto beans drained and rinsed
2 cups corn kernels fresh or frozen
1 cup vegetable stock or water
1 hot chili pepper fresh, seeded and minced; or substitute one 4-ounce can chopped mild green chilies
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder (taste and add more if you like spicy)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped

How to:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Remove stem from squash and cut in half lengthwise. Cover with aluminum foil and place halves, cut side up, in a foil-lined shallow baking pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until you can pierce through with a knife, with a little resistance.

When cool enough to handle, scrape out the seeds and fibers. Slice, peel, then cut into large dice.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and sauté over medium-low heat until translucent. Add the garlic and continue to sauté until the onion is golden.

Add the squash and all the remaining ingredients except the last 2, and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently, covered, until all the vegetables are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ideally let stew stand for one or two hours before serving, then reheat and add the parsley or cilantro.

While you eat watch this video and hear the Agua Caliente Indians sing: https://www.facebook.com/AguaCalienteIndians/videos/2120262831660829

 

 

 

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