Turtles

Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery (published September, 2023)

Of Time and Turtles is mainly about the work of a turtle rescue center where injured turtles have their broken bones and shells repaired and are nursed back to health. If all goes well, these turtles can be returned to their native habitat. If they can’t recover enough to live wild again, they are given a permanent home at the center or in another safe human-controlled place. And if they don’t make it, they receive a respectful burial. The book is a beautiful portrait of several dedicated turtle rescuers and how they function. However, for my taste, it’s a little too detailed about the medical procedures and about the road accidents and intentional harm that is done to them — though the fact that turtles can heal so many more injuries by regrowing damaged parts when treated well is encouraging.

Of Time and Turtles is also about time itself. Turtles are slow; mythically slow (but slow and steady wins the race, you know.) Scientifically the turtle’s ability to perceive movement is slower than that of humans, and vastly slower than that of some creatures like birds. So time in some sense is different for them than for us.

The events at the turtle rescue center that are described in this work of natural history proceed with intense slowness because they occur during the pandemic in 2020. Four years ago this week, the new and virulent coronavirus was declared a national emergency, and the nation began to close virtually all activities, while hospitals were flooded with desperately sick patients.

During this global crisis, time itself changed for many people, including the author Sy Montgomery and the proprietors and turtle rescuers that she immersed herself with, in order to research this book. She wrote the following about the early days of the pandemic:

“For so many people waiting out the crisis, time has lost its boundaries, and life is drained of meaning. But when we are with the turtles, our experience of time—in fact, our experience of almost everything—is completely different from those of our fellow countrymen. Michaela’s girlfriend, Andi, for instance, feels caught in the pandemic time warp. She had hoped to find some direction taking photography in college, but Zoom classes were lame, and now she doesn’t know what to do with her life. But for Michaela, working with the turtles gives her ‘calm, stability, and a sense of purpose’: ‘I’ve dived into something that’s really meaningful, doing something to help a living creature.’ Thanks to the turtles, we are profoundly immersed in spring’s unfolding, and deeply connected to the progression of the dramas in the turtles’ daily lives.” (Of Time and Turtles, p. 106)

Besides rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing injured turtles into the wild, the team also rescues turtle eggs and makes sure that they incubate, hatch, and find an appropriate home. These dedicated volunteers are educators as well, and they present information to schools and invite groups of children to visit the center. The educational activities (obviously) were also on hold during the pandemic, another way the workers were isolated and deprived of a sense of time.

Natural history books can be a delight if they succeed in portraying non-human creatures in an appealing way. Turtles, it turns out, have rather distinct personalities, and despite the many different-from-human features in their brains, in their sense of smell and taste, and in their thought processes, they can relate in many ways to the humans who care for them. Before reading, I was unaware that twenty-five different species of turtles inhabit the US, and I knew nothing of the numerous differences among the species. I didn’t know that sea turtles are often caught by rapid onset of winter weather and then freeze to death on the beaches of Cape Cod — but brave rescuers can save some of them. I didn’t know that turtles love to eat bananas. I didn’t know lots of things…

The potential of the turtle personality — and the intense commitment of the turtle rescuers — makes this book fun to read. I liked the unusual perspective on these normally ignored reptiles, and I loved the quirky names that the rescuers gave them, and how attached they were. Above all, the author causes the reader to focus on the many dangers that turtles suffer because of human intrusion into their slow and peaceful enjoyment of their environment, and how this fits into a bigger picture of our rushed, dangerous, climate-threatened era.

Turtles and tortoises I have met when traveling

A sea turtle covering itself with sand on a beach in Kona, Hawaii, 2014.

Turtles on a pond near Albuquerque, NM, 2015.

Turtles at Huntley Meadows near Alexandria, VA, 2016.

200-year-old Galapagos tortoises that we saw there in 2010.
Tortoises live on land, while turtles are mainly aquatic.

A tortoise in the Peruvian jungle during our Amazon river trip, 2017.
Tortoises are one of the families in the order of Testudines, which includes all the turtles as well.

It’s spring here, and soon the turtles will be sunning themselves on logs and stones in our local ponds and streams. When I see them in a few days or weeks, I’ll have much more to think about than I usually do!

Photos © 2010-2024 mae sander

Shared with Eileen’s Critters.

Pythagoras Meets Tamales and Tuna-Noodle Casserole and Solves a Mystery

"Better to die happy than thin." (Quote from The Pot Thief Mysteries Volume One, Kindle Locations 644-645). 

"Tequila is now one of the most popular distilled spirits in the United States, but I wonder why people in Boston or Birmingham like it. Its prime appeal to me is that it tastes like the desert— saline, organic and slightly viscous like the juice of the cactus it’s distilled from." (Kindle Locations 388-389)

"I am awe-inspired by Pythagoras’ insight. You may find it confusing or even boring. Some people are awe-inspired by majestic mountains, some by poetry and others by abstruse mathematics. But whatever the source, we all need a little awe in our lives." (Kindle Locations 3068-3070).

J. Michael Orenduff in The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, has written a delightful crime novel set in Albuquerque, NM. It's full of variety, as illustrated by the above quotes. When the novel's narrator Hubert Schuze is not participating in a scheme to illicitly obtain a 1000 year old Indian artifact from a local museum he might be legitimately helping authorities solve a murder. Throughout the novel, he's reading "an anthology of articles about Pythagoras."

Further, Schuze loves Mexican food such as an "entire sack of breakfast burritos, a quantity so large it took half a bottle of New Mexico’s finest champagne to wash them down properly." (Kindle Location 530).

Schuze cooks great breakfasts of huevos rancheros verde:

"I set the oven on warm and placed a plate inside with two corn tortillas. I broke two eggs into the frying pan and cooked them over-medium with a pinch of cumin. I placed the eggs over the tortillas, poured on green chili sauce, sprinkled queso fresco on top and returned the plate to the oven. While the cheese melted, I extracted a bottle of Gruet Blanc de Noir champagne from the fridge and filled a flute." (Kindle Locations 1031-1034).

Here's how he describes his normal eating habits:

"I believe in starting the day with a hardy breakfast, meaning loaded with carbohydrates, animal fats and red or green chili. I may eat an avocado or a mango during the day, but I usually don’t have another meal until after the cocktail hour and often have both in the same chair. ... 

"I walked over to Dos Hermanas Tortillería at five .... As the name implies, it started out as a tortilla factory. In New Mexico, that means they sell mainly tamales and posole. And you probably thought they sold tortillas. Well, they sell a few, but the ones in the grocery stores are cheap and good, so most people no longer buy tortillas at a factory.  

"Tamales, on the other hand, are a pain in la cola to cook, so people buy them at their local tortilla factory. The ones at Dos Hermanas are to die for, and considering how much lard goes into the masa, that may be literally true. The masa in a Dos Hermanas tamale is like a Mexican Rolaids— it will absorb up to forty-seven times its weight in stomach acid. Or Drano for that matter." (Kindle Locations 633-641).

Well-crafted Margaritas are the cocktail he most likes to drink, though he mentions a few others -- he's usually quite a food lover. He quite thoroughly describes a meal of sage hen, a game bird, stuffed with morels. This dish he eats with a lawyer at the lawyer's country club. He hears about another meal of very trendy food that he disdains at "one of those places where the food is supposed to reflect a philosophy," but the philosophy in question is nihilism. (Kindle Locations 2129-2130).

The Plaza in Albuquerque, from one of our visits there.
Schuze's shop is located just off the plaza, which he often describes.
My own enjoyment of the novel also came from my familiarity with the locale.

Alternatively, Schuze makes terrible coffee for the customers in his not-very successful Indian ceramic shop.  And on a few occasions, he eats dubious casseroles made by Miss Gladys Claiborne, his elderly neighbor: a lovable stereotype. For example she gives him this wide-eyed run-down on her tuna casserole when he tells her she shouldn't have gone to all that trouble:

"'It was no trouble at all. You start with canned tuna. I always use solid albacore. Then you combine it with noodles, chopped green onions, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a package of grated cheddar and bake it in the oven.' Her pale blue eyes sparkled as she added, 'Since we moved out here, I sometimes put a can of green chili in it.' 

"I took a forkful of it. It wasn’t bad. But with every bite I kept thinking of all that mercury lodging in my brain." (Kindle Locations 618-621). 

On another occasion, he avoids Miss Claiborne's chicken tenders casserole ("a piece of the chicken I am not familiar with") but is forced to eat lime jello with crushed pineapple and miniature marshmallows. Much later, she brings another casserole to a potluck: "a steaming chafing dish full of Summer Squash Pie courtesy of Nuestra Señora de Los Casseroles" which contained frozen squash, crushed Ritz crackers, and more. (Kindle Locations 3047-3048).

Hubert Schuze is clearly an intriguing and likable character. He's anti-establishment, and he doesn't agree with the law against digging up ancient Indian pots on public land, but he's very much against digging on Indian land or most other types of crime. As a result, he cooperates with the authorities -- sort of. He's also a skilled potter himself, and can make a mean copy of a historic pot.

I'm avoiding retelling the quite suspenseful and entertaining story of the various museum pieces that appear and disappear during the course of the mystery, or of giving away the identities of the murder victims and perps because I don't like spoilers. But I'm thrilled to have learned about this delightful mystery series -- thanks to Evelyn!

Oh, yes, here's one more food description of a recipe from Schuze's old family friend Consuela that I couldn't resist. I might even try it:

"She made her corn and poblano soup. In one pan, she sautés chopped onions, poblano peppers, garlic and cumin. In a separate pan she uses a big knife to slice the kernels off ears of fresh corn into hot lard and then stirs like crazy until the corn softens. Then she combines the contents of the two pans in a large stockpot, adds chicken broth and lime juice and lets it simmer. When all the flavors have combined, she takes the pot off the heat, throws in fresh oregano and crema Mexicana and lets it sit two or three minutes before ladling it into bowls. She serves it with warm corn tortillas and cucumbers slices sprinkled with chili powder and pilon sugar.  

"Emilio and I both had four bowls of it and Consuela beamed with each refill." (Kindle Locations 1614-1620). 

Update: I have now read the second mystery in the "Pot Thief" series, and I do not recommend it at all. The author re-used all the jokes and the descriptions of the supporting characters, and did not do as good a job with plot and other details. 

On the Road Again: Albuquerque

Aliens at a rest stop between Flagstaff & Albuquerque. 

A long convoy of tanks was also stopped at the Rest Stop. 

Lunch in Albuquerque, at a place we've enjoyed before, the Church Street Cafe. The decor is very beautiful. Then we did a few more gallery visits. Tomorrow: a long drive. The next day: another long drive.

All photos and text copyright 2017 by Mae E. Sander. Published at maefood dot blogspot dot com. If you read this elsewhere, it has been stolen.

A New Hillerman

Anne Hillerman, daughter of the late detective fiction writer Tony Hillerman, has written a sequel to his wonderful series of Navajo mysteries. I'm delighted to find that her effort, titled Spider Woman's Daughter,  is highly successful, unlike many sequels to popular detective series. She continues to depict the two main detectives, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, but her focus is more on police woman Bernie Manuelito, now married to Jim Chee. This change in focus allows Anne Hillerman to recreate the series in a new but not radically different way. I think her plot and most of her cultural details live up to the standard set by her father.

Food and travel writing, not fiction, was Anne Hillerman's previous profession. In her new turn as a fiction writer I especially enjoyed the way she used her food-writing skills to depict what the detectives ate. Tony Hillerman mainly had his detectives eat hamburgers at a couple of Southwest fast food chains. Anne Hillerman introduces lots more options. Here are a few examples, which speak for themselves.

"Bernie drove through the twilight into Cuba, a speck of a town known for its restaurant, El Bruno’s, which served some of the best New Mexican food in Sandoval County. They both ordered enchiladas, Bernie’s cheese with green chile and Chee’s with roast beef and Christmas chile — red and green. They had stopped here a few times with the lieutenant after a long day of meetings in Albuquerque. Leaphorn always had a burger, Bernie remembered, with no cheese or onion, and followed up with a piece of pie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream." -- Spider Woman's Daughter p. 261.

"It [an interview] also involved eating a Spam sandwich, a treat he’d cut back on since he married Bernie. Mrs. Tsosie added delicious slices of raw onion and tomatoes from her garden, and gave him a box with a big piece of homemade chocolate cake, making him promise to share it with Bernie." -- p. 183. 

"'We should go somewhere that has both steak and sopaipillas. Somewhere nice.'
"'Sopaipillas? I love sopaipillas.'
"'I know you do. Miniature fry breads. Puffy. Served with honey or stuffed with ground meat, onions, chile.'" ...
"She ordered the stuffed sopaipilla with ground beef and green chile. He had the steak and chile relleno combination because the menu described the chilies as 'Big Jim.'" -- p. 220-224

If you have been a fan of Tony Hillerman, I think you too will be delighted with this sequel. I've already bought her second sequel, Rock with Wings.

Update: I read it and it's very very good!

Route 66 Cookbook

As we drove west, we didn't search for traces of old Route 66, but it seemed as if old Route 66 came after us! I realize now that on one trip or another in the last few years, we've followed just about every segment of the old "Mother Road." More distantly, on family trips west in my childhood, I often traveled the original Route 66. So I couldn't resist ordering The Route 66 Cookbook by Marian Clark when Ruby showed me her copy. (Lots of copies for sale on amazon!)

This cookbook dates from the early 1990s. It gives quite a bit of the history of Route 66 from 1929 until the sixties. It also documents sights to see and businesses, especially diners and restaurants, that were still in business then; that is, around 25 years ago. Quite a few were in their sunset years and thus no longer exist in any form. The current Route 66 has quite a lot of reconstructed nostalgia, while evidently more of the old establishments and buildings still endured in a more original form 25 years ago. The book is thus a testimony to Route 66 in several different eras, all quite different from NOW.

The headings on the recipes in the book don't actually identify when they were collected or exactly how the author obtained them. Sometimes the original recipe that served a whole day's diner customers is given -- such as a recipe that calls for 11 pie shells to be filled with a rather large vat of filling, or a bread recipe that calls for over a pound of yeast. There are many recipes for chile, spaghetti, pies, and other diner foods. Sometimes the recipes are obviously trimmed down to serve a small number or even a single person.

The recipes are definitely very retro, looking to me a lot like women's magazine recipes from the 1950s. They use a lot of processed ingredients such as garlic powder, canned soup, canned pineapple, and catsup. The favorites of that era are not really favorites any more, I think. I am not sure I want to make any!

As I said, it seemed as if Route 66 was coming to us, as in the following examples, most of them mentioned in the book:

• On the way through Missouri both coming and going this month, we saw the old familiar signs on barn roofs and billboards advertising Meramec Caverns, the hideout of outlaw Jesse James. I also remember seeing these signs along that route long ago -- and childhood trips to see the caverns where the huge "waterfall" of stalactites and stalagmites. I believe they used to project an image of the American flag onto the cavern wall and play the Star Spangled Banner. Wonder if they still do.
• As we crossed the Mississippi last Wednesday over the bridge on Route 270 we were quite close to the old Chain of Rocks bridge that once carried Route 66 across the river. As kids, we used to go out to that area sometimes on a ride in the country, and cross into Illinois.
• Lots of hints about 66 are along the highway now in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle... I already wrote about the old Conoco Station and Diner in Shamrock (now the tourist information office) and the Midway Cafe.
• Entering Santa Fe last week, we took the old Santa Fe trail to avoid going into the center of town on our way to the Audubon Center. Yup, it was once part of Route 66 when that road went through Santa Fe instead of straight on to Albuquerque. The old adobe buildings with their privacy walls were probably the same then, as they had been for a few centuries before the road got its number.
• For our most recent trip, we drove on from Albuquerque to Tucson, but many other times we have continued the Route 66 way, through the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Flagstaff, down through the mountains, to Barstow and finally thorough LA. Yes, right to the Pacific Ocean. And on so many stops to fuel up the car and eat a hamburger, we've seen the signs: OLD 66.

The cookbook is illustrated with lots of little ads and photos
of the diners and other places along Route 66.

New Mexico Food

The best food so far: Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe, today's lunch:

I had the Smoked Trout Hash which is decorated with cilantro. I ate every bite. Description from menu:
"Golden Gruyère Potato Cake with Two Poached Eggs, a Scatter of Smoked Trout and Tomatillo Salsa" 

Dessert: Rhubarb/Blackberry Pie. Absolutely wonderful place!

Also good: Church Street Cafe in Albuquerque Old Town, dinner a couple of days ago:

Posole with green salsa.

Chips, of course -- Church Street serves in a pretty traditional Mexican-style place.

Ok -- the shrimp tacos at St.Clair Bistro and Winery, selected because it's next to our motel:

Shrimp tacos and wine

My main dish at St.Clair Bistro last night wasn't a good choice: the mahi-mahi was overcooked and tough; moreover, the sweet salsa flavors fought with the green beans and mashed potatoes. But the tacos were pretty.

For our non-eating activities like nature walks and museums: go to  these posts on my travel blog.

Route 66

Old Route 66 near Shamrock, TX

We ate lunch at McDonald's in Shamrock, Texas, today. The road past McD's and the Conoco station next to the freeway, Interstate 44, is the old Route 66, and from the McD parking lot you can see the old tower of a historic Conoco station and just the top of a sign for a cafe, also in the sort of Art Deco design that's considered iconic Route 66 style.

Well, I'm glad we have a modern road that could take us from Tulsa to Albuquerque in one day. I bet it was at least two very long dusty and tiring days when the two-lane 66 was the only choice. Not that our day wasn't tiring, but we covered a lot of ground when that was what we wanted to do. Now we have time to explore some birdwatching sites and other natural areas around Albuquerque, look at some historical places, and so on. We had a choice!

Also, I admit that I'm glad to know, when I go to McDonalds, that I'll get the same hamburger and Diet Coke I had the last time I ate there. I know there's a lot of nostalgia for the good old cafes and their supposedly wonderful cooking, but I suspect that more often than not, it wasn't really very good. Not to mention whether it was really clean, whether the food was really fresh.... That's what I remember from childhood trips, anyway. A mom and pop diner could be good, but wasn't usually better than today's McDonald's!

We also stopped at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas, that's on the list of historic Route 66 locales. Lots of tourists stop there if they are making a Route 66 pilgrimage, not usually when simply trying to get from one point to another (like Tulsa to Albuquerque, which we were trying to do). We only had a coke and a nice conversation with the owner, but the pies looked very delicious. The owner mentioned that fast freeway travel destroyed America's small towns. I wonder. Maybe it was creative destruction!

The Midpoint Cafe, Adrian, Texas. The owner has a major collection of Route 66
memorabilia, including vintage formica tables and matching chairs.

For more of today's trip see "America the Beautiful" at my travel blog.

Southwest Cookbooks

Last Wednesday I wrote about Southwestern US cooking, concentrating on Native American cuisines. Besides those I mentioned, I also own some cookbooks from about urban, non-Indian cuisines of the Southwest -- very distinct from Mexican cuisines south of the border.

First -- a gorgeously illustrated volume titled Coyote Cafe, written by Mark Miller, the former owner of the Coyote Cafe restaurant in Santa Fe, NM:

From the famous Coyote Cafe.

Mark Miller became a star chef in the 1980s. Before Santa Fe, he cooked for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and various other places. His creative cooking at Coyote Cafe was very influential, and the book, published 1989, presents a number of his innovative fusion recipes. I ate there on at least two occasions, and found the food, the style of presentation, and the decor of the restaurant extremely enjoyable. Unfortunately I don't seem to have taken any photos of my fascinating meals!

My second Southwest cookbook is more conventional:

Classic Southwest Cooking by
Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger, 1994.
A less flamboyant volume!

Experiencing Southwest foods: pumpkins, gourds, and chili ristras on a winter day at the Los Alamos NM market, 2004.
I recall purchasing pozole (with a recipe) and hand-made chili powder to take home.

A number of years ago, I subscribed and tried many recipes from Chili Pepper magazine -- though I didn't save any of the issues of the magazine. Founded in 1987 by Albuquerque food writers Dave Dewitt and Nancy Gerlach, the magazine is still published around 6 times a year, and covers the uses of the many types of chili peppers that grow in the Southwest, as well as hot pepper recipes from all parts of the globe. I especially remember two recipes from the magazine: one for corn and chili pancakes, one for chili cornbread!

Classic Southwest Cooking includes descriptions of many
types of chili peppers. I've tried several of the recipes.

Cheese and Jalapeño Stuffed Potatoes
adapted from Classic Southwest Cooking

6 baking potatoes (about 1/2 pound each)
1 and 1/2 cups sour cream (I used less)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 jalapeño peppers, stemmed, seeded, and diced
1 and 1/2 tsp toasted and ground cumin seed
3 tsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese 

Scrub, pierce, and bake potatoes at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes. Cool around 10 minutes, cut around 1/3 of top from potatoes and scoop out flesh leaving around 1/4 inch shell. Mash the insides of the potatoes (including the tops) with the sour cream, salt, and pepper. Stir in jalapeños, cumin, and coriander. Fill the shells with the mixture 

Bake the filled potatoes for around 20 more minutes at 350 degrees. Remove potatoes from oven, sprinkle with the cheddar, and broil the potatoes around 5 inches from broiler for 1 to 2 minutes until cheese is bubbling and slightly browned, watching carefully so they don't burn. Serve hot! 

Note: I have used this twice-baked potato method with a variety of fillings for potatoes.

My experiences with Southwest cuisines include several trips to New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah. Besides the Coyote Cafe, I've eaten at other memorable restaurants in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, visited markets, and also done quite a bit of sightseeing in the fabulous mountain and desert landscapes. The various dishes of Southwest cuisine, using many New World foods, make a marvelous cuisine, and I should experiment with it more.

Cookbook Wednesday is inspired by
Louise at Months of Edible Celebrations.

American Indian Cookbooks

New Mexico and Arizona have several local cuisines of note, including traditional Native American cuisines, the cooking of early Spanish settlers and ranchers, local versions of Mexican foods, and the cooking of famous restaurants in well-known tourist towns like Albuquerque and Santa Fe. I have several cookbooks and food books reflecting these cuisines. In this post, I will talk about some books and articles that relate to Native American foods and cooking.

Two books from my cookbook collection.

Native American cooking in the Southwest today combines several traditions. The book Native Harvests describes how to cook with little-known herbs, vegetables, and game that were familiar to early native peoples, as well as recipes that are popular now with Indians throughout the country.

Navajo frybread may be the best-known Indian food preparation. The Manataka Indian Council website gives at least 10 recipes for frybread from a number of tribes, using either baking powder or yeast. The use of flour, sugar, and lard or other cooking fat (all unknown before European arrival in the Americas) suggests that the inventors of this dish were making use of the rather poor cooking materials that were provided to reservation Indians as they were deprived of many of their native food traditions.

An article in Smithsonian Magazine (2008) summarized the history of frybread thus:

"Navajo frybread originated 144 years ago, when the United States forced Indians living in Arizona to make the 300-mile journey known as the 'Long Walk' and relocate to New Mexico, onto land that couldn't easily support their traditional staples of vegetables and beans. To prevent the indigenous populations from starving, the government gave them canned goods as well as white flour, processed sugar and lard—the makings of frybread."

The Smithsonian article continues with a discussion of the very complex views that Indian people have about frybread. Controversies abound: "frybread links generation with generation and also connects the present to the painful narrative of Native American history."

Many Southwest Indians, Navajos and others, simply enjoy eating frybread. Some view frybread as a delicious element of their mothers' heritage cooking. Some see frybread as a dangerous and highly caloric contributor to diabetes, obesity, and other health problems among their people. Some activists revere frybread "as a symbol of Native pride and unity."

Here are two pages from my cookbooks with the recipes for frybread:

From Indian Recipes, compiled by United Tribes
Educational Technical Center, Bismarck, ND, 1079

From Native Harvests by Barrie Kavasch, 1979.

Two books that have much more information about Indian and Southwest foods.

Why Some Like it Hot by Gary Paul Nabhan describes the co-evolution of native people and the plants in their environment. He documents the harm that's been done by depriving deeply-rooted agricultural people or hunter-gatherers of the foods that their ancestors were accustomed to. This is a much more nuanced analysis than the discussions of frybread. 

Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky offers descriptions of foods from the Southwest and many other regions based on a WPA oral history project in the 1930s. Both of these books provide interesting insight into the history of foods of the Southwest.

Cookbook Wednesday is inspired by
Louise at Months of Edible Celebrations.

Next week: more Southwest cookbooks from my cookbook collection.

Dinner in Albuquerque

Still driving west. Today: Oklahoma City to Albuquerque. We arrived in time to walk around Old Town Albuquerque, check one or two Indian arts stores and some low-end souvenir shops, and eat dinner at the High Noon Saloon. For much more about my day, see this post at maetravels.

High Noon Saloon is in a building with some very old architecture, though
it's also been rebuilt quite a bit. We liked the decor.

Southwest style wall paintings, light fixtures, and furniture...

After burritos and enchiladas and beer, which in photos don't as good as they taste,
we had a cobbler and a flan for dessert.

Spring flowers are even further advanced here than in Oklahoma.

As it's meant to be...

Toasted Ravioli


St.Louis Food: toasted ravioli at Pasta House in University City, Mo. Until this dish was copied by Olive Garden, it was a specialty of St.Louis only. I remember eating it at a restaurant called Rinaldi's that went out of business ages ago. We ate there Tuesday night with a number of relatives.



Chips and Salsa


Southwestern Food: real chips and salsa in Albuquerque Old Town. I haven't had such perfectly flavored chips and salsa that was exactly the right heat for a long time! We ate inside the building, one of the oldest in the city, made from adobe of a type from the early 19th century. The tamales, chili rellenos, and other things we ate were all good too. For more about our day: Oklahoma from a moving car.