Musings

Mole negro (say: moh-lay nay-grow) is a famous sauce native to Oaxaca, Mexico. We made it (more or less) the way it is made today, so it includes Old World ingredients not available in the prehispanic kitchen, like almonds and chicken. We processed a long list of ingredients this way and that, often with toasting, ending up as three different purees, plus chicken stock (upper left). The immersion blender got a huge workout, as it was the processing workhorse.

The final assembly began with the toasted then reconstituted dried chiles (right foreground), pureed, pureed, then more pureeing, and finally sieved to achieve succulent smoothness, then adding stock and simmering down. To that, we then added the upper right mixture, colored principally by roasted tomatoes, but also including tomatillos and toasted bread crumbs. Plus other lovelies. And more stock and simmering. Next, we added the lower left mixture, three kinds of nuts plus roasted plantain, and toasted spices like anise seed and raisins and sesame seeds and cinnamon bark (not a lot, but still). And stock, followed by simmering, of course. The final add was “Mexican chocolate,” which includes more cinnamon, and is not super sweet—still, it does include sugar. And more stock and further simmering.

At the end, the harsh sharpness that the chiles initially had was gone, and their biting heat was tempered. The twenty-four (or so) ingredients had become one amazing, complex sauce.

So very yummy. Probably won’t make it again from scratch, yet a lovely experience. And the eating—well, incomparable.

Posted at 10:44 PM | Comments Off on Mole negro Sunday

Possible North American entry for “Most Eclectic Grocery Shopping Selections, Six Items Maximum”? Upper left, that’s a jackfruit. I hear this is the season for them…. Not to be confused with a durian.

This jackfruit came from Mexico, and is labelled “The Original Party Fruit.” Flavor analysis: “Sweet with hints of mango, banana and melon.” Opening suggestions include using an oiled knife to combat stickiness. And, and, and, it’s a great meat substitute; not sure how a fruit is meat…perhaps we’ll open it Sunday.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Could be

First, we were headlight-flashed by a semi. Then, we saw a large, propped up, plywood sign with crookedy letters, “Sheep on road.” Okay, we’re wide awake; we saw this in Scotland, and usually the signs are not Fake News™. Next, we saw sheep evidence (like the black smears in the left lane), then we popped over a hill, and voila! sheep, all on the left side of the road, and extending for a LOOOOONG ways up the highway. We carefully crept along, alert to Stupid Sheep Behavior—that is, stupid from the vehicular point of view. Sure enough, we were most of the way past the flock, and a few decided to cross in front of us, and instantly were head-down browsing. Like…um…sheep, soon dozens more followed. We inched along on the far right as a semi was in our lane, heading toward us and trying to make headway against the flock drifting into his lane. Surely there’s room for all, no? Just so the sheep part.

The size of the flock suggests it was being relocated for summer forage at higher elevations. With all the fenced land, the only possible passage was via the highway right of way. In Europe, it is possible to find the networks of drove-ways that have been used for thousands of years for seasonal movement of domesticated herbovores.

Scenery.

Snake River, where the banks are not cliffs.

Snake River making Shoshone Falls, and the Falls making rainbows. The River has cut through a lava bed from long ago that blankets the area. If you’re back from the rim perhaps a quarter mile on that flattish lava bed, you can’t see the cut the river has made, making it rather like a giant ha-ha. This falls is so high that the progress of spawning fish is halted, and this is an excellent hunting spot.

Posted at 10:10 PM | Comments Off on Transhumance and more

We did get into the train station this morning. Nice budget version of art deco details, as we also saw on the exterior.

Then we headed down the road…to Atlanta! Hey, look at that population! And the town further down the road: Macon. No kidding. Much larger population, so this is a true alternate universe.

Motored west to Loess Bluffs NWR. The Refuge is mostly Missouri River floodplain, and not the bluffs. I did notice our westbound descent to the floodplain, and only later realized that our path dropped down from the loess bluffs.

Above are avocets. These are great egrets. We also saw many great blue herons and assorted ducks and geese. And four white pelicans. Whatta surprise: pelicans.

And this national crane.

We’re overnighting by the mighty flat Platte, but this is a dug lake with a forest of motels adjacent. Nighty-night.

Posted at 10:29 PM | Comments Off on Looking for loess

The Big Muddy dominated half our driving day. It was big and it carried sediment. “Formidable” seems rather tame for summing it up, although it carries the appropriate tenor.

This is on the north edge of Alton, Illinois, where the river slid along limestone bluffs that Euroamericans heavily mined. I assume these are abandoned mine entrances.

For the other half of our driving day, we pushed west, to stop in La Plata, Missouri, pronounced like plate, so: lah plate-uh.

Rather unremarkable town with an Amtrak Stop [that I assume Joe Biden has never visited] and an art deco style station that is suffering genteel decay (the exterior, anyway, as we didn’t get inside—yet).

These two also live in the town. It is bucolic, with frequent train whistles.

Posted at 8:02 PM | 1 Comment »

While I found a very quiet alley-space that is reverting to nature…

…on a secondary artery, I saw fire-truck action. And heard.

Posted at 9:11 PM | Comments Off on Three blocks apart

Thinking Fibonacci.

And sequence.

Yeah, understatement title. 😉

Posted at 8:06 PM | 1 Comment »

Back on the eighth, I spotted a machine munching this building. I think this is the same machine loading the crunched up pieces for removal.

Since the worker’s truck listed “asbestos removal” among their specialties, I opted to not hang around. Did not want to get a respiratory complication in these COVID times.

Nice flower. Don’t know name.

Posted at 8:53 PM | Comments Off on “Progress”

The cylinder wrap reads “Forever lawn,” that is: plastic, more plastic, green plastic that you’ll never have to mow and will shed water and emit who-knows-what as the sun beats down on it. In other words: not green green.

Natural big bumbling bee. With pollen.

Dramatic flowers, kinda like straw flowers, but larger and not straw flowers.

I’ve been watching this abandoned old building for months; it used to have artist studio spaces. Then it was empty. And empty. Until today, when it got crunched. I expect the condo for-sale sign will reappear.

Posted at 8:37 PM | Comments Off on Fake forevers

It occurred to me today that many of those “what would Jesus do?” people are dining today with ham as the centerpiece of the menu.

Not what the good Jew Jesus would ever eat, as I understand it. Ham with a side of mac-n-cheese—what Jesus would not do.

Posted at 9:34 PM | 2 Comments »