Travels with The Rayman

Today was an unexpected surprise.  Traveled from Boron, CA to Overton NV.  It  was a revelation.  Rayman worked the map and decided to take off Interstate 15 south of Las Vegas and trapse through a national recreational called Lake Mead.  Neither of us had ever been on the road so we thought, “what the heck?”  Before arriving at the exit for the diversion. we noticed a bunch of stacked rocks…check out this article that appeared in today’s NYTimes.

Building an Artist’s ‘Magic Mountains’ to Draw Visitors to the Desert

That we saw this and then an explanation of it appeared in the paper from NY the day after is an incredible amount of coincidence.  Lucky us.

But I digress.

What a great idea to take the detour.   What we discovered was about 70 miles of national recreation area with almost no cars on the road.  Every turn introduced us to new vistas.  Up and down and around we went.  Such a wonderful surprise.  In this day and age of all things electronic, somehow we had no idea what was in store for us.  And we were grateful for it.  TMI can ruin a rush, so to speak!!

Two wonders of the modern world.  Where were all the animals?  We didn’t see a coyote, a roadrunner or any soaring birds.  They were conspicuous in their absence.  The other thing we didn’t see was a telephone pole.  Not one telephone pole.  No power lines.  It is as if we had stepped back into the 1600s.  Other than the newly paved two lane road, and turnouts that had trash cans (painted red like the rocks), there was no sign of civilization.  Oops.  That’s not true.  Every once in a while there was a speed sign and signs instructing us not to shoot our guns.  Drats.  It wasn’t perfect.  However, the government has done a great job with this wilderness by not doing much of anything to distract from it’s beauty and remoteness.

 

So we are at Robbin’s Rest RV park in Overton, NV.  It is sparse but lovely at the same time.  Lots of trees.  Wifi.  Perfect.  Although, I would have enjoyed a dip.  And I’m not talking about the Rayman.

It’s 70 degrees at 8 p.m.  It’s heating up.  We’re headed for real heat.  Oh, dear.  I’m such a pansy where heat is concerned.  Oh, well.

Actually, there isn’t much to report.  The trip went smooth except when we got a bit lost in Henderson, NV.  And we needed gas.  Ended up at a station that was really tight (space wise) and that’s not good when you are towing a car.  However, we made it out.  Or to put it another way, I drove us out of the tight space since I’m calmer.  And Rayman is a better map reader.

Tomorrow we head to St. George via the Nevada state park Valley of Fire (I’m guessing).  Boy, the southwest is amazing in so many ways.  Here in Overton, there’s not much here here.  Mostly ranchers?  I”m guessing.  The population is about 4,000.  You can pick up a big house on lots of property for $200,000.  There’s three restaurants, one market.  A lot of people live in old mobile homes here.  And it’s very quiet.  No movies.  No gambling except for one bar in town.  Hard to even realize you’re in Nevada.

Didn’t meet anyone here.  The RV park is essentially deserted.  There is another in town more upscale.  It’s got more business.  We’re happy to be here in this one. 

This a.m. we arose, donned our clothes, packed up the perishables, locked up and drove away. Our sojourn to South Dakota began. And we trekked down to the Registrar of Voters and were the first people in the entirety of San Luis Obispo County to vote. The very first. We were so first that everyone in the office helped us get an absentee ballot that was going to be mailed today. The complexity of voting in CA is noteworthy. However, neither of us had to produce a photo i.d. There you have it. CA is progressive and is not worried about voter fraud like some far flung places are (think the deep South).

But I digress.

After voting, we popped into to a coffee shop and had a non-fat latte and a blackberry muffin. Yum. Beau, of course, was with us and so we sat outside with him while we ate/drank. A man took the next table but not before admiring our dog. Turns out he has one. He also has an 18 year old Jag in pristine condition. A delightful conversation ensued before we jumped in the car and headed to the RV parking lot.

Voila. Here I am in the Mojave desert, in the Oasis RV park located in Boron, CA. Boron is the home to Borox Mining where the speed limit is 37 1/2 miles per hour and the visitors center sits high above the huge hole in the ground that has been mined for a very long time.

 

Here is one of the richest ore deposits on earth. And out of this place, the TV show in the 60s, Death Valley Days originated. The visitor’s center was a well done commercial. Brought to you by Borox. The hole they have carved out is about 2 1/2 miles long and 800 feet deep. Products made with the chemicals produced here are in your flat screen TVs and your laundry detergent. On the tiles of the space shuttle and the glass in your cupboard.

And that’s what’s in Boron. They have a life-size replica of the 20 mule team that was originally used for moving rocks from Death Valley to everywhere. Now it’s done with trains, ships, trucks.

On the way here we drove thru Cayama valley to reach the San Joaquin valley. Very pretty ride. Very few cars. Yuccas were blooming. The oaks looked healthy as they had more rain there this year. Then we sprinted over to Arvin via a detour (closed road). And up the into the mountains to again come down to the great Mojave desert. At one point, a CHP SUV darted out with lights ablazing and slowed everyone down. It turns out an electrical crew was restringing high voltage power cables across the freeway. We had a bird eye’s view. You don’t see that every day. So, there we were parked on the 58 freeway for a few minutes while the work was being completed.

And so now I am somewhat reclined on the sofa typing this blog and am very tired. Just waiting for the sun to sink behind the mountains to our west so that I can take my book to the boudoir and read about Theodore Roosevelt and his trip down the Amazon. River of Doubt is the book. Looks promising so far through 3 chapters. It came highly recommended.

Rayman had a good day. He only banged his shins once. And I think I can speak for both of us that the day was quite delightful though long and a bit laborious. For the record, I banged my head. And maple syrup oozed out in the refrigerator so I had to clean that up. But that ain’t bad as RV trips go. Heck. It didn’t snow so that’s good.

The wind is howling here but it’s a warm “mariah”. The RV park is minimal but functional. It’s better than Santa Barbara’s. I’ll say that. The railroad train tracks are close and 5 trains have pasted so far. Really, Boron is a tumbleweed sort of town. No good housing. One restaurant. One grocery store. Lots of pitbulls in chained yards. Poor and barren. But, they had Ben and Jerry’s in the grocery store so there you have it.

Tomorrow, day 2, takes us to Overton, Nevada. On the shore of Lake Mead. Why there? Didn’t want to stay in Vegas. And we wanted someplace we had never been before so we are planning on driving a bit out of way to experience a new place on earth. And with that, it’s over and out.

This week, Rayman and I drove to North Fork, which is reputed to be the exact center of California.  That is what the sign says as you enter the small, “don’t blink” town on the way to the house we rented for two nights.  North Fork is a throw back of sorts in the foothills of this state in that there are very poor, rural folks that inhabit the hills around The Fork.  I’m taking it that the fork is in reference to a split in the river that cuts the valley in half.  Huge hills rise up from the river and it is sad to see because most of the trees in this place are pine and are dying from the affects of the Pine Beetle.  You know instantly that they are sick because they are yellow, rather than verdant green that pines habitually are when healthy.

When approaching this town of North Fork, we come across a young mother sitting in her huge truck in the parking lot of the local elementary school, a baby in her lap.  But that isn’t really what catches our eye.  It’s the huge, confederate flag flying from a pole stuck in the back of the truck.  Somehow.  Here in the center of CA is a confederacy lover.  And proud of it.  Rayman and I look at each other in dismay.  How do you suppose this woman decided that flying a confederate flag was a good idea?  Was it her or her dearly beloved that engaged in such in-your-face behavior?  It apparently is an advocation on their part.   As an aside, we did not see any black people as we drove through town.

Then there were all the fringe churches we saw along the road.  This place was different.   And every yard seems to have a bucket of bolts or two or three.  Mostly old trucks.  Which begs the question, why didn’t they sell the old stuff?  Depreciating assets depreciating assets.

But I digress.

Rayman and I were on our way to North Fork and I asked him if he knew how to text by talking into his iPhone.  No he did not.  Because I was behind the wheel, I could only tell him how to do it.  I just learned how to do it, myself, on Monday.  And so he tried by sending a text message to his son.  It was a scream.  Somehow he selected the wrong microphone icon and the message read as follows:

“I does that mean that sad that text on this one eating a text unless you’re trying to say in a text on this actually it’s missing are the words that I’m saying.”

When he read what was transmitted, he howled.  Admittedly, he needs some work.

Okay.  So back to the story.

The Wisdom House beckoned.  It was a house I found on the internet several years ago.  It’s a great place off the main road.  Completely modern, up-to-the-minute.  Just two bedrooms and baths.  Perfect for us and my cousin, Sue, her husband, Larry, and their granddaughter, Leyla.  We all met up in North Fork for two nights.  And the reason was that Yosemite is located about 25 miles away.  Here’s the link if you have any interest.

www.wisdomretreats.us/

Yosemite.  What a place.   Is there a grander place on earth?  It’s one of the best.  And it was free getting in because all week there is no admission as it’s the National Park Service one-hundredth anniversary celebration.  Yes, we have the senior card for free admission.  But it was a nice gesture anyway.

This time of the year, the park is in bloom.  Dogwood, mustard, lupine.  And the falls are spectacular.  Adding to the drama is the long ride on twisting and turning two lane roads.  Then you pop out of a long tunnel and there it is.  It leaves a lump in the throat and a song in your heart.  It also makes you feel like a speck.

For those that believe the earth is really old, you are struck by the amount of time it took for the valley to evolve into what you see today.  If you believe that the earth is 6,000 years old, I think you need to do some more reading.  Perhaps you could return to college and study geology.  Just saying.

Let me back up.  We went to the park with my cousin, Susie, husband, Larry, and granddaughter of theirs, Leyla.  They arrived on Wednesday afternoon as did we.  And Susie had a cold.  A horrible cold.  But she was bound and determined to make the trip because Leyla wanted to see those waterfalls.  Before they arrived, I hastily frosted a cake that I made for Leyla’s birthday which had been April 15.  The best birthday cake I know that isn’t chocolate.  Here’s the recipe:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013965-almond-birthday-cake-with-sherry-lemon-buttercream

And here’s a pic of the finished product.  Yummy.  And Leyla, of course.

So, the next day we got up early and headed to the park.  The weather was perfect.  The rains from the winter provided snow that is still melting thereby providing waterfalls, the best in years.  Thank you el nino.  And we just had to see them.  That was the reason for the trip.  The pictures speak for themselves….except for one thing.  The velocity of the water raging down the side of the cliffs creates it’s own weather system.  In the parking lot, it was a pleasant 60+ degrees.  A short walk up a path to a viewing platform, the temperature must have been about 50 degrees and it was “raining”.  We brought our umbrellas and still managed to get wet.  And cold.  What a great adventure.  And this happened at Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls, both.  All other falls were too far away to enjoy in such a manner.

We packed a picnic and ate on the banks of the Merced River.  The crows that stood watch over the picnic tables were about as big as cessna airplanes.  And they protected their turf with great enthusiasm.

The park was not that busy which was a blessing because we brought two cars so that the Rayman and I could escape the coughing and hacking that was on display.  Even so, we were able to follow each other, and park near each other.  A true miracle.  So, next year, if you go…go in April.  It’s a great time, mid-week that is.  Coming home today, the highway of two lanes was packed with vehicles heading up the mountain.  Leave the weekends for the working folks, is my advice.

The other thing we did in the park was to drive up to Glacier Point.  I had never been there.  Rayman had been there many times.  What a view to behold.  Looking down from on high, the cars below looked about the size of ants.  If you wanted to do yourself in, this might be the place.  Just jump.  You will die.  There are no fences to keep you from it.  And that’s the beauty.  Who wants to look at this miracle of nature through a chain-linked fence?  If you’re afraid of heights, you may want to skip it.  But I wouldn’t.  It is just too intimidatingly beautiful.  Too overwhelmingly grand.  And people have been enjoying it since the late 1800s.

Finally, a shout-out to Theodore Roosevelt, my favorite Republican president.  He camped at Yosemite in 1903 when President with John Muir.  Three nights.  Just the two of them.  All others were ordered away.  No spin doctors.  No entourage.  Just them.  And that led to Yosemite becoming a national park, along with other parks.  Teddy is a hero as is John Muir.  Giants.  If I were President, I would want a legacy like that.  Not wars.  National Parks.  They are remarkable and we are so lucky to have them.

A few other observations.

The farmers in the dell are getting on our nerves.  Between Loomis, CA and Interstate 5 freeway, there are a myriad of “homemade” signs offering arguments favorable to the farmers.

No Water.  No Food.

Build tunnels not trains.

Those are two of the signs that we remember because they get repeated over and over as the miles melt into the rear view mirror.  And as you zoom along highway 41, you can’t help but notice the open ditches of water.  So, the Rayman asks, why don’t the farmers pay for upgrading the irrigation canals with huge pipelines.  Evaporation would be reduced to almost nothing.  What are they waiting for?  Oh, they want the taxpayers to pick up the tab, perhaps?  or maybe they have never thought of it?  Who knows?  But as casual observers not prone to researching this vexing problem at this time, we stop and think about their offensive.  Why can’t we have both water tunnels and high speed rail?  We are the 8th largest economy on earth.  Why can’t we have both?  Maybe we should pass a law restricting trade of food to only other states in the U.S.  Why should we use our water to grow food that get shipped out of the country?  Could we put a tariff on our food to pay for the tunnels?  Of course, it is understood that farmers want everyone else to pay for their infrastructure.  How much do they pay for water?  So many questions, so few answers.  Just food for thought, if you will pardon the pun.  Want to know more about water in California?  Read Cadillac Desert by Marc Reiser.  Simply the best book I’ve read on the subject.  Here’s a link.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/cadillac-desert/id357991973?mt=11

After you pass under the great Interstate 5 highway just west of Kettleman City, you come to a spot in the road…an intersection.  And under construction on this dusty parcel of land is a four way stop with stoplights being installed.  Why are they putting in a stoplight?  What’s wrong with putting in a roundabout?  So much more efficient.  Probably a heck of lot cheaper since electricity would not be required.  Why, we ask.  Why?  It is disheartening in a way.  More land needed for the roundabout?  No problemo.  There is nothing but lifeless looking land out there.  Except where they have started irrigating.  Yes, irrigating an arid parcel of land miles from anything.  Who made that decision?  To allow that in the middle of a huge drought that probably is not over.  Oh, so many questions without answers.  On top of all that Prince died.

Well, we are back home.  A great trip to a great park.

Do you wonder what lurks in the crevices of your garage?  or attic?  or basement?  California doesn’t do basements too much but I had the good fortune of having grandparents that had a basement.  It was dank, dark, foreboding.  And I loved it in a dangerous kind of way.  The steps were steep and one lone lightbulb illuminated the entire terrain.  The wood that held the house up above the basement was pristine redwood. Once I managed to lodge a giant redwood splinter across the palm of my hand.   It required a trip to the doctor to get it removed.

Once down in the abyss of the concrete reinforced (I hope) basement, were located shelves.  And on the shelves were many unopened boxes.  White boxes.  And they had ribbon around them.  Silver ribbons.  Along with those boxes were a myriad of plates, cups, glasses, piles of clothes.  Thinking of it now, it is not too far removed from what the Rayman and I just found in our garage as we embarked on our “spring clean”.  However, the basement had much more character.  It also had a vent to the outside which was useful for light and air.  Uncle Dodo, the architect of my grandparents house was no slouch.  He thought of everything, apparently.   Although, it could have used more light.  It was slightly terrifying to me.  There were shadows and spiders.  And the adults never seemed interested in going down there.  My grandmother used to line up cans of food on the steps.  It was a stand in for the pantry she didn’t have.  The house was very small.

But I digress.

Our neighbor, the Jordan family had a basement too.  As far as I know, these were the only two basements on our block but then I never did a census, and I didn’t snoop.  Surmising is the best I can do.  Johnny Jordan was an entrepreneur in the entertainment business.  He entertained people in his bars and liquor stores.  And because of this perhaps, he made the basement of his house into an elaborate bar.  It had red tiles on the floor and a small bar, complete with sink, mirrors, glasses, booze.  And it had a closet.  That is where we changed our clothes when we were putting on a “floor show” for the adults.  The water heater may have been in it.  Not sure.  Memories have faded over time.  But that basement was high class.  It was a hidden gem.  Perhaps it was a speakeasy!!  I think it is fair to say that their basement had far less spiders than ours did.  Oh, and how can I forget.  It had a jukebox.  A Wurlitzer with bright lights.  With records.  OMG.  It was so cool.   And it also had a vent to the outside for air and light.

So, today Rayman and I started cleaning the garage and it brought all these memories back when I stopped to take a water break and sit down to cool down.

Our garage is not nearly as interesting.  And it’s full of stuff that I wonder what ever possessed us to buy.  Oh, I’m sure we had our reasons but really.  We must have unearthed 10 tubes of silicon stuff.  Putty.  30 cans of opened paint, mostly mysterious as to the application they were intended for.  Many from the previous owner so they must match our walls.  Forty two cloth bags for lugging stuff home.  Wine bags.  You know the kind that have 6 compartments.  Bags from Whole Foods, New Frontiers, Albertsons, Morro Bay Golf Course.  Bags up the ying yang.  Old tire chains that do not fit on presently owned automobiles.  Hats which we plan to keep but hats galore.  Baseball caps, my floppy golf hats.  And pictures.  OMG.  Family pictures.  And many of them framed.  So, I took the pictures out of the frames and the frames now rest in the back of the Prius.  Off to the Goodwill truck with the frames, old tools, clothes that don’t fit anymore.  A major clean up.

But back to  those boxes in the basement.  When I got old enough to reach the shelves, I opened one of the boxes.  It, like all the others, had a white small card attached.  “Dear Donna and David.  Congratulations on your marriage.  Love, Whomever”.  The boxes were unopened wedding presents filled with Fostoria glasses and plates.  Cups and saucers.  Never opened.  The vestige of a broken marriage.   How sad, really.  My parents were only married for a few years, not long enough, apparently, to open the wedding gifts.  Not long enough to set up house.

Well, some of those dishes are in my kitchen today.  I use them for desserts and salads.  Quite useful to the homemaker.  Take that to mean what you wish.  I will spoil your fun by telling you that my mother was completely uninterested in making a home.  Her favorite meal to make was fish sticks, at the dawn of the frozen dinner era.  She was also quite fond of cream tuna on toast.   So, I guess she didn’t need salad and dessert plates for that, now did she?

Well, I had my rest.  The garage beckons.  And I found an old box of my grandmother’s recipes (she was a good cook and homemaker).  So, perhaps, I will share a few of them with you later on.  But first, I must plow through that box and see what i can find.

Hope there aren’t any spiders in there.

Yesterday was an awful day.  But let me back up.  The pic above was taken on Sunday when Mr. Rayman did a tumble into an oncoming small wave while trying to avoid getting wet from the wave.   What a drip!!  Okay, so on with my blog.

I’ve been blogging since 2010, I think.  And I have had three software changes during that time along with three different domain providers.  Blogging is easy.  Getting the software and domain not so much.  And that is what ruined my day yesterday.

On Monday, I told one of my friends that I was going to send her one of my blogs that I thought she would enjoy.  When I went looking for it, I couldn’t find it.  My current domain provider, GoDaddy erased it.  All of it.  Apparently I had been notified that my credit card had been rejected because of the expiration date.  They emailed me.  Only I didn’t get it because it was in my junk mail.  And there is no way to get my blogs that were posted under adventureswiththerayman.com back.  OMG.  OMG.  GoDaddy should be avoided at all costs.  What a horrible outfit.  Oh, I know.  It is ultimately my responsibility but why beat myself up when I can beat them about?

This picture hints at the blog I was trying to find.

Rayman had gone golfing.  When he returned, i burst into tears,  My life was in tatters.  All those travel blogs.  OMG.  So, after the trauma wore off, I started thinking.  Did I have a copy?  How would I know?  People, I am telling you, even though I know a lot about computers, I hardly know anything.  Did I have a copy?  I couldn’t answer that question.  So, I decided to call Joseph.  Joseph helped me initially set up travelswiththerayman.com  I already had the domain name thru GoDaddy but I was struggling with the software, WordPress, so I did what many do, I googled for help.  Ever notice that Google can be a noun or a verb?  Cool, uh?  That’s how I found Joseph who owns a company named ShiloRune.  He was able to set me up.  Quickly.  Easily.  And
at a reasonable price.  I love Joseph.  He lives in Portland and I hope to actually meet him in Portland this summer.  Never have met him.

So.

When I called him he was at Ikea, shopping.  He said he would call me when he returned to the office.  That left me dead in the water.  That’s when racking my brain began.  Sometimes racking one’s brain can have positive results.  And so it did.  I went to the den and found my old MacBook computer.  And I charged it up.  It still had the software, Sandbox, that I had used early on to compose my blogs.  Maybe, just maybe some blogs were there.  And so they were.  To make a long story longer, Joseph created a temporary website and I transferred all the data to him.  He will, for a price, manipulate the data and then post it all on the last remaining domain, travelswiththerayman.  And I am going to pay him to maintain everything going forward thereby eliminating GoDaddy from my life…except for the domain name.  Do I have all my blogs back?  I’m not sure and I’m afraid to look.  You know how that is?  You expect the worst and so avoid verifying your worst fears.  Well, that’s me right now.

The other news in my life is that Claudia (URs) caretaker had her knee surgery and is back at his house.  She was able to walk up all the stairs.  So, we came home at her suggestion.  I am now making food for us all since she is very limited in what she can do.  We are so hoping that her recovery will go smoothly so that we can take off for The Badlands in mid-May.

Tonight we are having grilled swordfish, thai noodle pasta, and a tossed salad for dinner.  No dessert.  But plenty wine.

Right now I’m having a hard time typing because I sliced off the upper corner of my left index finger and it is in a bandage and a rubber glove.  Can’t use it so I’m hunting and pecking.  Drats.  Cooking is a full contact sport.  However, I expect to make a full recovery.

Margaret, my good friend and aqua kinetics bud/Winers and Diners/Sideway member, suggested that I print out all my blogs and do a book so that I can preserve what I have in hard copy form.  Bon idee.  I plan to stART WORKING (OOPS) on that project this week.  Love the idea.  So I just ordered more ink for my inkjet printer,  Yahoo!!

So, this past week has very busy, indeed.  It all started with a gourmet Xmas party with our gourmet club. Our friend, Jo, puts together a schedule and we abide by it.  The schedule lists each host couple and three other couples that the host invites for the party.  Further, the format is designed so that the host couple prepares the main dish and the other couples volunteer to bring whatever the host needs.  Usually this translates into appetizers, veggie and/or salad, dessert. The framework is extremely flexible.  All rules may be broken…however, the aren’t usually. As a matter of history, this group has been doing this for several years.  And we’ve had some great parties.

I digress.  Okay, so we had the party to schedule.  It went something like this:  I emailed all the couples and we settled on a date.  Then about 4 or 5 days before the party, one of the couples cancelled.  Had to go south for some medical tests. So, I called a substitute (the group has a sub list of one).  They agreed to come.  Then a few days later, the second couple cancelled because her stepdad had died.  So, I invited one of the regulars off the list.  The a day later, the third original couple called with regrets because a relative was going to be in town that day.  EEEEEEEKKKKK.

In our years of doing this, this has never happened. Okay. Life happens.  Roll with the punches.  So, I invited another regular couple from the dinner group.  Then on the day before the party, I was returning from yoga and called home only to talk with Ray (my husband) and found out the subs cancelled because he had a cold!  Holy moley.  At this point,it was hilarious.

Now, you probably wonder why I didn’t cancel.  Well, first, I like a good party.  And secondly, I had already bought the standing rib roast of pork and had it “curing” in the frig.  So, I called around and couldn’t find anyone so I called a couple from my other gourmet group and they agreed to come.  Since it was so late (the night before), I didn’t ask them to bring anything but wine and I made the dessert, which turned out to be a fabulous apple galette.  However, I’m getting ahead of myself…again.

So, the party was held and it was a fabulous one according to the participants.  Here’s the menu: Butternut squash soup with creme freiche and fried onions, salad of winter greens, standing rib roast of pork, braised fennel, and apple galette. Yummy.

Okay, so one of the things I struggle with is remembering where I get recipes. In this case, and one reason I decided to journal my escapades is to record the origins of the things I cooked.  So, I gleamed the rib roast recipe from Zuni Cafe cookbook by Judy Rodgers. This is a cookbook every serious cook should have in their library.  It is fabulous.  In this case she instructed me to buy the roast way ahead and salt it (1 tsp. per pound of meat).  Then rub it with garlic and fennel and coriander.  It was the best pork roast I have ever cooked.  Hands down.

The braised fennel was just okay so I’m not recording it because it’s not a keeper.

The apple galette, I’ve done before.  It is delicious and easy to make.  Jacques Pepin, from his cookbook Everyday Cooking.

Only mistake I made was warming the bread and forgetting to serve it.  Oh, well.

The next great adventure was a dessert I made to take to a dinner, not a sanctioned gourmet group dinner, just a few friends getting together.  As luck would have it, the L.A. Times did an article about a French dessert that looked fabulous.  It was called a Croustade with apples and prunes in Armagnac.  It appeared in the Dec. 12 food section.  So, I made it.  What a hoot.  As experienced as I am in the kitchen, I have had limited exposure to filo.  The recipe calls for filo.  You buy it in the frozen food section of your market.  The recipe specified the size which I could not find but I did find something slightly smaller.  Also, the recipe did not mention the dough should be thawed!!!  All this with an additional complication of time made for a frantic frenzy in the kitchen.  You see, we were invited to an open house the same day of the dinner party.  So, my plan was to prepare the apples and prunes in advance, go to the open house, and return home to compose the dessert and bake it.  Which I did.  Except the dough was frozen and when I tried to use it, it shattered into pieces.  In a complete panic, I read the side panel of the filo package and deduced that it should have been thawed.  So I nuked it for a few seconds and then proceeded.  My creation was an ugly duckling (compared to the picture in the L.A. Times) but man, was it delicious.  An overall success and another definite keeper.

So, tonight we go to a wine tasting groups’ annual Xmas party.  I was given salad as an assignment.  So, I’m going to bring a warm cabbage salad with chestnuts.  I’ll report back on the results.

The results were great.  The salad was a hit.  The recipe came from Alice Waters Vegetables cookbook.  It was red cabbage with chestnuts.  Simple  Elegant.  Easy to cook.  Easy to transport if you have a bowl that fits inside a carrier that can accommodate a space age device that you put in the microwave to warm up.  Sounds complex but these contraptions are on the market.  I think my was made by Pyrex.  Very handy to have if you attend parties away from home.  Now, I must admit that I didn’tthink the dish was good.  However, it sparkled with the barbecued turkey.  It is amazing how important it is to pair things appropriately.

Which leads me to my next thought.  Last night we cooked with friends.  Beet and tangerine salad, rack of lamb, roasted raddiccho, flageolet gratin (French green kidney beans),  and a gateau cake with cream and prunes.  All these recipes reside in the cookbook, Lacques by Suzanne Goin.  The dishes were so right together.  And sharing the cooking made this ambitious menu doable.  The bean gratin was the hit of the party.  I way over bought on the meat.  Most only had three small chops.  A criticism of this book is that it is written for 6 diners.  My experience is that it could feed 10-12.  The portions are enormous.

To digress, we had Christmas eve dinner and went back to my tride and true  recipe of spicy baked crab ala Alice Waters.  paper/plastic crab bibs were provided, the table was set with newspaper and all was great.  Oh, except for my bagettes.  I made them from scratch using an old recipe and they just didn’t cut the mustard.  I let them rise  3 times and followed the directions…but to no avail.  Guess I’ll have to try them again. They were rising too fast so I put the dough in the refrigeration for a couple of hours.  Perhaps that caused the problem. Oh,well.  Oh, and did a new cake…a brown butter hazelnut cake with sauteed pears.  Yummy.  From Suzanne Goin again.  My only criticism of the meal is that it had too much butter.  Way too rich for me.  Each part was great but the cummulative effect was…just too much of a good thing.

Well, we’re well on our way in 2008.  It’s January 9th and I’m almost fully recovered from a nasty cold that attacked my nasal passages and throat.  Ugh.  Couldn’t taste much which is fate worse than death for a foodie such as myself.

Anyway,  I did cook a shrimp dish off the back cover of the latest Fine Cooking magazine.  Ray reports that he was good.  How would I know?  with a taster on the fritz.

So, I have a rack of lamb which I salted last evening waiting for the marinate that I intend to use on it today.  Then we’ll barbecue it tonite if the weather holds.  It’s sunny at the moment but clouds are appearing over the hills south east of us.  The lamb recipe is from John Ash’s book, Cooking One on One.  I made a rub for the meat and will apply it this a.m.  Should be yummy.  I intend to serve it with broccoli and some steamed red potatoes.

Now I’m also busy planning the next dinner party.  I’ve decided on paella.  I’m still developing the menu.  That is something that is very important.  It takes hours of planning to pull together a good menu.  And this is also what I struggle with…what goes with what.  For instance, broccoli may not be the best veggie to serve, however, I bought some good looking stuff at farmer’s market and I need to use it.  So.  I will.