Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Blood and Thunder
I grew up in New Mexico. I lived near a Mescalero Apache Indian reservation. When I moved from New Mexico and lived in other parts of the country and world, I used to make fun about “fighting indians” when I was growing up. (Which really did happen since we went to the same schools.)
I’ve driven through Navajo country and admired the scenery and the people and their culture. Lynne and I own an authentic Navajo rug which is hung on the wall of our Colorado cabin.
Living in Colorado, we’ve heard about the Sand Creek Massacre.
Living in New Mexico, I’m familiar with Carson county and stories of Kit Carson.
I’ve been to Fort Craig and camped and dug for Civil War memorabilia.
Here is a book about the settling of the West. It is really a biography of Kit Carson to some degree, and I enjoyed it (while being ashamed at times) immensely! I highly recommend this book, especially if you have an affinity for New Mexico like I do.
Read or Post Comments (0, so far) • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • eMail this article
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Shrooms of October
Okay, you saw my first NJ fish.
Now it is time for my first NJ mushrooms.
We signed up for a mushroom foray for today at a local farm. What a pleasant surprise when we got there. Wonderful people, wonderful land. And a great “honor system” organic store where we bought some jam, tomato sauce, squash and onions. And, she had eggs and lettuce and…
But wait, before we go to the afternoon foray…
It was time to walk the dogs this morning. We walked toward Green Turtle Pond. The road is closed below our street for a while (what a pain), but that means no traffic for a while. As we walked in the “no car zone”, Lynne noticed a group of mushrooms growing on a tree a bit off the road.
I thought it was a Hen of the Woods and got pretty excited since that is a choice edible mushroom. But, after returning home and doing some research, it turned out to be a Chicken of the Woods—even better! Lynne went and took pictures. I went with a knife and brought it home.
It was 2 pounds of choice mushroom! (Which I am sure will end up on Lynne’s blog too.)
Okay, this mushroom is going to get washed, cut into strips and frozen. It will be great in a risotto, soups, etc. Since it “tastes like chicken”, you can use it anywhere you would chicken.
Now, to the afternoon. Our goal was Honey Mushrooms. Yum. And, we found some. Since it has been so hot and dry, there weren’t a lot, but this is the only time of year you see them, and we found enough to make some pickled mushrooms to serve on toast.
If we are here to post after eating them, we’ll let you know how they were 
Read or Post Comments (0, so far) • Permalink • eMail this article
