Jim's Perfect Pizza

We made our own pizza tonight. It was a joint effort. Jim prepared the dough, Ginger ladeled the sauce on the crust, Marcia and I chopped the vegetables, and we all had a hand in arranging the cheese and toppings. It was truly a communal work of art!

Having made quite a few pizzas myself, I can attest to the challenge of working the dough into a circle. Most of my pies wind up looking like trapezoids with holes. Jim did a splendid job making a near-perfect circular crust.

Can you spot the green chiles on our pizza? (Clue: they are only on 1/3 of the pie.)

Noche Buena 2008

"Noche buena" means "good night," but in the Southwest, it means Christmas Eve. Back East, the really big holiday was Christmas Day, but here in Albuquerque it is most definitely Christmas Eve. Holiday traditions here in New Mexico are colorful, rich with history and memorable. Instead of keeping warm at home on Christmas Eve with family and friends, leaving the house briefly only to attend services, people in the Land of Enchantment hit the streets for the biggest festival of the year. Old Town Albuquerque is adorned with thousands of luminaria. In Santa Fe they're called farolitos. Either way, the brown papers bags holding sand and lit votive candles are beautiful. They line streets, sidewalks and rooftops, as well as ledges and walls. They are everywhere! My favorite part of Noche Buena, however, is the pungent, unmistakably sweet aroma of piñon smoke rising from kiva fireplaces throughout Old Town.



This was our third Noche Buena in Albuquerque. Our 2006 Old Town stroll was numbingly cold. Christmas Eve 2007 was not only cold, but windy. This year, however, we enjoyed perfect strolling weather, with temps above freezing, very little wind, and a reasonably clear night. After some spicy hor d'ouvres, tamales and cider, we took to the streets of Old Town where we explored streets, alleys, nooks and crannies. Later, we drove past a park a few blocks away where seven hot air balloons were tethered for a "balloon glow." I didn't have my camera, and this is not my photo, but here's what a hot air balloon glow looks like.


A traditional New Mexican Christmas Eve dinner for four followed the outdoor celebrations. We served posole - a hominy and pork stew with green chiles - very hot and spicy...


and Ensalada Noche Buena - Christmas Eve salad (and yes, those are pomegranate seeds, along with beets, jicama, baby greens, queso fresca, golden raisins, oranges and pine nuts).


After this hearty meal, all of us were too full for dessert, but did manage to munch on a few bizcochitos while watching the classic 1951 B&W film Scrooge, starring Alistair Sim, released in 1951 as A Christmas Carol. I grew up with this movie and am happy to report that it lived up to expectations some 50 years later.


At 12:30 we called it a night. My brother and his wife left for their home across town, the dogs tucked themselves in for the night and, anticipating Santa's arrival, I fell into a deep sleep.

This 'n That

This morning, deep in the bowels of winter, the temperature is barely 20. Frost adorns windshields, snow glistens on the Sandias, and thick, menacing clouds hover at the summit. On this quiet, windless morning I hold a glimmer of hope that the day will warm to the low 30's. It will be our coldest day this season.

Christmas has come and gone, but we are still enjoying our small, festive tree, decorated with Southwest trinkets that accompany our more traditional ornaments collected over the years. Some of our glass ornaments dating back to World War II decorated holiday trees from my childhood. This year we discovered red and green chile pepper covers for our white lights in the Basket Store in Old Town. They are really quite beautiful!









It's been forever since I've written anything for this blog, in part because I've been very busy. More accurately, though, I've been remarkably uninspired these past few months. With so much on my emotional plate, there's been little time for reflection and writing. Now that life seems to be winding down and easing a bit, thoughts and feelings are beginning to spill into daily life. Work has served me well in distancing from the disappointments that were constant companions for many months. Still grieving a major loss, these smaller losses have seemed much bigger, collectively. And, as we all know, the holidays are amazing vehicles for emotional exaggeration.

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions, but I do think it's time to get back to writing. Buddha agrees. Stay tuned.

No Wonder My Brain Hurts

Up, Up & Away

It was one of those days when I wished I'd stayed in bed. I was late leaving for my morning balloon chase, I turned right when I meant to turn left, I seemed to always be in the wrong lane for making a turn, I found myself in heavy traffic on streets I tried to avoid, and my morning shaped up to be one missed opportunity after another.

On the plus side of the equation, I did remember to bring fresh batteries, all my lenses, hot tea and a cheerful outlook, which made my silly mistakes more bearable. In spite of endless miscalculations, I still managed to find a few places to stop and snap some photos. The first two were taken through the open driver-side window while stopped in traffic.





It always makes me nervous when balloons fly so close to wires...




This balloon was especially colorful!




A smiley face balloon followed me for quite some time this morning. Every time I looked over my shoulder, there it was, grinning at me and serving as a reminder to smile, no matter how woeful things seem.


On my way home I came across a balloonist who had just hit the ground hard and was having trouble controlling her landing. The winds were kicking up, dragging the basket and envelope (the balloon itself) toward a barbed wire fence. I pulled over to help and discovered the pilot was someone I'd met last year. (See How To Launch A Balloon.) We averted a minor disaster and kept the balloon away from the fence. She was obviously unnerved by the whole thing and a tad cranky, which is no surprise. Hoping to soften the tension, I looked for the smiley balloon - already becoming a totem of sorts - but it was nowhere in sight.


All in all, it wasn't a bad morning, despite a rocky start. I've some preparations to make today for our very early morning journey to Balloon Fiesta Park tomorrow morning. At the top of the list is finding my gloves, thermals and winter coat. It's COLD at that hour of the day!

Therapy

Hurricane Norbert, now a Category 3 cyclone, is taking aim at the Baja Peninsula. Computer models take this storm across Baja and into the Gulf of California, making a second landfall in Western Mexico, eventually tracking into New Mexico as, quite possibly, a tropical storm. Leaving Florida does not, evidently, preclude being in the Cone of Possibilities. If Wall Street and dirty politics aren't enough to completely disrupt my equilibrium, the threat of a tropical storm is.

I chased balloons today, which is quickly becoming a therapeutic exercise in forgetting global disturbances. Stocks are plummeting, presidential campaigns are in the gutter, but balloons are rising.

Balloons, Balloons, Balloons

On June 5, 1783, a crowd of people gathered to watch the first balloon, fashioned by the Montgolfier brothers, a pair of French paper makers, rise skyward. It was theorized that smoke would lift the balloon and carry it away. It worked, but no one realized it was heat that made it soar over the French countryside, not smoke. After several more test flights, the Montgolfier Brothers decided to send passengers aloft: a duck, a chicken, and a sheep. Then, on November 21 of the same year, physicist Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and army major Marquis Francois d'Arlandes took flight in a Montgolfier balloon. The flight was seen by nearly all of Paris, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. After 25 magical minutes of flight, they landed safely outside Paris with much celebration.

I hit the road early this morning to watch the Mass Ascension from Balloon Fiesta Park. I managed to snap these photos from a parking lot on Paseo del Norte before my camera battery died. I really need to remember to bring ALL my lenses and a spare battery next time I chase balloons.

2008 Balloon Fiesta

It's that time of year again! Weather was just perfect for launching the 680 balloons that filled Balloon Fiesta Park at dawn. The wind gently blowing to the Northwest, today's chase took us all the way to Bernalillo. We passed hundreds of cars parked along the interstate. Lawn chairs were set up all along roadways, while breakfast burritos were being consumed and thermoses of coffee were passed around. It was a beautiful day for balloons. Tomorrow rain is expected and the mass ascension may be scrapped, so we made an effort today to drag ourselves out of the house a little after 7 to follow the balloons.

9/11: A Remembrance

This slideshow, created by me six years ago, represents my own personal journey in the wake of 9/11. It was, in a sense, my therapy, my way of trying to make sense of the senseless and coming to terms with the realities of war. Many of the images are disturbing. The first half of the video is about shock, violence, and grieving. The message in the second half is hope. May this slideshow and the events of 9/11 serve as a reminder that our lives have value and meaning, that peace is a personal process, and that we are all connected.

Los Poblanos CSA

I recently became a member of our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Los Poblanos. Every Tuesday afternoon I drive to the farm, located less than two miles away, to pick up my share of the weekly harvest. I didn't get a chance to photograph last week's harvest box, but this week I managed to snap a photo before some of it wound up on my dinner plate.


This week's box included potatoes, beets, cheddar cauliflower, red onions (very sweet!), Juliet tomatoes, a bunch of beets, zucchini, parsley, avocadoes, pluots, pears, and roasted "Big Jim" chiles (a medium hot green chile). And, it's all organic. Missing from the photo are the beautiful green peppers. I still have carrots, spinach, lettuce and grapes from last week's harvest box, resting comfortably in Debbie Meyer Green Bags in the fridge.

Tomorrow morning I'm expecting a delivery of a new fridge. The old one still works, but the drawers are flimsy and it's just too small. There will be lots more room for farm goodies in the new fridge.

It's great to be making weekly trips to an organic farm again. Last time I did that was in New Hampshire over five years ago, when I traveled to Center Conway each week to work or pick up my harvest bag at the Earle Family Farm. It's always a surprise to see what's included in the harvest bags, which change from week to week.

Eat organic and eat local. It saves energy and the food is fresher. It's also fun.