Simple Fare

After a hard or stressful day at work, it's nice to come home, put on your pj's and cook something simple and hearty, especially now that the weather is getting cooler. Beans and rice are one of those dishes we look to for peace, comfort and satisfaction. I have the good fortune of being able to go home for lunch and yesterday I threw a few pinto beans into the slow cooker with some water. This also works if you put them on in the morning - no soaking necessary. They cook beautifully!

Our bean dinners turn out slightly different every time depending on what type of beans, vegetables, and/or herbs/spices we use. Some things never change: a little oil, onions, some kind of peppers (sweet, hot or a mixture), garlic, sofrito*, and a few pieces of tomatoes.

Most times we use Annatto oil which is made by boiling annatto seeds in olive oil until it turns a beautiful red color, but last night we used olive oil (about a tablespoon) to saute the onions, peppers, sofrito, and garlic. Into this mixture, we add the spices. This is where it gets fun. David dives into our spice cabinet and starts sniffing everything. How he feels determines the spice for the evening. Last night there was Spanish (smoked) paprika, oregano, some Goya Sazon, a little ginger, fresh ground black pepper, and a bay leaf. After the spices began to heat up, we also added some Morningstar Farms organic breakfast sausage patties and a little bit of water to steam them apart. When the vegetables were tender and the soy patties were all broken up, we added the cooked beans, tomatoes, and some kalamata olives. We let the whole thing simmer while the rice cooked.

One word of advice about rice...brown rice and jasmine rice don't mix well in a rice cooker! We've been very successful combining long grain brown and white rice together though. Anyway, after 2 cooking cycles on the rice cooker, we had our rice and pinto beans with a very nice Beringer pinot noir while we watched Monday night's  episode of The Daily Show.


So, I did a lot of "we" talking above, but really David made those beans while I worked on another simple dish for today. It's based on a dish I had last weekend at Chef Alisha's European and Bosnian Cafe (Oracle and Rudasill-ish). They called it simply "Cabbage Salad" and I can't think of a better name for it. It was shredded cabbage, olive oil, a splash of vinegar, salt, pepper and dried parsley. My first version of this was just slightly improved by using fresh parsley instead of the dried stuff. Last night, I got a bit more creative and added some color to it.

I shredded a half head of green cabbage thinly with my Cutco carving knife (and yes, I was extra careful after last week's fiasco with the smaller, but similar slicer!) and I mean as very thin as I could get it. This is important for having a tender salad as compared to one you have to chew like a cow. Then I sprinkled the shreds liberally with salt and crushed the shreds up with my (impeccably clean) hands until the cabbage turned moist and bright green in color. Then I added a small red pepper, chopped, 1 stalk of celery, chopped, and about 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley. For the dressing I drizzled 1 tablespoon of olive oil, some fresh ground black pepper, and a few splashes of rice vinegar (or you could use apple cider vinegar) over the whole thing. Mix it up and yum!

*Sofrito is a blended mixture of onions, red sweet pepper, hot peppers (to taste), garlic, some salt and lots of cilantro. You can make it in large batches in the food processor and then split it up in smaller bags in the freezer. It lasts a long time!

More Than Just Food

I've been thinking about starting this blog for a while. It won't all be restaurant reviews as I'm trying new stuff at home all the time as well. I guess if it has to do with food, it'll go into this blog and there's always something new to try or taste, so here we go!

Barrio

Last night David and I ran our first Meet Me @ Maynard's event in downtown Tucson. We walk/ran the 3.4 mile course and planned simply to enjoy the refreshments afterward. However, once we were done, we figured we'd better make use of one of the restaurant discounts offered for MMM's participants. What a great idea from those area restaurateurs! Of course, we would eat out, we just burned all those calories, right?

One of my favorite activities is discovering new restaurants and so last night we checked out Barrio at 135 S. Sixth (at Broadway). As we entered I immediately felt undressed due to the decor and clientele, but the wait staff assured us our attire wasn't too casual (running shoes/ shorts and t-shirts) and went out of their way to make us feel at home.

We started with a "Little Plate" called Stuff Jalapeno. To say this was superb is an understatement! Your abuela's chili rellano, this is not! The lightly steamed bright green pepper was filled to brimming with black beans, goat cheese, and more. It was all laid bare on a roasted red pepper cream sauce with a hint of something tangy (lime?). We finished the pepper in no time and then sopped up the remaining sauce with some of the homemade bread.

Next I had a cup of the soup d'jour, creamy tomato and cilantro. Thick, creamy and very, very fresh tasting! I had to slap David's little paws away as he kept trying to dip his bread into it!

You'd think we'd be full by this time, but our entrees arrived just as we were finishing up the soup. David ordered the black pepper-encrusted roast duck with a honey sauce, basil-infused mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables (carrots, yellow and green summer squash, and cherry tomatoes). After a bite or two, David realized he had never had duck not prepared in the Chinese manner and had a hard time when pressed deciding which he preferred. He finished everything on the plate, except (of course) the tomatoes.

I chose the fruit salad for my entree. Not an entree, I know, but the vegetarian entree was the typical pasta with vegetables that so many restaurants include in their menu. More on that later. Right now, I'm thinking about that wonderful creamy vanilla bean salad dressing that was unlike any other I've ever had. It was the perfect foil for the tart strawberries, black raspberries, mandarin orange, pineapple, and pistachio nuts with Gorgonzola cheese on a bed of young mixed greens. Personally, I thought there was just a tad too much of the cheese, but I'm not a huge Gorgonzola fan. It was easy enough to push most of it to the side though while I finished off the rest of it.

As I mentioned previously, the staff was courteous and kept the bread coming - one of the things that David looks for. Barrio had a pretty good business going for a Monday night and we were the only runners there for the discounted dinner. When I mentioned they needed more vegetarian dishes, the waiter immediately said they are in the process of redesigning their menu and that he would mention that to the chef. He seemed to understand my need for something more hearty than pasta and vegetables, so we'll see...

Overall, we both liked Barrio and will most likely return for more. So, if you're in the area and are in the mood for some really good southwest-inspired dishes, stop by and check them out! Just don't check out the website Google offers as it appears to be an ad for an Asian water filter. Huh?!

There's a bird on my head!

Happy New Year! Yesterday, Susannah and I birded the Wilcoxx/ Sulphur Springs valley area. We started out with a drive around Cochise Lake where we saw many American Coots and Northern Shovelers as well as Common Mergansers, a raft of Ruddy Ducks and a lone Canvasback, American Pipits, and a crazy Say's Phoebe who thought I was a perch and alighted on my hat! That guy gets the Bird of the Year award!

We also checked out the small pond by the golf course and found some Pied-billed Grebes, a gorgeous Green Heron, an immature Black-crowned heron, and a few American Widgeons. Then we headed south on Kansas Settlement road and a made a few stops along the road seeing a frustratingly difficult-to-ID flock of mixed sparrows. We did ID the White-crowned and Chipping sparrows mixed with Lark Buntings. In the same field, we saw a Curve-billed Thrasher that we tried to make into a Bendire's, but no luck. That bill was way too big and curved.

On the way down to White Water Draw there were surprising few raptors on the poles. We did spot a few Red-tailed Hawks and Northern Harriers though as well as a few Loggerhead Shrikes on the wires.

When we finally got to WWD around noon, we found 2 Soras (!) among the numerous Coots and Shovelers. We checked out the Soras for a long time. It's unusual to be able to see those guys and not just hear them. We walked around the dike to the first viewing platform to get better looks at the Sandhill Cranes that we could hear but not see and immediately saw something blazing white out on one of the many sandbars (the water level is probably as low as I've ever seen it). Could that be what I think it is? YES! A Bald Eagle just sitting there looking amazingly majestic. We put the scope on him and all thought of seeing Sandhill Cranes passed out of our minds.

When we finally tore ourselves away from him/her, we got some great looks at the 1 to 2 thousand Sandhills at the back edge of the draw. Susannah also spotted a Kildeer and several Dunlin working the edges of the sandbars. As we continued around the dikes, we found two florescent orange Vermillion Flycatchers showing us their tricks. One last look at the barn storage yielded 2 Great Horned Owls sleeping the day away. We had spent 2 hours there!

Our way back north on 191 produced a few more birds (American Kestrel and Harris' Hawk) to round out the day nicely. Total species count: 37 :-)

Wings over Willcox

On the spur of the moment, David and I took a road trip down to Willcox to see the Sandhill Cranes. David had not seen them before and it was fun for me to watch him try to get some good pictures. Our first stop was Cochise Lake where we almost immediately saw some cranes landing in a field beyond the golf course. There were a few ducks i the lake - mostly Northern Shovelers and American Coots, but also a few Common Mergansers, some Ruddy Ducks, and a lone American Widgeon. Two Northern Harriers swept the fields surrounding the lake - one pale and the other brown.

Next we headed to the AEPCO (Apache) power station ponds. We were able to get closer views of the cranes - there were maybe 2 or 3 thousand of them here. There were also more ducks at the forward edge of the ponds, including Northern Pintails, Green-winged Teal, a couple of Canada Goose, and Mallards. We spent a fair amount of time here, David trying out digi-scoping and me trying to get a fix on the swans in the neighboring pond (I vote for Mute swans, but I seem to be outnumbered). More Northern Harriers and a Red-tailed Hawk here.

Finally, we drove down to Whitewater Draw. At last we had found the hordes of cranes! More and more came in as the afternoon wore on. This time David got some very excellent pictures as the cranes were flying right over our heads. Also seen's at this location were: Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, American Pipit, Killdeer, American Kestrel, Black Phoebe, and four Greater Yellowlegs that were doing a bang-up job of imitating Hudsonian Godwits! It took me over an hour to convince myself that they were, in fact, yellowlegs and not Godwits. Dang! The Vermillon Flycatcher stole the show as we were leaving. He practically burnt up in the setting sun. So beautiful.

Salton Sea on New Year’s Day 2009

The first of the year: (Oh no, don’t let it be so!) Rock Doves outside the Best Western Date Palm Inn in Indio, CA.

On our return trip from Ontario, CA, David and I made several stops along Highway 111 at the Salton Sea. Our first stop at the northern end of the sea beside an abandoned hotel/ restaurant yielded a nice variety (and quantity) of water birds, including:

White pelican
Brown pelican
Black-necked stilt
Eared grebe
Great blue heron
Great heron
Snowy egret
Herring gull
Ring-billed gull

We then stopped at Visitor’s Center a few miles down the road. There we enjoyed the video after checking out the sea by the campgrounds. This area had even more birds than the previous stop and a few different species. House finch, Northern mockingbird, and Great-tailed Grackle hung around the visitor’s center. The birds came in pretty close so we were able to get good looks at the Western grebes, Caspian terns, and Killdeer. An American pipit gave us the best looks I’ve ever had of one as it stayed within 5 feet of us along the rocky edge of the water. The terns were catching lots of fish, but the gulls and pelicans almost always grabbed the prize away. A flock of about 50 or 60 Double-crested cormorants flew by and I added one lone Ruddy Duck to the day list. This was a lively place and we could have stayed a lot longer, but our hour of free bird watching was up and we needed to move on.

After canning a trip to Wister State Waterfowl area due to lack of change (there’s a $2.50 day usage fee), we headed to the Sonny Bono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge Area which, after a questionable start, was the very best of the day. Along the drive into the area, there were several European starling and American kestrels on the telephone poles scoping out their next meal.

We weren’t sure when we got there if it would be productive since there was only one viewing platform and fencing around the rest rooms. Even here though, there were quite a few birds including Gambel’s quail and a Greater roadrunner along with numerous Yellow-rumped warblers. We could see about a thousand Snow geese from the viewing platform, but they were kind of far away for picture taking. Eventually, we found the Rock Point trail and hit the jackpot.

The combination of salt and fresh water ponds in addition to the mesquite tree edge gives this area the variety of habitat needed to support a wide variety of birds. New species seen here:

American avocet
Marbled godwit
Long-billed dowitcher
Greater yellowlegs
American coot
Sanderling
Western sandpiper
American wigeon
Northern shoveler
Say’s phoebe
Black phoebe

As we came off the Rock Point trail back at the entrance, a female Cooper’s hawk landed in the trees near the parking lot causing all the songbirds to seek cover. A small (ah-hem) detour (AKA a “shortcut”) into the back roads on the other side of 111 yielded Cattle egret and Western meadowlark. Thirty-nine species in all and a very good start to a (hopefully) birdy 2009!

Jenn's Visit

Someday soon, I'll get to edit this post about Jenn's visit to Tucson and our birding. For now, here's the list...
Sand Hill Crane
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Commom Raven
Western Scrub Jay
Hairy Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker
Gilded Flicker
Cactus Wren
Lesser Goldfinch
Spotted Towhee
Phainopepla
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Verdin
Anna Hummingbird
American Kestral
Ruddy Duck
Cinnamon Teal
White-crowned Sparrow
Blue-winged teal

And the birding gods smiled...

Jenise enticed me to run after some rarities today, so off we went. Our first stop was near my work place along the Santa Cruz “river.” The Black-throated Blue Warbler was exactly where he was reported being on the listserv for the past few days. Just a little south of the Dragon’s Breath (I mean the Dragon’s View) restaurant among the tamarisk and mesquite trees. He worked the trees in nuthatch-like order, flitting downward on the trunk and then working his way upward. He was easily recognizable in his faded, but unmistakable black and blue.

We spent about an hour walking the loop path along Bonita to Congress and then back to St. Mary’s. This little area turned out to be fairly productive. We also spotted a couple of Verdin, one of which was very busy building a nest, White-crowned Sparrows, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, Pyrrhuloxia, and a first-of-season (for both of us) Vermillion Flycatcher. Apparently, we just missed seeing Liz there 

Next we traveled to Catalina State Park to try for the Rufous-backed Robin that’s been reported there all winter. We found him within 2 minutes of parking the car! He was brilliant among the Spotted and Abert’s Towhees and Cardinals. There was lots of water here, so we back-tracked just a bit and walked north for a little. Along the Bridle trail, we found Curve-billed Thrasher and Gila Woodpecker. On the way out of the park, we spotted not one, but two separate Road Runners!

To wrap things up, we stopped at Tohono Chul Park to lunch on the patio (huevos enchiladas with blacks beans and a fabulous prickly pear margarita) among the chattering house sparrows, cactus wrens, and more Verdin. The bird gods were certainly smiling on us today!