The Tenacious Prickly Pear

Destroying a stand of prickly pear cactus is not so easy as one might think. These cacti had already been extensively pruned when my grandson set out to destroy them.

Using a shovel, he chopped off the lobes.

Some he scooped up and dropped into the wheelbarrow.

Others he stabbed with the shovel point for transport.

His morning’s work resulted in this heap in the dumpster.

Is the job finished? No.

Uprooting the plants will take more than a shovel. Maybe an axe. Maybe a crow bar. Maybe dynamite.

He will have to move fast to stay ahead of the determined plants. They have an amazing ability to regenerate.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer

My New Favorite Grocery Store

What a frustrating week this has been. I’ve been trying to deal with two problems in the larger casita: heating and cooling replacement and getting the gas water heater turned on. We want a mini split for the heating and cooling. I now have three bids on that job and will get a fourth next Monday. Inexperienced with gas appliances, I spent all day today trying to reach someone at Southwest Gas. Finally I got through to a person, only to learn that I need to call a plumber about the water heater.

But enough about problems – I’d rather write about my new favorite grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market. To begin with, it is three minutes by car from our house, which is a big plus.

The bulk foods section has more than 300 items to choose from.

The produce section is, as my granddaughter would say, “Awesome!” Not only is the array of vegetables and fruit vast, the prices are extremely low. For example, the bags of gourmet peppers in the foreground are priced at 2 for $2.98. At home these peppers cost $3.95 each! The heirloom tomatoes are $4.00 a pound, but they are vine-ripened and actually taste like homegrown. Perhaps the low prices result from being very close to the growers.

I bought two gorgeous heads of cauliflower for $3.00! At home I consider a single head priced at $3.00 a bargain.

There’s a meat section, just like the one in my coop at home. Here I bought store-made, nitrate-free Andouille sausages for red beans and rice. The store also has an extensive supplements section and a bakery, as well as a complete range of organic dairy and grocery products.

Most surprising to me is that Sprouts offers a nice selection of beer and wine. That’s something unheard of in Kansas. As Annie sang in the movie, “I think I’m gonna like this place!”

Sorry these photos aren’t up to snuff. I took them a little after 5:00 p.m. when the store was crowded with shoppers.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The scenic route to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum goes through Gates Pass in the Tucson Mountains. I knew there were mountains in Arizona. After all, I see the Catalinas from the kitchen window and I know the city is almost completely surrounded by four ranges. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Rocky Mountains and I always regarded Arizona mountains as big hills. Wrong!

Sorry I can’t show a picture of Gates Pass and the spectacular vistas it opens to. When we drove over the pass I was cowering in my seat in the clutches of acrophobia. I could have asked to pull over in one of the many scenic view parking areas for a photo, but I was afraid my legs would buckle if I tried to stand up.

My fleeting terror, however, was soon rewarded by the amazing Desert Museum. As it happens my son’s high school friend Jan is on the staff. She had arranged VIP passes for us and took us on a tour both in some of the public areas and behind the scenes.

I paused on our way to the raptor show to take this photo of another mountain range beyond the Tucsons. Mountain range upon mountain range – I had no idea Arizona was so mountainous. I need a book on the geology of this state!

We watched a grey hawk (Mexican goshawk) and a peregrine falcon flying free, but didn’t stay for the whole show, which was too long on words and short on birds.

We moved on to see a bobcat and a cougar living in expansive quarters resembling their natural habitats. Along the way we passed a long rectangular pool teeming with leopard frogs. Jan said they are all descendants of three frogs originally placed there. This photo shows a quartet of frogs behind the glass, which reflects the scene behind the camera.

The gemstone cave was cool and dark. The many rocks on display show an amazing range of brilliant colors. (Sorry, the glass barrier needed cleaning.)

A recent addition to the museum is an aquarium displaying fishes native to the Colorado River. My absolute favorite was the garden eel display. Only the top half of each eel is visible. The other half is anchored to sand below. All of the eels are in constant motion, swaying to and fro like flowers in a breeze. They are carnivores searching for plankton.

We saw more kinds of rattlesnakes (all in glass cages, I am happy to report) than I knew existed. I forget which one this is, but check out that tongue!

Behind the scenes, Jan took us through the rooms where she works. We went into the hibernation room, most of its occupants – but not all – were sleeping in little houses.

The room that blew me away was one that housed two varieties of rattlesnakes, the spotted and the speckled. Both kinds live in rocks. The color of their rocky habitat determines their color. This speckled rattlesnake obviously is native to white rocks.

The museum occupies 68 acres of the Sonoran Desert. There was no way we could see the whole thing and I can’t even begin to describe all the animals and plants we saw. I have to mention, though, that one item on my bucket list has been checked off. In the museum’s hummingbird aviary I got to see a hummingbird nest with a female sitting on eggs. I could have taken a picture but didn’t want to intrude on her privacy. The picture is clear in my mind, and that’s what counts.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer

Lasagne alla Bolognese

An Italian grandmother taught my future granddaughter-in-law how to make this dish in northern Italy. Yesterday I wrote about the pasta-making process. I didn’t include the sauce Bolognese, which had been made the night before. The sauce included ground beef, ground pork, a bit of tomato paste, beef broth, a little milk, red wine, and finely chopped carrots, celery and onion. It simmered for two or three hours. The aroma was divine.

The dish also includes béchamel using one liter of milk, butter and flour, with about 1½ teaspoons of freshly-grated nutmeg, the spice that characterizes northern Italian cuisine.

The next step is grating two cups of Parmesan cheese. (No short-cuts in this dish.)

Meanwhile, water is coming to a boil for cooking the freshly made pasta, which needs to cook for only two minutes.

The Italian grandmother said the pasta should never be rinsed in cold water. Rather, it should have a dribble of olive oil stirred in to keep the pieces from sticking together.

Finally it’s time to assemble the lasagna. First a little sauce Bolognese to keep the pasta from sticking.

Then comes a layer of pasta. It took only two sheets to cover the 9”x13” baking dish. The sheet of lasagna is almost transparent.

Then sauce Bolognese, béchamel, and a sprinkle of Parmesan.

The layering continues – pasta, sauces, cheese – until the last layer, which ends with just a bit of the sauces and cheese. Finally, the overhanging edges are trimmed.

All the while the Airedale is waiting in hopes of some pasta scraps, which were duly delivered.

The assembled lasagna goes into a 350º oven for 45 minutes and voila!

Let it cool a few minutes and serve it up. The crispy edges are delicious and remind me of pie crust edges. I probably will never make this dish on my own, but I certainly hope to eat it again here in Tucson.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer

Lasagne from Scratch

Our grandson has brought a new member into our family. She has a very different background from the rest of our family. She is a Tucson native who grew up on a mountainside amid a saguaro forest. Her family spent every summer in northern Italy, where she learned to speak Italian like a native. What’s more, she learned to prepare many Italian dishes, including lasagna alla Bolognese.

Yesterday, at my urging, she made that amazing dish from scratch for our evening meal. She came home from work at noon to make the dough, which she kneaded for 20 minutes, divided into two balls, and left them wrapped in the refrigerator while she returned to work. Regrettably I did not photograph the dough making, but I captured the noodle making in detail.

Here she has unwrapped the first ball of dough.

On a floured surface she rolled the ball into an oblong.

Next she turned on her nifty Italian pasta machine at the thickest setting and fed the oblong through twice.

She cut the somewhat flattened oblong in half and wrapped one half in plastic. Things dry out very quickly in Tucson, she says.

She fed the other half through the pasta machine numerous times, continually decreasing the thickness setting.

The dough became thinner and thinner,

and longer and longer until at last the sheet was so thin I could see her hand through it.

At last she cut the long ribbon of dough into three pieces on a lightly floured surface.

She repeated this process two more times, then decided to use the last bit to make fettuccine. The rolling procedure was exactly the same, but at the end she opened the top of the machine, exposing a cutting mechanism. And out came long, evenly cut strips of dough.

These she hung to dry on a clothes-drying rack.

Tomorrow I’ll post the lasagna assembly process. For now, it’s enough to say that I had no idea lasagna could be so delicious. These noodles are far better than the thick-as-a-board commercial noodles. A whole new dimension has been added to our family cooking repertoire.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer