Explore the Fun and the Faraway - Wherever You Are
All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. ~ Blaise Pascal
Sometimes silence – or quiet - is golden.
I was watching a favorite television show the other night while re-tightening my locks.
But when the commercial break began in a volume that was umpteen decibels louder than the program, I immediately tuned it out. Exactly how many advertisements I missed as the TV blared on – two, maybe three – I don’t know.
Then, suddenly, it got quiet. [Read more...]
Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. – Ernestine Ulmer
Because the holiday commemorating Mexico’s victory in the Battle of Puebla, the Cinco de Mayo, occurred just a week ago, and I wanted to give friends a sweet treat for Mother’s Day that required no baking,
On the rooftop of my homestay family's home in the state of Mexico.
I decided to make a small batch of camotitos poblanos, or sweet potato candies, like the ones I bought from street vendors during my stay in Mexico as a teenager.
Camotitos, in their most basic form, are sweet potatoes flavored with lime and pineapple, rolled into easy-to-eat cigar-like shapes, and glazed with sugar crystals. [Read more...]
Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think. ~ Chinese Proverb
Over a decade has flown by since I returned to the States following two years of teaching high school English in central Japan.
The intervening years have been highlighted with short stays in Jamaica and Latin America and multiple trips to Europe and Bermuda.
But only one trip back to Japan.
What a trip that was . . . I designed a whirlwind itinerary that took me and my husband down and up the Japanese islands, from Tokyo to Nagasaki and back to Tokyo. We had [Read more...]
Vitamins and minerals naturally come into balance with a colorful range of foods. ~ Elizabeth Andoh
Go-shiki, or five colors, is the principle of Japanese cooking that dictates that every meal served feature each of these colors: red, black, green, yellow, and white.
Why? Because, as Japanese cooking authority Elizabeth Andoh explains, balance in the color of the food naturally tends to create meals that are nutritionally balanced.
Go-shiki is the first of the five principles for food preparation that Andoh addresses in her book Washoku – Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen.
The cookbook to devour if you want to learn to prepare homestyle Japanese food.
The other four principles of washoku – “the harmony of food” – are :
Art collecting requires a bit of an investment. A painting may cost more than cheese puffs, but not necessarily more than a very good bottle of wine. ~ Glen Helfand
For me, it began in Dyfed, Wales with a pair of brass candlesticks that might have been used by the characters in my favorite 19th century European novels. Total cost: under $100.
For Dimitri Mavrommatis, who recently spent $1.4 million for a pair of armchairs by master furniture designer, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, it began in New York City. The financier says that it was at the Metropolitan Museum that he “had a kind of crash . . . I told myself if I were ever lucky enough in my life, I would start collecting.”
A rattlesnake loose in the living room tends to end all discussion of animal rights. ~ Lance Morrow
The area we live in is largely undeveloped and the landscape uncultivated, filled with mesquite, yucca, and desert grass.
And everyday it’s alive with roadrunners, rabbits, and coyotes, and other critters that are mostly harmless and, I think, sort of cute.
But we’ve got rattlesnakes, too, the most common poisonous snake here in New Mexico. Not so cute.
And they enjoy coming out in the warmer weather just like we do.
So, what to do?
Local acquaintances, long-time residents of the area, have offered well-meaning advice:
And [Read more...]
Art Deco reflected . . . confidence, vigor and optimism by using symbols of progress, speed and power. ~ Robert McGregor
One week from today marks the 81st anniversary of the Empire State Building. This New York City landmark remains my favorite building in all the world for two reasons:
1) the beauty that it symbolizes and 2) the beauty that it is.
Both reasons taken together are reason enough to visit this year.
1) SYMBOLIC BEAUTY
The Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, in the early years of the Great Depression. The skyscraper, then the world’s tallest building, was a visible and irrefutable sign to onlookers of what success they might achieve despite their bleak circumstances.
2) PHYSICAL BEAUTY
The Empire State Building is one of the greatest examples of art deco in American architecture. [Read more...]
I help people discover beauty in unfamiliar places. And survey the world of international art, travel, and homestyle cooking from the heart of chile country in southern New Mexico.
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