Well, the folks finally gave in and took in the sites here in Albuquerque before we leave for Santa Fe.
It all started when Dad discovered there was a High Country Gardens store right here in "Alb". We get their catalog - all kinds of native, xeric, and southwestern flora, basically filled with all the things we like to do our bizness on. Turns out the store was near "Old Town", which several members of the RV club had already been to and helped the local economy. The HCG store and its neighbor Jackalope had all kinds of cool garden stuff.
Old Town may or may not (we haven't researched it) be authentic old adobe pueblo buildings. Mom said it certainly was quaint. There were lots of stores selling Mexican art, Indian art and pottery, touristy T-shirts, and stuff like that. Dad saw some beautiful turned wood pieces by a Texas artist/woodworker in one shop. It gave him something to aspire to once he gets his lathe going. Their favorite stop was a gallery that specialized in art glass, which the folks really love. They saw a number of cool sculptural vases and some candle sticks that they said they "would have jumped all over had the market not tanked last week". Mom is holding out hope that the market, whatever that is, recovers as fast as it went down, because we'll still be close enough to go back and get those pieces.
All we care is that it doesn't cut into our Fromm budget.
On the way back, they saw a sign for the National Petroglyph Monument and detoured themselves to see what it was. Apparently there are volcanic remnants here in Albuquerque and ages ago the natives scribed all kinds of figures into these rocks. They went on a short hour or two hike to see these petroglyphs
,
sometimes sadly noting the modern-day petroglyph (graffiti) scratched alongside the real artifacts. So sad to see the lack of respect for cultural history. Now the good news is that this time they brought us something tasty back. Seems there was a local woman baking bread in adobe ovens just outside the parks visitor center and they bought a hot, still-crackling large round loaf of fresh bread. It wasn't exactly intact by the time they got back, but there was (and still is) plenty to share with us.
Pass the butter!
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What was cooked yesterday
Walnut-Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries
This is the break and bake recipe we made summer 2008 using blueberries instead of cranberries. Divided into 8 portions, each portion into 4 cookies.
3 cups walnuts (or pecans)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (or half butter, half shortening)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup dried cranberries (or dried blueberries)
1. Preheat oven to 350°. To toast nuts, spread evenly on a baking sheet or in a shallow pan. Bake, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned and fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. Coarsely chop and set aside. In a large bowl cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and oats; add to sugar mixture and stir well to combine. Stir in dried berries and toasted nuts.
To bake entire batch, drop spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheets and bake at the time and temp listed below. To make "break and bake, divide into 8 equal portions, flatten, and mark through the dough into 4 pieces. Wrap in plastic and freeze.
To bake, remove a packet from freezer, separate into the 4 cookies onto a cookie sheet or the infamous pizza pan and bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes.
Yield: Makes about 32-36 cookies