Thanksgiving in Oaxaca

While Thanksgiving is strictly an American holiday, the locals give thanks along with the gringos.  And, like everything else in Oaxaca, it's done with great gusto.  Stuart and I enjoyed a huge covered-dish feast at the Oaxaca Lending Library Thursday.  Friends cooked several turkeys and hams, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and everyone brought a dish to share.  Our favorite rock-and-roll band played on the roof afterwards, and we danced and laughed until we'd worked off most of the meal.

Michelle, Bob and Jose in the kitchen...

Tere B, dancing off the Big Meal...

Katz, Job, Dr Z and , playing the songs we all love!









Saturday, we feasted and gave thanks again at Michelle's beautiful house in Teotitlan.  She and Carol cooked turkeys and ham, and again we brought covered dishes to share.  Spence and Alex brought their guitars to entertain us until the moon came up.  Another fabulous day! 

Larry, who is FIRST in line!  It truly was a feast.

November in Oaxaca

I'm out of clever titles for the day.  Maybe tomorrow!

As I read this before posting, it should have been about three posts.  But, here it is anyway!

The month has flown past.  Friends Beth and Fish arrived in Oaxaca a couple of days after we did, and settled right in at the pretty Casa Colonial.  They wasted no time in hitting the streets the next day, while Stuart and I were in Teotitlan with friends for a fabulous afternoon of cooking and eating and sampling mezcal.  Fish managed to buy not one, but two rugs within the first 24hours in town!

While Beth and Fish shopped, we headed to Teotitlan with Tom and JoAnn.  Michelle hosted chef Jose Luis in her spacious house in Teotitlan, set on the side of the mountain just across from San Francisco Lachigolo, and invited friends to help him cook.  And, taste his family's mezcals.  Several of us joined Jose Luis at the small mercado in Teotitlan to do the shopping, and then we took turns in motocabs which hauled us up the hill to Michelle's house with three people and several bags of food in each cab.  Once at Michelle's, I admired the view from her patio, and joined in the washing and prepping tasks.  Jose Luis started a fire in the grill with hand-made charcoal we bought at the mercado, and a team began roasting chiles, squash, tomatoes, garlic and onions.  Another team peeled and chopped chayotes, quesillo and raw tomatoes.   Someone cooked the tasajo, and then some chorizo while the rest of us chopped, mashed and stirred together three of the most delicious salsas I've ever eaten!  (Recipes below)   After eating until we couldn't eat more, we moved out to the patio to enjoy the afternoon sun and conversation, and more mezcal.  Eventually, JoAnn and Tom, Stuart and I shared a cab back to the city.  It was a wonderful way to begin our winter in Oaxaca!

Beth and Fish came to Oaxaca to study spanish at Oaxaca Spanish Magic, the language school I've attended off and on for three years.  Flor has a great staff of teachers, and an efficient agenda tailored to people who are here only for a couple of weeks at a time.  The classes are 3 hours daily, in the morning. Beth and Fish worked hard in the mornings, took a break for comida, and hit the books again most afternoons. We met after class most days for comida, laughing that we ate our way through Oaxaca with them!  Not to be missed:  Los Danzantes, La Cuisine, Itanoni, our favorite tlayuda puesto in the Juarez mercado, nieves in the park, tacos everywhere, drinks on the gozobi rooftop...where is my list?!?  The Sunday rock-and-roll concerts at Casa Colonial began while they were here, and we had a terrific time polishing our singing skills with all the other old rock-and-rollers on the lawn.  We also managed to squeeze in a trip to Tlacolula, Tule and Sn. Martin Tilcajete. 
The photo below:  Stuart, Fish, Senor Joaquin Hernandez (wood carver in San Martin Tilcajete) and me enjoying a shot of Sn. Hernandez's personal mezcal bottle.  Fish and Beth hauled home beautiful treasures from his shop!

Stuart and Sue, Beth and Fish, in the beautiful cactus-fence alley, in the Oaxaca Ethno-botanical garden.




below:  evidence of Francisco Toledo's incredible vision and planning in the gardens.

Sue arrived, to spend a week with us.  We began the eating circuit with her, much to our pleasure!  Sue is a great tourist, and wanted to see everything possible. She and Stuart went up in the mountains to La Cumbre on the Hooking it in Oaxaca weekly hike while I stayed in town that day to work on the Libaray Bazar prep.  In the week Sue was here, we also went to Tule, the Sunday market at Tlacolula, hiked up the Escalera to watch the sunset and see the lights come on in the Three Valleys, toured the world-class Ethno-botanical gardens and went to Monte Alban.

Sue, in a beautiful embroidered blouse from San Antonino.  A great find!

A pair of earrings similar to these Sue found may find their way into my possession!

 Did I mention food?  This is a pitaya, otherwise known as dragon-fruit.  We had great fun talking about this for a couple of days before we actually cut it open....beautiful inside!  Texture a bit like a kiwi, with a taste similar to an asian pear.  Not a very good description!

Stuart and Sue, taking a break on the wall by the Sto. Domingo.

 Back at Teotitlan...recipes are below.
 Below:  Michelle and chef Jose Luis, just before we serve the main courses. 

 Chayote wrapped in hierba buena:

Stuart and Michelle...yes, there was mezcal involved in the apron choices!

Here are the basics of the dishes we prepared with Jose Luis.  The beginning of almost all Oaxacan cooking begins with roasting the vegetables, chiles and tomatoes.  We devoured the salsas with grilled tasajo, and with the best chorizo I've ever tasted, on hand-made tortillas.  If you can put your hands on some good guavas, the dessert is to die for!  These are truly seat-of-the-pants recipes,without portions or serious instructions!

Salsa #1

Roasted Tomatillas, raw garlic minced, salt. 

Peel and roast tomatillas, grind in mocojete, stir in minced raw garlic and salt.

Salsa #2

Roasted jalapenos, avocado, roasted garlic, roasted onion, cilantro

Blend in a blender, adding egg yolk, tiny bit of oil and line juice.  Stir in salt.

Salsa #3

Roasted tomatoes and pasillo de Oax chiles, roasted garlic and roasted onion. 

Grind the tomatoes and pasillo chiles in mocojete, stir in  chopped onion.

Salsa #4

6 roasted tomatoes, 1.5 roasted onions, raw garlic. 

Grind the tomatoes and garlic in mocojete, stir in chopped onions.

Chayote wrapped in Hierba Buena

Chop chayote, onions, garlic, plantains and quesillo.  Saute until soft, with a very little oil.  Add salt at the finish.  Put a spoonful on hierba Buena leaf, add a bit of quesillo, roll, and bake about 25-30 minutes until leaves are soft, not browned.

Jose Luis’ chicken

Boil chicken pieces, quartered onion, smashed garlic and salt in water until the chicken is cooked through.  Cool, and shred chicken.  Reserve the broth.  In a baking dish, layer banana leaves, shredded chicken, solid layer of avocado leaves.  Cover with banana leaves and foil.  Back 25-30 minutes.

Dessert

Guavas. Cut the guavas in half, scoop out the seeds.  Lay the fruit flesh-side-down in a baking pan.  Sprinkle sugar, pour crema and whole milk, chopped basil.  Cover with foil and bake until thickened.  Cool, grate chocolate on top!

Day of the Dead, Oaxaca

It has been said that nowhere in Mexico is Dia de los Muertos celebrated with as much gusto as in Oaxaca. The comparsas, or parades begin a couple of days before the actual Day of the Dead holidays. Just as in the States, All Hallow's Eve is celebrated, but here it is in anticipation of seeing dead loved ones beginning Nov 1. All Saints Day is November 1, is the day for remembering dead children and infants, sometimes known as The Day of the Innocents or Day of the Little Angels.  All Souls Day is November 2, for remembering passed adults.  It is a joyous week!  Families build altars in their homes, with much input from the children.  Many businesses and restaurants build elaborate altars, with orange flowers, candles, photos of dead loved ones, and lots of food and drinks to invite the spirit of the loved ones to return for the day. We have been in some villages where the family takes the favorite food and drinks to the cemetery, along with a piece of burning copal. The spirit then returns home with the living family, to enjoy a meal together, before returning to the Other World.

I'm sad to see the commercialization creeping into the celebrations here.  Every year I see more gruesome masks and costumes, mostly on teen-agers.  Catrina, dressed in all white is a common symbol for both adults and children.  The face painting is terrific!  But, the altars are still the center of attention, and the meals and trips to cemetery begin at midnight tonight, and will continue for the next two days.  Families will hold quiet vigils, with many huge white candles and wheelbarrows full of orange flowers on the graves. In some cemeteries the celebration will be quiet, in others there will be bands and parties and much laughter.  Every village and neighborhood has a distinctly different celebration.  But, they all include food, flowers and drinks!

Mescal is often shared with people watching the comparsas.  The woman in the photo above is pouring a mescal for me!   I've been handed cups of mescal, sandwiches, cups of atole, small pumpkins and woven items.  Last night, a comparsa member handed me her candle and shield!  The photo below is the "sag wagon" following a band and comparsa. Notice the keg of beer in the middle of the photo.

 The San Pablo museum hosts a courtyard of altars, decorated in the various styles of the groups of people living in the State of Oaxaca.  This one below was particularly pretty, even if the photo doesn't show it.

 A special bread is baked and sold everywhere for Dia de los Muertos.  There is always a facebaked into the loaf, a sweet egg bread, always served with cups of hot chocolate.  Mescal is served with everything!

Oaxaca Time

The summer of 2014 will be remembered as the Summer of Music.  And a wedding.  And a (finally!) a new truck.  And time with friends.  And the Blue Building That Could.

Summer of Music:  yoga with Michael Franti on the deck of the Battleship NC!  Travis Tritt at our fav Greenfield Lake Amphitheater.  Keb Mo', Paul Thorn, L-Shape Lot at the beautiful Airlie Gardens.  And more.

Summer wedding:  a most beautiful rehearsal dinner party in our gardens!  Everything was beautiful, from the friends and family, to the weather, the pretty tables and the food.  It was the summer that I finally got caught up on garden chores, and I'm proud.

Summer we we finally spent the money on a new truck.  Lots of research, and questions.  Yes, it is GREEN, not black.









Summer of friends!  We spent much time with friends, dinner, lunch, music, just visiting.  A giggle-filled weekend in Boone, great dinners and birthday celebrations, drinks on the deck, lunches on the porch and in restaurants ,Museum trips, picnics in the park.... It was so nice to spend time with you all!

The Blue Building.  Cape Fear Literacy Council board raised enough money to begin work on an old building it bought several years ago. It's on the campus, making it a terrific addition to the old, small existing building.  Al Gumbs, Joe Davis and Dallas Elliott gave up a weekend to help us lay flooring in the original building, putting to good use their Habitat For Humanity skills on a fellow non-profit project.  Thank you guys!  Stuart built the cabinets and some desks for the renovation of the "new" building.  He is an awesome cabinet man!  I was lucky enough to teach my last two ESOL classes in the new building, and it felt good to be in there.  Dick Robbins is an asset beyond value to the CFLC...my volunteer hero!




Now, once again, friends have a need for a place to live just as we are leaving for Oaxaca.  Molly and Rocky moved in last week, and will be here for an undetermined time.  A plumbing disaster at their house...of course, upstairs!  Good grief, I haven't seen that kind of water damage since Hurricane Floyd.  Their insurance company is being alternately easy to work with and impossible, but I believe they will eventually come through.  Stuart and I are so lucky to have a place to offer, and so lucky to have them here while we are away.  I'm sad watching M&R deal with the destruction, but I'm happy they have a quiet place to live!

So, today we're off to Oaxaca.  It's a gorgeous fall day here.

September already?!?

oh dear.  The summer is winding down.  The beauty berries are screaming purple, and the leaves on their branches are turning brighter green.  That bright green just before the leaves fall off, and the berries begin to dry and the birds pick them off.  The dogwood leaves are just beginning to lose their green, too, but haven't changed color yet.  The hibiscus mutablis is tall, and I can see the beginnings of some flower buds.  The vegetable garden looks like a war zone, with zombie summer plants that are waiting for me to pull them up and toss them in the compost heap.  The spider lilies are surprising me daily, the spikey buds appearing overnight.  They'll bloom soon. And, the swamp sunflowers are budding up, waiting for the annual heavy rain that always knocks them down just as they begin to bloom.  Maybe this is the year they get to perform standing?

Our friends Deb and Ed have left the country.  They retired, and promptly signed up for a two year assignment with the Peace Corps.  Living in Cambodia is a reality check on American creature comforts.  Read about their adventure here....

http://babelsincambodia.blogspot.com

Myrtle Beach Quilt Week, spring

While this photo has nothing to do with either quilting or the beach, it makes me happy to post it.  When I returned from the annual trip with my Quilting Peeps, of course I took a tour through the gardens.  Things visually change so quickly this time of year! I watched a juvenile hummer working the blooms on an azalea.  Time to hang the feeder!  Our terrific power-wash dude, Reuben, was scheduled to clean the winter mildew this week, so I waited until yesterday to hang the feeder.  The first thing I saw through the kitchen window this morning was a hummer at the feeder!

We arrived at our perfect condo on the beach last Saturday in time to unload and go to lunch.  The previous tenants, in a moment of drunken silliness, switched the keys for the multiple units they rented, and returned the keys to the office.  Of course, the keys we were issued didn't work!  The women at the office implied that we didn't know how to operate a key...until the housekeeper came by with her key and discovered what happened.  We spent a quality hour, sitting on the porch, waiting for keys that worked.  Afterwards, we went to a outdoor restaurant Karen and Bev visited last spring during the week.  Well, on pretty spring weekends, it becomes a biker bar!  Five middle-aged women  had them laughing.  At least I was wearing black leggins and a "tuttu".  Just for fun.

Time to get to work!  I partially quilted a top Gini made.  Kari will complete the quilting, and it will go to one of Julie's daughters.  It was fun to quilt!

 Bev brought out her Hawaii fabrics, and completed this top.  With a little diversion due to some math difficulties, it finally came together beautifully!

 Karen finished the fusing of this intricate piece...lots of little bits of fabric to trace the pattern, cut and fuse.  It is beautiful!

 Joanne worked on this quilt, which will be a gift for her SIL...golf fabrics, for a golf pro.

For some reason, I have NO pics of Kathy, hard at work quilting.  She quilted at least FOUR quilts last week.  All gifts.  GO, Kath!

 I was exploring colors for the hydrangea quilt that has been hanging around, waiting for attention for the past 3 years.  All those little blossoms have been cut and pressed, now it's time to sew them on the background.  I'm really pleased with the beginning, and am eager to work on this quilt.  I love hydrangeas.

We all worked on several projects during the week, and the weather allowed me to walk everyday on the beach.  It was a productive week!

 Back at home, the gardens have made a giant spring leap.  The few azaleas the deer managed to miss are blooming; the dogwoods are blooming; the species loropetalum are blooming.  And, the hummers are back.  The day after our return, I also put the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and okra in the ground.  Basil, parsley, dill and fresh oregano,too.  The horseradish is springing up, and the perennial onions are happy. 

It's going to be a great garden year!  Stuart replaced the faucets in the garden, with two heads:  one for the irrigation system and one for the hose.  I'm a happy girl, now that the plumbing is finally in good working order.  Thank you, Stuart!

An out-of-focus tiger swallowtail butterfly.  They are out in full force, the tulip poplars having hosted them.  The milkweed is beginning to bloom, so soon we'll see Monarchs. What a great week!

Quilt Challenge: Oaxaca

Joan and I met through a matchmaker.  The matchmaker, Joann, is a retired HR woman, with the skills to efficiently get things done.  Joann knew I'd bought my sewing machine at a pawn shop last spring, and in an email introduction asked me to tell Joan about the purchase.  In just a couple of email sentences, I told Joan about the pawn shops in the Centro Historico.  She responded, and I responded, and soon we figured out we are both quilters.  It was Joan who suggested that we should meet.  As soon as she walked into Brujula Cafe, on Macedonia Alcala, we felt like Very Old Friends! 

Joan, from San Francisco, has taken up quilting in the past few years, and we giggled like girls can do when we discovered we both were completely awed with the Gee's Bend quilt exhibit.  Pretty soon, we talked about a Challenge.  In the quilting community, a Challenge is a pretty common tool for a kick in pants of the creative process.  Maybe other arts have something similar, with a different name.  Choosing Daily Life in Oaxaca as the theme was the obvious decision.  We went a step further:  using only fabrics we can find in Oaxaca.  oh dear.  The Telas Parisina, and Modatelas, are the two fabric stores in Oaxaca, and have a pretty awful selection.  Mostly synthetics, and this time of year, lots of polar fleece.  Quilters want lovely, clean, soft COTTON.  And, we had to at least get it started before the end of January, when I was leaving Oaxaca.  So, we gave ourselves a challenge on many levels!

Joan had a pretty quick idea of her piece, and of course I had a thousand ideas shouting for the top slot.  Just when I thought I had made a firm decision of how I'd begin (I never know what the finished piece will look like), I'd see something that made me change my mind.  I have always had commitment issues. Throw in the week away from the city in early January, and I was already behind schedule!

A trip to two fabric shops, and I bought a collection of yucky-feeling solid colors, and a few pieces of yucky-feeling prints, all synthetic.  Both, very typical of the modern city.  My inspiration came from a spanish lesson.  I was filling-in-the-blank with correct verb and tense for a story of Rufino Tamayo, the late accomplished painter from Oaxaca.  One sentence included "sensuous" and "watermelons" together, and I knew I had my theme!  Food! 

Joan and I met, with friends, for lunch the last week I was in the city, and I showed her the very beginnings of my first piece in the series, Sandias (watermelons). 

In the beginning of January, there was an group of exhibits at the Oaxacan Painters Museum, that included an exhibit of hand-embroidered handkerchiefs with comments about domestic violence.   Here is what Joan created:

Joan wrote, "I finished my piece and it certainly was a "challenge!"   As I mentioned, my theme was violence against women and I tried to make it look as Mexicano as possible.  I was inspired by the embroidered pieces at the city museum to embroider sayings that I saw on the walls around Oaxaca relating to the violence; and, as I never embroidered before, the letters look just as simple and crude as some on the the handkerchiefs.:-).   It's all very "oaxaquena."  Anyway, it's nothing like anything I've ever done before and the material was certainly a challenge, but it was a fun process,  So I'm happy that we decided to do this regardless of the crudeness of the outcome."

Here are the two unfinished pieces I created.  I have actually finished them both, but haven't taken photos yet.  Both are direct copies of Tamayo's Sandias, but created with cloth rather than paint.  I had a good challenge choosing how to make that thin, white bit between the red part and the rind of the melon, and chose to create the illusion of that inedible part with  thread and stitching.  As elementary-level as it appears, these two small quilts were both good lessons for me.  And, as always, I cut without a pattern or straight edge, using my cutter like a pencil on paper. There will be more Sandias, but this week I'm working on other things.  That's for another post!