Pechakucha

A few years ago a friend invited us to dinner and then out to a PechaKucha Night. Pronounced the way it's spelled, pe-CHA-ku-cha is Japanese for "small talk." It is an event model created in Tokyo in 2003 as a way for designers to get together and show their work: 20 images for 20 seconds each. The tradition quickly came to our area and has been going strong for 8 years already.

If you go to one, you'll see a little bit of this and a little bit of that--just like this mild bean chili DM invented. I thought the corn and parmesan cheese were strokes of genius, but I take credit for the bed of spinach. Here it is: a homey one-dish meal.

2 cans chopped tomatoes (optional: with green peppers & onion)

2 cans whole kernel corn

1-2 cans black beans 

3-4 cans miscellaneous beans

2 bay leaves, broken in half

1 tbs chili powder

1 medium onion, diced

1 green pepper, chopped

Drain the corn and beans (mostly) and empty into crockpot. Add tomatoes with their juice, bay leaves, and chili powder. Cook on low heat 5-6 hours. Add onion and green pepper c. 15 minutes before done. Serve over spinach leaves with a healthy dose of dried or grated parmesan cheese.

If you're still hungry, this goes well with carrot sticks, garlic bread, and/or Triskets with tahini for a little extra protein.

Vegetarian Quesadillas

Editor's note: I have such a backlog of "foodie photos" that I'm going to try to get some of them up here in between my usual travel or academia-themed posts. Here is Saturday's dinner--a homemade first for us--quesadillas. To fit in with our other meals (including the fact that we had ground beef burritos last week), I decided to cobble together some recipes online for "roasted vegetable quesadillas" as follows.

I told DH last night that I would eat just about anything if it were spread with this guacamole.

Heat oven to 400F. Wash and chop medium potato into thin quarter-rounds. Toss in olive oil, salt/pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. Roast 10-15 minutes. (Remove from oven once golden brown.)

Meanwhile wash and chop bell peppers and zucchini. I used parts of each and ended up with a small bowlful—maybe three cups’ worth? These I also tossed in the olive oil mixture, but you could skip that step. (I wasn't sure whether I was going to saute them or not; I choose to cook them in the tortillas to prevent them from getting mushy.) 

Grate cheese. (We had a cheddar from our favorite, the locally owned Cheese & Crackers).

Melt some butter in a pan and start to warm the first tortilla—flipping a few times—until it gets air bubbles. Put ¼ of potatoes and of other veggies + some cheese on one half of the tortilla, and fold closed. Let cook a few minutes—flipping once or twice—until the outside is crispy and the inside melted.

Top with guacamole and serve with refried beans and a salad. (Sour cream, too, if your household likes it.) We thought the 'dillas could have used a little more queso, but all in all, this was an extremely tasty and very filling meal.

Bonus points if you use your own garden-fresh veggies or make your own guacamole or refried beans!

What We Saw

Here are some photos from our day of vacation during our recent trip to San Francisco. Most important, I finally got to see and stand in the Pacific Ocean! I can cross that off my bucket list.

From a distance we saw Alcatraz Island, home of a military prison as early as 1868, a federal prison (1933-1963), and an occupation by Indians of All Tribes (IAT) (1969-1971). Maybe next time we'll take a ferry cruise to it.

Murals in the Mission District -->
(from Sunday before dinner)


What we didn't see:
We had hoped to see the Camera Obscura at Cliff House, but it had apparently closed early due to a really wicked wind that was blowing by the time we made it from Muir Woods to the Land's End look-out point (check out DH's pants in the photo; also, that's why I'm holding onto my sunglasses above).



We also didn't get any closer to the Sutro Baths than the top of the hill, since the wind was so bracing, and we needed to get across the bay to Oakland in time for the baseball game. The Baths were once the world's largest indoor swimming pool complex: 1 fresh-water pool, 6 salt-water pools of various temperatures, a travel museum, a concert hall, and later an ice-skating rink. The complex burned in 1966 and is now a favorite haunt for locals and tourists alike. Click here for a photography project.

What Is Love?

Some people don't bother to fix vegetables when eating by themselves but dutifully prepare them if their partner puts them on the menu the night they cook. And sometimes they defy expectations and are even creative about it, fixing delightful salads with all manner of nuts, berries, fruits, and chopped veggies.

One night this week it was Dear Husband's turn to cook. I happened to be away all day on campus, forgot my phone at home, and managed--oh so brilliantly--to dial my number from the office phone when trying to call him to say I wouldn't be home to eat before my evening meeting.

The pop singer Haddaway asked in his 1993 hit, What is love? It's a salad waiting for you to get home for dinner, still sitting forlornly on the table when you walk in at 9:30pm that night. (But love is not, apparently, a fork with which to eat said salad. I guess it takes a real commitment to get utensils in a relationship.)

What We Ate

Editor's note: The following is just a sampling of what we ate on our San Francisco vacation. These are not in the order in which they were consumed, nor were they consumed all in the same day!


Breakfast: Lemon Blintz with Creme Fraiche from Crepes on Cole. Kinda pricey but organic and yummy. Dear Husband had French Toast with Fruit, which he thought was better than the short stack of pancakes he'd had the day before.







Lunch: Paninis from Il Piccolo in Sausalito. In retrospect I agree with one of the reviewers on Google: best view in town, but poor food and over-priced. DH's mozarella and basil panini was fine, but my veggie one was still cold in the center. The second half, which I stashed in my purse for latter, tasted better once the bread had cooled and the patty had warmed up.




Dinner #1: Argentinian pockets of warmed meaty or cheesy goodness from Venga Empanadas in the Mission District. Also a tossed salad and a tamarind soda. DH had beef, while I chose spinach (below).






Dinner #2: One night after the conference, several of us rode the cable cars down to Boudin's on Fisherman's Wharf, where a gal pal and I shared seafood chowder in a sour dough bread bowl (below). In addition to a restaurant and cafe, they also have a small (free!) museum on their famous sour dough bread, whose start goes back to 1849 and was rescued by the family matriarch from the earthquake in 1906. (Click here for some stunning period photographs.)

Dinner #3: finally, our ballpark food. DH got a Coliseum Dog, which was "better than average." He scarfed it down right quick, because we had waited until after the first-inning rally to get dinner. Having read a positive review in a local free newspaper on the BART on our way to the game, I opted for the pricey Ribs & Things BBQ; it is, according to multiple sources, the only thing worth your money at the stadium. Thankfully we didn't use very much of our money, as each of our $12 seats came with a $6 food coupon. The potato salad and bread were okay, but the pork tips were a little burnt, and the sauce wasn't sweet enough to my taste. In retrospect I wondered if the food staff looked at me funny for ordering the pork while wearing my scarf like so (the warmest get-up I could devise, as we were seriously under-dressed for as cold as the weather had turned: it was in the 30s!).

If you're going to San Francisco...

Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja),

 Chola period, c. 10th/11th century, India 

Regular readers of this blog know that last weekend Dear Husband and I were in San Francisco so I could give a couple of papers at a conference and so we could have a mini-vacation. Ahead of time, I researched and wrote a series "Poetry and the Pacific" to celebrate the occasion; but as I tried to indicate in editor's notes and quick editing, our travel plans were set topsy-turvey from the beginning. We had to improvise quite a bit. Later I'll post about our time in San Francisco but spare you the details of our return trip, which fell on the same day as that big computer glitch. Here is what happened on travel day 1:

7:55am Left home 10 minutes "late" but arrived at airport in good time since we weren't checking anything. Apparently it is possible to take a sewing needle and a shaving razor through the x-ray machine, but a barrette in your hair will set off the metal detector. I am willing to get dressed again at the airport after removing my shoes, jacket, and scarf to go through security, but I draw the line at doing my hair again! I got a pat down. DH did too, although we're not sure why. Maybe because of his thighs of steel from training for all those half-marathons? (The next one is this coming Saturday.)

8:55am Lingering rain was causing delays at O'Hare. Finally boarded and took off a little late.

Wolkenkrätzer = skyscrapers

10:30am Jogged through two terminals at O'Hare only to discover the second flight was even later. Boarded with confidence and congratulated ourselves on making it after all and on finally being on our way to San Francisco, which we had wanted to visit since getting engaged. Then the captain came on the intercom to announce that a mechanic had broken something, and we might have to change planes.

Shiva as Lord Who Is Half Male, Half Female
(Ardhanarishvara), 14th century, India

We had to change planes. Almost immediately, the flight was cancelled, and an entire plane-full of people had to reschedule their travel. Facing the choice of getting into San Jose in the evening and missing 2/3 of our vacation or shifting our departure and return back by a day (courtesy of the airline), we chose the latter.

12ish Ate burgers for lunch at the airport Chili's. Airline offered to pay for dinner, hotel, and breakfast, and the ticket agent gave us a tip to visit the Art Institute of Chicago while we were grounded.

1:45pm Caught shuttle to hotel. Discovered I had left my laptop in the seatback pocket of the decommissioned plane. Frantically called various official phone numbers. Left a message with Lost & Found. (I have since made many more phone calls and sent many emails. So far no luck.)

2:45pm Caught shuttle from hotel back to airport, where we transferred to the Blue Line to downtown. Giggled about the stops "California" and Damen/O'Hare (Damen und Herren).

Shiva and Uma Seated on the Bull Nandi
in Loving Embrace , 9th century, India

4pm Arrived at Monroe Street. Having entertained a fantasy of attending a Thursday night taping of "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me," we settled for "obstructed view" seats to "Book of Mormon" at the Bank of America Theater.

4:10pm In the meantime, pleased to discover the Art Institute is open until 8pm in Thursdays--and even more pleased so find out about "Free at Five" for Illinois residents. Left museum for an early dinner at the Potbelly Sandwich Shop across the street (a Chicago original).

5pm I didn't want to see any Western art, so we headed for the Alsdorf Galleries of Indian, Southeast Asian, and Himalayan Art to look at Buddhist, Hindu, and Jainist art, mostly sculpture. Reading all the art history descriptions on the labels, I wished for more of a world religions education. DH remembered from reading he has done that being a pantheistic religion, Hinduism was historically relatively welcome to Buddhism. Meanwhile, Buddhists debated how much to deify Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha. My understanding is that Buddism is often practiced today more as a philosophy than as a religion, but I am willing to be corrected in the comments section.

6pm DH wanted to attend the keynote lecture by Oxford historian Christopher Kelly on early Christian appropriations of classical art and culture, "Confronting the Classical—The Making of Christian Art," to celebrate the opening of the new Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art with some items on loan from the British Museum.
.

7:30pm We concluded our impromptu religions symposium with "The Book of Mormon." A charming psychological coming-of-age story staged as a musical about missionaries in "Uganda," this is a satire, folks, not a documentary. (It's by the creators of South Park.) The salty language and ridiculous propositions were hilarious to the young people sitting behind us who had obviously come to make fun of Mormonism. But the show--which has won 9 Tonys--also prompted more thoughtful questions, like what does the faith of a 9-year-old get you as an adult? Does religion have to be factually accurate, or do metaphors suffice (like "Salt Lake City" as paradise)? The Catholics I talked to during intermission didn't like an early song cursing God for misery, but I reasoned it was easy to miss God in the midst of human suffering. More disturbing to me than some of the criticisms of Mormonism (which are applicable to conservative Christianity, too) was the humor predicated on physical and medical problems--but I suppose that is my personal bone to pick. We probably won't go back to that theater, since the ushers seemed unable to seat anyone on time or properly, but the music for the show was catchy, the acting was quite good, and they collected donations for an HIV charity afterward.


10pm Caught Blue Line back to O'Hare.

11:15pm Caught shuttle back to hotel and a little shut-eye before attempting--and succeeding--to fly to San Francisco, where there is sourdough bread in creative shapes, seafood galore, redwood trees, and much more.


...be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

The Poetry of the Pacific, Day 5

Editor's note: This blog was pre-written. In fact, we are traveling on Tuesday.

We woke up early this morning for a day of traveling, in order to get DH home in time for his rehearsals tonight. You could say I'm "putting out the light" on our trip and this Poetry of the Pacific series with this poem by San Francisco native Robert Frost (1874-1963). If all you know of Frost is "I took the Road Less Traveled," his verses may sound quaint to your jaded ears, but in fact he was a modern poet who used contemporary English to express a range of often dark emotions. This sonnet captures psychological dread at loneliness and at the destructive capability of nature. Found on Famous Poets & Poems.com.

Once By The Pacific (1928)

The shattered water made a misty din.

Great waves looked over others coming in,

And thought of doing something to the shore

That water never did to land before.

The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,

Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.

You could not tell, and yet it looked as if

The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,

The cliff in being backed by continent;

It looked as if a night of dark intent

Was coming, and not only a night, an age.

Someone had better be prepared for rage.

There would be more than ocean-water broken

Before God's last Put out the Light was spoken.

Point Bonita light house; the suspension bridge became necessary after strong
waves eroded the land bridge. Click here to read about this and other lighthouses
around San Francisco. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.