Got Ripe Bananas?

What to do with ripe bananas?
Make a smoothie.  

Do you have any ripe bananas at your house?  The concept of a ripe banana varies from person to person.  Once we were camping with some Canadians.  We were given a big bunch of green bananas.  We were waiting for them to ripen, because we don't like green bananas.  We never did eat one of those bananas because the Canadians ate them all while they were, what we consider, unripe green.  That's how they liked them! I'm not saying that all Canadians prefer green bananas, but that bunch we were camping with ate the whole green bunch of bananas.  They were worried that the bananas would go bad because we were not eating any of them.                                                                           
 These days I like to peel ripe bananas, slice them into 1/4 inch slices, and put them into a one pint plastic container with a snug fitting lid. I use a cottage cheese container, (from the pre-raw vegan times), that has been washed and dried (is this too obvious?).  Usually 2 bananas will fit into a pint container.  Snap the lid onto the container and put it into your freezer to freeze the bananas.  Then, when you want to make a smoothie, you have wonderful, sweet, frozen bananas to make the smoothie cold, creamy, and sweet.  You can add some other fruit, such as berries, for color and added flavor, or not.
You may need to add liquid of choice unless your fruit is juicy and / or your blender is heavy duty (got $400 blender?). The liquid can be water, milk, cream, fruit juice...What else have you got?  I use pure water -- enough to facilitate blending -- about 1/4 to 1/2 cup.  You don't want too much liquid or the whole thing will be too watery.  Start with 1/4 cup and add more if the blender is working too hard.  Ice cubes or crushed ice optional.
You can make a nice smooth, sweet, frozen desert by just blending the frozen bananas with a bit of milk (dairy, soy, or almond) water, or cream.  Just add enough to create a thick, custard-like consistency.  Sometimes just a pinch of cinnamon blended in adds an interesting and more complex taste.
You can always mash the ripe bananas with a fork.  The riper they are, the easier they are to mash.  Leave chunks, or make it smooth.  Add some other fruit, cut into small pieces -- strawberry, sweet orange, mango, peach -- try adding whatever you have available.  Garnish with some green such as a mint leaf.  Sprinkle with cacao powder or carob.  Put a shelled walnut in the middle.  I actually think this would be good garnished with some lettuce leaf.  (see Got Greens? blog)
I have had bananas almost every day for the past 10 days.  Most days I had 4 frozen bananas in smoothies!  Today I had only one, because I had only one frozen banana in the freezer.  I need to peel, slice, and freeze another batch of ripe bananas.  I promise not to eat more than 2 per day.  It is my summer treat.  Yin to all you macrobiotics.  So, don't throw out your very ripe bananas.  Freeze them.
Adding some additional nutrients to your smoothie or general diet?  Get discounts on quality vitamins, herbs, raw foods, superfoods, organics, raw cacao, chia, acai, hemp seed, goji, coconut oil, other organic oils, soaps, organic cinnamon, even organic pet food and dry skin brushes at www.iherb.com .  Use discount code WAL660 at checkout for $5 off and free shipping for orders over $20.   Be sure to select one Freebie free product with your order.  They have  international shipping, product reviews, and information.

Still raw vegan, Southwest Desert Blogger, C. (c)2011

Fallen Vegetarians

Day 14 of no coffee.  Day 10 raw food vegan.  It is a comfortable 97 degrees outside with humidity up to 19 percent.  Been so dry I had to water the patio plants today.  Maybe it'll rain on Friday.

I read some interesting information on Dr. Mercola's website:  Most vegetarians are female.  Most of them laps after an average of 9 years of vegetarianism.  This pool of fallen vegetarians outnumbers current practicing vegetarians 3 to one!  They may fall off the vegetable wagon and board the meat truck for reasons such as declining health, cravings for meat, social pressure, etc. Bottom line: 75 percent of vegetarians fall off the wagon, i.e., they are former vegetarians.

They have traded wheat grass for grass fed beef.  Some are just chowing down on commercial greasy burgers and fries, ribs, filet mignon, rib eye, sirloin, bacon cheese burgers, pork chops, ham, you name it.  They crave it.  But I digress.

Back to the website article:  If you want to ensure that your cattle were grass-fed, look for the "USDA Process Verified" label.  That means they were not fed any grain or grain by-products, except for perhaps cow milk, until slaughter.  Apparently that USDA certification is pricey, so many small farmers / ranchers cannot afford it.  There may be some nice grass fed beef in the butcher shop that simply lacks certification.  Tough decision-making for those fallen vegetarians, omnivores, and carnivores -- save a buck or buy USDA certified?

It is not clear whether that USDA grass-fed beef has antibiotics or hormones.  But at least the cattle got to eat grass and hopefully enjoy some nice outdoor grazing in a pastoral environment.  I suppose if demand increases, they will create the grass-fed feed lot.  The concept boggles my mind.

I do not crave meat.  I am thinking about whether I have enough greens in the fridge to get me through tomorrow.  That head of butter lettuce might not be big enough, but I have a good supply of organic celery to fall back on.  I also have cucumbers, carrots, mangoes, nectarines, beets, a green bell pepper, ginger from Hawaii, bananas, blueberries, apples, almonds, one little avocado, and a handful of cherries. What have you got?  Got beef?

Raw veganly yours,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011  P.S. check out this excellent link for raw vegan info, FREE smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and a super 7 Day Raw Food Challenge and 10 Day Juice Feast.  I have learned so much from this info. 
  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344

Got Greens?

Did you ever crave greens so badly that you had to make a special trip to the store just to get them?  I have had craving for ice cream, chocolate, cookies, a glass of wine, bread, pizza, pasta, some very ripe, sweet fruit, but today, for the first time, I had a craving for greens.  I did not care whether it was a dark green romaine lettuce, chard, spinach . . . it just had to be green.  The cucumbers in the fridge would not satisfy the craving.  I had to make a trip to the store.

I bought 2 bunches of organic celery, one huge dark green head of organic romaine lettuce, and organic beet greens.  I had to go to two different stores to get the quality I wanted.  Wilted romaine or beet greens would not do.  I went home and juiced up the beet greens with some beet root, carrot, apple, and cucumber (all organic save the cucumber which was washed and peeled).  Ahhhhh, the craving was satisfied.

Three hours later I wanted more greens.  It was afternoon and a hot 97 degrees with monsoon humidity.  I mixed up a batch of the banana blueberry smoothie* (FREE smoothie recipe e-Book link at the end of this post) and added as much romaine as I could fit into the blender.  The bananas were cut into 1/4 inch slices and previously frozen.  I had to add extra water to get the whole thing to mix.  See the recipe in previous blog.  I also blended in a few ice cubes; crushed ice would be even better.  The result was a thick, cold product that resembled the $7 smoothies at the smoothie shop.  The smoothie shop will top their smoothies with granola.  I topped mine with hemp seeds which give it a nice texture and taste.  I have also topped smoothies with chia seeds which give a bit more crunch.  Both these seeds are said to have good essential fatty acids such as Omega 3, and protein.  The smoothie works with mango instead of, or in addition to blueberries, but the mango I bought was not organic and had a chemical taste.  There are inorganic mangoes that are better than the ones I had, I just did not want to go to a third store. 

I am not going to accept any of that chemical tasting food.  I put the offending mango in a plastic bag and into the refrigerator.  I will return it to the store.  While I am at the store, I will look for more greens.

Still 100% raw vegan,
Southwest Desert Blogger
*P.S. get easy, delicious, FREE juice and smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and info on the life changing 7 Day Raw Food Challenge I completed, link here:  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344  Have a healthy, happy day. C.
C. (c)2011

Raw Week Day 6

The raw foods week is almost done.  One more day to go.  The first 5 days I got tired around noon.  No raw food or green smoothie would keep me awake enough to make it through the afternoon, so I just took a nap for about an hour.  One day I napped 2 hours.  Then, on the 6th day I had plentiful energy throughout the day.  All events went smoothly.  My mind was focused and on point.  All was well.

It is 7:30 in the evening and despite the heat and humidity I AM still going strong.  I will do some paperwork, read, eat a ripe, sweet nectarine as my evening snack, and enjoy the fact that it is below 100 degrees outside.  I will sleep well at night since I haven't had coffee in 10 days.  I even went to the Fancy Pants Bakery (not the real name, nor is it intended to refer to any Bakery with that or similar name) for my weekly meeting with the Genius.  I did not have anything but water with a wedge of lemon.  The Genius wanted to know whether I would be off the raw diet next week.  Technically, yes.  But, who knows?  I told the Genius that bread and sweets are addictive for me.  Genius said they are addictive.  I think the Genius was threatened by my new rawness.

There is no reason to have cooked food on day 8, 9, 10 or 11.  It is too hot to cook and the raw food is still interesting, nourishing, cooling, and healthful.  Will the Genius discriminate against me for being raw?  How will others respond?  Perhaps it will be more sociable to be the high-raw omnivore.  But for now I AM still the a six day 100 percent raw vegan Southwest Desert Blogger.  
*P.S. Check out this excellent link for raw vegan info, FREE smoothie recipes e-Book, videos, and the super 7 Day Raw Food Challenge (the one I completed, with gratitude!) and 10 Day Juice Fast.  I have learned so much from this info.    http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344

High Raw?

I have heard the term "high-raw vegan" bandied about.  I assumed these folks were raw foods vegans who were stoned high hippies or just on a natural high from all their raw vegan foods.  I have recently been told that the term high-raw vegan refers to folks who are vegans eating mostly raw food.  The term "mostly" is somewhat subjective.  A number of supposedly 100 percent raw vegans eat honey.  Honey, as I understand it, is not a vegan food.  It is made by the labor of bees.  Yet, honey can be raw.  Also, a food can be raw and not vegan or even vegetarian (think sashimi sushi).

It is a challenge to be 100 raw vegan.  There is too much thinking you have to do.  Is the product I purchased really raw as the label states?  Is it 100 percent raw, or is the word "raw" just a marketing tool to move high priced goods off the shelf and increase profit margins?  Has my raw food been kept at low enough temperatures during transport to still qualify as raw?  Does a supermarket scanner render it un-raw?  (I don't think so, as the seeds still sprout after being scanned.)

sprouted seeds grown in a jar

To simplify matters you could eat food you grow or harvest yourself.  Then, you know it is raw.  Barring that, you could eat only raw fruits and vegetables, and seeds and nuts that sprout.  If they are heated excessively, or  irradiated, they will not sprout.  Thus, if they sprout, they are alive and raw seeds.

You better get expert advice if you plan on being a long-term 100 percent raw vegan.  There may be hazards to your health.  One of the main hazards, assuming your sprouts are fresh and clean, is that the vegan (and sometimes vegetarian) diet may be woefully low in vitamin B12.  This can have serious health consequences.  I will give you a video link that explains it in more detail.  Personally, I take a good quality sublingual B12.
http://www.rawradianthealth.com/blog/?s=b12+
There is a lot of good information on this site, how to sprout, make almond nut milk (I just soak the almonds for 12 hours or more, drain the soak water and add 3 cups of fresh water, add 3 dates, blend all in a good standard blender, and strain through a fine strainer over a bowl; it tastes great in coffee, which I haven't had for 7 days!), other good, easy recipes, and interesting health related information.  Get the free e-Book of juice and smoothie recipes http://www.rawradianthealth.com/and stroll around the site for excellent free videos, easy raw recipes (save energy, use the stove less!) and info on the very well thought out, planned, and doable 7 Day Raw Food Challenge.


I have come to realize I AM (to coin a phrase) a high-raw omnivore.  The simple raw foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and raw oil have been good for me.  This week I AM a 100 percent raw vegan.  However, I cannot say that I will never spend time with Ben and Jerry again in my life.  They just aren't looking as attractive as they used to. 


Stay cool.  Have a nice salad, add few pieces of  apple, peach, nectarine, or orange and some walnuts. Add a few ice cubes to your smoothie.  It's easy.


I AM high-raw
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Is Your Drink Green?

Have you ever had a green drink?  No, not a green colored cocktail.  I mean one of those green health smoothies?  I used to do (i.e., drink) wheat grass juice.  It tastes like drinking the front lawn (if you have a front lawn).  I remember waiting on line at a health food store deli counter (do they call it a deli?) and someone ordered a "shot" of wheat grass  juice. The man standing behind me in line was not well versed in the wheat grass culture, so he asked the deli counter worker, "What is a shot of wheat grass?"  The worker explained that he would juice fresh wheat grass and each ounce is a shot (think bar culture).  The man on line said, "Isn't that what my dog eats and barfs up afterwards?"  Yes.  He got the idea.

Often, health foods are an acquired taste.  Sometimes they are downright difficult to stomach.  I asked the organic food co-op produce man why kale is so popular.  It seems like a good way to destroy a salad and why would one add it to a smoothie and risk ruining all the sweet fresh fruit used to disguise the kale?  The coop man said he thinks people just force themselves to eat kale.  He doesn't like it either.

A green drink seems like a good idea 2 days of the year:  St. Patrick's Day and Halloween.  But today I tried a green smoothie.  It is part of the raw food week.  The full recipe calls for 4 bananas.  I just happened to have 4 bananas at the peak of ripeness.  The recipe calls for blueberries.  I just happened to have organic blueberries that actually have some taste to them.  And the recipe calls for spinach.  I have over a pound of spinach and I like it much better than kale.  So all systems were a go.

The recipe I used is a big risk because it makes 4 cups of smoothie. You don't like it and you are stuck with a lot of green goo in a blender.  Bearing that in mind, I judiciously made half the recipe.  I wasn't sure if the amount of spinach in the recipe was loose packed or solid packed cups.  I just added spinach until the nice blue smoothie turned green.  It was a nice shade of green, but a bit ominous.

I poured it into a clear glass cup.  It was green.  It was thick.  I was hungry so I tasted it.  It was good!  I was amazed at how good it was.  It was easy to drink.  I had to slow myself down.  It was downright chugable.  Like Chinese food, about an hour and a half later I wanted more.  So, I made the other half of the recipe, but this time I packed the blender with as much spinach as would fit.

The blender needed help blending the additional quantity of spinach.  I kept turning it off, removing the lid, and mixing the blended fruit with a bit more water or a couple of ice cubes, folding in the spinach, and blending some more.  I did this several times until the blender could mix everything smoothly.  Now, to see whether I overdid the greens.  No.  The smoothie was still so good I finished it all even though I had intended to save a cup for later.

This morning I thought green smoothies were a repulsive concept.  Now I am thinking, "How can I tweak this recipe and make variations on the theme."  Luckily, the bananas in the house will probably not be ripe enough to suit my taste for at least 48 hours.  Otherwise, it would be banana blueberry spinach smoothie again tomorrow.  I think I will add a pinch of cayenne pepper to give it that Southwest zing.  The heat of the cayenne pepper powder will also slow down the consumption of the quart of smoothie.
Cayenne pepper powder is measured in HU (heat units).  I have HU 90.  It is HOT. I add it by the tiny pinch.  I believe there is hotter cayenne pepper powder available.  Be careful with it. This stuff should be R rated.  It is not for everyone.

The half recipe (makes about 2 cups smoothie) for the banana blueberry spinach smoothie is in this FREE smoothie e-Book http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344 .  Check the videos at the link to find a video of how to make this and other easy recipes as well as excellent information on health and happiness.  I think you will like it.  I added several ice cubes and less water to my smoothie because it was very nearly 100 degrees here before noon. 

Stay cool.  Stay raw.  Be happy.
(raw now) Southwest Desert Blogger
P.S.  I think the banana blueberry spinach smoothie would look good in a martini glass.  No olives.
C. (c) 2011

Got Raw Food?

This week, starting Monday July 18, I am participating in a one week Raw Food Challenge.  I will be eating only raw food for one week.  The offerings are all vegetarian and vegan.  Generally, vegetarians do not eat meat, except for those like my sister in law who is a vegetarian who eats chicken and fish.  I did not want to argue with an in-law, so I let it be.  I am not sure her head is flexible enough to wrap around the concept that chicken and fish are meat.  Vegans, as I understand it,  do not eat animal by products such as eggs (from chickens), milk or milk products such as cheese and ice cream (from cows), honey (from bees), etc.  There are some vegans who eat honey.  Some eat maple syrup.  Usually these folks are very health conscious and do not eat sugar, or at least attempt not to eat it often.  It is hard to be a purist in an impure, fast food world.

Finally, there is the raw foods movement.  These folks eat only raw, uncooked food, or food that is cooked to 104 degrees (Fahrenheit) or less.  There are raw vegetarians (they can eat (or drink) raw milk and cheese, raw eggs, raw honey, perhaps raw grains, raw oils, raw chocolate, and other treats, in addition to raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds; raw vegans who consume only raw non-animal source foods such as raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, perhaps raw grains, etc., and raw foodists who eat raw meat and fish, in addition to the fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds etc.  Got all that?  OK.  Lets move on.

This week I will be a raw vegan.  It is over 100 degrees every day.  Why would I want to cook?  I will save energy and keep the house cooler because the stove is not on at all.  There will not be any pots and pans to clean.  I am ready to have the salads, smoothies, cold soups (think gazpacho), raw vegetables and raw dips, nuts, seeds, fruit, and more fruit.  That's all folks.

In preparation for the week of culinary rawness, I had my goodbye ice cream and all the little samples of the soon forbidden foods (as there are no forbidden fruits).  This mini buffet was at the big discount warehouse store that I lovingly call "Costlo" because the quantities are big and the costs are...
sort of low.  On an average day strolling through Costlo you may sample breads (sometimes with olive oil drizzled over it), cake, pie, mini cream puff, crackers and cheese, ham and cheese, tuna salad sandwich (about 1 inch square piece per person), one ravioli, a 1/3 inch slice of tortilla wrap, small slice of beef, 1/4 hamburger, 1/4 veggie burger, a tempura shrimp, fish, tiny cup of chili, smoothie, spaghetti with red sauce, chocolate covered blueberries or pomegranate seeds, popcorn (caramel, kettle style, etc.) a piece of granola bar, chips, dried fruit, nuts, candy apple pieces, etc.  Today they also had bacon and chocolate covered toffee.  No, the toffee was not covered with bacon, they were two separate samples: one was bacon, the other toffee.  To be clear, all of the above offerings were not available today, but there was enough to have a cooked food farewell while stocking up on raw food.

What did I get?  I got 2 pounds of organic greens, 2 pounds of organic baby spinach, 5 pounds of organic carrots, 6 pounds of nectarines, I don't know exactly how many pounds of plums and  organic apples, 6 very large tomatoes, lemons, limes, oranges, 10 bananas, 6 cucumbers, almonds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, a melon, and a few pounds of organic blueberries.  Although the nuts and seeds are supposed to be raw, I am skeptical.  I was surprised that the almonds appear to sprout little tiny sprouts at their pointy end after being soaked over 12 hours.

I still need to get more vegetables such as celery, red onion, broccoli, and grow some sprouts.  I have the sprouting seeds soaking.  I am the one who got soaked at the health food store when I bought the organic sprouting seed mix at $11.99 (USD) for an 8 ounce bag.  I have a feeling it would have been cheaper to buy sprouts that had already been grown in the sprout factory.

The fruits and vegetables that are not noted as "organic" are conventionally grown, i.e., with who knows what added to the soil and applied to it at various stages of growth and transport.  I had a talk with the local organic food co-op produce man who said he had some delicious cantaloupes.  He said they were the best he had ever tasted.  He selected one for me and it turned out to be tasteless -- at three times the price of a conventional cantaloupe.  I think young folks may never have had good fruit.  Perhaps they do not know that fruit should taste sweet and fruity.  A good strawberry should have a natural strawberry flavor, a blueberry should be blueberry flavored, melon should be sweet and melon flavored, not just colorful water balls.  I don't care how supposedly organic it is; if it does not taste like fruit, there is something wrong with it.  Take it back! 

The co-op said to bring the cantaloupe back and they would refund my money, but it would cost more in gas to drive there than the cantaloupe costs. This season I still have not had a blueberry that tasted like a blueberry.  They are just blue water balls masquerading as blueberries.  The produce man at the supermarket told me all the mangoes are picked green.  We are told the bananas are picked green.  Peaches and avocados are hard as rocks.  Will they ripen before they rot in your kitchen?  Sometimes.  Will they taste good?  Flip a coin.

Back to all that raw food I bought:  It is only a 4 day supply!  Think about it.  There is no bread, potatoes, pasta, steak, burgers, dairy product, or pastry to fill up on.  No cookies and milk.  No french fries (is this a good diet for patriots?).  No breakfast cereal, eggs, toast, English muffins (sorry Brits), Canadian bacon, ham, waffles, pancakes, or any other(breakfast - let them eat) cake.  Not even any lowly oatmeal.  No dried fruit unless, I suppose, it has been dried at 104 degrees or less and thus qualifies as raw.  No crackers. No brown rice, white rice, rice cakes, rice crackers, matzos, wine, beer, or any other booze. No pizza unless you create a raw art project that looks like a pizza pie.  No traditional carb fillers.  And no coffee!  Ouch.  And kiss Ben and Jerry goodbye.  Adios.  Hasta luego amigos.  Vaya con dios.

Actually, there should be no caffeinated beverages of any sort in this raw diet.  Some allow raw cacao (chocolate) which does have some caffeine.  Coffee beans are roasted, tea leaves may be heated, and the water used to make coffee or tea is often over 104 degrees.  I have been decaffeinating myself for the past 4 days by substituting green tea for coffee.  It has been working.  I enjoy the cold green tea with lemon, in the morning, in large quantities.  At first I had nearly a quart in the morning plus some later in the day.  Today I had only 16 ounces of weaker tea.  Quitting coffee is big for me.  It is something I have wanted to do for a while.  I have discovered that I just want to drink something in the morning.  Tomorrow I will see whether water with some lemon juice will suffice.

Now, back to washing all the non-organic produce in the special produce wash that is supposed to remove sprays, wax, and soils.  I could rant about how I hate waxed produce, but this blog is long enough.  In short, if you hate it, don't buy it.  If it is wilted, don't buy it.  If it is tasteless or never ripens, return it.

Giving thanks for all the food we have in the Southwest Desert,
(nearly raw) Southwest Desert Blogger
C.
P.S.  If I leave the food out in the sun, in the heat of the day, it will cook to over 104 degrees.  Some say, "When it is hot here, you can fry an egg on the sidewalk" -- that is, if you are not a vegan.
P.P.S.  Here is the link to the site sponsoring the 7 Day Raw Food Challenge (I completed it! It was, as cliche as this sounds, life changing.).  Feel FREE to check out the FREE juice and smoothie recipe e-Book, and all the other goodies, info, FREE blog videos, etc. at this site  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344 .  Enjoy! 
Got plenty of raw food,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Tiny Cactus Flowers

We have a break in the monsoonal weather so I have been outside looking for flowers.  I found several tiny mammillaria cacti, growing in the wild, in bloom.  There are over 170 different cacti in the genus mammillaria.  Only 14 of them are native to the United States.  The posted photos illustrate how difficult these tiny cacti would be to spot if not for their vivid flowers.  The flowers, in full bloom, are about 1 inch in diameter.  This species of mammillaria is more or less 3 inches tall.  Some are a few inches taller, but these often tend to lean to the side. Please enjoy the photos.  I just shot them and even though it is a mere 100 degrees outside, as I sit and type this, there is sweat running down my spine.

tiny mammillaria in the wild -- notice the prickly pear pads on the left, wilted in the dry summer heat

Close up of the flower and spines: notice the hooks!

The spines provide the cactus with some shade and protection.

 

if not for the flower, this would have gone unnoticed

                                         view looking down -- notice all the flowers and buds
There may be many more flowers where you live.  They may be larger, more abundant, more colorful, and fragrant.  Here in the wild Southwest Desert summer, the flowers are rare and often small.  We appreciate them, and I hope you have enjoyed them too.  Stay cool.

As ever,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

You Are Here

I Am amazed that people from all over the world find me.  I Am the humble Southwest Desert Blogger.  What brought you here today?  Boredom?  A search term?  Another site?  Well, I Am glad you are here.  It is 10:00 PM in monsoon season.  The temperature is a humid 91 degrees (F.). 

Sunday evening someone turned into my driveway by accident.  She drove off the road and got stuck.  Her car blocked the driveway.  The car had to be towed out,  but because it blocked the driveway, the tow truck could not access the front of the car to lift it and tow it.  The tow truck driver said he would send another truck -- a smaller one.

While we waited for the second tow truck to arrive, neighbors showed up to try to help.  Men, women, and children discussed the situation, observed the car from all angles, looked under it to see how it was stuck, and went home to get other family members to see the event.  The second tow truck arrived.  It could not access the car because of the narrowness of the driveway.  The tow truck driver took out his smart phone (at least the phone was smart!) and took photos of the situation.  These photos were sent to his boss, who told him how to extract the car from it's strange, stuck position, with one tire over the ledge, stuck and blocking the driveway.

The men got the tools, the car was lifted enough to be pulled from the back, and it was pulled back onto the road so that it could be driven, in reverse, out of the driveway.  The monsoon mercifully did not shower us with rain during this event, which took nearly two hours to complete.

How did that woman driving that car find me?  She meant to visit her friend two driveways down the road.  They were to have dinner.  Dinner was postponed until the car could be extracted from my driveway.  You found me, too; but you had the entire cyber world to navigate.  What are the odds?

Do you think there is a divine plan?  Are you here by divine appointment, or is it just random chaos?

This evening I was remembering the time I was in, as I call it, the "Fancy Pants" Bakery.  As you remember, "Fancy Pants" is not the real name of the Bakery, just a descriptive way to refer to the place.  I was waiting for my friend, the genius, to show up for our weekly coffee and talk.  While I was waiting, a man was trying to push a woman in a wheel chair into the Fancy Pants Bakery.  He could not push the wheel chair while holding the door open.  The workers watched, and no one helped, so I went out the other door and held his door open from behind him, so he could concentrate on navigating the wheel chair through the door.  He succeeded and he and the woman in the wheel chair thanked me.  Random chaos?  A few minutes later someone at the Fancy Pants approached me and said, "I was going to help them, but you got there first."  I thought, "Why did you wait?"  but did not say that.  Instead I thanked her for her good intention.  We were both there.  One person acted.  One hesitated.

The woman in the wheel chair and the man had a nice lunch at the Fancy Pants Bakery.  When the woman in the wheel chair was seated at the table, I could not tell she was in a wheel chair.  I am glad I could help them get through the door.  They appeared to be having such a nice time.

I hope you get to help someone who needs assistance.  Or, maybe someone will assist you when you need help.  Perhaps it will be Divine.

I Am the
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

A Monsoon Flower

"Rain Lily" in the Southwest Desert

The monsoonal weather, as we call it, continues.  It is humid.  We are not used to high humidity.  One consolation is that something unusual may bloom in all the rain and humidity.  One such treat is what we call a rain lily.  This little flower, whose blossom is about 3 inches in diameter and about 7 to 8 inches tall on a very slim stem, grows from a bulb.  The only time rain lilies appear in my yard is monsoon.  The blossom lasts one day.  Somewhere back in time someone planted the bulb.  It split, i.e., the bulb multiplied over the years, and now there is a cluster of several bulbs.  If you look at the second photo closely, you can see the wilted remains of the early blooming rain lilies.  The blossom lasts only one day, then wilts and dies.

 second photo of Rain Lily

Notice the wilted and dead flowers above the rain lily blossom in the "second photo of Rain Lily" (to the right of this paragraph).  There is a very healthy basil leaf hanging down into the top of the photo.  That old terra cota ceramic plant pot the basil is in has been through over a decade of Southwest Desert summers and winters. It has the wear to show for it.  It has expanded every summer in temperatures over 110 degrees (F), and contracted in below freezing temperatures every winter.

Another unusual thing about this year's monsoon season is the record-breaking wall of dust that swept into Phoenix, the capital of the State of Arizona.  The news reporting folks tell us that the wall of dust was more than 50 miles wide and up to 10,000 feet tall.  When it hit Phoenix, it was reported to be 5000 feet tall.  That's almost a mile high as you folks in Denver know.  Winds were reported as high as 81 miles per hour.  Photos of the wall of dust look like a tsunami, but it was dust, not water.  Folks in Phoenix got quite a dusting of desert dirt particles.  Their cars needed washing and their swimming pools needed cleaning because of the unusual amount of dust that got swept in to the area.  The Phoenix sky turned black with dust. 

I suppose it will rain again late this afternoon as the clouds are starting to slowly appear.  The UV (ultraviolet) description is "extremely high" and we have more than 14 hours of sunlight from sunrise to sunset these days.  The sun is strong, the humidity is high, the temperature is more or less 100 degrees in the daytime.

I hope the Southwest Desert Blogger readers in South Africa and Germany are staying cool.  Let me know what the weather is there.  And P.S., translate it into Fahrenheit for me. 
Thanks and / und Danke,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Got Monsoon?

Yes.  We've got monsoon.  The pattern has started.  Every afternoon the clouds roll in.  The wind picks up.  You may feel a few drops or see a few drops of water on the ground or the windshield.  Then the rain starts falling heavier and very soon thereafter the rain is falling in sheets and buckets.  After a period of time, sometimes a half hour, sometimes an hour or more, the rain tapers off and the storm moves out.  The sun may reappear or the quiet of night replaces the pounding of the monsoon rain.

Last week it was over 110 degrees in the afternoon.  This week it is 100 degrees.  Within a matter of a couple of hours, the monsoon lowers the temperatures thirty degrees to a humid 70 degrees.  The humidity is over 70 percent and it feels hotter because of the humidity.  Remember, we are used to a dry heat here in the Southwest Desert.  Monsoon changes that.  The smell of humidity reminds one of a more tropical climate.  Insects may appear during this season, only to disappear when monsoon is over.  Plants can enjoy the humidity and deep watering.  Enjoy it while you can.  After a while it will be gone and all will be dry again.

The long range forecast calls for chance of rain every day for over a week.  This afternoon the weatherman reported over 40 lightening strikes in a 15 minute period.  The winds did damage to a roof.  We've got monsoon.  What have you got? 

Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

It Rained

It finally rained.  Last evening, after about 90 days of no rain, it rained for about 15 minutes.  It was a heavy downpour -- enough to  overflow the gutters.  This morning I got out the ladder and climbed up onto the roof to clean out the gutters.  I also trimmed the trees that were growing over the edge of the roof and dropping leaves into the gutters.  There are piles of tree trimmings around the house.

Then, late this afternoon, the wind swept in and blew over anything light such as plastic watering cans and buckets, folding patio chairs, a wooden bird house, and pieces of wood propped up against the wall.  Heavy rain followed the wind.  The rain did not fall vertically as it did yesterday.  It blew in horizontally.  It was the sort of rain that is so heavy you hear it if you are in the house.  It sounds almost like hail even though it is only rain.

The wind blew and the rain fell hard.  There was some thunder.  The TV weatherman reported over 25 lightening strikes in the area within a 15 minute period.  Then, after about a half hour, the storm moved on.  A while later the sun came out and dried most of the puddles.  As the song says, "the skies are not cloudy all day."

The smell of moist earth and humidity in the air linger into the night.  The temperature has dropped to  75 degrees.  The sky is mostly cloudy for the night of July 4th.  Monsoon is officially here yet the Independence Day festivities will continue, as scheduled, after dark.  I can hear the sound of fireworks in the distance.  As I look toward town I can see a fireworks display.  The lollypop ruby red fireworks are the most vibrant color against the black sky.  There is a slight drizzle and a light breeze.  The rain is so light I can stand outside and the breeze nearly dries all the rain as it falls.  The fireworks show is about 50 minutes long.  By the end of the show, the rain has stopped.  Sweet dreams.  Sleep well.

God Bless America and God Bless you all,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C.  (c)2011

Pizza

I felt like making a pizza.  I had purchased sliced provolone cheese.  It was on sale.  Usually I make pizza crust with one packet of quick rise yeast, a spoon of honey, warm (not hot) water and flour.  Add the yeast to the warm water in a large bowl.  Mix in the honey and sprinkle a bit of flour on the surface.  Soon you see the yeast grow.  The honey and flour feed the yeast.  I mix in more flour until the dough is a thick, doughy, kneadable consistency, and knead for a few minutes.  If the dough is too wet, I add flour until the dough is a nice, kneadable, play-dough, consistency.  I knead the dough in the large mixing bowl I used to mix the ingredients.  When the dough is a slightly elastic, smooth consistency, I lightly dust the dough ball with flour, place it in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel to keep it dark, and let it rise for about a half hour.  A half hour later, you have a nice, risen dough, which can be lightly floured again, tossed or rolled out to form pizza dough in your pan.

The problem was, I had no yeast in the house and did not want to venture out in the 110 degree heat, so I made a dough with flour, baking soda, and water.  This worked well, except that the dough was a little too wet and I ran out of flour.  The only way I could get the gooey dough spread thin was to spray the dough with cooking oil and spread it by hand, in the pan.  This required some effort, but worked.  No rising time required.

the basil plant with small white flowers in the Southwest Desert

I usually do not cook much in the heat of summer.  This was to be my holiday weekend pizza.  I find that pizza is best with a thin coating of red sauce.  I did not want to open a quart jar of sauce just for the pizza, so I used ketchup.  It added a nice, subtle sweetness and worked perfectly as that thin layer of red topped with thin slices of provolone.  On top of the provolone was a generous scattering of chopped, fresh cut basil that I elected to harvest before the insects get it, and one, rough chopped, fresh, garlic clove.  That's all.

I baked it in a 400 degree (F) oven, a very decadent summertime indulgence.  Usually I bake a yeast crust at 425 to 450 degrees, but I was not sure how this experimental crust would cook.  The 400 degree oven worked fine, baking for the usual 15 minutes.  The crust did not rise as much as a yeast crust, but it was surprisingly delicious, and there is enough left for a meal tomorrow.  I serve it with a salad.  I used organic romaine lettuce cut across the bunch every inch, and red bell pepper cut in rough half inch cubes. I added a tiny bit of dressing so as to allow the flavors of the raw salad ingredients to be present.  The texture of the salad and the taste of the fresh red bell pepper complimented the pizza perfectly.  I am so pleased with the result that I may substitute ketchup for red sauce in my future pizzas.  The flavor, consistency, and  convenience pleasantly surprised me.

As we look forward to the 4th of July, Independence Day, the weather here is sure to stay well over 100 degrees (F) every day.  We can feel the monsoon heavy in the air, but no substantial rains yet.  I wish you all a safe and enjoyable 4th of July.  Hope you get to see a fireworks show, although many areas have banned them this year because of the fire hazard.  I will look up in the sky after dark, hopeful...
As ever,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011