Also. I'm getting rich.

I'm making money hand over fist! $1.28 since whatever day it is I turned it on. The future is now.

An extra post

I'm trying to make dinner in the desert. It's really not that hard. I did bring most of the supplies from Flagstaff but forgot skewers and some other things. I went into Loa (a bigger, not-tourist town close to Torrey) and reinforced my provisions:
The list of what you can buy there is impressive:
Tillamook Cheese
Tomatillos
Red cluster tomatoes for $1.49/lb
Spring mix
Portobellos
Shitakes
Wild mushroom mix (oyster mushrooms, enoki, shitake)
Chicken thighs
Bamboo Skewers
Baby chicks
As you’d expect, there are some things you can’t get. This store serves a large county but it’s not a very populated one. The people demanding truffles are far and few between. It’s a poor county. Even if they wanted truffles, they probably couldn’t afford them any more than I could.
Things you can’t get at the Food Town in Loa:
Truffles
Porcini
Chanterelles
Boneless, Skinless chicken thighs
Organic Spring Mix
Vidalia onions
Poblano Peppers
Kosher Salt
Organic anything
Panko break crumbs.

The long drive

It's very, very far to Torrey from Flagstaff. It shouldn't be. Torrey is directly north of Flag but there's this very large national monument between here and there and no matter what you do, it takes 7 hours to get anywhere.
We came because we haven't been here for more than a night in over three years. We used to come monthly--sometimes weekly. I've done some of my best writing here. Julie and I came down in the coldest January when not even the Chuckwagon (a tiny general store) was open. All that's open here from November to March is the Subway. When Erik helped to build the place, he and his uncle ate at Subway twice a day. Erik doesn't eat at Subway anymore. We came down with our best friends when Y2K threatened to disable all our electronics. Since there was no internet then in Torrey anyway, what did we have to lose? We've come down with my mom and sisters and with Erik's cousins. Now, this weekend, Rick's kids are coming down. It's not a big place but as I explained to Cleo the Dog last night, this is the one home that hasn't changed for any of us in the past ten years.

Rick and Zoe just got back from the Chuckwagon with doughnuts. Also cream and milk. I don't think they found the skewers I need to make the kabobs tonight. Cooking in Torrey is always tricky. There's a lack of ingredients, an electric induction stove-top and no Caphalon but somehow I think I'll persevere.

Working on summer

I had to go in to the office today to turn in receipts and such from last week's mostly successful workshop with our grand nonfiction visiting writer. He was fabulous. I need a friend like him in Flagstaff--he tried the Dr. Pepper braised Hog Jowls. He ordered the green beans with the miso, blue cheese and crispy wontons. He shared with me the chacuterie of sausages. He wanted a bite of both my duck and my mac and cheese. I have few fellow eating friends here in this land. I think they're all vegetarians. Which is good. In fact, I'm working on being more vegetarianish (I can't commit). I finally found a pasta salad I can like--blanched veggies, shaved Parmesan, shallots and lemons. I plan to make that for Erik's mom's birthday. Or shish kabobs. I'm thinking, why not have all the vegetables at the store on the kabob since in my land, it's always season. I'm going to put poblano, turnips, yellow squash, regular mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, vidalia onions and red bell peppers on skewers. If I can't live seasonal-appropriately in Flagstaff, I might as well make the best of it. We might have bread with the kabobs too. Why eat Lebanese only when you can eat Lebanese and Europeanish? There might be a reason. I'll let you know.

I took Max with me in his sling to campus. He loves to be squished in that thing. We walked the equivalent of a mile in it with no ill-effects except my shoulder is a little sore and I almost fell off my shoe. Also, I'm exhausted. Then we went to Wildflower bread company. I never know what to order there. I chose the Med salad. Vegetarian! And not bad but not good for you. Four pounds of dressing later, I'm actually stuffed on just salad.

Then to the market I went to procure all those shish kabob vegetables. Now, what I really want is for Erik to take me out to BBQ at the Smokehouse. This will take some hefty persuasion since we have no money but perhaps I can file it under "research."

Speaking of which, I'm off to write about choice and food. Updates later.

Last night's dinner recipe at the Dinner with Poets, Pages and Vowels blog.

Also. Note the ugly ads. I pushed the monetize button to see what happened. They sent me a $4,230 check just by clicking. How could I resist? It's because I'm such a reliable blogger. Once a month. That's what those advertisers prefer.

The ads are faintly embarrassing. We'll see how much embarrassment I can take before I make absolutely $0 real dollars.

P.S. I pushed publish and the ads changed to include both vegetarian restaurants and shish kabbos. Cute little ads.

P.S.S. I bought Zoe peaches because she loves peaches. I kept telling her it wasn't peach season yet but she really wanted some and when I saw them at the Farmer's Market store I relented. When she got home from school, I offered her one. She jumped in excitement and found the least hard-as-a-rock one. She took a bite and said, I don't think peaches are in season yet. I reminded her her last peaches were eaten in Italy. We might be at a bit of a disadvantage here.

Where Have I Been, Where Am I Going

One thing I like best about food blogging is that every day becomes memorable. A daily log is only memorable to the log--the experience happens only once in the writing of it. But the food blog recounts the food making itself, the writing of the food, and can be returned to with purpose (looking up the recipe) beyond the relatively uncommon nostalgic re-read of the regular list. The "tags" function works similarly to the food writing. You can recall and reorganize purposefully that previous writing.

But I have been cooking more and blogging less which is bad for the memory and bad for the practicality of noting the important passing of days. Max is 4 and a half months old. I've gone camping and hiking with him. I've been to Wyoming and Denver without him. But the only thing that makes it not a blur is to remember the food. I've put him in the sling to make skirt steak roulades for local folks and fish tacos for the guest writer. I made veggie burgers from scratch and carne asada tacos camping outside of Bluff, Utah.

So, to keep this summer from disappearing, to slow down Max's exponential growth rate, and to make sure I'm writing every day and cooking almost every day, I'm going to post either here or at my sisters' new food blog, Poets, Pages and Vowels. Wish me luck.

A poem that you've seen

before got picked up by the Boston Review! Bad dog = Bad Arizona Law. Good dog = Good magazine.