El Nino, the Spoiler

When Halloween is over, many older Americans head south, seeking sunshine and warmth for the cold northern winter months. They call us “Snowbirds,” because, like many birds, we fly south.

Normally this is a good solution for bones that creak and muscles that ache in cold weather. We bask in southern sunshine and count ourselves lucky to be here.

This year, though, we aren’t so lucky, for El Nino has intervened. El Nino is the weather pattern that brings one cold front after another roaring in from the Pacific Ocean, clouding the skies and dropping rain on the Sonoran Desert. 

Our neighbor Val Bay shared his photo that tells the tale of Tucson skies this winter.

This cloudy weather is a reminder of how lucky we are to be here most years. We can be thankful that El Nino won’t last forever and that this year the desert will gloriously bloom, although we won’t be here to see it. 

Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer 

A Spicy Romance

When I was a girl, a special treat was going to the drug store to drink malts at the soda fountain. After the soda jerk took our order, we saw him assemble the ingredients in a stainless steel jar, and whirl them in the electric malt maker. Then we saw him pour most of the contents into a glass and present it to us, along with the can, which still contained some malt, and a can of ground nutmeg to sprinkle on.

Nutmeg was not to be found in our kitchen at home, but it was the traditional addition to malts at Baumgartner’s Drug Store. For me, nutmeg was love at first taste and when I married, at twenty, I included a can of nutmeg in my rather limited spice collection.

Nutmeg, I now know, is best when freshly grated, so I have replaced cans of ground nutmeg with whole nutmegs and a nutmeg grater or microplane. 

The spice has numerous, but not extensive, uses. First of all, nutmeg is essential to grate over egg custard before baking. Making a tender egg custard is easy and it tastes marvelous served with berries such as fresh red raspberries .

Egg Custard

In a 1½  quart baking dish beat (in this order):

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups milk

Set the baking dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 350º for 50 minutes. Only the edges need be set when you remove it from the oven. The custard will continue to set as it cools.

Second, this spice complements certain dishes made with members of the brassica family, cauliflower, spinach, and broccoli. Nutmeg is delicious in creamed spinach. It’s also delicious in my favorite broccoli soup* and can similarly be added to cauliflower dishes.

Oddly, I don’t like nutmeg in apple pie, although most apple pies I’ve encountered use it. Romance, as we all learn, can be a bit fickle.

*Published on this blog on April, 23, 2013, titled “Back to Soup.”

Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer 

Our Lucky Day

Unpacking a dusty cardboard box that had been undisturbed for more than a decade, Marianne found a lizard amongst the box’s contents. She was startled and later said that she had reacted as if the four-inch-long creature were dangerous. Ozzie soon carried the box into the garage so that the lizard could escape. 

When Marianne, who is visiting here from Kansas, heard that Arizonans consider having a lizard in one’s house to be good luck, she embraced that  aGecko, which is one of the five subspecies of the Western Banded Gecko.

Our gecko is almost, if not fully, grown. The species ranges in size from four to six inches. They are shy, nocturnal creatures, foraging at night for insects and small spiders. 

I sure hope that our gecko decides to stick around. Many things will happen in 2019, and we all need some good luck with them. 

Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer