Columbus, New Mexico is a little town about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. Its main claim to fame is that Pancho Villa led a cross-border raid into Columbus in 1916, killed a number of people, and provoked the US Army to establish a larger garrison. From there, "Black Jack" Pershing led an expedition into Mexico in an attempt to capture the Villistas. Pershing didn't succeed in that mission before President Woodrow Wilson called him back in anticipation of World War I involvement. However, Pershing learned a lot about the use of mechanization vs. animals for army purposes, and credited the Mexico expedition with helping to prepare for the larger war. Pancho Villa State Park is situated at the site of the original army encampment. If you ever have a chance to come here, I recommend a visit or two to the State Park museum as well as the Depot Museum, across the road, run by the Columbus Historical Society.
Last night as we sat out on our deck we were treated to bugle calls from the hill you see at the top of this picture. It was a bit strange hearing "Reveille" at sunset, but we also heard other calls: "Charge", "Retreat", some my darling couldn't identify, and finally "Taps". I am amazed at how well the sound carried from that little instrument, played on that little knoll. Then again, there's a reason that knoll was used by the original buglers. The musician was the grandson of a man who'd served here at the garrison before it was closed down, and he wanted to pay homage to his grandfather. I snapped the photo this morning, when he was playing "Reveille" - quite a bit later than would have happened in the Army, but I'm sure my fellow campers were grateful for the delay.
Yesterday and last night I finally, FINALLY! AT LAST! managed to try a recipe that's been cluttering up my browser for weeks: Melissa Clark's Cauliflower Shawarma. The recipe is originally in the New York Times (behind a paywall) but the Seattle Times was good enough to rerun it here: This cauliflower shawarma reaches for spring. The seasonings are cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, a touch of salt and pepper, all mixed into olive oil with which you coat chunks of cauliflower and red onion. I doubled the coating and used half to coat a couple of chicken thighs.
It all went onto a baking sheet and baked at 425F for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, I mixed up a tahini sauce per the recipe. This was the one place where caution was needed, and I'm glad I set it up as a side sauce for our personal tastes. It was much, much too hot with the garlic! Note to self: when a recipe calls for one fat clove of garlic, think twice before using a fat clove of the Russian Giant variety of garlic.
I won't even pretend to be modest: I think it was a stroke of genius to cook the chicken and vegetables together. They shared seasonings, the chicken yielded some of its skin fat to the vegetables, and were all done perfectly at the same time. Tender, moist chicken is a wonderful thing. The seasonings were just as good on the chicken as on the vegetables.
I'll be cooking this recipe again, and again, and again.
