Happy Holidays To All

Our first snow

Yarrow Power

Warning: This post contains graphic photos of our wounded chicken.

With 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 goats and an average of 15 chickens at any given time Jen and I make sure that we always have both dried yarrow and Yarrow Tincture on hand. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) has been known for centuries for its hemostatic and wound-healing properties, accompanying soldiers into battle as recently as World War I. We’ve used it to treat puncture wounds, abscesses, gashes to udders and to ward off infection after I stitched up a hen’s crop that was ripped open by a hawk (who fortunately was chased away by our dogs). We’ve also used it to treat our own misadventures with kitchen knives. Both of us have seriously sliced our fingers open – Jen while chopping greens, me, onions – and have packed the wound with yarrow in lieu of stitches.

I’ve always meant to document the power of yarrow, but never got around to taking photos until recently when our oldest hen Gerrry was nearly pecked to death by the new hens. I found her one morning with her head down and bleeding profusely while 2 of the buff orps stood over her. I called to Jen to get the water boiling and we went to work on her, cleaning the wounds with a strong yarrow infusion which we also spoon fed to her as an antibiotic.

Jen spoon-feeds Gerry a strong infusion of dried yarrow which is also used to clean the wounds.

2 Days Later

Two weeks later: All better! Gerry now lives in a coop of her own near the house where she hangs out with the cats and dogs.

Farina, will you marry me?

Finally, good pizza in Albuquerque. I could jump for joy.

Tree and I have tried just about every pizza shop in town and nothing hits the mark of the thin crust pizza we loved from other cities we once called home.

But, we heard good things about Farina, a new restaurant that opened up next to the reliable Artichoke Café in EDO (that’s East of Downtown for those of you whose acronyms are limited to SOHO, WEHO and SOMA). Farina is apparently a venture between the owners of the Artichoke Café and Stewart Dorris (Artichoke’s Wine Director). We immediately put a trip to Farina at the top of our Restaurants to Try list.

So, early one brisk evening in December (I mean early, we were their first dinner customers), we walked through the doors of the spiffy new Farina.

Let me skip past the cool but casual and warm décor (brick walls, good but unobtrusive lighting, comfortable tables) and get straight to the food. This is no mere mortal pizzeria.

Tree and I each ordered a pie (that’s a pizza for you land-locked west coasters), not knowing that we could have split one. No worries, we had leftovers for…emm…breakfast. After much brow furrowing (everything looked good), I chose the Margherita. I figured I would test them on the most simple arrangement of tomato, mozzarella and basil. Tree ordered the Finocchio (fennel sausage and roasted onions). As an appetizer, we shared a plate of Meatballs al Forno. A glass of Montelpuciano wine for me and a Marble Brewery pint for Tree rounded off the dinner.

The meatballs came four to a plate with two slivers of really good bread to soak up the sauce. What can I say but, oh my stars, good. I won’t go into how authentic they taste since, hey, everyone’s Italian grandmother cooks just a little bit differently, but, they resembled a gourmet version of Tree’s mother’s meatballs (Napolitano). They have raisins and pignoli, and, even if you don’t like raisins in cooked food (I’m one of those), these are incredible. The bread is a delicious foil for the “gravy” which is a light and delicious seasoned broth. Nothing was left on the plate. I would have licked the plate if there was anything resembling food left on it. After our perfect appetizer, we were grinning and eager for the pizza.

Our pies arrived with a perfectly crisp thin crust (they keep their oven at some hellish temperature to get that crust), not too much tomato, not too much cheese. The balance looked right. But the taste, oh my, more food to live for. You can get thin crust in other pizzerias in town, but the crust lacks flavor or always comes out soggy (Giovanni’s –what’s up with that?). The tomato sauce was perfect. The mozzarella perfect. We finely had it –good pizza in Albuquerque. I could gush on and on, but let me say, dinner conversation was quiet. The Montelpuciano went well with the pizza and at $5 a glass is easy on the pocketbook. Marble brewery…what can I say? It’s good beer. We’re glad to see Farina supporting the local brewery.

With the antipasto and pizza so good, we just had to try desert and another tough test for us, coffee. I got an americano and Tree an espresso. More thrills and gushing. Tree’s espresso was like something you could get in Italy –we got the name of the coffee from Stewart (who was very gracious and friendly as we peppered him with questions about every ingredient) but promptly forgot it as we tasted our desert. Oh, and my coffee was superb also.

For desert we were in for a treat. We chose the Chocolate Amaretti Cake because well, we love anything with chocolate in it. However, wipe any image of a dense or light or fluffy American style chocolate cake out of your mind. The cake is like two layers of a large cocoa amaretti cookie, and for those of you who have been blessed with real Italian cookies, you know what I mean. The flavor was reminiscent of the amaretti that we would buy at the old Italian bakery in Hell’s Kitchen when we lived on 50th and 9th Avenue. Is that place still there? I hope so. Or, the Italian bakery in Bradley Beach, NJ, you know, where you can still get real sfogliatelle (which Tree’s family for some reason pronounces “shrivadel”)…but I digress. So the Amaretti Cake comes dusted with cocoa and served with a healthy dollop of fresh whipped cream and graced with two spearmint sprigs (that’s for eating after the cake). I can only describe the cake as being “al dente” –crisp, crunchy on the outside and a slightly tender layer on the inside. The cream is the perfect accompaniment as it would be too dry without. So so good. They also make a fresh ricotta cheesecake, which all you son and daughters of Italians know is the only real cheesecake. I’m trying that next time.

Farina is even better than New York pizza –it’s like homemade New York pizza. I walked in expecting to find above average for Albuquerque thin crust pizza, but I found instead a real Italian restaurant reminiscent of the friendly family-run trattorias we encountered throughout Italy. Real food, quality ingredients, hand prepared, even the sausage and ricotta is hand-made. Friendly wait staff. Excellent service. This is by far the best restaurant in Albuquerque, and what I call fine dining. I was glad to hear they’ve been busy. Let’s hope it stays that way.

ABQ WOW Slam Championship

Another reason Albuquerque is the best place to live….

Last night, Tree and I went to see the 2008 ABQ WOW Women’s Poetry Slam Championship at the awesome Outpost Performance Space. What an incredible evening of top local talent slamming their souls out. Winner Erin goes to Detroit in March to represent the Burque. I’m glad I wasn’t one of the judges. It was tough and ended up being a slam-off between Erin and organizer Tracey. It was a close contest and special mention should go to Liza who’s delivery was dead-on and Jazz who’s piece about the kids in the sand pit rocked –as well as her paean of being in love. You go grrrls.

If you ever thought going out to hear spoken word was for the snooze set, think again, this was the place to be last night! You can get on ABQ Slams mailing list so you don’t miss the next one.

And check out Outpost –they have hip happenings for all tastes.

Jen is on PBS – New Mexico in Focus

Jen appears in a segment of New Mexico in Focus that covers the Rio Grande Valley Farmers Guild which is designed to give farmers in Albuquerque’s South Valley access to land, water, equipment, education and support. It will air tomorrow evening at 7pm on KNME, Albuquerque’s PBS station.

That’s our rooster Henry crowing at the opening and our goat Tosca mugging for the camera.