Rice fried catfish with pickled green tomatoes and cheddar spoon bread.  I love Arkansas.

We are driving cross country and have been getting a taste of the variety of different radio as we move slowly east.  To date, nothing beats Tradio, which we listened to across the better part of Oklahoma.  Tradio is just as it sounds.  Trade Radio.  Tradio.  On Tradio, people call in to advertise items they have for sale or trade and to make requests for items they are looking to buy.  Turns out Tradio is so popular that there are two rival Tradio stations, one of which has taken to calling itself “OT” or Original Tradio.  Both were fabulous.  The vast majority of items people called in about where farm related–tractor implements, trucks, heifers, hay etc.  And a few spare puppies and kittens too.  One man won a flat screen TV at work that he was trying to sell because he already “had three or four lying around the house.”  Another man called in to advertise the sale of his RV and his desire to rent a 6-bedroom home.  That’s some serious up-sizing.  But by far the best call of the day was a man who called in to advertise the sale of his “Crotch Rocket”.  He insisted that he was looking for “serious inquiries only” and requested that “no ladies under 18 call.”  Now, perhaps we have dirty minds, but what on earth could this man be advertising other than sex?  A crotch rocket available only to serious ladies over 18?!!  So that evening, when we checked into a motel in Little Rock, Arkansas, we googlered Crotch Rocket.  Turns out it’s a motorcycle!  I love Tradio.

Today we heard a story about the rapid increase in the number of people in New Mexico applying for drivers licenses using a Mexican proof of i.d.  Speculation is that the majority are immigrants fleeing Arizona’s new draconian anti-immigration laws for a state that doesn’t require proof of citizenship to grant drivers licenses.  This story wasn’t very surprising as New Mexico seemed quite obviously more welcoming and at ease with it’s Mexican and Native American heritage than its neighbor to the west.  It’s a bit hard to describe the difference or how we really detected it – maybe something about the prevalence of Spanish language signs or the lack of anti-immigrant talk radio (to be fair, we passed through AZ on the day leading up to the State primary for the senatorial race and there was probably more political rhetoric on the airwaves than normal, but when we got to New Mexico, we picked up Democracy Now).

Anyway, politics aside, Santa Fe has some amazing food drawing on all of these cultural traditions.  We had a fabulous dinner at a popular restaurant called Tomasita’s which is famous for it’s very hot red and green chile as well as a little tasty treat called a sopaipilla, which I’d never heard of.  Sopaipillas are these little puffed squares of fried dough and Tomasita’s serves them with a very tasty honey butter featuring New Mexican honey.  Delish.  Lucas and I are determined to learn how to make them and bring back Fry Baby Fridays with a little southwestern flare.

My love of stone fruits continues.  This week it’s cherries.  I have a personal affection for cherries that dates back to my early childhood when I got to pick cherries in my neighbor’s trees each summer.  They had a huge old tree that required ladders and climbing and harvest baskets dangling from our necks with string.  There’s also a lingering aura of danger associated with picking cherries for me because two years in a row I managed to get a small piece of cherry tree bark lodged in my eye while picking and ended up at the opthamologist’s office.  Each subsequent year I was required to wear a snorkling mask while picking cherries.  I wish I had some photos.

So yesterday I entered the 21st century of cherry picking at a local organic orchard called Sunsmile- semi-dwarf trees!  No ladders, no tree climbing (sad), and no goggles required.  The most modern aspect of the picking experience was their rather ingenious organic method of bird control: solar powered speakers blasting predatory bird calls from within the trees.  While this apparently very effective method of keeping small birds from eating all the cherries is smart, it’s also really damn loud and makes the experience slightly less than peaceful.  But no bother, I ended up with about 12 pounds of bing cherries and 5 pounds of sour cherries and I’ve got pie on my mind.  I first made this pie last year when my sister and her partner brought me some fresh picked sour cherries from Western Mass and I tried to eat them raw and soon realized I needed another plan.  The crust is wonderful – buttery and flaky and not that hard to handle.  And the filling is perfectly sweet-tart and not overly thick like many commercial cherry pie fillings.  I imagine that the pie would also be delicious with a mixture of fruits – peaches, apricots or other in-season stone fruits that would offer a great contrast to the cherries.  And if you only have sweet cherries on hand, cut down on the sugar in the filling and add some extra lemon juice and you should be fine. Thanks to Gourmet Magazine for another tasty recipe.  Your print days may be over, but your recipes continue to delight.

For pastry

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 sticks of cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening (preferably trans-fat-free)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 to 7 tablespoons ice water
• 1 tablespoon sugar

It’s apricot season here in Northern California and it’s delicious.  Apricots aren’t produced on any real commercial scale in the north east, so most of what passes as fresh apricots in season have been picked green and shipped in from….California.  So here I am close to the center of apricot production, at the height of the season, and it’s great.  I bought a lug (25 lbs) of organic Blenheim apricots from nearby Chaffin Family Orchards and I have been in apricot heaven.  Blenheims are an heirloom variety that has largely fallen out of protection.  Chaffin succeeded in getting the variety added to Slow Food’s Arc of Taste which recognizes “endangered foods” worthy of preservation and promotion.  Aside from the 10 plus apricots I’m eating daily, I’ve made apricot jam, strawberry apricot jam, a tasty apricot cornmeal cake (with freshly milled organic white polenta from Grass Valley Grains located just a few miles from here).  Next on my list….apricot chutney.  I’m excited to make a spicy, sweet apricot sauce of some sort to use as a glaze for chicken or perhaps alongside a Moroccan tagine.  The possibilities are endless, but the season is short, so although it’s over 90 degrees, it’s time to get cooking.