ANASAZI BEAN SOUP and a Visit to Mesa Verde, Colorado

Caroline and her brothers at Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde, Colorado

When I was fourteen years old my family went on an extended summer camping trip from our home in Minnesota to southern California. One of the highlights along the way was a visit to Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. At that time, the campground was on top of the mesa, just a stone’s throw away from the visitor center and the ruins of Spruce Tree House. My brothers and I spent hours climbing the ladders and exploring the ruins. Inside the visitor center I loved peering at the dioramas with their tiny houses and people, and reading about the pottery, tools, and other items in the exhibit cases, trying to imagine what life was like when the Ancestral Puebloans had inhabited these mesas and canyons. In the evening, our family cooked our meal and ate it around the campfire, much as the Ancestral Puebloans must have done more than a thousand years ago.

Native Americans known as the Ancestral Puebloans [formerly called the Anasazi] lived at Mesa Verde between A.D. 550 and 1300. They left at a time when there was a long drought and never returned.  Their descendants are among the Native American people who live in the southwest today.

When I returned to Mesa Verde in 1990 with Richard Hewett to do the research and photography for our book, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, I found the park just as fascinating as I had as a child.  The campground had been converted to a picnic area and as we ate our lunches there it brought back memories of my childhood visit.  Since then, many more ancient sites within the park had been discovered and excavated, and new research was offering new evidence to explain why the Ancestral Puebloans had abandoned their cliff side dwellings so suddenly.

One of my favorite parts of the park was a small garden plot near the visitor center where the park rangers were growing corn, squash, and beans, just as the Ancestral Puebloans had in prehistoric times.  I have always been fond of bean soup and I was delighted to discover in one of the gift shops a package of red beans with a recipe on the back for Anasazi bean soup. Although I doubt that the Ancestral Puebloans used ham hocks or lemon in their recipes, I can imagine that they might have put a chunk of deer meat and locally gathered flavorings into their beans as they cooked them over the fire.  In any case, as you eat this delicious soup, you can imagine that you are high on a Colorado mesa, gazing across the plain below.

Anasazi Bean Soup

1 package of red, pinto type, beans
2 quarts of water
1-2 ham hocks
Salt and pepper to taste
1 16 ounce can of tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
Juice of ½ lemon

Soak beans overnight.  Drain beans.  Add water, ham, salt and pepper.  Cook until beans are tender.  Add tomatoes, onion, garlic and chili powder and cook another half hour.  Add lemon juice before serving.  Enjoy!

The high elevation of Mesa Verde, which is about seven thousand feet above sea level, makes it slightly cooler in summer and wetter than the plain below.  Both the climate and rich soil made it a good place to grow crops.  Beans were added to the Anasazi diet during the period about A.D. 550-750, and were an important source of protein.  Anasazi beans were very much like today’s pinto beans.  The Anasazi ate them fresh and also dried them to be used later. [Page 25, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde by Caroline Arnold (Clarion Books, 1992)] Note: the term Ancestral Puebloan replaced Anasazi after my book was published.

Visit Mesa Verde: The National Park Service website for Mesa Verde has everything you need to know to plan a visit to the park including directions, maps, things to do, and links to information about camping and lodging.  There are also pages with downloadable activities for kids and for teachers.

This article was originally published in Stepping Into the Author's Kitchen by Sharron L. McElmeel (Libraries Unlimited)

Rhubarb and Book Discussion

Once a month I go to a book discussion group where we talk about children's books, usually one picture book and one middle grade or young adult novel. You can read our monthly reports at our new blog Book Chat Thursday.  We meet in the evening and everyone brings something to nibble while we talk. At our May meeting, I brought rhubarb squares, one of my favorite springtime desserts. (See recipe below.  We also have recipes as a page on our blog.)

Every spring I buy rhubarb at the supermarket.  And it never fails, as the rhubarb slides along the conveyer belt at the checkout stand, the checker always pauses, picks it up, and searches through her code book for the proper number.  Then after scanning it, she says, “Rhubarb.  What do you do with it?”

I make sauce, cake, and sometimes pie.  Nothing is quite as delicious as the sweet/tart flavor of fresh rhubarb. And I love the bright pink color.  I can’t believe that more people in California are not rhubarb fans.

When I was growing up in Minnesota, everyone ate rhubarb in the spring and no one bought it at the supermarket.  It grew like a weed in our side yards.  We simply went out and sliced off the stalks as needed.  Rhubarb was a gift of nature that appeared every spring as a reward for lasting through the long, cold Minnesota winters.  By summer, the stalks turned woody and inedible, ending the rhubarb season.  While it lasted, it was glorious.

I tried growing rhubarb in my garden after I moved to California, but between the winter rains and the clay soil, the roots rotted in the ground before they sprouted.  I’m sure rhubarb can be grown here, but not without a good deal of care.


Sour Cream Rhubarb Squares

Topping: ½ cup sugar, ½ cup chopped nuts, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 Tablespoon melted butter.

Batter: Beat 1 ½ cups brown sugar, ½ cup shortening and 1 egg.
    Sift and add: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt
    Add: 1 cup sour cream
    Stir in: 2 cups rhubarb cut into ½ inch pieces

Spread batter in 9" x 13" greased and floured pan.  Sprinkle with topping.
Bake at 350 degrees 45-50 minutes.  May serve with whipped cream.

This recipe is also good made with blueberries instead of the rhubarb.

Cooking Up Reading: Mealtime for Zoo Animals

What do zoo animals eat? They eat some of the same foods you do. They eat other things too. Young orangutans love to munch on raw broccoli. Here is a broccoli salad you can eat.

Broccoli Salad

You will need:
Large bowl
Small bowl
Large spoon
6 cups broccoli florets
8 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup raisins
1-1/2 cups mayonnaise
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1 small jar of bacon bits

Directions:
In the large bowl, toss together broccoli, green onions, sunflower seeds, raisins, and bacon bits.
In the small bowl, mix together mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar. Toss with vegetables to coat. Cover and chill. Eat with you fingers, just like an orangutan!

Mealtime for Zoo Animals is one of six books in a series about how zoo animals eat, sleep, play, bathe, have babies, and make noise.  These easy to read books are written for children in preschool to first grade with just one sentence and a photo on each page spread.

Other books in this series are: Mother and Baby Zoo Animals, Noisytime for Zoo Animals, Playtime for Zoo Animals, Sleepytime for Zoo Animals and Splashtime for Zoo Animals They are all out of print, but you can look for them in your library and they will soon be available online as e-books.

From Kirkus Reviews
It's chow time in the Zoo Animals series, and every one of the animals has a different dinner menu. Since mealtime is one of the biggest draws for young zoo visitors, these full-color photographs of the creatures eating will be a hit. While a rhinoceros clips the lawn like ``a giant living lawn mower,'' an elephant scoops up different fruits (peels included) to make a fruit salad in its mouth. A sentence or two accompanies every photograph, while the simple index helps emerging readers locate pictures of their favorite animals. It makes for a perfect visual outing on those days when the zoo is closed. (Picture book. 4-7)

Quiche Recipe

What do I like to do in my spare time? Lots of things, but especially cooking. The following is the story and quiche recipe that I prepared for the All Because of Grace cookbook. Enjoy!

In my freshman year in college, I met six other girls, including Kathryn, who became my roommate in my senior year. After graduation, our group remained close (we now refer to ourselves as the Magnificent Seven!) and got together periodically. We often met at Kathryn’s house, and she always provided us with delicious meals, graciously sharing her recipes with us afterward. One day, two years ago, we received the terrible news that Kathryn’s house had burned to the ground. Everything was lost. What could we do to help? We were too scattered to bring actual food, but we decided that the next best thing was to assemble the recipes she had given us over the years as a small step toward reclaiming her kitchen library. One of my favorites, which has become a staple in my menu rotation, is Quiche Noel. The “Noel” part comes from the garnish of parsley and pimiento, which gives the quiche a holiday flair, but I cook it year round. Whenever I make it, it reminds me of Kathryn and the bonds of friendship of our Magnificent Seven that have strengthened through the years.

Kathryn's Quiche Noel

Prepare pie crust for single crust pie. (I purchase these!)

Combine 1 ½ cups (6 oz) grated Swiss cheese with 4 tsp. Flour. Sprinkle into pie shell.

Sprinkle on ½ cup diced ham.

Combine 3 eggs, 1 cup milk or cream, 1/4 tsp. Salt, 1/4 tsp. Dry mustard. Beat until smooth and pour evenly over cheese and ham.

Bake 400 degrees about 45 minutes. Cool slightly and garnish with chopped parsley or pimiento.

All Because of Grace Cookbook

On November 4th, a very special cookbook will be published. It is called All Because of Grace. It was inspired by the story of an amazing young girl, Grace Sturm. I was invited to participate in the cookbook project last summer by Jane Martellino, the librarian at the school in Connecticut where Grace was a student. Grace, an avid reader, had just begun the summer reading club when she first got sick and needed emergency brain surgery. Proceeds from the cookbook will help bring hope and comfort to children, like Grace, recovering from brain surgery. I am so happy that I got to meet Grace when I did an author visit at her school in October.
"All Because of Grace" is perfect for children, teachers, librarians, parents and extended families. People of all ages can use this book to create tasty meals and snacks. Each recipe is preceded by a story which will fill you with warmth, humor, joy and tenderness. Along with the recipes and stories by 130 other children's book authors, you can find my recipe for a holiday (or any season) quiche and the story of my friend Kathryn, my college roommate at Grinnell, who gave me the recipe. You can learn more about Grace and order your copy of the cookbook by going to the Yes! Grace Rocks, Inc.website.