SimplyLife

Every region in the U.S. has its own unique flora and flavors, and the Southwest is no exception. You won't find strawberries and tomatoes growing without a lot of assistance in the high desert. But there are native fruits and vegetables that are surprisingly tasty and have the stamina to thrive in tough Arizona soil. Tomatillos  (pronounced toe- ma -tee-yos) are small green fruits that look like little tomatoes--hence their Spanish name tomatillo. A member of the nightshade family, it's a near relative of the Cape gooseberry. It's also called a husk tomato because the fruit is wrapped in an inedible husk that browns as the fruit ripens. The tomatillo has a high pectin content making it suitable for preserves. The fruit has a bright, rather sour flavor and is used in salsa verde. Tomatillos grow wild on the roadsides near Casa Wallace. I haven't harvested any since wild plants produce tiny fruits but salsa verde is great. Here's a link to a recipe for making you...

We left a yard of maples, pines, and an elm tree in New York for a yard of mesquite trees in Arizona. In fact, we have three acres of mesquite trees.  The mesquite is a tough, drought tolerant small tree. Famous for its wood that smokes meat to a delicious flavor, the tree averages about 20 feet in height. Its leaves are delicate and lacy looking, but watch out! Most mesquite varieties have thorns--along the same lines as thorn apples Back East. They are deciduous and when they leaf out in April, it's about the only green we have until the monsoon. There are several varieties of mesquite and the ones most plentiful in our area are the honey mesquite. The tree flowers out in May with a long, fuzzy yellow bloom, and then long pods form once the flowers are gone. Unbeknownst to us, these pods are sweet and have been used in the Southwest for a long time. Our local farmers market has been milling the dried pods for a few years to make flour, so we decided to take a crack at collect...

It's officially here according to the thermometer at Casa Wallace. Summer is blazing a trail through the desert right now. June is the hottest time of the year, which entices the monsoon season to finally show up. With summer comes barbecue time.  Steaks, burgers, chicken, you name it, we'll grill it to keep the heat of the house. Veggies are great too. The smell is my favorite summer air freshener. Every region has its own particular flavor for barbecue. Arizona is famous for that mesquite flavor. I haven't discovered THE Arizona barbecue recipe since we're greatly influenced by Texas. Smoked, slow cooked with a tomato based sauce, and fallin' off the bone, the ribs are finger lickin' good. We're lovers of Memphis barbecue, especially Corky's which is famous for its dry and wet seasoning. The dry rub is wonderful with a little kick to it. It's good on any meat, just rub it in, let it sit a spell and grill. Memphis elevates barbecue to divine hei...