survival skill: mustardy vinaigrette

I am trying to remember exactly when vinaigrette stopped being a mystery. It was one of those pivotal junctures in personal history that came long after the first Pesto (1988) - and still a few years after mesclun salad mix (1993: oh, the revelation of Arugula!), and probably a decade before I got Pie Crust. The early days of food history were mainly about acquiring tastes, and I acquired my taste for the french vinaigrette on Sunday mornings as a college student in Northampton, Massachusetts. Brunch at Curtis and Schwartz was Sunday's analogue to Saturday's bar scene -- all the same women, except with bed head -- sharing pitchers of hazelnut coffee in seating arrangements that answered any questions you might have had the night before. Besides the coffee, all I remember is 1) Eggs scrambled with lox and cream cheese, and 2) salad with tarragon vinaigrette.

It was a few years of trying before I managed to replicate that Vinaigrette. First, I had to get past the nineties' obsession with balsamic. But still, my vinaigrettes always came out so oily, no matter how meticulously I followed a recipe.

And then, magically: the French Vinaigrette appears in memory. Almost like an archetype - I don't know quite where from, but it could have been anywhere since the basic formula stays the same:

1 part Dijon mustard + wine vinegar
3 parts oil

Just remember the ratio between acid and oil of 1:3. Or to be a lot more specific:

1/4 cup white-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup oil (olive, or grapeseed, or canola, or a mix)

The shallot is optional. Put everything except the oil into a lidded jar and shake it up. Then add the oil and shake it again until you get a nice emulsion.

re: dream / scape

re: dream / scape asks:  "What's going on at Alvarado Urban Farm? How can we be a part of it? Add your voice: How would you re-dream Albuquerque's inner-space? Ask a question, upload a photo, offer a possibility."

The Alter Bahnhof Video Walk

Hi All---

Here is a link to the video walk that I mentioned in response to Honsa & Shynoke's foraging project:

Janet Cardiff & Georges Bures Miller - Alter Bahnhof Video Walk - 2012
http://www.cardiffmiller.com/artworks/walks/alterbahnhof_video.html


The Alter Bahnhof Video Walk was designed for the old train station in Kassel, Germany as part of dOCUMENTA (13). Participants are able to borrow an iPod and headphones from a check-out booth. They are then directed by Cardiff and Miller through the station. An alternate world opens up where reality and fiction meld in a disturbing and uncanny way that has been referred to as "physical cinema". The participants watch things unfold on the small screen but feel the presence of those events deeply because of being situated in the exact location where the footage was shot. As they follow the moving images (and try to frame them as if they were the camera operator) a strange confusion of realities occurs. In this confusion, the past and present conflate and Cardiff and Miller guide us through a meditation on memory and reveal the poignant moments of being alive and present.

ABQ Freeschool & Skillshare

Albuquerque Freeschool and Skillshare

Drift / Dérive

I go on walks in the city with the intention of observing and documenting instances where designed systems meet unplanned, or spontaneous systems. 

I approach this kind of like a dérive – in the sense that I don’t set out on a predetermined trajectory. I either have a specific phenomenon that I am drawn to (like the acequias), or I set out to look for new ones.

-Gives me something productive to apply my hyper-awareness to

- Helps me discover and identify instances of unplanned, spontaneous occupation of space – which feeds into some of the themes that I am looking at in my own work

- This in turn cultivates my sense of HOPE  - because I don’t always have much faith in conventional planning. 

Here is how I go about it - I invite you to try it out : 

In silence

- Observe what the main designed elements are (buildings, benches, planters..)

- Look for unplanned, spontaneous systems (anthills, plants growing in the cracks in the pavement, birds nests, un-prescribed behavior… doesn’t have to just be nature VS manmade – could be deviations in expected behavior)

- Do the 2 coexist independently or do they start to blur or form a new, hybrid type of structure?

- Photograph or draw what you feel represents this meeting of these 2 systems.

2 apps for urban exploration :

- DRIFT :  http://www.brokencitylab.org/drift/

 - DÉRIVE : http://deriveapp.com/s/v1/

Also of interest - the Los Angeles  Urban Rangers :  Interpretive walks through the city

Psychogeography

Basic electronics!

The Art of Hardware Hacking by Nicolas Collins (PDF), Chapter 18 is the demo I did in class. 

http://makezine.com/

You can purchase parts in Albuquerque at 'Electronic Parts- 2620  Rhode Island St NE, Albuquerque NM 87110, 1-505-293-6161'