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Turquoise

NAVAJO JEWELRY MAKING TECHNIQUES - INGOT From Perry Null Trading Company JEWELRY MAKING TECHNIQUES - INGOT In-got /ˈiNGɡət/ (noun) – a block of steel, gold, silver, or other metal, typically oblong in shape. When the Navajo first learned how to make silver jewelry, they had to be very innovated. The luxury of modern tools or a supply store where they could purchase silver was still decades away. Instead they would collect silver coins until they had enough to make a piece of jewelry. How they turned that silver into a piece of jewelry involved a couple of different techniques. One of these techniques was using an ingot. Today’s silversmiths pride themselves on knowing how to use this technique because it is what the first smiths used. Plus, it is a labor-intensive process that requires a number of steps, almost like the artist becomes more invested in the work.   I try and imagine the setting in which those early smiths made their jewelry. Maybe they constructed an additional hogan next to their family hogan to work silver, or they just created a space inside the family hogan. The workspace would be a dirt floor with a limited number of tools. Then they would have to figure out a way to heat the silver to over 1700 degrees so it could melt. This heating the silver would happen several times during the course of making the piece. These early pieces would be thick and would have a simple design. Also, they wouldn’t have any turquoise. It was a new craft where the craftsman was proud to have acquired the skill and it would become the mission of Navajo silversmiths to perfect this craft. A number of

By |September 9th, 2019|Categories: Travel, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Turquoise

Tapas

The word tapa means "cover" or "lid" and was said to referred in the early days to the slice of serrano ham or cheese laid across the tops of narrow sherry glasses handed by innkeepers to coach drivers, to keep insects out and to keep them from spilling.  Fortified sherry wines are produced in the so-called Sherry Triangle of southern Spain.  Fino produced around the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda is called manzanilla.  A culinary highlight of Spain is sitting in a legendary tapa bar with a glass of manzanilla and a few plates of tapas. Membrillo and manchego are one of our favorite tapas.  Membrillo is a Spanish-style quince jelly and can be ordered from www.latienda.com, if you cannot source locally, which is increasingly easy to do. You can buy it in blocks, which you slice thinly, or in softer pastes like jelly, but the blocks are traditional. This is traditional tapas food, all on its own, but some tapas bars ("tabernas or tascas) jazz it up with jamon and piquillo peppers, or marinated anchovies and sliced manzanilla olives. See all of our tapas recipes to serve after an afternoon of park drag coaching: Caracoles ("snails") Chorizo and charcuterie Esparragos blancos ("white asparagus") Gambas al ajillo ("shrimp with garlic") Olives Membrillo and manchego Pan tomate Roasted almonds Pimentos con Anchoas ("roasted red peppers and anchovies") Roasted Almonds Roasted Tomatoes

By |May 28th, 2012|Categories: Cuisine, Travel|Comments Off on Tapas

Check out the new recipe pages

We have added recipes from our favorite travels, near and a far, on the Sporting Road.  As the Sporting Road is too vast to feature only French cooking, we have added some our favorite recipes discovered along the Sporting Road, from various cuisines.  Please check out our new pages: Argentine Recipes Asian Recipes Hungarian Recipes Moroccan Recipes Spanish Recipes  

By |October 11th, 2011|Categories: Cuisine, Recipes, Travel|Comments Off on Check out the new recipe pages

International Adventures in Cuisine Along the Sporting Road

Recipes sometimes have as much to do with imagination as it is with flavor.  A dish is more than a collection of ingredients.  Ingredients come from food and food comes from somewhere.  That somewhere may be in the snow or the sun may be a sign of a particular season, and more often than not that somewhere may show through in the final dish. Yet, with my cooking, as everything in life, I make comparisons and find it difficult to settle for second best.  I like dishes that are the best—or, at least the best of what that dish can be.  Hence, my life-long quest for adventures to find the best recipes and to replicate them in the kitchen, after days spent on the Sporting Road.  Because ultimately, no one cares where the ingredients come from, whether they are flown half-way round the world or grown in your own back yard, it simply comes down to this—do I like this or not? Our friend in Paris pointed this out to me one time as I started to debate French pinot noirs with Californian ones.  I was arguing that the French ones are better and pointing out the balance of fruitiness, acidity and chalkiness that the French traditionally strive for in Bordeaux wines, while American wine makers often emphasize only the fruitiness.  He said he didn’t know enough about Californian Pinot Noirs to say.  And, he said, “There is no argument, when it comes to matters of taste.  Either you like it or you don’t?  It doesn’t matter if you can explain why, it doesn’t make it taste any better.” Like with wine, food stuffs are affected by seasons, growing conditions, harvest times, the amount of water, the terroir,

By |October 9th, 2011|Categories: Cuisine, Recipes, Travel|Comments Off on International Adventures in Cuisine Along the Sporting Road

Ten Tips for Becoming A Better Grouse Hunter

Have an Uncle Who’s Part Indian.  I am not being cute or clever.  My heritage is part Sioux Indian and there is something to be learned from our Native Americans when it comes to forest craft, it's not just all folk-lore.  While Indians have a legendary reputation for being quieter and more stealthy in the woods, it's for good reason, but we could argue whether that is due to nature or nurture.  Whatever the reason and if you weren't born with it, see what you can learn from someone skilled in this manner of stealthy stalking and it doesn’t matter if it is applied on big game or upland birds, it’s better than the alternative of bashing through the woods scaring every grouse out of the other end of it before you even step foot in the beginning of the other end of the woods.  Better yet, adopt an "uncle" born or skilled in these crafts. Learn to shoot a shotgun and learn to shoot it well.  We attended Buz Fawcett’s Wingshooting Workshop many times now, in efforts to become Master Shotgunners.  If you hit what you can see and learn to shoot instinctively, you will be a better grouse hunter. Bring a picnic on the grouse moor.  You never know when you will need fortitude from the elements or simply from your own psyche, if it's a less than stellar day.  We always bring a French picnic, complete with some red wine, pate’ from birds gone by, cheese course, salad and other treats. Stuff enough shells in your bag, but not too many to begin to think you you have enough to afford to miss.  My friend, Paul, grew up in rural Nebraska and his father was a professional assassin for coyotes and other predators, working for the National

By |October 8th, 2011|Categories: Cuisine, Picnic, Recipes, Travel, Wingshooting|Comments Off on Ten Tips for Becoming A Better Grouse Hunter

Fly Fishing La Loue in the Jura

The French Jura region bordering Switzerland are beautiful and amazing, even for those of us living in the shadows of the  Rocky Mountains.  The streams in the Jura deserve their reputation as the best in France. Excepting the fame created by Charles Ritz's writings of the chalk streams of Normandy, the Jura is one of the rare regions in France with an international fly fishing reputation. There are many places that I fell in love with in France, but the Jura has something special and unique--the landscapes, the rivers, trout and grayling, the fly fishers and even the flies. Add the hospitable nature of the people, warm welcome at the hotels, and the rich and original gastronomy, lexapro. It is one of the few regions which produces both good cheese and good wine, which is rare to have both in France due to the differing climates required for dairy cattle versus grape production.   The scenery is spectacular, from the river valley to the high plateaus.  Sightseeing the source of the Loue is worth the short drive and hike.  Also, the trips to the neighboring towns along the valley, prove to have enough to interest everyone from shopping, sightseeing, gourmet shops for the famed Comte cheese, local wine suppliers offering great wines at very inexpensive prices, and quaint outdoor cafes for a anise-flavored pastis to cool ourselves and warm our hearts.  Parts of the valley reminded me of Venice where the river meets the houses built on stilts. Enough of the setting, let’s get down to fishing.  The only downside to fishing the Jura is that the local fishing rules are impossible to understand, even for the locals (even Nick de Toldi, who guides there regularly, promised they would be

By |October 2nd, 2011|Categories: Fishing, France, Travel|Comments Off on Fly Fishing La Loue in the Jura

The International Fario Club

Charles Ritz, of the Ritz hotel fortune, spent considerable time studying the art of fly fishing in the American West, England, and France.  His book, A Flyfisher's Life, is one of the few books in the English language discussing fly fishing in France. In the 1930's he became an authority on fly fishing in France and invented the parabolic fly rod, which is still used, and which was commercially produced by ABU Garcia.   Mr. Ritz was an advocate of the high speed - high line style of fly casting. He founded the "Fario Club", which was the most select fishing club in the world during the later part of the twentieth century and remains so today.  We enjoy regular gatherings in Paris and around the world, to enjoy the camaraderie of others similarly suited. The Club's website is presently being revamped, but it can be found at www.farioclub.org.  The "Pays d'Auge" region is made up of the port towns two hours north of Paris, including Honfleur, Deauville and Trouville. It takes like two small hours to drive from Paris.  After driving through the lush fields where dairy cows are milked for production of Camembert, Pont-Lévèque & Livarot, and passing apple tree after apple tree, so it is no surprise that Calvados is offered at every turn in the countryside, we followed in Charles Ritz's footsteps staying the same place he did at the mill of Aclou on the river Risle.  The "Aclou Reach" is often mentioned as his favorite fishing spot, home to the brown trout. Pezon Et Michel Ritz Super Parabolic PPP Fario Club bamboo fly rod. This rod is 8’ 6” long and it is rated for 5-6wt fly lines.

By |October 2nd, 2011|Categories: Fishing, France, Travel|Comments Off on The International Fario Club