Ricotta is the New Avocado

I came across an article in a cooking magazine recently that touted ricotta as the new avocado. I personally think there is nothing wrong with the “old” avocado – it’s versatile, delicious, and healthy – but I’m also buds with ricotta and always down for a little variety, so I decided to buy some and give a couple of their ricotta toast recipes a whirl. Or maybe I fancy myself a bit of a trendsetter? In any case, I’d only ever really eaten ricotta in lasagna, and it had been a while because Tara is not a ricotta fan and always substitutes cottage cheese when she makes hers. Yeah, I know: blasphemy.

Not that you really need a recipe for toast, of course. How hard is it to stick a couple of slices of bread in your toaster and press a button? But it’s all about the toppings. I toasted up some Franz 24 Grains & Seeds bread, topped it with ricotta cheese, a drizzle of honey, and a bit of crushed pistachio “nutmeats” from Trader Joe’s, and dug in. It’s good – that touch of honey adds a nice, sweet contrast and really brings out the flavors – but ultimately, I don’t think it’s going to replace avocado.

Because ricotta guacamole will never, ever be a “thing.”

Tara mentioned recently that she’d heard there were ICBM missiles in North Dakota. I told her that yes, this was true, and furthermore when we lived in South Dakota, Ellsworth AFB was a part of the Strategic Air Command and home to nuclear warheads, as well. I was pretty sure the missile silos had long since been emptied out though, and my dad confirmed that yes, all the Minuteman missiles had been removed by 1994. I trust I’m not divulging military secrets  since this information is readily available on Wikipedia, but if I suddenly disappear without a trace in the next few days the military is behind it.

At least we know that Rapid City is an unlikely target for North Korea.

Minot, on the other hand? Let’s just say I hope they are practicing their duck-and-cover drills up there.

Such a weird life it was, growing up on an Air Force base that housed nuclear warheads during the height of the Cold War. Tara wondered if I was ever scared. Honestly, I never gave it much thought, though when “Red Dawn” came out in 1984 I will admit, it freaked me the hell out. For a time there I kept an eye on the sky lest any black-clad paratroopers dropped to the earth branding Kalishnikovs.

So weird to be moving back to a place that is 10 miles away from where I spent my formative high school years. Weird sort of homecoming, to be sure.

In preparation for the move, I signed up for a digital subscription to the Rapid City Journal several months ago. It had been years since I’d had a newspaper subscription of any kind, which makes me wonder if I’m secretly adopted because my dad spends approximately three hours every day combing through the newspaper. A real one, I should add; the kind that blackens your fingertips with newsprint. In any case, I figured it would be a good idea to bone up on the local scene prior to getting out there so we don’t look like total rubes.

It’s been a very entertaining read. If you’re wondering what’s going on in Rapid City these days, the answer is: lots of chili cook-offs.

Seriously. There’s a new one every third day! 

There are bigger issues, too. But they are definitely more Midwest-centric. Now I know all about the controversial use of dicamba, an agricultural herbicide, for instance. And the fact that Trump’s new tax bill favors farmers who sell to co-ops, which means many companies, both large and small, could end up paying more for crops. Random shit like that which I never paid any attention to before.

Locally, the biggest story over the past few months has been the escape (and subsequent recapture) of two bear cubs from Bear Country USA in Rapid City.

I find their news refreshingly wholesome, at least compared to all the robberies and murders and hit-and-runs that make up the majority of our headlines.