No worries. This isn’t a recipe for cooking Sand Hill Cranes. Near Lodi, California, there’s a great bird sanctuary and every evening these incredible beasts make their way home, by the thousands.
My mother is somewhat of a “birder” and after one hour too many of X-Box, I decided my oldest son and I should drive out and visit her to see the cranes land at dusk.
The noise these things make is incredible. The sight, against a stormy sunset, is just beautiful. I can see why my mother is so obsessed with them.
The real fun was watching my son going from a wee bit of a pout from a forced X-Box withdrawal to jumping for joy at the thrill of seeing all these cranes in person. And then seeing thousands more. We barely felt the rain and cold, which were pretty bitter.
For dinner, we made tostadas. Fried whole tortillas are topped with a layer of gorgeous refried beans, in this case, Lila beans. I added chopped dandilion greens, cheese and Gay Caballero Very Hot Sauce. And then I had another.
