steph brady

The View From Home

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By Steph Brady

On Sunday, July 10 around 3:30 p.m., I noticed we suddenly needed lights on in the house. I looked outside and thought, “there is a fire.” Usually you can see straight up the mountains. My husband Joe walked in and said “there’s a fire,” then the phone rang and it was my son-in-law saying “fire!” It was pretty surreal, yet very beautiful.
I believed it was Mother Nature’s way of culling the dead and the beetle kill. Joe and I hike up around Hayden Pass almost every day and had been seeing the brown trees for nearly three years. I had told him back in October we were going to have a forest fire.

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An Artwalk History

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By Steph Brady
The idea behind Salida’s annual ArtWalk began with three guys, Chris Byars, Michael Boyd and Michael Parry, whose intention was to create an inclusive social event for Salida artists. The existing galleries combined their efforts and mailing lists, advertised locally and made flags to identify participating galleries; the first annual Salida ArtWalk was held on June 23, 1993, with 16 venues.
The next few years saw a small increase in artists. I participated with Paulette Brodeur and Marcy Misata Csiky in a building across the street from what is now Amicas. Many of the beautiful old historical downtown properties in Salida were boarded up and rent was cheap, so it became somewhat of a haven for artists. They breathed new life into these run-down buildings and spaces, getting their creative juices flowing by sprucing them up. Without that cheap rent to start, I don’t think I would be here today as a gallery owner. Now rents have doubled and tripled in downtown Salida!

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green cat gallery crab dip

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 by Steph Brady

I’ve been making this crab dip for 16 of the 19 years of Salida Art Walk. I used to offer other appetizers but once I started offering this particular dip the patrons wouldn’t hear of me serving anything else. I serve this on Friday night and often, shrimp ceveché on Saturday. Many of my patrons come in on Friday just to sample this crab dip. Some have been coming for all of the 16 years. It’s almost like a green cat staple and it’s not unusual to serve 50 to 120 people. This dip is easy to make and takes only minutes. Now, I’m a cook that never measures – it’s a little of this or that – so I’ve tried to convey what I do. I usually make about four times this recipe for Art Walk.

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