Black Mesa

08/06/2013

I want to acknowledge my sister-in-law, Heather Harris, photographer extraordinaire who made me look as beautiful as I sometimes feel. She is AMAZING. She truly captures the soul and I am humbled and inspired by her talent. Thank you, Heather.

05/17/2013

Slow food USA- slow the fork down!

10/25/2012

On our way back from Los Angeles, we stopped a night in Sedona. We stayed in a beautiful motel, The Desert Quail Inn, in what is known as the village of Sedona. As you can see from the photo of the pool rules, the owners of the Desert Quail must have had some bad experiences with some of their guests although I have a hard time imagining what could have happened. Really, I don’t want to imagine it.
On the morning we were checking out, I decided to pack my thermos with ice so Randy took the plastic bucket from the room and went in search of the ice machine. He stopped in at the office to ask and the man behind the desk, seeing the ice bucket from the room, was quick to tell Randy that he couldn’t take the ice bucket away from the hotel.
Wow! Who stays at the Desert Quail that would s**t in the pool and steal their plastic ice bucket? I thought Sedona was a place of great spiritual power. A vortex. Not a place of devilment and extreme misbehavior.
There was no one ever in the pool for the 24 hours we were there even though the pool was lovely – and crystal clear. The sign would only serve to make people think of what HAD BEEN in the pool.
We ate across the street at the Market Place, Market something. Italian. Lots of Italian this trip. They had a duo playing in one side of the dining room. Talented. Too loud. We sat on the other side of the room, still too loud but better. And my chicken piccata pasta dish was very good.
On to Gallup and home….

10/24/2012

We’ve discovered a great restaurant in Santa Monica, Bistro of Santa Monica. It’s at the corner of 23rd and Santa Monica Blvd. It feels like it’s been there forever. You come in out of the bright California sun and you’re back in the 40s. It’s dark even though it’s got lots of windows. There’s a piano in the dining room. The waiter told me they have someone playing several times a week. One pianist is an expert at old obscure songs, he said. I feel like there ought to be cigarette smoke hanging in the air but of course, there isn’t. There are mirrors everywhere. It was a little disconcerting when I met myself coming out of the bathroom.
The place feels like something that’s worked well for years so why change it? I almost feel like I’m intruding on something that’s been going on for years without me, like I need a membership. But they welcome us and show us to a table.
The food is northern Italian. This visit I started with an arugula salad with a lemon oil dressing. Arugula is a bitter green and I would have added a little sweetness, perhaps a little ripe fig balsamic. Then I ordered the Chicken Gideon. Gideon is Dr. Gideon, a friend of the chef’s. It was a chicken breast broiled in lime and saffron and served with basmati rice and vegetables. Not very Italian. Obviously a favor for a friend who wants a lighter lunch. It was delicious. I had a glass of Summerland Voignier and it was a perfect complement.
It will definitely be one of “our places” in Los Angeles. Maybe we’ll catch someone at the piano one night. Dress up, have a martini, lean on the piano and sing along. Just like in those old movies.

10/21/2012

Las Vegas
The Red Rock Casino and Spa is quite luxurious. Our room is on the 15th floor. One thing about Vegas, food and lodging are usually relatively inexpensive. Our room has a bathroom almost the size of some motel rooms I’ve stayed in. The (faux?) marble tub is enormous and there’s a separate shower. There’s a TV on a pedestal over the tub. The tub has wide sides so you can sit the remote comfortably by your hand. Unfortunately, the TV doesn’t work. Someone must have gotten it wet….
The guest services book is a hefty notebook – there are 10 restaurants in the complex plus a food court and in room dining. Randy (the spouse of the attendee) could have gotten a massage where someone holds onto bars in the ceiling and walks on his back. Blurb says it’s a massage invented by Buddhist monks. Who walked on their backs? Did they walk on each other’s backs? Who will walk on Randy’s back? A tiny Asian woman? A tiny Asian man? A Buddhist monk? Or maybe a moonlighting Cirque de Soleil acrobat…
I encourage Randy to try it but he opts for the lap pool (one of several pools at Red Rock). I sit in a conference from 9 to 6 every day. Those spa services sounded mighty fine to me.
Because of my time constraints we ate in the room several times. The food was good and they brought it on a rolling table with a flower and everything. None of that sitting on the side of the bed balancing a tray at the Red Rock.
We did eat at the Chop House in the complex our last night there. Randy had the prime rib and gave me a few bits. It was delectable. I had a California salad. I forget what made it Californian – usually it’s avocado. I think big meat restaurants tend to think Californians eat a lot of salad so they name anything raw and vegetable Californian. Had a glass of a New Zealand Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. As you can see from the picture, the servers were b***y and beautiful. Also, great servers - knowledgeable, friendly.
And happy. They’re probably making lots of money. Prime rib, potato, my salad and a glass of wine was over $100.00. I haven’t been to a steak house recently but it seemed high. Especially in Vegas where food and lodging are usually cheap. But we WERE at a restaurant right next to the high stakes poked room. Winners would want to celebrate with a big piece of meat and an expensive whiskey.
On to Los Angeles in the morning.

10/17/2012

10/15/2012

Oh boy!

10/14/2012

I’m a food snob, I guess. I don’t understand why anyone would eat fast food. I’ve always been amazed that there is a Taco Bell in Espanola when there are such great New Mexican restaurants to choose from. (OK, I’ll admit to a guilty secret: when I’ve been cooking for a lot of people and I want someone to FEED me, I’ll ask Randy to go and get me a Wendy’s #6. I can eat it practically lying down before I collapse from standing on my feet in the kitchen all day.) I know a chef of a really fine restaurant who admits to eating nothing but fast food on his days off.
But not me. Food is an art and a joy. Living in Nashville, some of the people I “came up with” in the restaurant business have started and maintained some world class restaurants. THAT’S where we’d go eat on our days off, some place always on the cutting edge of really great food. It was exciting to see the food scene as it began there.
Fourteen years ago, I moved to northern New Mexico. Instead of a 5 minute walk in Hillsboro Village to a great restaurant, it was now at least a 20 minute drive. Espanola surprised me with a some exceptional restaurants. But they were all New Mexican. Otherwise, it was an hour’s drive to Santa Fe for something that WASN”T New Mexican. I had been spoiled by the wealth of cuisines within walking distance of my apartment in Nashville. Fourteen years ago in northern New Mexico the debate over whether or not to allow Wal-mart into Espanola had just ended. Coming from a big city, I was amused to see that the Wal-mart opening was the social event of “the season.”
“Are you going to the Wal-mart opening?” my new friends would ask. “There’s gonna be food.”
Oh, wow, hors d’oeuvres at Wal-Mart.
I didn’t go. I probably would now. To see friends, to get out….
Fast forward to seven years ago. The chain restaurant, Chili’s, opened in Espanola. I was thrilled – and then horrified at my excitement. Something new and different! If Wal-mart caused a buzz, THIS opening was really something. I went the first day they were opened. People that had waited on me in other stores and restaurants were now corporately trained by a national chain. I almost didn’t recognize them. They had a new confidence, a feeling of being a part of something larger. It was great!
Here’s the thing about a chain. Once you walk in you could be anywhere. Northern New Mexico has such a unique culture that it was disorienting to walk into Chili’s and - not be in northern New Mexico! Chili’s had become exotic and novel! It’s like a Star Trek (the Next Generation, of course) episode where the crew walks through a revolving door and finds themselves someplace totally different.
It’s become my place to go. I can get a salad with something besides iceberg lettuce. I can get tilapia and items that aren’t New Mexican. I can sit with a glass of wine and write in the slow of the afternoons. The place is still doing a bang-up business without a dent in the business of our wonderful New Mexican restaurants. Espanola has a wonderful sushi restaurant now too. And our own little Ojo Caliente has a really fine restaurant at the hotel. Green chili appears on all the menus to honor the time honored traditions here yet we’re stepping out into the larger food world.
Well, my food just arrived. My new favorite is, get this, their spicy shrimp tacos. I know, I know….but the tortillas are light, not oily and they serve the tacos with a fresh lime cilantro slaw that’s really good. I need to eat and get out of here before the Monday night football crowd….

09/24/2012

I ate at Santa Fe Capitol Grill twice in the last two weeks. It’s a great restaurant and convenient when Zorr and I are heading to PetSmart for our weekly obedience class. (both of us are doing well well!)
The Capitol Grill describes its menu as New American Cuisine. It has several salads, many seafood dishes and of course chicken and beef. A couple of pasta dishes too.
I got the grilled mahi mahi last week. The chef at the Grill likes a lot of different fruit cream sauces. The mahi mahi was served with a mango cream sauce. It was tasty but I thought the fish would have been better served with a (now ubiquitous, I know) mango salsa. The cream sauce didn’t compliment the texture or flavor of the fish that well.
This last Friday I had the sea scallops with a tangerine cream sauce and it worked beautifully. It was served with Israeli couscous with dried cranberries which was delicious. The baby spinach was a little salty for my taste but with a dollop of the tangerine sauce it was perfect.
So-called Israeli couscous are small, round, pasta-like granules made from semolina and wheat flour. While the Israeli company Osem claims to have "invented" Israeli couscous in the 1950s, it is simply a marketing term for what was known previously as North African berkukes or Palestinian matfoul and popular in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Unlike familiar small, yellow semolina-based North African couscous, Israeli couscous (which is sometimes called pearl couscous) is twice as big and is toasted rather than dried. This gives it a nutty flavor and a sturdy composition that gives it a chewy bite and makes it stand up to sauce.
I’m intrigued by and want to try The Hawaiian Stuffed Chicken next time. It’s described as a chicken breast stuffed with green chile, jack cheese, ham and pineapple and then topped with yes, a pineapple chile-infused cream sauce. The description alone makes the dish sound overwhelming. A great comfort dish perhaps. We’ll see…

09/23/2012

This year has been a bountiful fruit year here in northern New Mexico. There were wild plums and peaches in abundance earlier in the summer. Red Mountain Café featured sand plum muffins (apparently that’s what some people call wild plums here). There’s lots of canning, freezing and drying going on around these parts.

09/10/2012

I just had a table of six vegetarians. It was a celebration so I wanted to do something really festive and “New Mexico”. I decided on vegetarian fajitas with tempeh.
Here’s the secret to tempeh, I’ve discovered. Always steam the tempeh first and then marinate it. For the fajitas I cut it in thin strips, steamed it and then marinated it in a glaze of apricot preserves, chipotle in adobo, maple syrup, olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and sea salt. I pureed a small can of chipotle in adobo to a paste, put it in a small bowl and added the rest. Chipotle carries a lot of heat so you can go lighter with it if you don’t want things so hot. When you like your glaze, pour it in a small baking dish and add your just steamed tempeh. Turn the tempeh to cover all sides and then cover the dish with plastic wrap and let sit until you are ready for the big production.
Cut lots of onions and colorful bell peppers into strips. Set aside.
I baked a small butternut squash, peeled it and cut it into bite size chunks. I roasted cumin seeds and ground them. I cooked a batch of brown rice. Near dinner time I wrapped sprouted corn and sprouted grain tortillas in aluminum foil and put them in a warm oven. Along with the tortillas, I put the cast iron inserts to the fajita pans into the oven.
Then as everyone started to gather, I:
• Heated canned organic black beans with the cumin and a touch of Negro Modelo beer. When they got to a simmer, I added the squash and then just kept it warm.
• Heated a small skillet with grape seed oil and sautéed quickly some of the onion and peppers. When they began to soften I added some Muir Fire Roasted diced tomatoes and heated through. I added the mix to the cooked rice.
• Then the show! I heated my paella pan (you can also use a big cast iron skillet or a wok) with grape seed oil (or other high heat oil) till it turned glossy across the pan. I added half the tempeh with the glaze and turned quickly to prevent burning. Toss, toss till they’re warm and beginning to brown. Then I added half the onion and pepper strips. Keep turning till they’re crispy like a stir fry. Carefully remove three of the cast iron inserts and load them up with rice, beans and the tempeh mix. Put in their wooden platters and squeeze them with lime for flavor and sizzle. Have your helper (be sure and have a helper!) take them to the table while you begin the process with the other 3 inserts.
• Serve them with the tortillas and the usual sour cream, cheese etc. I prefer avocado slices to guacamole.
I like to serve this with peach, pear nectars and orange juice with lime and lemon slices. It’s very cooling. And you can always add vodka if you want!I made pumpkin flan for dessert. It was really beautiful and delicious. Served from a savarin pan (a small ring pan) with its own caramel. YUM!You can always marinate meats in the glaze as well. And next time I think I’ll try orange marmalade instead of apricot jam. That might be even better!

09/08/2012

Many of us in Ojo Caliente are thrilled that the Red Mountain Café is here. David Biggs café fills that place between the high end (and excellent) restaurant at the Mineral Springs hotel and the local New Mexican restaurants along the highway. He bakes his own bread for his sandwiches, makes a great pizza and always has one of his great soups warming in a Felipe Ortega bean pot. And I am also happy to report that you can get fresh vegetable juices, smoothies or a great coffee, espresso or cappuccino.