I May Have to Change the Blog Name to....

Full Stomachs. For real. It seems like every single time I sit down to write a new post it is about what we have been eating and not much else. And here I am again about to do it again.

So what HAVE we been eating? Some good shit people.... some gooood shit. Last night we had three things made from the September issue of Gourmet magazine. Billy made the Italian parsley and beet salad with fresh ricotta while I made the cold cucumber and cubanelle soup with cashews and chives. They both turned out to be fabulous recipes and I would make both of them again for sure. We lucked out and had a great wine to drink with the meal... 2008 Fetzer Gewurtztraminer. It could not have been a more perfect match up. And it is an inexpensive bottle of wine which makes it even better.





Our third recipe form the Gourmet mag was the indulgent one... the apple pie with cheddar crust. I can't find the exact recipe online to link up to. Anyway, Billy made the crust and I made the filling.... then I assembled the pie. Due to the influence of the Gewurtztraminer and the fact that I was listening to my George Michael/Michael Jackson station on Pandora I neglected to add the 3 tablespoons of flour to the apple filling which resulted in a pretty watery pie in the end. It is still incredibly delicious but I was pissed at myself for flaking out and messing it up. Oh well, it will not stop us from eating it! And allow me to say this... do not be skeptical of adding a half a pound of sharp cheddar to your pie crust. People, it is waaaaayyy better than you can imagine.





What have we been doing other than cooking up a storm and eating? Well... working, that's what. My work at the chocolate shop is insane busy right now. I can't even keep up. The owners are out of town for a few weeks and the whole sale orders just keep rollin' in along with the fact that the walk in traffic is three times as much as what would be traditional for this time of the year. All this adds up to mean one thing... my co-worker Marie and I are getting our butts kicked.

Billy snapped a few shots of what I was working on today. Here I am dipping Spats which are caramel (made by Billy) topped off with tamari roasted pinon nuts and dipped in dark chocolate. I am doin' the dipping here....

And here is a close up to really get your mouth watering...

I am also knee deep in a special order for a couple of hundred turtles. Normally we do a caramel with toasted pecans dipped in chocolate called a Don Juan Pecan but these are amped up a notch to look like an actual turtle. You get more pecans... which is always a good thing.



So there you have it! Food seems to be the dominant theme in our lives of late. I have been missing the Airstream these past few weeks so we are hoping to take a long weekend in October and head up into Northern New Mexico to a lakefront campground with the trailer and kayak and get one more go at it before the real cold weather sets in.

Drop me a quick comment and say HI readers! How is everyone doin'? And thanks for staying with me through these slow posting times... Cheers!

Getting Settled

Whew! It has been a wild change of pace for us over the past few weeks since we left Mendocino. Up there we were sort of floating around in a slow paced fog wearing layers of long sleeves and woolen sweaters and suddenly now we are stinking hot in the Santa Fe sun in 90 + degree temps, zipping back and forth across town in traffic and working on a real live schedule (something that we have not done in years.) I have been a little overwhelmed and a lot exhausted since we got here. But! Things are starting to shape up and settle down now.

My new job is great and I am so thrilled to have scored such a cool gig. I start my chocolatier training tomorrow. Up until now I have been learning the general ropes of the shop and just getting acclimated to the whole scene there. One bit of interesting news is that Billy is actually going to be helping out working one or two days a week cooking at the shop. He will be making the caramel, toffee and the pate (6 flavors of ganache style chocolate enrobed in wax for easy traveling and longevity.) He starts tomorrow training with Keith (one of the owners) on how to cook all these goodies up in a huge copper kettle. It will be funny to have him there at work with me. Rudy will benefit from this in that he gets to go spend the days we work together at the doggie day care which is right next door. The place is called Santa Fe Tails. It's a new business and they seem to be doing a great job so far. One of the best things about the place is that they have web cams set up so you can check in on your dog while they are there playing for the day. They also take each dog out for a walk at the railyard park across the street. Rudy had a blast the last time we dropped him off for the day although the dudes working there did mention that Rudy was a pistol and they could hardly even believe his energy levels. Yo. Tell me about it.

My biggest news to report is that as of August 1st we will be taking a break from the Airstream. Probably a long break other than occasional weekend trips. We just rented a little place right on Canyon Rd and will be moving in the first of next month. We are doing this because the RV parks in and around Santa Fe are just not aesthetically pleasing to me, they are almost as expensive as a casita rental and in the winter here we would freeze our ass off in the trailer. So we will be putting the old girl in storage for awhile. I guess I am ready for a change of living quarters since we have been in the AS for a solid year straight and on and off for almost three years now. Our new place is really sweet... it's not very big but it will suit our purposes quite well. And the location is as good as it gets. We can walk down Canyon Rd and into town in a matter of minutes. I can't wait to move in. Even though we have no furniture! It will be heaven to have a real live big bathroom (and tub) again.... and a full kitchen with counter space! I love our Airstream but variety is the spice of life baby. I am ready to live without wheels under my bed for a minute here.

So with all that said... on to the fun stuff. Yesterday we drove out to Abiquiu, one of my favorite places in the whole of the USA. We had the intention of spending the afternoon and early evening out on the lake in our kayak waiting to shoot photos at dusk. The weather had other plans for us unfortunately. We had only been in the lake for about 5 minutes when the storm clouds starting rolling in and the lightening started dancing across the horizon. Lightening in northern NM is nothing to fool around about.... especially out in the middle of a big assed flat lake. We paddled around a bit, pulled of to have a late lunch and then high tailed it back to the launch site before we got zapped. Also the wind was making paddling around a stupidly huge effort so it was best to give it up for the day. After we got the kayak secured back on the truck we cruised over to Ghost Ranch to shoot some pics.











Rudy was pissed that we did not let him out of the truck at Ghost Ranch but in light of the fact that the bubonic plague is on the loose in the flea population of the area we felt it best that his hairy little ass stayed put inside. The last thing we need is him sticking his snout in some rodent hole and bringing home a host of black plague party animals to roost in our bed sheets.

The next two weeks will entail a lot of cleaning, organizing and prep for moving along with training at work so bear with me if posting is light. I'll do my best to jump on and post some pics and a few stories as the days roll by.