Slowing Down Southwest Style

Is your hectic life style getting you down?  This blog post describes a short trip my husband, Wayne, and I recently took to alleviate that very problem.  Fortunately, the Desert Southwest provides multiple opportunities for short, relaxing getaways.

We left early on a Thursday driving east from El Paso, letting wide open spaces and distant mountains bring us out of our morning stupor.  Before we knew it, we had arrived in the small West Texas town of Van Horn.  Margie's Bakery provided us with coffee and breakfast.  Another hour and a half drive, and we were in Alpine, Texas, home of Wayne's alma mater, Sul Ross State University.

Our first stop was at the Museum of the Big Bend, located on the attractive Sul Ross campus.

Museum of the Big Bend

We learned about Native American pictographs, early settlers of the region, and mining operations.  I especially enjoyed the depiction of a primitive kitchen.

Settler's kitchen

We arrived at our final destination, Ft. Davis, in the afternoon and checked into a room in the Orchard Suites of the Limpia Hotel.

Limpia Hotel, Ft. Davis

The next three days we spent like typical tourists, sightseeing, shopping, and dining, We also found the quiet atmosphere conducive to writing and were glad we had brought laptops to work on our next book, Forts, Farbs, and Phantoms. 

Both Alpine and Ft. Davis are built around impressive courthouses.

Courthouse in Ft. Davis

Courthouse in Alpine

We had a variety of dining experiences, from a small restaurant in Alpine that had great food along with their own ideas about how to prepare and serve it,

Restaurant signs

to the elegant Bistro at the Hotel Limpia for an evening meal.

Bistro, Hotel Limpia

Short drives around the area provided many photo ops.

Ft. Davis, wonderfully preserved from the 19th century

Windmill and tank

Horses, waiting to be fed?

Deserted House

Mattie, a Blue Heeler visiting from Virginia

What I can't depict in photos is the blissful peace of the Alpine-Ft. Davis area.  We slowed down and let time flow on its own.

Now my mind has a happy place to return to as I face the everyday challenges of a busy life.

Enjoy the Southwest - seasonally

Each area of the United States provides its inhabitants with a unique lifestyle.  What images come to mind when you read the words "Southwestern Lifestyle"?  Do you see people dressed in cowboy boots and hats, desert landscapes, and bowls of salsa and tostadas?  Perhaps, but a glance beneath the surface reveals so much more about life in the Desert Southwest.

I was born in El Paso, Texas and have made that city my home all of my life.  El Paso is located on the United States/Mexico border in the Chihuahuan Desert.  It is a bilingual, bicultural city. Even though I love to travel to far off lands, one of the best parts of a trip is coming home. When I am gone, I miss our mountains, the dry air, spectacular sunsets, and spicy food.

Life in El Paso can be enjoyed in varied ways, depending on the season of the year.

Yes, we do have four seasons in the Desert Southwest!  They may not be traditional seasons with snowdrifts in December, showers in April, and welcome sunshine in July, but every three months, we have an opportunity to enjoy changing weather and activities, including preparing special dishes for friends and family.

Winter will arrive in less than two weeks. We are already experiencing frosty nights and cool days.  What a great excuse to build a fire in the fireplace in the early morning and drink coffee. Winter brings the promise of a Christmas season with customs from both sides of the border. As the weather cools, I feel an urge to spend the afternoon in the kitchen, making red chile sauce for enchiladas by hand with an old-fashioned vegetable press.  My thoughts go to homemade tamales.  Should we host a tamale-making party this year or order them from a local bakery?

Spring arrives earlier in the Desert Southwest than in other areas of the country.  This season does not greet us with gentle rains but rather with strong winds that howl interminably. In the springtime, I begin dreaming of a yard full of fragrant flowers and a garden full of tomatoes and herbs.  I wait anxiously for the projected last frost date, usually around April 1st.  Mother Nature has occasionally tricked me, however, and brought one last snowstorm in April.  I make special dishes for spring holidays, like Irish-American Soda Bread on St. Patrick's Day and Eggs Delmonico on Easter.

Summer is a very long season in El Paso, lasting from approximately May through September. And how hot is it?  Darn hot!  As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, summer evenings can be enjoyed outdoors at festivals, musical entertainment, and sporting events. Thirsty hummingbirds begin appearing at the feeder. Summer is the season for crisp salads with homegrown tomatoes and guacamole made from plentiful avocados.  I use the weather as an excuse to make up a three-ingredient recipe for Coconut Ice Cream.

By the time summer releases its fiery hold, El Pasoans are mentally and physically ready for cooler weather.  The yard needs a fall clean up, and pears need harvesting before birds peck at them all.  Autumn is greeted locally with a burst of activities — church bazaars, Renaissance Fairs, and, of course, football.  I can finally bear to turn on the stove and oven in the kitchen again.  It's time to plan a Southwestern Thanksgiving Dinner with chipotle cranberry sauce and pumpkin chiffon pie.

Four seasons with unique weather, food and activities make for an enjoyable Southwestern lifestyle. If you are interested in reading more about living in the Southwest, I have recently published a book — Seasons and Seasonings of the Southwest, available on amazon.com or Create Space for $12.00 ( and soon to be available on Kindle).  I have written short creative non-fiction pieces and included recipes for each season of the year.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome! Happy Holidays to all, Southwestern or otherwise!

               

  

  

There's no place like a Southwestern home

Travel is a good thing.  It broadens the mind (and sometimes the hips, depending on the food delicacies that you find).  Travel also provides novel images and thoughts you can use to make a comparison between life style at home and other life styles.

I recently spent a good bit of time in Los Angeles, California in a beautiful area near the historic Farmers Market and the upscale Grove Shopping Center.

Early morning in Los Angeles

My husband Wayne snapped this shot while sipping Cuban coffee in a Los Angeles cafe.  Very exotic to our Texan eyes!

Coffee customer with friend

Los Angeles can boast of palm trees, avocado trees, luxuriant bougainvillea vines, and gigantic, larger than life succulents.  What a feast for the eyes of a gardener!

But when I returned home to El Paso, Texas (located in the high desert), I also found treats for the senses in my own back yard.

View of  grapevines in late afternoon

The extra room we have dubbed "The Bunkhouse" is waiting for visitors to play dominoes, listen to music, or write a novel.

The Bunkhouse

The horno (oven) stands ready to bake a pizza or a recipe of camp bread.

The Horno

And when I arrived home on Good Friday, the plants told me it was springtime.  A large butterfly had found the claret cup cactus in the front yard.

Butterfly atop claret cup cactus

The honey mesquite trees had put on their bright green feathery finery.

Mesquite tree

 It was good to be home.

Sweet Potato Chile Soup for a Winter's Day

"Sweet Potato Chile Soup" read the title for a recent recipe in our local newspaper.  I was intrigued by the dish because of an unusual combination of ingredients.  Sweet potatoes are being touted as a healthy addition to our diets, "packing a powerful nutritional punch, " reports Medical News Today.  One medium potato provides 400% of daily needs for Vitamin A as well as fiber and potassium.  And the chiles...well, chiles perk up almost any dish.

Our Desert Southwest is blessed with an abundant year round supply of chiles.  I love chiles for three reasons:  they are low in calories, high in vitamins, and, more importantly perhaps, really tasty. When my husband Wayne and I travel very far from El Paso, our home town, we often end up complaining about the local food, wishing that we could cure the blandness with a small dose of chile.

The two chiles found in this soup recipe, the poblano and chipotle, are not as common as the jalapeño or long green chile, but they still can be easily found in local markets. The poblano has a heat rating of 1,000-1500 Scoville units, which is less than the jalapeño.  The poblano is usually dark green in color but may be red as well.

Chile poblano

The other chile used to flavor the soup is the chipotle.  And I'm not using the term 'flavor' lightly!

Chipotle pepper

The chipotle is the dried or smoked form of a fresh jalapeño, with a Scoville unit of 2500-5000. This sweet potato soup recipe calls for canned chipotle in adobo sauce (made with tomatoes, garlic, and various spices).

Chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

The hardest part of the soup recipe was peeling the poblano peppers.  I arranged three peppers on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven on broil, turning the peppers over when they started to blacken. Then I wrapped the chiles in a damp cloth, and after a few minutes, went to work to remove the thin skin.  I am used to peeling long green chiles that give up their skin fairly easily, but the poblanos were more of a challenge.  (Be sure to wear rubber gloves during the chile peeling process).

The rest of the recipe was a breeze.  I sauteed a chopped third of an onion and one chopped garlic clove in a small amount of butter.  Then I added two sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered, a 32 ounce container of chicken stock, two chipotle peppers in adobo, and the three roasted and peeled poblanos. When the mixture came to a boil, I cooked it on medium low heat until the potatoes were tender.

The last step was to puree the mixture in a blender with 1/2 cup milk (or cream would have been even better) and 1/3 cup honey.  A garnish of cilantro (fresh coriander) finished off the exotic flavors.  I was so proud of the soup that I served it in a special tureen bought in Mexico years ago.

Sweet Potato Chile Soup

Sweet Potato Chile Soup makes four generous servings.  I hope this soup will warm you on a cold winter's day, as it did us.

Holiday Recipes - Southwestern Style

San Marcos brand chiles are ready to go.

Do you have a cherished family holiday recipe?   Remembering my grandmother’s pound cake, my aunt’s thumbprint cookies, and my mother’s pumpkin chiffon pie gives me warm feelings. 

I decided to start my legacy early by recording favorite holiday dishes.  I’m only going to include dishes with a Southwestern flair, which of course means chiles must be featured.  This is a modified version of a recipe I found on bonappetit.com several years ago.  It’s really easy!  Here’s what you do.

 Chipotle Cranberry Sauce (makes about two cups)

Buy a 12-ounce package of fresh cranberries. They can be purchased early and frozen in the bag. 

Combine cranberries, three-fourths cup Splenda sugar blend (or one and a third cups sugar), two chipotle chiles in adobo finely chopped, and three tablespoons lime juice in a medium saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.  Continue cooking about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Cranberries will begin to pop.

Add one small chopped garlic clove, one-fourth heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon, one-fourth heaping teaspoon ground comino (cumin) and cook about five minutes longer on simmer.  Sauce will begin to thicken.  Keep chilled.  And a great feature is that the sauce can be made up to one week ahead of time.

This recipe has helped me wean my traditionalist husband off of canned jellied cranberry sauce. Not an easy task!

Stuffed Jalapeños

Buy an eight ounce can of jalapeños, wash and cut in half lengthwise, and place in ice water.  (Did you know that washing and soaking jalapeños reduces their ability to set your mouth on fire?)

Cream an eight-ounce package cream cheese, a small jar of processed cheese spread, one tablespoon grated onion, and one tablespoon half and half.  Add a dash each of Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Drain jalapeños and fill cavities with cheese mixture.  Can top with pimentos for holiday garnish.  Refrigerate.

My recipe for this dish is so ancient that it is written on a half sheet of a Big Chief writing table in my large handwriting from schoolgirl days and is dotted with brown splashes. Stuffed jalapeños will liven up a traditional holiday meal for sure!

If you try these recipes, let me know how they work for you.  And send me recipes for your favorite Southwestern holiday dishes.  I"ll be sure to include them on the next post.  Happy cooking!