a day in new mexico

because of all of the driving we do, we try to spend a few more days heading back and one of our favorite stops is in New Mexico.

This year, we decided to head back to Chimayo north of Santa fe and visited the beautiful churches and shrines there. Unfortunately we could not take pictures of the inside of the churches- they are incredible. It also looks like they are going through a massive renovation, there are wooden walkways, improved walls and just an overall larger area. We bought several bags of chiles from the area: powdered heirloom, green and red sun-dried flaked and green and red powders. i also bought the Sante Fe School of cooking cookbook– very much looking forward to making and posting about recipes!

of course, you cannot have a new mexico trip in august without a trip to Hatch- this town and really the state is the birthplace of one of the tastiest chile pepper around- the hatch pepper. Hatch as a festival for the pepper in a few weeks, so we missed the massive crowds- but you could already see that the farms were starting to produce the years harvest- many stalls has a few fresh ristras hanging to dry. We bought a number of different peppers and a huge bag of dried whole peppers. i have a few idea of what to make so you will be seeing hatch recipes in the weeks to come- can’t wait!