We just got back from visiting Robert’s family in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As usual, we had a great time. We visited the Folk Art Museum, which, in addition to their permanent collection of artifacts, was showing a special textiles and fiber arts exhibit called “Needles and Pins.” Perfect for me! We also went to El Santuario de Chimayó, a famous Catholic pilgrimage site north of Santa Fe, and Las Golondrinas, a living history museum. Las Golondrinas has many beautiful Spanish colonial buildings on site and also hosts special events on the weekends including music festivals and lessons on how to make adobe. This was fun, but what I was really looking forward to doing during the trip was eating as much spicy New Mexican food as I possibly could.

Lucky for me, several of our tourist activities happened to involved food. For example, we stopped by Las Golondrinas during the middle of a bean tasting. That’s right, a bean tasting! Who knew beans had such a wide variety of flavors? When you taste them side by side, you can really tell the difference: some are mild and soft whereas others are meaty and full of texture. We also got to sample homemade panocha, a pudding made from brown sugar and sprouted wheat that is traditionally eaten during Lent. My favorite bite at Las Golondrinas, however, was the fresh bread straight from the horno. An horno is a dome-shaped adobe oven, and it produces incredible, super-crusty bread. We tried samples of whole wheat and a slightly sweet bread flavored with anise seed and orange zest.

In Chimayó, just north of Santa Fe, we happened upon a man selling various kinds of red chili powder. He led us through a tasting and, once again, I was surprised at the differences between the types. I was also quite amused at his very specific instructions during the tasting: sometimes we were given a pistachio nut to eat with the chili powder, other times we were told to chew the powder with the right molar (I think I might have accidentally used a bicuspid, but it still tasted good to me!) We bought a couple of small bags from him, although not nearly enough to get us through the winter. Thankfully, Henry, a friend of the family, was kind enough to offer up a huge part of his red chili stash. Thanks Henry!

We had our red chili, but we still needed green and lots of it. Fortunately, we were in Santa Fe for the start of the green chili harvest season. This time of year, chili roasters begin popping up around town. Grocery stores, strip malls, banks; every business with an outdoor parking lot seems to have its own chili roaster. You buy a bag of fresh chilies and then take it out to that store’s parking lot to get the chilies roasted. We stopped by Lowe’s grocery and, for just $19.95, I picked up a giant sack of chilies (bigger than me, even.) Then waited as our chilies were roasted. Watching your chilies roast is half the fun. Five minutes later, we were on our way home with big bag full of hot, charred chili peppers! We took the chilies back to Robert’s mom’s house and had a chili peeling session out on the porch. It is a messy process—best taken care of outside, with a cold beer handy. After we were done, Robert’s mom filled some corn tortillas with the green chilies for us to eat. You can’t get much fresher than that!

Overall, we didn’t dine out too often during the trip (but, when we did, I made sure to stuff myself completely full.) I had an excellent stuffed sopaipilla with red chili at El Paragua in Española. We also ate at El Parasol, one of El Paragua’s fast food restaurants. I had heard great things about their veggie tacos. Having just had a giant breakfast of Tecolote’s atole-piñon pancakes, I really wasn’t all that hungry. But, when Robert’s mom stopped off to pick up some ice cream and we just happened to be parked right next to El Parasol, I had to go in and order a couple of tacos. They were greasy and delicious! Robert picked up some pork tamales which he went crazy for. By chance, he ended up with one made with green chili and one made with red chili (in Santa Fe, they call this Christmas style!)

Number one on my list of things to do in Santa Fe was a visit to the farmer’s market (shocking, I know.) Much of the produce was the same as what we have here in Seattle, but I saw plenty of things for sale that you can’t get here. For example, you can’t order a zucchini and corn tamale for breakfast at my farmer’s market. Another major difference, of course, is the sheer number of chilies for sale at the Santa Fe market. One popular chili pepper at the market this year was the shisito pepper, a Japanese variety that is light green in color and medium in size. It is very mild and, because it has a thin skin, is great for frying. The nice folks from Romero Farms were frying up samples at the market. I couldn’t help myself; I bought some to bring home along with my other green chilies, and I also picked up two more packets of red chili powder. Lest you think we are only gluttons for chilies, we also came home with dried posole, atole, red chili-raspberry jam, salsa, green chili-peanut brittle, and two flavors of carne seca!