Category Archives: Articles & Features

Physicians to Farmers: Talon de Gato

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Talon de Gato Farmers for Local Flavor magazine
by Tania Casselle

“I spent 20 years working in a room without windows,” says retired anesthesiologist Adam Mackie. He’s certainly making up for it now. Working the Talon de Gato farm with former public health physician Steve Jenison, he gets as much open air as he can handle.

Talking to the duo in Apodaca, a tiny community on the Embudo river near Dixon, New Mexico, it becomes clear that their path from physicians to farmers was a gradual one.

Read the PDF article on the Talon de Gato farmers and founders of the Dixon Seed Exchange. May 2011.

Still Hungry?

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Professional Gardeners in the Kitchen

Who better to share their recipes than the people who help us grow the ingredients? These gardening experts and enthusiastic home cooks nurture their produce from seed to table. They stepped out of their greenhouses and into their kitchens to reveal a few of their favorite food tricks, and twists on traditional recipes.

Read the full Still Hungry? article with four recipes: Cincinnati Chili, Vegetarian Blue Corn Posole, Cream of Green Pea Soup with Lettuce, and a Pumpkin Pie which turns the accidental purchase of the wrong milk into the secret ingredient that makes this pie a hit.

 

 

Tasty Traditions

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Tasty Traditions
Book review and author profile by Tania Casselle

Potica bread, latkes, and beef stewed in Coke. Perhaps not the first dishes that spring to mind when you think about New Mexican food, but author Sharon Niederman knows better. She shares the story behind her new book New Mexico’s Tasty Traditions: Recollections, Recipes and Photos.

The people she meets would probably not describe themselves as foodies. They’re just regular folk who eat well, whether in neighborhood diners, at a ranch cookout, or by following time-honored recipes handed down in the family.

Read the full Tasty Traditions feature for Local Flavor magazine, February 2011.

Duke City Family Fun

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Duke City Family Fun

Dinosaurs, snakes, sharks, amusement park thrills… this summer’s pick of kid-friendly Albuquerque destinations to help your family keep their cool, keep your bank account chilled out, and leave your brood thoroughly exhausted… I mean, entertained.

Read the full Duke City Family Fun feature on attractions and activities for kids at Local Flavor magazine, June 2010.

 

Kettlebell Fitness

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Kettlebells

It’s a Saturday morning in the L-shaped studio of Santa Fe’s Dynamic Kettlebell Fitness. About 30 students are swinging their kettlebells under the direction of trainer Keira Newton, and despite the rigor of the workout, nobody groans, complains, or tries to sneak a moment’s downtime when Newton’s back is turned. In fact, she has to keep admonishing them to hold back when they’re too eager to launch into the next round. “You’re not going yet, y’all. Hold on, hold on.” She clicks her stopwatch to start the new series of movements (“Use your breath, not your momentum!”) and then, when the timed period is over, has to rein in the over-zealous once again: “Stop! You’re done, you’re done!”

Read the full Kettlebell Fitness article for Local Flavor magazine’s health and fitness issue, March 2011.

Artisan Farmers: On the Road in Farm Country

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Artisan Farmers: On the Road in Farm Country

Take one food producer and farming specialist: Lisa Fox of Southwest Chutney. Add one writer: Richard Harris, author of 41 books, most of them travel guides. Stir, blend, and send them out to tell the story of New Mexico’s farmers. The resulting dish was the book Artisan Farming: Lessons, Lore, and Recipes.

But perhaps the most interesting part of this recipe is hearing these two authors from very different backgrounds talk about what they learned on the road. Read the full Artisan Farmers article for Local Flavor magazine, May 2010.

El Meze Restaurant in Taos

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Moor Flavor

I’m sitting on the patio of the new El Meze restaurant in a historic hacienda under Taos Mountain. It’s sunset, the atmosphere is as mellow as my glass of Rioja. Waiters hush past carrying bowls of fried green olives stuffed with Spanish blue cheese, and steaming sopa verde piled high with mussels. Then chef Frederick Muller swings out of the kitchen, looking Matador sharp in his black chef coat, and shares a few words with each table. All I can say is: Welcome back Fred. It was worth waiting seven years for this.

Read the full PDF feature on El Meze and Chef Frederick Muller, formerly of Taos’ legendary Fred’s Place, and the Moorish influence on New Mexico’s cuisine.  For Local Flavor magazine.

This article won the New Mexico Press Women’s Award 2009 for Food Writing.

 

 

Fishing the Southwest

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What’s Around the Next Bend?
Fishing the Southwest with fly fisherman Taylor Streit, a Legendary Guide in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.

“I always liked to fish, Streit says. “It’s a good way to get out of the house. The American male, at least in the generation I came from, is not licensed to go outside without some sort of instrument in your hands. You can’t just be a nature boy. You’ve gotta have a gun or a fishing rod.”

Full story at Local Flavor. This profile won the New Mexico Press Women’s 2011 Award for a Personality Profile.

Book Review of Best of the West (for High Country News)

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A Western State of Mind
Book Review by Tania Casselle of Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri. Edited by James Thomas and D. Seth Horton

This impressive anthology showcases 18 stories from emerging writers and literary stars, selected from publications as diverse as The New Yorker and Hayden’s Ferry Review. Part of the pleasure in reading it arises from reflecting on what “The West” really means. What characterizes a Western story, beyond simply being set in the vast and varied lands west of the Missouri River?

Read the full book review at High Country News.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (for Hyatt Destinations)

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“When I got to New Mexico, that was mine,” said Georgia O’Keeffe, and she proved it by capturing the essence of the red rock lands around her beloved Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu, about 60 miles northwest of Santa Fe.

→  Full Clip of Immortal Images for Hyatt Destinations magazine on the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The magazine is published by HCP/Aboard, The Miami Herald Media Company’s custom publishing division.