Keeli's Culinary Tour: Winter 2018

Good Lord I'm a SLACKER!!

I don't know why blogging has become more of a pain than a passion of mine that started 10 years ago...it could be a myriad of things like Trump, not being motivated to work out maybe because I've run too many races and biked too many miles, or the fact that I'm getting closer to 50, or that Chloe's had a very stressful junior year in high school and we've had an exchange student with us. Nevertheless, I've gotta get back in the swing of things so I can enjoy my blog of recipes, travel, gardening and most of all family. So pardon the delay in blogging, I am going to try better in 2018, even though it's nearly April already.

So we are on the way back from Santa Fe, New Mexico, after another wonderful trip with my fabulous sister-in-law Kara, Martin and my niece and nephews. Kara booked the same great VRBO that was walkable to downtown Santa Fe and many southwest stores, museums, galleries and of course lots of really good restaurants.

This trip we arrived on Saturday after taking the girls to Amarillo and eating at the Hoffbrau, a great steakhouse the night before. Saturday for lunch we ate at the Pantry, a really good southwest restaurant know mainly for breakfast but lunch was great too. Martin and Kara's crew flew to Albuquerque and took the train into Santa Fe and met us at one of our favorite restaurants, La Choza. Sunday we went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. It was a great service, Ori really enjoyed it. Jackie got the girls tickets to hear a band play at Meow Wolf, which is an eclectic art space that has a lot of venues for all age groups in the art world. You had to be 15 to get in so they couldn't take Whit.

We had lunch at our favorite Spanish restaurant La Boca then girls all went to shop and the boys headed back to the house. Then it snowed! Ori's second time ever to see snow. They went to get their ski gear and we walked down to Upper Crust Pizza for dinner. Monday everyone skied while Kara and I went to the spa. We had lunch at Del Charro. It was an old saloon but we had the most wonderful authentic Tostado recommended by the sweetest grandfather waiter. On the way to Del Charro we passed the Gruet tasting room that had just opened so of course we checked it out. Great is a New Mexico vineyard that Kara and I discovered two years ago at the Santa Fe Cooking School. They had a $10 wine tasting. We had tastes of 3 sparkling wines and a red. The lady that served us was very good at talking about the wines, the vineyards and you could tell she really loved her job. In the end I bought a sparkling and a red for Easter Lunch that Jackie and I will host in a few weeks. Monday night we all ate at Osteria D'Assisi, an Italian restaurant and had a wonderful meal.

Tuesday Kara got talked into skiing and Ori was sore from her first time on skis so Ori and I went shopping and had lunch at the shed. She had tacos WITH cheese, I couldn't believe it. There are three things Ori told us when she arrived. She hates cheese, avocados and cats. I had the tamales, a pork and a vegetable one and wiped it out of course. Last night we ate at Cafe Pasqual's and it was another good meal.

The highlight of the trip was all the commentary by August. That joker was non-stop chatter. And Happy Birthday August!!! They left on his birthday, we did celebrate at Cafe Pasqual's with a milkshake and singing. August commented on Jackie's hair loss, margarita drinking by Memaw, at Upper Crust, the guy poured my wine to the very rim and he pointed at my glass and said, "that's a good pour Aunt Keeli", I was like alrighty August. There were many more comments along the way about his burger tasting not as good as McDonalds, lots of Shirley Temple ordering and lots of advice. Good times. Today we had lunch on the famous Canyon Road that is full of galleries and art galore. Mucho Gusto was a very good, authentic Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed sitting near locals that covered subjects like medical marijuana, Trump, forgetting to "turn that damned phone off", and lots of other color commentary. I don't think they had their hearing aids on the right setting because we could hear them word for word.

On to OKC, Bentonville and Fayetteville. And we left our dogs sick with house sitters, Gummy and Biscuit with bronchitis and Buddy with pancreatitis. So we hope we haven't run off Whitney and Farley...

Chloe at the top of the mountain for lunch

On the way to eat

Chloe and Ori at the Loretto Chapel that has a staircase built that has no nails or central
pole to support it. Apparently it was built with glue and wood.

Stella, Ori and Chloe stayed at the La Casita, the little apartment by the garage at the VRBO

Chloe really got into skiing this year. She wanted to stay longer. I think at this age I got
more confident with by skiing ability and began to love it too. Maybe next year we will
stay for a few more days and ski. It was really cold and windy this Spring Break until the day we left.

Ori and her ski instructor

Jackie got Ori and Chloe tickets to Meow Wolf, an art collective production company that
has multimedia experiences, an art collection and stage. They went to see a band and loved it.
Meow WoFind out more about Meow Wolf »

Chloe

Jackie described this as a Yetti at Meow Wolf. He also described it as a 21c hotel

Chloe, Jackie and Stella

During the snow

Ori's second snow!!

This is Rennie, we had her for a week but since we were out of town she went to another foster, we should be getting her back next week sometime. She's a great one, house and crate trained, very sweet....

This is the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. Apparently, some man put these cadiallacs in the
grown and people randomly started spray painting them...We've always driven by them
and have never stopped but we did this trip...It was cold that Saturday morning and windy