Colorado | Cooking With Fire

When Ron and I left Santa Fe, we drove though southern Colorado to reach Moab, Utah for the night. We wanted to get an early start so that we could explore as much of Utah’s National Parks and natural beauty as possible before heading on to Nevada and ultimately California. Stretch and Mary had warned us that there were some bad storms in the area and we here a bit concerned about how the roads would be along the way.

When we checked in to our motel for the night, we knew that we were in the right place. On the wall was a picture entitled “Fire and Ice”, which of course was the title of my first cookbook. I treat coincidences and synchronicity like this as an inspired message to confirm that I’m on the right path. My Mom thinks that I should write a book on the many situations like this that have and continue to happen in my life. Maybe I’ll just write about it here instead.

To beat the storms, we decided that we needed to get to California and over the tallest passes as quickly as possible, so only took a brief tour through Arches National Park. The formations and color of the rock in this area are truly spectacular – we were awed and amazed!

We hurried on to stay ahead of the weather and quickly passed through Ely, Nevada where we’d stopped at so many times before on our way east or west. We just nicely got about twenty miles west of Ely and it started to snow. Ron’s not used to driving in snow and neither is the BMW, but I didn’t think it was anything to be concerned with initially (being an optimistic Canadian who has always dealt with snow). We continued west and within fifteen more miles, the snow became a whiteout and we definitely decided to head back to Ely for the night.

We drove through Alpine, Nevada and had breakfast at one of our favorite little diners the next day. They’d endured storms all the day and night before and had a serious amount of snow to contend with – about eighteen inches. We were so glad that we’d headed back to Ely the night before – we never would have made it over the high summits.

We had originally planned to head up to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to see our dear friends, Tony and Sue. Turns out that they are away and are in Cabo San Lucas, of all places! We’re really sorry to miss them as they are two of our favorite people. It’s a real highlight to stop and see them on the way to New York every year and, whenever possible, on our way back to California in the fall. Hopefully we’ll see them before next May, but we’ll pick up exactly where we left off regardless.

We took a different route and headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico instead. Both Ron and I had been there previously, but it had been well over a decade since either of us had visited. We couldn’t have arrived at a better time as the sun was just setting and the colors and the landscape were absolutely breathtaking.

Our friend, Mary, was originally from Santa Fe and she and Stretch had just come back from a recent visit there, so we looked to them for some recommendations as to where to eat and stay.

Stretch and Mary called ahead and made a reservation for us at the Silver Saddle Motel, a classic vintage motor hotel with a western theme located on Cerrilos Road (www.santafesilversaddlemotel.com). The motel is owned by a great lady, Penny, that we met on our second morning and who has spent a great deal of her past in Mexico, including the early days of Cabo San Lucas and the Baja. The motel is being run day-to-day by Penny’s daughter, Dawn, and her boyfriend, Miguel, and, along with their night manager, Gene, they make their guests very welcome. We stayed in the Cowboy Room, decorated with Roy Rogers/cowboy/vintage paraphernalia, and couldn’t have been more homely. The room was very clean and comfortable and the complementary breakfasts were simple but fine. Special details like pumpkin butter and cranberry apple butter for the bagels were nice touches.

Santa Fe literally bursts with its own distinct flavor and the variety quality of their over 250 restaurants makes this city a foodie’s paradise. On Stretch and Mary’s recommendation, we ate at Tomasita’s, at the old railway station, on our first night for some classic New Mexican fare. We shared a salad, a Mexican combination plate so we could taste the famous red and green chile sauces and try their version of a relleno (we still think Pancho’s makes the very best!) and sopapillas with butter and New Mexican honey. Delicious! A mariachi band came in to play for a friend; four women including a trumpet player and they were phenomenal. After they left, a gentleman who appeared to be a guest at the neighboring table, got up and played the cello. He was truly a virtuoso and almost seemed out of place in this restaurant, but it was lovely that he played for his friend’s birthday celebration.

The next day we headed off towards Canyon Road and wandered through the endless galleries and then down to the central square to wander that area and take in the beautiful fall colors and beauty of Santa Fe. We had originally planned to be on the road that afternoon, but decided that we were having such a grand time in Santa Fe that we would stay another night and head out first thing the next morning.

We decided to have dinner at La Plazuela at La Fonda on the Plaza. La Fonda Hotel is a Santa Fe icon and the dining room was absolutely charming. Great food and wonderful service made this night very special.

Tag Archives: Colorado

Moab, Utah and Ely, Nevada

Santa Fe, New Mexico