New Mexico, I Love You.

OH that we all could just eat delicious food and travel to exotic lands.

(Sometimes I wish that were what life was about...)

I've been at the beach, it's true, but I also packed up my husband and snuck away to Santa Fe for a visit with my brother and sister-in-law. You've met them before, I believe. They are the ones who I admire so much in that little sister kind of way.

They're out west, living the dream, or at least their surroundings are the dreamiest one could ask for. New Mexico is full of astonishing beauty,

culture,

peppers,

chilies,

and an amazing, farm-fresh salad bistro called Vinaigrette that John and Bea help grow for. (Their slogan is "Saving the Planet...One Salad at a Time." Does it get more wonderful than organic salads? Just the thought of their deliciousness makes me want to go start shaking olive oil and balsamic like a celebratory rattler in a Mariachi band. Clearly that's my cup of tea, but my guess is that if you love impossibly fresh salads combined with decadent wine, it's yours too.)

John and Bea also took us to the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, which is a spectacular market. People were flocking around the pepper roaster, vying for samples of the different flavored peppers, which were also strung in hefty clumps looking electric and bright, like Christmas lights. There were people selling downy sheepskin rugs, a man fire-roasting mild green peppers over a spit, sausage links hanging languidly for sale from the top of the sausage tent and happy bright sunflowers peering out at you from all over the alleyway. It was blissful.

I don't have a recipe for you today, but I do have a little expression of admiration for Santa Fe, and its Farmer's Market. Not to mention my dear brother and sister-in-law, who are out there relentlessly farming, growing, contributing, and being wonderful examples to us all.