Reminiscing about Alice Bullock and Santa Fe had a delayed, but demanding delayed reaction.

I had to know of Josie's was still open.

Josie's Case de Comida is one of the little restaurants that you never quite forget.

It's a small lunch cafe at 225 E. Marcy Street.

The Santa Fe New Mexican, where I worked, is at 202 E. Marcy Street.

Josie's was a lunch cafe. One of those places with a counter some stools and a few booths. The line started forming well before the traditional lunch hour. No reservations, when someone got up from a seat the next person in line sat down.

Most of my meals from Josies came in a doubled paper plate covered with tin foil. It wasn't fancy takeout, but it was fast, priced so that newspaper person could afford it one than once a week and it's still my standard for Mexican food.

Many of the food writers - like this one for the New York Times - who have chronicled Josie's fare focus on the blue corn tortillas. But that's not what I remember. It was the green chile sauce - chili verde - that has a hallowed place in my food memory.

Green chile sauce is one of those simple mysteries of cooking and enjoying what is cooked.

The first problem with making an authentic version is access to the New Mexico green chili.

I know, I know, you can buy green chili by the can or frozen, but it's just not the same.

One more word about green chile.

Many of the canned varieties are so mild you can barely get the green chili flavor. But there are some varieties that will make you break a sweat at the first bite. My favorite is the Sandia verity that is just as spicy as it is mildly hot.

But, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

This 20 minute exercise will give you about 2 cups of a sauce that stores well in the fridge and can be frozen.

First fry a couple strips of bacon and reserve a tablespoon of the drippings.

Saute a half cup of chopped onion (not a sweet onion please) in the bacon drippings under a medium heat about a minute then add 2 tablespoons of flour.

Continue cooking under medium heat and stir the flour with the onions, but don't let the onions caramelize.

Add a cup of chopped green chile, a cup of chicken broth, 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic and 3/4 teaspoon of garlic power, stir until smooth then simmer it four 20 minutes.

That's the base, but you can make many variations. I like to add a pinch or two of ground cumin and oregano during the last two or three minutes of simmering. All you're after is an aftertaste.

Some fresh cilantro is a also a good compliment.

From there your only limitation is your imagination.

Pour it over eggs and you have breakfast that will bring any Saturday morning into a better perspective.

Atop tortillas encasing melted cheese and you have a chile verde quesadilla. It's just a fast and much better than you can get at the local Taco Bell and lost less expensive.

Put some grilled chicken and a slice or two of avocado atop the cheese then add the sauce and you're on the road to something delicious.

Now, all I have to do is order some of better frozen New Mexico green chile.

A chili verde to live by

Reminiscing about Alice Bullock and Santa Fe had a delayed, but demanding reaction.

I began having flashbacks about Josie's.

Josie's Case de Comida is one of those places that you never quite forget.

It's a small lunch cafe at 225 E. Marcy Street.

The Santa Fe New Mexican, where I worked, is at 202 E. Marcy Street - getting the connection?

Josie's was a lunch cafe. One of those places with a counter some stools and a few booths. The line started forming well before the traditional lunch hour. No reservations, when someone got up from a seat the next person in line sat down.

Most of my meals from Josie's came in a doubled paper plate covered with tin foil. It wasn't fancy takeout, but it priced so that newspaper person could afford it one than once a week and it's still my standard for Mexican food.


Many of the food writers - like this one for the New York Times - who have chronicled Josie's fare focus on the blue corn tortillas. But that's not what I remember. It was the green chile sauce - chili verde - that has a hallowed place in my food memory.


Green chili sauce is one of those simple mysteries of cooking and enjoying what is cooked. Is can stand right beside the other classic sauces.

The first problem with making an authentic version is access to the New Mexico green chili.

I know, I know, you can buy green chili by the can or frozen. Take my word for it - it's just not the same. I'll do a piece in the next week or so about where you can order some green chili that has some life and flavor to it.

One more word about green chili.

Many of the canned varieties are so mild you can barely get the green chili flavor. But there are some varieties that will make you break a sweat at first bite. My favorite is the Sandia verity that is just as spicy as it is mildly hot.

CLICK HERE for the recipe.

Red wine isn't the only adult beverage that can be good for your health

We have read and heard for years how a daily dose - excuse me a glass - of red wine is good for your health.

Well, here's the rest of the story as Paul Harvey likes to say.

According to a report in Food Quality News the health benefits of red wine are not different to other alcohols.

The report cites a study at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital conducted to test whether red wine, proven to be high in polyphenols, differed to other alcoholic drinks in affecting heart health. The results were published in the February edition of the American Journal of Physiology, Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

The conclusion of the study was red wine and alcohol consumption were found to have virtually identical impact on health, with one drink of either substance helping to reduce the work rate of the heart.

Red wine has been linked to extended survival rates of mice and prevented the negative effects of high-calorie diets, in other testing, due to the presence of the polyphenol, resveratrol.

The study, supported by Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, was conducted to better understand the link between health benefits and moderate red wine consumption.

With population surveys linking lower levels of heart disease to European countries with high-fat diets that also regularly consumed red wine, researchers hoped the testing could better explain this so-called "French paradox."

An occasional single serving of red wine, like any other alcoholic beverage was found to improve heart health, according to the researchers.

The study said this was the result of alcohol's relaxing affect on blood vessels. However, after a second drink the heart rate, amount of blood being pumped in the body, and sympathetic nervous system action all increased, the study said.

CLICK HERE for the full report.

A recipe for powerful medicine

The flu and cold season is taking what appears to be a higher than normal toll this winter.

Other than hand washing and wishing you had taken the flu shot there's not much you can do about the flu. But that's not the case with colds and the sniffles so I'm serving up a bit of food/herbal remedy that I've been using for over 30 years.

One reason I like it so much is the back story.

I was working for the The Santa Fe New Mexican in the 1970s when I met and became good friends with a genuine Northern New Mexico icon.

I won't try to list Alice Bullock's achievements or explain how she enriched my life and career. But I can tell you how she introduced me to a cold-season staple that I sill swear by and recommend to anyone with the sniffles or complaining about that achy feeling that walks hand-in-hand with the cold and flu season.

But first we have to set the scene.

Alice was in her mid-60s when I met her. She had already achieved the writer/photographer status that many of the Santa Fe art colony wannabes were chasing. She had evolved from her fiction writing days had become immersed in writing about Northern New Mexico folklore and local history.

She had also become one of the rare people who the Northern New Mexico locals totally accepted during an era when the two cultures were not always in harmony. She liked to "walk in their shoes" as she used to explain it and that's where Alice learned of some of the curanderos' ways.

Here's how I was indoctrinated.

I was editing The New Mexican's Sunday magazine 'Pasatiempo' and Alice wrote brook reviews and an occasional article for us. After she did a story on Santa Fe's version of La Llornoa the reader response drove me on a quest for more of those stories.

I began pestering Alice ever time she dropped off her book review copy.

During one of those visits I was losing my fight against a killer cold. Alice grew tired of my sniffling and hacking - or maybe it was the whining for more stories.

She scribbled a recipe on a piece of end-roll copy paper and pitched it across the desk.

"Do that. When you're better we'll talk."

She also instructed that I was to come by her house on the way home that afternoon and she would give me a ristra from Chimayo for the remedy.

I was never sure if the chili was special because it grew near the El Santuario de Chimayo or just because it was what Alice preferred.

OK, back to the remedy.

I was to heat chicken broth just to the boiling point, pour it in a cup, add a little of the red pepper reconstituted from the ristra then put a slice of lemon atop the liquid to steep.

After a the broth cooled a little and the lemon had done it work, I was supposed to enjoy the broth like an afternoon cup of coffee or hot tea.

RECIPE NOTE - Since ristras were not common in many of the areas I lived in after leaving New Mexico I've adapted by using commercial cayenne pepper.

To this day that concoction is my first line of defense when I feel a cold coming on, or sometimes when I just want a special cold, louse weather pick-me-up. The combination of lemon, chicken broth and the chili clears the sinuses and sooths the throat does some chicken soup stuff at the same time.

By the way, after the cold was gone I got Alice to agree to a series of ghost stories and North New Mexico legends if I would lend a hand with some research and editing. After the series for The New Mexican it was expanded and book was birthed.

I still have a copy of "The Squaw Tree." On the cover page there's a handwritten note from Alice thanking me for the pestering her about the idea and proclaiming me the book's "grandaddy."

A good friend, a satisfying book project and good food - that's a recipe for powerful medicine.

Tilapia stuffed with red peppers and scallops for a fast, simple dinner

More often than not dinner is something that has to be simple and fast during the week.

By fast I mean you just don't have the time and energy for a lot of meal prep and execution.

One of the stopgaps I've been playing with is the frozen rolled tilapia entrees. I understand there are several brands out there, but the one I found was Posidon's Choice.

The first experiments were preparation by the company's directions. As the package promised I had an entree in 20 minutes, but it left a lot to be desired in my taste department.

The solution is simple, a sauce and a few extra minutes of prep time.

CLICK HERE for the recipe.

Mashed potatoes should never be a dud

Forget the banter over the presidential politics and upcoming elections. Let's spend a few minutes on something really important - mashed potatoes.

Seriously, the difference between really good mashed potatoes and just mashed potatoes is the difference between a lightning bug and lightning.

Mashed potatoes are the ultimate comfort food and something top cooks never take for granted because first-class mashed potatoes have the power to transform an otherwise mediocre meal.

When it comes to cooking two of my favorite food spots on the Web are The Splendid Table and The Reluctant Gourmet. Both have some excellent advice and recipes to ensure you Thanksgiving spuds are not a dud (sorry about that - sometimes I just can't help myself).

In fact, Reluctant Gourmet tossed out the mashed potatoes topic on his blog just before Thanksgiving last year for comments and recipes and some great ideas have been posted.

For cooks who like to really be in the know about potatoes check out Wikepedia's contributions for a refresher course.

Potatoes.com is also a good resource.

If you every what to create some dinner conversation get some All Blue and Russian Blue potatoes. When I lived in Washington State I could get both from farms in the Skagit Valley. At first is was a novelty thing but I grew found of the my mashed or roasted blue potatoes.
While everyone has an ultimate recipe for great mashed potatoes the ultimate is usually what your grandmother or mother did. But if you want to try my way here's how I'll make my mashed potatoes next week.

I'll use standard Russets - three or four of them. After scrubbing them I'll cut out around any weak spots or discolored areas, but I won't peel them. I prefer to salt the water before boiling the potatoes and finish it off to taste.

Once the potatoes have cooked - careful not to over cook them - I add a full stick of butter and let it melt. I break the potatoes up with a big slotted spoon then go for the electric mixer to whip and poof them up with as much air as possible.

While I'm using the mixer I slowly add heavy cream until I get the texture I want and a little diced onion. (This is the step where you can get creative will dill, garlic, horseradish or whatever you taste fancies.)

When I get to the fluffy texture it's dinner time.

I time the meal prep so that the mashed potatoes are the last item to be finished so they get to the table hot.

Island Winery has some of Hilton Head's best kept secrets

So there I was, my golf clubs in the corner of the villa at Marriott's Harbor Club and the Hilton Head Island golf courses waiting.

My timing for a week of off-season golf on Hilton Head was as cold as the rain falling outside. A week before my arrival I checked the weather from my office each day and grinned at the mid-60s and low-70s reports. But that changed just as I arrived on Hilton Head.

There was a time when I would have put on a rain suit and played, but those days have past. Instead I was looking at Marriott's activities offerings to fill the golfing void.

Let's see - a wine tasting at Hilton Head's only winery?

At first I thought it was a joke. There are no vineyards along the Carolina coast - condos and resorts are a much better cash crop than grapes. But it wasn't a joke.

The Island Winery is surfing a trend that USA Today is calling urban wineries. They're in the business of making wine, not growing grapes.

To make a long story short I made the tasting. It was one of the best $15 I spend during the vacation, and I left with almost two cases of wine. I'll be ordering more.

Check out the winery's Web site. "About us." It's a neat story about a couple expanding their passion for wine and success at their Westfall Winery in New Jersey, to the Carolina Coast

And if Hilton Head isn't on your travel plans anytime in the near future spend a few minutes with their wine list - especially the Carolina speciality wines.

The blueberry wine is a little sweet for my taste, but the Southern Passion and Peach Chardonnay are really worth sampling. And the raspberry wine is a real delight.

During the tasting our host served the sample in chilled glasses that has been rimmed in dark chocolate. The presentation alone is worth the cost of the tasting.

The were some bargains in the reds, too.

As of this writing, none of the wines are over $20 a bottle. For my taste and budget that made their '06 Dolcetto and '05 Sangiovese a bargain.

You can't order wines from the Island Winery online just yet, but you can call them and make an order.

Real shrimp etouffee takes a little time, but it's worth every bite

I know purists who say that etoufee with anything except mudbugs - crawdads - isn't etoufee.

OK, I'm not a purists and shrimp etoufee is high on my favorites lists.

Since we going to make our etouffee from scratch you have to do follow the Cajun cooks' number one rule - "begin with the roux."

A roux is nothing more than a mixture of flour and fat - corn oil in this case. The traditional proportion for a roux is 1-to-1.

In Cajun cooking there are four types of roux: blonde (light), peanut butter (medium), dark and white. Let's go directly to the dark roux. Purists can go on for hours about the levels of dark roux because they vary from the color of peanut butter to dark chocolate. My rule of thumb is darker is better, but the darker your roux gets the easier it is to burn it and that means starting over from scratch.

The type roux you make depends on cooking time. The shorter the cooking time the lighter the roux. The type roux we want is the color of peanut butter. It usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes at medium high heat, but his will vary depending on your stove and the type pan you use.
When you start your roux there's not stopping or short cuts. It has to be stirred constantly and if you see black specks in your roux dump it and start over because you've burned it.

One word of warning - there’s a reason roux is sometimes called Cajun napalm. If you cause a spatter while stirring it will stick to you and burn like the hinges on the door to Hades.

When your roux is just a little lighter than the color of peanut butter add the "trinity." In Cajun cooking the "trinity" is onion, celery and bell pepper. Adding it when you roux is a little shy of the color your want will slow the cooking process. Continue stirring for a few minutes before the mixture feels good and remember your finished roux will be a little darker that when you took it off the stove due to the residual heat in the pan.

OK, let’s get dinner on the table.

CLICK HERE for the recipe.

Fun, fast, festive and it's also tasty

I copied and adapted this dish from a popular entree at the El Patio Mexican Grill at Exit 7.
It's a fun and easy dish to make and even more fun to serve. And the variations are as endless as you imagination and willingness to experiment.

Here's the basics:

You'll need a fresh pineapple for each two servings - they seem to plentiful in most area groceries these days.

A meat or combination of meats. I used chicken and shrimp for the one pictured here but I've also used pork, ham and scallops as individual meat fillings.
You'll want some green and red pepper, onion for the vegetable stir fry but don't let your imagination get hemmed in. Water chestnuts, bamboo slices, grape tomatoes or anything you like stir fried will work, too.

I used a chipole sauce for the meat in the dish pictured here, but I've also made the dish using jerk seasonings, Cajun seasoning and Old Bay when I used scallops and shrimp.

Half you pineapple and core each half by making angled slices at the top, bottom and sides. Remove the pineapple meat. Lift out the pineapple meat, remove and discard the core. Slice the remaining fruit into bite size pieces.

Prepare your meat of fish filling in the sauce you've selected.

Stir fry the vegetables separately adding the pineapple for the last half minute or so.
Fill the pineapple half with the vegetables and meat garnish - I used fresh cilantro for the version pictured here - and serve.

Date night dinner at home

This elegant dinner for two is easier than it looks.

I like it served with thick slices of lightly toasted crusty bread - both sides - then topped with a melted mixture of mozzarella and Romano cheese.
Start the dinner off with a salad of spring greens and pine nuts and crusty bread with a good dipping olive oil.

For a wine we had a Villa Antinori Toscana 2001 from Inari Wines in Bristol, Va. that was - in my opinion - a great compliment to the meal.

Mascarpone topped with fresh raspberries and shaved dark chocolate provided a good finish with fresh ground Costa Rican coffee.

If you are not use to it you might want to check out this link for cleaning mussels instructions before tackling this dish. Fresh does make a difference despite the cleaning issue. You should do some calling ahead to ensure you can get fresh mussels. Greene's Seafood in Bristol is usually a good choice and the folks at Food City are pretty good about helping you out if you give them advance notice.

Here's what you'll need for the mussels dish.

- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- a small chopped onion
- chopped green pepper - about a quarter of a pepper.
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 and a half ounces 14.5 oz. cans of chopped tomatoes with juices
- a quarter cup of dry red wine
- a tablespoon chopped basil
- a tablespoon chopped oregano
- a tablespoon chopped parsley
- this is an option - use a half tablespoon of fresh mint for a mystery after taste.
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 pounds live mussels, rinsed and beards removed

** It's worth the investment to use fresh basil, oregano and parsley for this dish. If you use dried herbs cut potion to one-half tablespoon and add at the beginning of the cooking. When using fresh add them more toward the end of the cooking cycle. And if you want to give you sauce a little bite add some red pepper flakes.

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat then the olive oil (the hot pan cold oil thing may be a kitchen myth, but I believe in it).

Add the and peppers and saute until they are soft.

Add the garlic and saute for an minute - don't over saute the garlic.
Add the tomatoes, wine and seasonings then cook for about 10 minutes to reduce the liquids.
Add the mussels and stir well.

Cover the pan and cook until the shells have opened stirring occasionally to mix the mussels with the sauce.

Remove the mussels and throw away any that did not open.

Spoon the sauce over the mussels and serve.

A side dish of angle hair or linguine with some of the red sauce or Risotto is a good side dish.