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- Purple Adobe Lavender Farm, Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch
  
  Posted at 11:23 am by NativeNM, on July 17, 2018
  Welcome to New Mexico! We are now officially back in the Land of Enchantment. We packed up our belongings in Kansas and moved back to NM in May. It took a few weeks to find the perfect home but are now settled into a beautiful pueblo style home on the West side of Albuquerque. On any given morning we are blessed with hot air balloons to greet us, sometimes they are so close we can almost touch them. Joe and I have gone to several farmer’s markets around the city, artist and craft fairs in Santa Fe and a memorable day with my sister Kat at the Vintage Market days where many things from the past were re-purposed into something new. This past weekend we enjoyed a day trip to the Purple Adobe Lavender Festival in Abiquiu, NM. Afterwards we ventured a little further up the road to Ghost Ranch where Georgia O’Keeffe made her home and painted so many beautiful landscapes. The area around Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch is referred to as Georgia O’Keeffe Country. The land is rugged and full of color. I can see the inspiration behind her beautifully painted landscapes. We had the most gorgeous day. The skies were a beautiful blue with massive clouds in the horizon. As we drove home the skies turned an even darker blue and rained over the mountains. It followed us home and shortly after we arrived the skies opened up and poured. It was a day I will always remember. It feels good to be home!
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments | Tagged Abiquiu Lake, Abiquiu New Mexico, Cerro Pedernal, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ghost Ranch New Mexico, New Mexico, Pedernal, Purple Adobe Lavender Farm, Purple Lavender Festival 2018, Travel
- Memories of my Mother
  
  Posted at 1:49 pm by NativeNM, on February 17, 2017
  It seems surreal that my Mother is not here. She passed recently having lived 92 years. In the last few years we could see her memory fading and our Mom quietly disappearing. I try to remember the times we shared, whether we were together in the kitchen preparing a meal or tending to the garden that she raised every summer. She was a frugal woman who did not believe in wasting anything. She raised vegetables and canned any extra that we would enjoy throughout the rest of the year. And one of my fondest memories was taking our vegetables, fresh corn, watermelon and cantaloupe to the farmers market where she displayed some of her finest produce to sell. She was an excellent dressmaker, she sewed most of my clothes growing up. And she tried to teach me the art of sewing although it really wasn’t my calling. She made quilts throughout the years, making each grandchild a quilt of their own. The girls were given vintage sunbonnet girl quilts while the boys received vintage fisher overall boy quilts. She loved watching her hummingbirds that would come in numbers in the Spring and flock to the hummingbird feeders that were put out on the porch with sugar water each year.
  
  When I was young my Dad raised cotton on the farm. He worked so hard and Mom always had a big meal on the table when they came in at noontime. In those days almost everything was fried and it tasted so good. She made the best fried chicken and chicken fried steak. Always served with mashed potatoes, cream gravy and coleslaw. But in the summer we had fresh vegetables. We would snap green beans or shell peas in the evenings, gather tomatoes, okra, radishes, onions, beets, cucumbers, asparagus, zucchini and yellow squash, cabbage, turnips, mustard and turnip greens, and sometimes green chiles. Sometimes I wonder how she did it all! My parents worked hard, showed us how to live on a budget and within our means but most of all showed us love. I hope they are together now in peace.
  
  Love Lives On
  Those we love remain with us
  for love itself lives on,
  and cherished memories never fade
  because a loved one’s gone.
  Those we love can never be
  more than a thought apart,
  far as long as there is memory,
  they’ll live on in the heart.
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments | Tagged Mama, Mom, Mother, Norma Creighton, Norma Thurman Creighton
- New Mexico “Hatch” Green Chile
  
  Posted at 3:03 am by NativeNM, on August 15, 2016
  It’s been 5 years since I first posted our tradition of putting up green chile for the freezer. Time to update and revisit my favorite time of year. It’s the time when the big trucks drive up, the roasters come out and they start to unload those fresh Green Chiles from The Land of Enchantment. It’s Green Chile season and I’m in heaven. I’ve lived away from NM over 20 years and other than my family, chile season is the time I miss most with the aroma of roasted chile in the air. There’s nothing like it and the chile is so delicious right after it’s been roasted. Several years ago they started bringing in truckloads of Hatch Chile to one of the grocery stores here in the Kansas City area and roasting it outside on the weekends. Always before I had to ask my family back home to please put up some chile in the freezer for me. They always came through but it’s really special to be able to put up my own and experience the aroma and taste firsthand. This year they were especially meaty and hot.
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  Posted in Red or Green, Uncategorized | 8 Comments | Tagged Freezing Hatch Green Chile, Green Chile, Hatch Green Chile, New Mexico Hatch Green Chile, NM Green Chile, Packaging Hatch Green Chile, Roasting Hatch Green Chile
- A Year In The Life of Z “The Wonder Kitty”
  
  Posted at 12:13 pm by NativeNM, on May 19, 2016
  Z is a special little man in my life and has the most amazing story to tell. I call him my Wonder Kitty because of all the obstacles he faced and overcome in the first few month’s of his life. But let’s start at the beginning. In the Spring of 2015 I decided that I was ready to to start looking for a kitten. My Cheli cat was so lonely after her mate Sami passed on a couple years prior. I was hoping that a kitten would help Cheli and I was ready too. I’ve had several Siamese over the years and was hoping I would find one at a shelter. For several weeks I checked the listings with the local shelters to see what kittens were available, it seemed like there were no Siamese kittens to be found. But then on May 15th I came across a posting for a male 8 week old Seal Point Siamese that had just been brought in for adoption. I said to Joe “I have to be there when they open”. I had a feeling that he was the one. We arrived just as they opened and was escorted back to the kennels where they housed the cats and kittens. As soon as I saw this little guy my heart just melted. He was so tiny and sweet and innocent. I picked him up and he hissed at me in his tiny little voice. He was a bit scared but once I put him up to my shoulder and cuddled him he started to purr. We asked about adopting him and was told we would have to wait 3 days because he was brought in as a stray kitty. He would need to be checked out and given time for someone to claim him. It will always be a mystery of how he ended up alone and separated from his mother. And I will always wonder how long he was stranded before he was found and brought to the shelter. I try not to think about it because I fell in love with this little guy and promised to give him a good life. On May 19, 2015 I brought my Little Man Z home.
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Cheli, Chris Chelios, Henrik Zetterberg, Magic, Pavel, Pavel Datsyuk, The Magic Man, Z, Z The Wonder Kitty
- Goodwill Hunting plus some of My Favorite Things
  
  Posted at 9:51 am by NativeNM, on May 23, 2014
  It was almost 3 years ago that I began sharing my love of food and recipes. My vision of the perfect blog was to take beautiful photos of food and paint a picture, so to speak, as to how a recipe comes together with step by step instructions. I have always been drawn to cookbooks with beautiful photos and wanted to create something that would let you imagine the aroma and taste of the dish. I quickly found that I didn’t have very many plates and dishes in which to lay out my recipes. I look back at the early posts and see the same plates used over and over for the first few month’s. My sister Kat solved my problem and enlightened me to a whole new world. I call her the “Queen of Thrifting”. She has a vintage eye and knows what to look for at yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores. It’s like a treasure hunt when we go thrifting. Over the past 3 years I have acquired quite a collection of items that I found at Goodwill and other thrift stores. I don’t spend very much, if it’s too expensive at one place, there’s another shop right around the corner that might have something better or cheaper. It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. Some days you hit the jack pot and other days not so much. The fun comes when you find something rare or something new or something that you like to collect. I’m also sharing a couple of my favorite things, things that were handed down to me or tugged at my heartstrings like my very own cookbook. Josh designed it and gave it to me for Christmas. It brought me to tears when I unwrapped it and saw how much work and love went into making it. It’s something I will treasure forever!
  
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged Dansk, Goodwill, Goodwill Hunting, Mikasa, Noritake Stoneware, Ovenex, Pfaltzgraff, Pyrex, Thrift Stores, Vintage
- A Week in New Mexico
  
  Posted at 8:52 am by NativeNM, on September 18, 2012
  I’ve been away for a week to visit my native New Mexico so I haven’t exactly been in the kitchen lately. I did however experience some of the best cuisine starting with Carl’s Ranch Chicken. Then there was the Indian Taco smothered in green chile at Serefino’s where Kat and my nieces ate. So many good meals, so many memories. There is so much to love about New Mexico. Too much in fact but I’ll try to share some of the beauty, culture and serenity you will find when you visit. September in New Mexico is special, the green chile is roasting on the streets, the chile ristras are hanging, the skies are the most beautiful blue and the adobe architecture and decor makes you feel at home. We made our way across the state to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos but first a trip to the farm.
  
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments | Tagged New Mexico, Route 66, Santa Fe, Taos, Tucumcari
- Spice Addiction
  
  Posted at 9:18 am by NativeNM, on April 17, 2012
  I admit it, I have a problem. I have an addiction to all things spice and have collected an increasing number of jars and bags of spices that overwhelm my pantry. I just can’t seem to help myself. Every so often I have to reorganize the pantry so that I can make a little more space for my obsession. Well, I decided that a little Spring cleaning was in order so I set out to reorganize my pantry. What a job! I have a small kitchen and need every little bit of space so we converted the laundry room that was in the kitchen to a pantry. Joe put in shelves and racks and a cart just to hold all my small kitchen appliances, pantry foods and spices. So I set off on my mission . . .
  
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged Penzey's Spices
- Kauai
  
  Posted at 8:13 am by NativeNM, on March 9, 2012
  Kauai was beautiful despite how much it rained and stormed throughout our stay. There were maybe 3 good days where we had sunshine and our last day was the absolute best. Here’s my favorite picture from Kauai, its at Kauapea Beach aka Secret Beach. It’s on the north shore and off the beaten path. About a 10 minute hike down a dirt trail lies this beautiful stretch of sand where the surfers, beach walkers and anyone who wants to get away from the crowds hang out. It was paradise, the sun was shining. I sat on the sand and watched the waves while taking pictures. The waves captured my imagination and all I kept hearing in my head was the song “Catch a Wave” by the beach boys. Continue reading →
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Kauai
- Hawaii
  
  Posted at 8:44 am by NativeNM, on March 7, 2012
  Joe and I have just returned from Hawaii where we had the most amazing two weeks. We have dreamed of the day when we could visit these beautiful islands. We spent one week on Hawaii and one week on Kauai. Both islands were unique in their own way but equally gorgeous. The people there are so friendly and upbeat, who wouldn’t be living in such a beautiful place. They are proud people and enjoy sharing their culture much like my fellow New Mexicans do. Hawaii had all the things Joe and I love. . . sand, water, tropical flowers and trees, amazing fruit and vegetables, color, color and more color. What more can I say, it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever encountered. This picture was from Waipi’o Valley. It is my favorite picture and favorite place. After a steep hike down there is an amazing black sand beach that we both fell in love with. Here are some pictures from week one in Hawaii. Enjoy!
  
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Hawaii, The Big Island
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