New Mexico

New Mexico, why do I love thee? Well, to be honest, it's the food. I am crazy about it! (See last photo.) Better than regular Mexican food, and easily  better than anything called Mexican that can be found in the Denver area. It's a version of Mexican, but usually spicier and with more flavor than I have found in the average Mexican restaurant.

Christmas means a lot more when it's referencing both green and red sauce on my...well, whatever I'm eating. Colorado introduced me to green chile, but I think I'm always surprised by how good the red sauce is when I'm in N.M. Since we got back from our last trip, I've already found a recipe for red sauce and can't wait to try it out. I want to make some stacked cheese enchiladas with onions. Great. Now I'm hungry.

On my most recent trip to the land of enchantment (isn't that what it's called?), there was scenery amazing enough to match the eats. The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was a beautiful sight to behold. The great part is how close you're able to get to the balloons themselves. Visitors can flow out onto the field and surround the balloons, right up to the edges of them, even as they begin filling them. It's suitably impressive to stand amidst the rising giants, hearing the roar of the fires inside them while they light up like fireflies.

Humpty Dumpty

The Wells Fargo balloon

This cow was MASSIVE!

Looking up the owl's "skirt"!

Time flies!

Cheese enchiladas, Christmas (both red and green sauce), hominy and beans