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Oh there she goes again, you’re probably thinking. More blue corn. La la la la.

Yes, okay, I’m a little bit — no, a lot of bit — excited about the fact that I can just dash down to the store and buy blue corn tortillas whenever I want. I heart them. Lots. And they make these particular tacos, in my opinion, even mo bettah…BUT if happen to live in a place where blue corn tortillas aren’t readily available (sorry!), then the regular old yellow (or white, yawn) will do.

So. Let’s get on to the tacos. I’m loving these so much that I’ve made them twice in the last week. Yep. I really have.

They feature broccoli, roasted, so let me just say something about that first before I go on. Broccoli roasting can be a little bit tricky, depending on your oven. They can go from perfectly brown to burned in a heartbeat, so do pay attention. Brown, not black, is what we’re going for here. What you’ll get is crispy little broccoli florets – crispy critters, these are! You will love.

Beyond that, all we’re talking about is heating up some black beans, making some quinoa, and throwing in some green chile and cilantro and calling it done. Or calling it dinner. As I may do again tonight, since I have some leftovers. Yay!

Roasted Broccoli, Black Bean and Quinoa Tacos

Makes 4 to 6 tacos

  • 1 head of broccoli, florets removed
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • sea salt and pepper
  • 1 cup of quinoa (uncooked)
  • 1 ½ cups of black beans, drained
  • 2 tablespoons of roasted and chopped green chile
  • a small handful of cilantro, roughly chopped, plus a bit more for serving
  • 4 to 6 corn tortillas
  • about 3 ounces of goat cheese, crumbled
  • 4 to 6 lime wedges, for serving

1. Preheat your oven to 425°F and line a cookie sheet with foil.

2. Spread out the broccoli florets onto the cookie sheet, add the olive oil, and toss. Add some salt and pepper and slide into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the broccoli browns on the edges. Be sure to watch the broccoli carefully — it can go from brown to burned in a matter of just a few minutes.

3. While the broccoli’s cooking, make your quinoa. Put 2 cups of salted water onto boil, and when the water boils, add the quinoa, stir, and cover. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Let the quinoa sit for another 5 to 10 minutes to soak up the rest of the water. Fluff with your fork.

4. Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm them in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes or so. Just until they’re soft.

5. While the tortillas are in the oven, warm up the black beans with 1 cup of the cooked quinoa along with the broccoli, green chile and cilantro. Divide this mixture among the warmed tortillas and top with some goat cheese and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges on the side.

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Mon Jardin

June 4, 2013

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Now that we’ve finally gotten the last freeze behind us, it’s time to garden…and I couldn’t be happier about getting my hands dirty again.

This year, I’m focusing on planting only what I can eat, which means tomatoes, herbs, yellow squash, jalapeño peppers, and a variety of lettuces. I’d like to get some cucumbers in, too, but every time I’ve gone to the nursery, they’ve been out.

Cukes, you will be mine. I’m not giving up yet.

I’m particularly excited about the tomatoes, all heirloom varieties and all grown here in New Mexico. I’ve put in a black cherry along with a red and a yellow cherry tomato plant, and two different medium-size tomatoes, both of which are beefsteaky, but not too grande, apparently.

My basil is already bushy and needs to be propped up. Dill and oregano are doing fine. Sage, rosemary and lemon verbena — which I still remember Daniel Rose of Spring put in his ceviche one summer — all need to find a home. And soon.

I’m planning on planting some lavender, too, something that grows easily here and always reminds me of Provence and Paris, too, because my upstairs neighbor  always grew lavender, and bits were always blowing off of her plants and landing in our garden below, perfuming the air. It’s funny how when it comes down to it, it’s the little things that connect you to a place. In my case, I keep finding similarities between the two places, as different as they may seem. My front yard is filled with pebbles, which reminds me of so many jardins in France. It also happens to  be a smart landscaping choice for this climate.

Now that we’ve just turned the page into June, we’re looking at highs in the low and mid-80s. Hot, people. But with cool, windows-open nights and sweatshirt mornings with my coffee. Love that.

Last night I made an herby salsa with mint, cilantro, and flat-leaf parsley, and put it on top of some roasted yellow squash. Testing new recipes for some upcoming cooking classes…right here, in my little adobe. Coming soon.

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10 Ways Santa Fe is Like Paris

May 29, 2013

Right, you must be thinking. How can Santa Fe, a small town in New Mexico be anything at all like chic, cosmopolitan Paris?
Once you peel back the saturated perpetual blue skies, the snow-capped mountains, and look past the turquoise jewelry clanking on nearly everyone who lives here, they’re really quite similar. Want proof? Read on.
1. [...]

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Santa Fe: Blue Corn Pancakes

May 23, 2013

It’s official. I’ve swapped out blue corn for baguettes, and the super-sunny, high and dry desert for the gray, moist skies of Paris.
Rose and I — now single girls — are in Santa Fe, settling into our sweet 250-year-old adobe.
This news won’t surprise many of you. I’ve loved Santa Fe for many years, and on [...]

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New Sponsor: National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame

May 8, 2013

An exciting announcement, y’all – the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, which hosted a sell-out luncheon for my book tour last fall — is now an official Cowgirl Chef sponsor (see cool ad on the right).
This cowgirl couldn’t be more thrilled.
So check back here often for upcoming events that we’ll [...]

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Canlis Salad

April 28, 2013

I wish I’d invented this salad.
*sigh*
I thought I’d tried just about every combination of some sort of lettuce + some sort of vinaigrette imaginable. Then I read about this salad, served for 60-plus years at the Canlis Restuarant, an old school steakhouse in Seattle, in The New York Times a couple of months ago, and [...]

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Chicken and Black Bean Taco Salad

April 9, 2013

Shredded Tex-Mexy chicken, black beans, crispy tortilla strips and a cool, green Ranchlike dressing made with good-for-you Greek yogurt…what, I ask you, is not to like here?
I love this salad.
It satisfies on so many levels. Crunchy. Spicy. Tex-Mexy. Healthy. And it’s super-fast to make with leftover or rotisserie chicken.
Since the rotisserie chicken man is oh, [...]

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Parmesan Oven Fries

March 31, 2013

In the last year, I had these at a restaurant in the U.S. — probably with a burger, which I seem to eat all the time when I’m in Texas — and I thought at the time that I needed to modify the idea for an oven-baked tater, thereby making it healthy(ish), rather than a [...]

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Cowgirl Chef Tours: Brocantes, Bistros and Baguettes

March 27, 2013

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I have a little problem when it comes to old junk. If there’s a brocante (that’s Frenchy for flea market) in the area, I’ll zoom in like a heat-seeking missile and with my Trader Joe’s bag on [...]

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Chocolate Chip and Walnut Blondies

March 20, 2013

Don’t ask me what took so long for me to jump on the Blondie bandwagon. But here I am, boots on, and not about to get off anytime soon.
I don’t know where I saw something about Blondies recently that caught my attention. Pinterest, probably. I’ve been spending way too much time there lately, but isn’t [...]

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