Santa Fe: Blue Corn Pancakes

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 each visit to Texas from Paris, I always made a run over to New Mexico for some green and red. So while it may seem like I’m giving up France, I’m really not. I’m planning on spending each fall and spring in Paris, which are the nicest times of the year to be there, anyway. I’ll be doing my Brocantes, Bistros and Baguettes tours, teaching classes, and otherwise eating my way around the city as I’ve done for the past eight-plus years.

Here in Santa Fe, I’ll be cooking, teaching classes, developing recipes for my second cookbook, and writing my Cowgirl Chef column, just as I was doing in Paris. I’m also working on a television show. More on that later.

My idea for some time has been to have a base in Santa Fe and in Paris, too, and to travel back and forth between the two cities. Plus I wanted to be closer to my mom in Texas, who’s now just a state — instead of an ocean — away.

It all feels right. Instead of Parc St. Cloud, each morning, Rose and I head to one of the nearby mountain trails and hike for an hour or so. The first weekend we were here, we did a 5K “Paws for a Cause” walk for the Santa Fe Humane Society and she got a chic pink bandana, which she’s still loving. It’s part of her new look. Mine involves a TON of sunscreen, polarized sunglasses, and a really big straw hat. I’m also drinking a whole bunch of water. Besides the water in my coffee, I mean.

So far, we’re loving it. Rose is getting to know Minou, the kitty cat next door, and loves hanging out in the garden, where there’s a flower bed with lots of cool dirt for her to take naps in. She doesn’t seem to notice that she’s smashing the flowers.

This weekend I plan to get tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and my herbs in the ground. I have a little garden already tilled on the west side of the house that’s ready for action. So am I.

Stay tuned here for updates on classes and special events on this side of the pond this summer. I’m going to make another batch of pancakes and hit the trails.

Blue Corn Pancakes

Makes a TON (about 16 4-inch pancakes)

• 1 ¼ cups flour
• 1 ¼ cups blue corn
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled (plus a bit more for greasing the griddle)

 

 

1. In one bowl, whisk together the flour, blue corn, baking powder, sugar and salt.

2. In another bowl, gently mix the egg, milk, and cooled butter and pour this over the dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened; be careful not to overmix. You want the batter to be slightly lumpy.

3. Pour onto a hot, buttered griddle, and flip to the other side when holes appear. Eat and repeat as often as necessary.