I love to travel! New Mexico

I have been fortunate (especially in these hard economic times) to be able to travel to some places I really love. This is the first of several blogs on my travels this year. As I wrote a while ago, I was given the opportunity to work with the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau on a project for Grad School. While I was an intern for ACVB I got to go to Santa Fe and represent ACVB at a New Mexico Tourism Department at a grant writing workshop. While in Santa Fe, I took in some of the sights of the Plaza.

St Francis Cathedral Basilica

Yummy Restaurant, upstairs, on the Plaza

Delicious Navajo Taco from the Blue Corn Cafe
(only downside of this restaurant, no daiquiris, only margaritas!)

Loretto Chapel

Miraculous Stair Case, there are no nails or screws holding this stair case together

Local Artisans, selling their goods on the Plaza

Santuario de Guadalupe

Santa Fe Train Station

 At the end of my time in Albuquerque, Marshall came to visit, and we took a road trip South, so he could experience more of the land of Enchantment.

Marshall and I in front of the World's Largest Pistachio, Alamogordo, NM

White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo, NM

Looking out over Alamogordo from the Lodge at Cloudcroft,
Cloudcroft, NM

The Lodge at Cloudcroft

The Natural Entrance to Carlsbad Caverns, Carlsbad, NM

New Job!

I have recently been hired by an independent travel agent as her assistant. It's a part-time job, which is absolutely great! Working 6 hours a week fits into my school schedule perfectly. Only problem now is that it opens up yet another door, but that is a great thing.

While pursuing my Master's degree I've had the opportunity to work for the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, completing analyises of Albuquerque as a cultural destination and a new event. I learned so much about the city I hope to work for/in once I graduate, but I also learned even more about myself.

The new job is with a high end/luxury agency, and I am very excited because I was able to visit many high end hotels in Cancun and Jamaica. While working as a travel agent, most of the hotels I visited were out of the price range of most of my clients. It will be very nice to be able to recommend some of these beautiful resorts.

I have to say that I have loved being a travel agent. I enjoy helping people plan vacations, and even more, I love helping create a trip of a lifetime. My Master's degree in tourism is something different. Instead of working with the travelers, I am learning to work with the destinations, which sounds great. However, I like helping people. I consider my bachelor's degree a degree in customer service, and I hold service people to a higher standard. I have worked as a restaurant server, and as a front desk agent/manager of a hotel. I know how difficult the job can be, but I also know the bare minimums to expect. For this reason, I feel like even with the Master's degree I want to remain on the service side.

Does this mean I should work for a tour conductor? I don't know. I do have a long term goal, and I have said before that my mom thought I should open my own B&B. Maybe that will happen some day.

All I know right now is that I am happy to have another door. I just hope I can decide which one to open when the time comes.

Mickey Mouse, Food and Friends!

I just got back from an amazing weekend in Orlando. (I know, I know, what happened in New Mexico?!?!?! Don't worry, I will get to that.) I just wanted to take a moment to post about the great time we had, and the food we enjoyed.

Thursday night we had reservations at Tony's Town Square, the Lady and the Tramp themed Italian Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom. The food was good, but not phenomenal, in my opinion. However the atmosphere, and being there with my husband and friends made the dinner what it was, a great night!

Friday we experienced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks. That was an experience within itself, and the food was good. The frozen Butterbeer was extremely interesting, and hit the spot on a very hot afternoon. It was a little too sweet to be the main drink with a meal, but worked well to curb my hankering for dessert. (Monique ordered a scoop of the Strawberry Peanut Butter ice cream, and all I can say is it delivered on its name. Definitely unique.)

Where my culinary experience really excelled was Saturday at Epcot. We had reservations at Teppan Edo in the Japanese Pavilion. Teppan is a type of cuisine where chefs cook on a table-top grill in front of the diners. Marshall ordered the shrimp, Monique the scallops, and I ordered the chicken, along with a California Roll, which I love. Unfortunately, the food was so filling, but so delicious, at the same time, it was hard to stop eating. The chef put on a great show, making an onion volcano, errupting in a cloud of smoke, and dazzling the table with his knife skills.

My favorite moment of the meal, however, was when I offered to share my leftover California Roll with the table. There were three parties at our table, us, a group of Japanese travelers, and a single gentleman. This gentleman told us that he was facinated by Japan, and was hoping to visit there someday, although he had never tried California Rolls. Watching him take a piece and try it for the first time made me remember why I love food and traveling. He closed his eyes and I could see he was savoring each flavor and texture, and how they married together to make a cohesive bite. I love how food can evoke emotions, and take you back to a particular place and time. Traveling around the world (or around the World Showcase at Epcot) allows you experience many cultures and heritages, and to try something new, or reacquaint yourself with something familiar, and see it in a new light.

Albuquerque is best know for...

Hot Air Balloons! Much to the chagrin of the rest of the state, the Albuquerque Internation Balloon Fiesta is a HUGE event, and what a lot of people think of when they think of New Mexico. This event is not the only event in the state, and not the only event in Albuquerque. But it will be the subject of this particular post.

The Balloon Fiesta is held for approximately 10 days at the beginning on October, being an October baby (although at the end of the month) I always felt that it was for me! One of my favorite balloon memories was when my mom got me a ride (tethered) in the purple and white balloon for my 5th or 6th birthday. Another favorite was going up in the New Mexico Air National Guard balloon (not tethered) during the St Patrick's day rally in Los Lunas, circa 1992.

Sharing the Balloon Fiesta with Marshall in 2003 and 2004 was really awesome. The following pictures are from those two years. I hope you find the following pictures as beautiful and mesmerizing as I do!

Ballons over Albuquerque

An early morning at Balloon Fiesta Park

This is a combination of the Special Shapes Rodeo and Balloon Glow

Welcome to the Special Shapes Glowdeo!

A Little South of Albuquerque...

About 10-15 miles south of Albuquerque (depending on from where you leave) is the reservation of the Isleta Pueblo. I was fortunate to visit their Catholic Church during the same New Mexico History class I mentioned earlier.. The Spanish Mission of San Agustín de la Isleta is a beautiful church, with walls that are 4 foot thick, and 4 foot high windows.

This is also a beautiful church, and can be visitied when religious ceremonies are not being held.

Isleta is also home to New Mexico's first Hard Rock Hotel, but there will be more on that later.

Albuquerque from the Sky

Again, I am featuring Albuquerque, this time from the sky. And where is the best place to view Albuquerque from above? Sandia Peak! The Sandia Peak Tramway travels from a mile-high altitude 2.7 miles to an altitude of 10,378 feet. Sandia Peaks website says that you can see 11,000 square-mile panoramic views of the Rio Grande River Valley (otherwise knows as my home! :)).

Here are some other pictures taken from above, but not from Sandia Peak.

More pictures of Old Town

Last post I featured the San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church, in Old Town Albuquerque. Today I want to post more pictures of one of my favorite places. These are taken at different times of the year (mostly summer and Christmas), but I love the way Old Town looks decorated for Christmas!

One of my favorite places!

In anticipation of my internship with the Albuquerque Convention and Visitor's Bureau I will be writing about the cultural areas of one of my favorite places, New Mexico, starting with Albuquerque, moving through the metro area, and then throughout the state.

There are many well-known destinations in Albuquerque, I hope to shed light on why you should spend some time in the Duke City, and then head out from there, and experience what the Land of Enchantment has to offer.

On every trip home to Los Chavez, I make sure that I go visit Old Town. I love the shops, full of Southwestern and Native American items, but I really love the energy I feel walking around the plaza. I am not Catholic, but I studied about Catholic churches in my New Mexico History class I took one summer at UNM. I find the San Felipe de Neri Catholic church, located on the north side of the Old Town Plaza, to be one of the most beautiful.

San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church

500 things to eat...1000 places to see...Is it really possibly to do this?

Many years ago I bought 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I was obsessed with this book. I sat down with a trusty highlighter and marked off those places I had been fortunate to visit. A few years later, I was at a Cracker Barrel (a favorite place of Marshall and I, you know the food will be the same whether it is California or Alabama) and I saw it. 1000 Places to See Before You Die, US and Canada Edition! Oh my gosh! I resisted the urge to purchase the book and begin highlighting while waiting for my chicken fried steak/blueberry pancakes (my two go-tos at Cracker Barrel, don't remember which I had). It was a very anticipated Christmas present from the best husband in the world, later that year. So of course, the highlighting began later that day.

Any trips that ensued after finding these great books, meant that I had to pull out said books and find out where we were going. Unfortunately, most of the places listed are hotels, hotels that are out of my price range. Oh well, if its an attraction, or something to look at, I will find it! (And you better believe every time I travel, I look to see if its in the book, and mark it off.)

This past year for Christmas, mom got me 500 Things to Eat Before Its Too Late (they didn't want to go into the morbid, before you die?). This book is interesting, and instead of breaking the food up by state, it is categorized by type of foods in regions of the country. The best relleno (stuffed chile pepper) can be found at Chope's south of Las Cruces, NM-FYI.

When I decided to spend my Spring Break visiting my brother and his family in Nebraska, of course, I had to pull out the books. Surprisingly, Nebraska is not listed in World edition of 1000 Places. And the US/Canada edition did not make Nebraska seem all that interesting- sand dunes, Omaha Steaks, but the Henry Doorly Zoo, was everything it was made out to be. I can cross that one off the list! The 500 Things to Eat was also a wealth of knowlege. Okay, so maybe "wealth" is not exactly right, but a little restaurant (and it turned out to be quite little) called Stellas in Bellevue, outside Omaha, was touted to have one of the best hamburgers in the country. And I would have to agree, it was pretty damn good!

I have never been lead astray by these books (or any of my other numerous travel books), so I will continue to consult them before any and all travels.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

As a former travel agent, I still receive emails about great deals. Universal Orlando is offering a GREAT package deal for the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Package

If you are as big of a Harry Potter fan as I am, I am sure this is on your list of things to do! Contact your local travel agent for more information, or I would be glad to put you in touch with someone.

Happy Valentines Day!

This blog is supposed to be about food and travel, as a way of figuring out what I want to do with my professional life. I had a very nice Valentines with my husband and wanted to share two recipes I "used" for our dinner. I say "used" because I like to find recipes and tweak them to be my own.

I made Marshall his favorite steak, a filet. And while I was going to make twice-baked potatoes, I decided to make MY favorite, mac and cheese. I also made roasted asparagus. For dessert, I wanted creme brulee, but most recipes make 6 to 8 servings, and that is just too much.

I found a recipe by Emeril Lagasse for a Lemon Scented Creme Brulee for Two. I substituted vanilla for the lemon zest, using about 1 teaspoon. I also omitted chilling the custard before baking, since it did not need to be infused.

Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, is a favorite of mine, and I looked to her Truffled Macaroni and Cheese for guidance on baked mac and cheese. I was unable to find the truffle butter, so I mixed Ina's recipe with my own. I omitted the mushrooms from this recipe, but used her choices for cheese, gruyere and white cheddar. I also used my secret ingredient, horseradish mustard, that Marshall and I get in Gatlinburg. To make eating mac and cheese more friendly to the waist, I do not use milk. I use a couple tablespoons of half and half, and then use chicken stock for the rest of the liquid.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do!

Food doesn't have to be pretty

So, I had been planning to make stuffed poblano peppers for a few days, and with thawed chicken and leftover cornbread, I figured last Friday would be the perfect time, just needed to pick up the peppers on our grocery trip. That was my first mistake: PLANNING to make dinner based on our grocery list. By the time Marshall got all his paper packed up, and ready to go to FedEx, which he decided to do BEFORE the store, it was after 7PM. So much for trying to make a meal that was going to take an hour to cook, when I knew we weren't going to be home from the store before 9PM. (On a side note, Marshall felt bad about taking so long, and took me out to dinner. Yummy Southwest Tacos from On The Border!)

Saturday rolls around, and I have spent most of the day working on school work. (I know, my bad, I really try and get the school work done during the week.) So, 7PM rolls around, that is usually when I start dinner, and I realize that I haven't cooked the chicken! Okay, plan B, again! (Can't even remember what I made now, it was that unremarkable.)

Sunday was Superbowl Sunday, and Marshall had been bugging me for a while to make pizza, so I decided to put the peppers on the backburner once again, to make my hubby homemade pizza. (I made two individual pizzas and used the thawed chicken for my Chicken, Artichoke and Pesto pizza, and took another breast out of the freezer to thaw, for the stuffed peppers.)

(This is a homemade pizza I had to "fix" when the crust stuck to the pan)

Monday, I made the stuffed peppers! I took and braised the chicken breast in chicken stock and spices, then shredded it up, crumbled leftover cornbread, grated quesadilla cheese, then added three beaten eggs, and two packages of green chiles. Then I realized that my stuffing would be way more than enough to fill my poblano peppers. I was talking to mom on the phone when I made this startling discovery, and she said "Hey, you can make patties tomorrow with the leftovers!" Go mom! So the peppers turned out really good, and Marshall liked the way the stuffing tasted (me, too), so I thought, what the heck, I will take mom's advice and make patties. I've got some asparagus I need to cook, so I could make a cheese sauce to go with it. Yay! Tuesday's dinner was figured out!

(Stuffed Poblano Pepper)

So, last night I get all my ingredients together, and I am trying to figure out how I am going to cook the patties, boil the asparagus, and make the cheese sauce all at the same time. The asparagus will only need a few minutes, as well as the cheese sauce, but the water will take a while to boil. This may seem like a weird dilema, seeing as I have four burners on my stove. I don't know why, but I am really only comfortable using 2 at a time. (We have a glass cooktop.) I fought the urge, and used three burners. Water is boiling for asparagus, pan heating for patties, butter melting for cheese sauce. Eveything is going as planned. Add the chicken goop, formed into patties. Check. Asparagus into boiling water. Check. Cheese sauce made. Check. Turn over patties. Oh, crap! They look burnt, and aren't really holding their shape. Marshall comes in, I say "Not really sure if dinner is going to work out." Loving hubby says, "we can always get Subway." Gotta love him.

Finished cooking the patties, I knew they were done because I used my trusty thermometer Marshall got me as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. Plated up the patties and asparagus, and tried to cover up the extremely ugly looking food by drowning it in cheese sauce. Did not help the aesthetics at all. Oh well, Marshall did say we could go get Subway. Oh, and did I mention that he said we could always blame mom if it was inedible? Again, gotta love him!

Long story short, the chicken stuffing patties covered in green chile cheese sauce were delicious! Of course they were, I made them! Just kidding, and the credit all goes to mom, because it was, afterall, her idea!

(No picture of the patties, because I did not want to scare small children away from eating.)

Happy New Year!

Taking a break from school work, namely Statistics (which I actually think I may like), to wish everyone a late, but Happy New Year. So far 2010 has been pretty good. Rang in the New Year with my mom and husband, (I think we watched movies?); went to Orlando to see one of my best friends; started my second semester of grad school; and have tickets to see a couple of the BIGGEST concerts coming to Atlanta. While 2010 looks like it is going to be suffering from residual effects of 2009, namely, the economy, I am optomistic. I have to find a professional internship for this coming summer, and while Monique has convinced me to apply with Disney, even they don't appear to have openings. Oh, well. I will not let the residual effects of last year wear on me.

What I am happy and excited about this year:

• Sea World! I finally got to go to the one in Orlando, and I am in love! Orca whales are on my absolute favorite animals, and I got to see tons of them!

• Monique has Pompe disease! This may not seem like something to be happy or excited about, but her illness has a name! Which means doctors can create a treatment plan. Someday I know we will be climbing the myriad of steps to Dover Castle, again! (Well, maybe not, since after we climbed the steps we realized there was an easier way to get up there, but you get my drift!) (Side note: Go see Extraordinary Measures, it's a great movie, about Pompe disease.)
• Clarisonic- My mom got my sister and I each one of these face brush thingies, and I love mine! It is expensive, but probably so worth it! I have only been using mine for about a week, but if it does what it promises, it (and my Clinique Youth Surge night cream) will keep me looking 25 for another 10 years. (Yes, I know I am 29, but I really don't think I look it.)

• Disney, this goes back to Monique, but now that she is a Floridian, Bill's gate passes are mine! Hahaha! I really hope that we can figure out a time that Genie and I can both get down there, and hopefully when...
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens! I am a Harry Potter FREAK, and not afraid to admit it! But that is okay, I am sure I am in good company. I am so excited to get to walk through Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts! This will be a dream, that once upon a time I didn't know I had, come true!

• An internship, hopefully in New Mexico with the Department of Tourism or Cultural Affairs. Definitely somewhere where I can help preserve and promote cultural heritage. What does that mean, I am in the process of figuring it out.

Well, I am sure there is more that I am happy and excited about, but that is the short list for now. Of course spending time with my husband, but that is a given!

Happy New Year, Ya'll!