Summer is Winding Down in Our Northern NM Town

Tomorrow is the first day of Sept. Summer has flown by and now we are
reaping the harvest of all the delicious, fresh produce from local area farmers.

Last friday night we did a five course farm dinner. There were pickled vegetables,
eggplant gratin, summer squash timbale with green chile cream, green beans with
roasted garlic and orange, five kinds of baby potatoes and a delicious goat milk
flan with fresh peaches and raspberries. I loved the comment that one woman
made after she ate 'I'm so full I can hardly walk'. It feels so good to have been
able to satisfy people.

We're looking forward to a late harvest of Heirloom tomatoes which is beginning
to start this week. We will make our popular tomato salad with basil pesto vinaigrette,
green beans, lettuces and grilled bread. And then winter squash will come on. Fall
foods are my very favorite. I look forward to making butternut squash tart with toasted
cumin and gruyere cheese.

The weather was pretty bad last week and it was our first week be open

at 7am so that perhaps commuters would stop in for sticky buns, scones,

green chile-cheddar scones (popular), banana bread with chocolate chips

and breakfast burritos.

After doing quite a lot of research on espresso machines we decided to

buy a two shot, reconditioned Italian machine; which I named 'The Bad Boy'

once it was installed. It is not a giant machine, but it is mighty and a lovely

shade of blue.

Our first day with the machine we couldn't get it up to pressure. Our friend

who is an electrical engineer stopped by and did some in depth checking of

our electricity in our old adobe building and pronounced everything sound.

So we called the dealer who said 'unplug it and plug it back in and then push

the button'. Viola, latte's in a few minutes and it's been going great ever since.

I painted a sign that reads 'espresso' for outside the bistro and hopefully this

week people will begin to come in with some regularity.

One thing that I am curious about, did you know how many people out there

think espresso is spelled expresso?

winter is upon us...we have been doing lots of researching and have decided to

buy an espresso machine, make morning pastry and open at 7 am...a complete

switch from our lunch and dinner schedule, guess we'll be needing the espresso

to stay awake

i work/own a small bistro in n. nm.

thought it would be fun to share stories with other

folks who work in my industry and talk about food.

right now, one of our biggest problems is that while

people seem to really enjoy our food, they are very

impatient and it seems like they come in expecting

it to come out of the kitchen as fast as fast food would.

we use local ingredients and cook everything to order.