Friday, January 30, 2009

Chile Chronicles or The Pat Conroy Cookbook

Chile Chronicles: Tales of a New Mexico Harvest

Author: Carmella Padilla

The Chile Chronicles is a colorful visual and cultural tour through the fields, homes, and markets of New Mexico, exploring the lives and livelihoods that depend on this famous food. It documents twelve farms and farm families and the trials and triumphs of those who both depend upon and preserve this unique way of life. Just as the grape is central to the Napa and Loire valleys, the chile is inseparable from the landscape of New Mexico. Long chile ristras, the smell of roasting chile, lush irrigated fields dotted with red, spicy hot posole, and green chile stew continue to attract newcomers and sustain a four-century tradition that is still going strong.

New Mexico chile is enjoyed and savoured nationally. It is a $300-million industry that involves science, economics, and enterprise. It is this fascinating tension between culture and commerce, history and progress that nurtures the chile phenomenon. With over 175 color photographs, The Chile Chronicles takes the reader on a splendid tour along the Rio Grande Valley, from the vast pepper fields of the south to the boutique chile farms of the north, all the while tying the present chile boom to the traditions that root it to New Mexico's past.



New interesting book: Destination Joy or Lean on Me

The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes from My Life

Author: Pat Conroy

America's favorite storyteller is back—with a memoir of good food and good company from his beloved South and beyond.

"This audiobook is the story of my life as it relates to the subject of food. It is my autobiography in food and meals and restaurants and countries far and near. Let me take you to a restaurant on the left bank of Paris that I found when I was writing The Lords of Discipline. There are meals I ate in Rome while writing The Prince of Tides that ache in my memory when I resurrect them. There is a shrimp dish I ate in an elegant English restaurant, which passed out Cuban cigars to all the gentlemen in the room after dinner, that I can taste on my palate as I write this. There is barbecue and its variations in the South, and the subject is a holy one to me. I write of truffles in the Dordogne Valley in France, cilantro in Bangkok, catfish in Alabama, scuppernong in South Carolina, Chinese food from my years in San Francisco, and white asparagus from the first meal my agent to me to in New York City. Let me tell you about the fabulous things I have eaten in my life, the story of food I have encountered along the way." Stories about people, places, great meals, and a life lived large, by one of the most beloved literary figures of our time.

Includes 5 recipe cards and a q&a with the author!



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