Over the last few decades, interest in eating locally has grown quickly. From just-picked apples in Washington to fresh peaches in Georgia, local food movements and farmer’s markets have proliferated all over the country. Desert dwellers in the Southwest are taking a new look at prickly pear, mesquite, and other native plants. Many people’s idea of cooking with southwestern plants begins and ends with prickly pear jelly. With this update to the classic Tumbleweed Gourmet, master cook Carolyn Niethammer opens a window on the incredible bounty of the southwestern deserts and offers recipes to help you bring these plants to your table. Included here are sections featuring each of twenty-three different desert plants. The chapters include basic information, harvesting techniques, and general characteristics. But the real treat comes in the form of some 150 recipes collected or developed by the author herself. Ranging from every-day to gourmet, from simple to complex, these recipes offer something for cooks of all skill levels. Some of the recipes also include stories about their origin and readers are encouraged to tinker with the ingredients and enjoy desert foods as part of their regular diet. Featuring Paul Mirocha’s finely drawn illustrations of the various southwestern plants discussed, this volume will serve as an indispensible guide from harvest to table. Whether you’re looking for more ways to prepare local foods, ideas for sustainable harvesting, or just want to expand your palette to take in some out-of-the-ordinary flavors, Cooking the Wild Southwest is sure to delight.

This charming spiral-bound cookbook takes its name from Adela Amador's much-loved food column in New Mexico Magazine, "Southwest Flavor." Organized seasonally, it pairs recipes and "slice of life" stories like "It's raining snakes and toads," with a recipe for margarita pie and Adela's anecdote about a summer cloudburst and hundreds of tiny frogs. Then there was the time Adela and her mother were roasting chile and the stove blew up! Adela describes how the reader can roast chile (with no risk to life or limb), and includes both savory and sweet chile recipes. Her childhood recollections take us back to her days growing up in northern New Mexico, with memories of the magical Christmas lights of Madrid, New Mexico (and the tamales that accompanied that holiday), and of being serenaded as a young girl on New Year's Eve, with a recipe for the posole that her family prepared. Dozens of traditional recipes enhance Adela's "tales," edited by New Mexico Magazine editors Emily Drabanski and Walter K. Lopez. The volume includes a glossary of Spanish food names and terms, and an index.

A food bonanza--fantastic Southwestern flavors plus good nutrition. The Healthy Southwest Table features more than 100 recipes bursting with taste as well as nutrition. From zippy corn chowder to green chiles stuffed with tuna salad, these savory dishes are low in sugar, salt, and fat and high in beneficial ingredients such as soy, whole grains, and colorful fruits and vegetables. A healthy diet will strengthen your heart, bones, and immune system and reduce the risk of disease. But it can also delight your palate. Set an irresistibly delicious Southwest table with Janet Taylor's quick and tasty Vegetable Stir Fry, followed by Salmon with Sunset Sauce and delectable low-fat Berry-Peach Crumble. 40 color photos.

Southwest the Beautiful Cookbook explores a cuisine as diverse as the terrain and the people who settled there. The region's culinary originality derives from a historic union of native American, European and Mexican cultures, each contributing its own distinctive cooking traditions to produce what we know today as Southwestern fare. This cuisine is sumptuously presented in Southwest the Beautiful Cookbook with more than 200 recipes illustrated with stunning full-color photography. Noted Pheonix-based cooking teacher and food writer Barbara Pool Fenzl has gathered recipes that combine innovative techniques and dynamic food combinations with historic methods and ethnic contibutions to produce dishes as vibrant and exciting as the Southwest itself; shellfish tamales with ancho cream, quail salad with pumpkin seeds, sopiapillas and jalapeño chutney and so much more. Complementing the recipe chapters are informative essays by noted author and Southwest enthusiast Norman Kolpas, along with glorious photography that bring this wonderful region to life on the printed page. The people, geography, and history of the area are skillfully portrayed in scenic photography and richly anecdotal text. Home to such awe-inspiring natural wonders as the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde and the Sonoran Desert, this region is a land of austere beauty, rich culture and a uniquecuisine that is very much alive in this gorgeous addition to the Beautiful Cookbook® series.

In a true masterpiece that pays homage to her Southwest home, chef and author Barbara Pool Fenzl presents more than 150 original recipes that burst with the colors, textures, and flavors of the region--plus complete seasonal menus.