New Mexico {Cafe Pasqual's & Going Home}

For our last morning in Santa Fe, we decided to go out for brunch at Cafe Pasqual's, a cute James Beard award winning spot in downtown Santa Fe where the menu looked like it would totally hit the spot after a birthday celebration full of margaritas the night before.  The breakfast burritos we ordered while sitting in the sunny windows were absolutely perfect and the art filling the walls of this bright space gave us something fun to look at while we waited.  After breakfast it was time to pack up and head back to Albuquerque for our afternoon flight where we drove around looking at more Breaking Bad locations and of course stopped at Costco to check out their selection.  It was such an awesome and relaxing trip and I cannot wait to go back and explore more.  Thanks for the memories, New Mexico!

xoxo,

stephanie marie

New Mexico {Sazon Birthday Dinner}

I wanted to use Christian's birthday dinner in New Mexico as an excuse to try something a little fancy and fun, so I made reservations at Sazon months in advance after reading about this James Beard award winning restaurant specializing in moles and all around delicious food.  After wandering around a few more art galleries in town and grabbing a pre-dinner drink by the fire at La Posada de Santa Fe, we wandered over to Sazon where we were immediately seated in the low-lit and art-filled dining room.  I worried before we went that the restaurant would be too "fancy" for us, but we had the best waiter that made the whole experience fun and every dish we tried was even better than the last.  You start the dinner with a tasting of 5 different housemade moles, then use that as a base to order your main dish with a choice of proteins for the day.  We also went a little overboard with appetizers and the like, but paired with tasty margaritas and knowing we probably wouldn't be back, we didn't regret anything we tried.  At the end of the meal we forced ourselves to eat dessert {one complimentary and one because it just sounded that interesting} and stumbled our way back to the hotel for one last margarita by the lobby fireplace.  It was such a fun birthday celebration for my honey and I'm so happy we could spend it in Santa Fe!

mole sampler

sopa de amor {chef's soup} - so many flavors and textures going on with this one and it was amazing

yellow fin crudite + bone marrow

happiest when eating marrow straight from the bone

pork loin with mole

duck "enchiladas" with mole

princesa dessert with berries and cream

dulce sinfonia - I don't even remember what was in this, but something about jalapeño ice cream and chilies and caramel - it was the craziest mix of flavors and textures in a dessert but absolutely delicious

full & happy

xoxo,

stephanie marie

New Mexico {Snowy Canyon Road}

On Monday, Christian's birthday, we woke up to snow {and no power in the hotel}!  We had been hearing rumors of it in the forecast but were surprised when we woke up to a somewhat winter wonderland covering Santa Fe.  After a quick breakfast at the hotel {once the power was back on}, we spent the morning wandering along Canyon Road, a half mile road just a block from our hotel full of over 100 galleries, shops, and restaurants.  Either due to the snow or it being a Monday, the street was relatively quiet so we had the galleries mostly to ourselves while we wandered in and out, admiring the art and wishing we had a lot more money to spend :)

the cutest birthday boy

xoxo,

stephanie marie