HOW TO SANTA FE

Now You’re Cooking

With all the myriad restaurant choices in Santa Fe, from James Beard–nominated food trucks to white-tablecloth fine dining, why would you ever break out a saucepan? And yet, learning how to prepare the many wonderful foods that make up the culinary scene here is an excellent way to keep alive your memories of great dinings out. Take a cooking class, and dive deep into the food and stories that add so much to the culture of Santa Fe and New Mexico.

Santa Fe School of Cooking specializes in the foods and techniques of Southwest cooking in both demonstration and hands-on classes. Traditional New Mexican foods, contemporary Southwest cuisine, Native American cooking, making tamales or salsas, and many other classes are available in the School’s downtown location. Online classes too! The School’s store has all the spices and many of the tools you’ll need to replicate what you’ve learned at home.

Santa Fe School of Cooking

125 N. Guadalupe Street santafeschoolofcooking.com knowledge about kitchen equipment in hands-on classes at Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School in De Vargas Center. With humor and expertise, Chef Johnny Vee leads you through classes in salsas, international foods, or knife skills. Pick up that skillet, espresso machine, or cannoli mold from the vast selection of cookware, electronics, gadgets, tools, and tableware for sale in the shop just in front of the school kitchen.

Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School

181 Paseo de Peralta (in the De Vargas Center) lascosascooking.com santafe.org—for complete information, search on “margarita trail”

Some limitations apply, and you must be at least 21 years of age to participate.

Santa Fe Margarita Trail

Download the Santa Fe Margarita Trail Passport app from your app store and start tasting the best margaritas in nearly 40 venues in and around Santa Fe. The free version of the app provides an interactive map, but the $2.99 version also allows you to collect stamps to earn prizes, and get a $1 discount on each signature margarita at participating locations. You can also purchase a paper Margarita Trail Passport from Tourism Santa Fe visitor locations.

Santa Fe Bandstand

Put on your dance-all-night shoes and mosey on down to the Santa Fe Plaza most weekday evenings, mid-June through mid-August, to listen to an array of local, regional, and national bands playing music ranging from country, blues, and jazz through world, folk, mariachi, and rock’n’roll. This free music festival brings out the community to picnic in the grass, dance, and meet friends.

Santa Fe Summer Bandstand Music Festival lensic360.org for schedule

Road Trip

Get out into the country that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe with a road trip to Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch.

In late August, listen to music under the stars at Blossoms & Bones, the Ghost Ranch Music Festival—two days of music, camping, hiking, yoga, and great food and libations from New Mexico vendors in the spectacular landscape that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe.

Forty-five miles northwest of Santa Fe is the village of Abiquiú, once the northernmost outpost of the Spanish empire in New Mexico. Arguably its most famous resident was Georgia O’Keeffe, whose home and studio you can tour to see the modern way in which she lived. Visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Welcome Center, on the grounds of the Abiquiú Inn, to check in for your reservation for a guided tour of O’Keeffe’s house, see an exhibition about her world travels, and visit the well-curated gift shop. Stop for a bite at the Inn and enjoy the lovely patio shaded by ancient cottonwood trees, or stay a while and use the Inn as a base of operations to explore the countryside.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Welcome Center

21120 U.S. Highway 84, Abiquiú okeeffemuseum.org

Abiquiú Inn

U.S. Highway 84, Abiquiú abiquiuinn.com

Fifteen miles north of Abiquiú lies Ghost Ranch, a retreat and education center on 21,000 acres of spectacular countryside. Georgia O’Keeffe had a house here as well (it’s not open to the public, but is right in the middle of landscape that inspired her paintings); the area has been occupied by humans for thousands of years. You can stay at the ranch and attend workshops, or just visit for a day and do some hiking. We love the horseback ride—a slow walk through history and geology that will take your breath away.

Blossoms & Bones: The Ghost Ranch Music Festival

August 25 and 26, Ghost Ranch ghostranchmusicfest.com

Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center

280 Private Drive 1708 (15 miles north of Abiquiú on U.S. Highway 84) ghostranch.org