Fall is Here!

Time to get ready for Thanksgiving.

Jenny's View

Dear Friends,

One reason I like gardening so much is that I love to get my hands dirty—as anyone who has shared a kitchen or business with me knows! Being a Southwest gardener, it’s not the showy annuals I admire so much as our hardy perennials and life-giving fruit trees. In the high desert, we gardeners gauge our success by who shows up or moves in, which for me right now is deer, coyotes, an occasional skunk, and far too many gophers and rabbits!

Late fall is also a great time—surprisingly—to check out the lovely Santa Fe Botanical Garden on Museum Hill. CEO Clayton Bass tells me it’s one of his favorite seasons, as the gardens come alive with fall colors from the changing leaves and blooming perennials. Come December, the garden launches its holiday Glow, a beautifully artistic lighting display that creates a setting for all kinds of fun events. “The plants come alive, there’s live music on Saturdays and other evenings, we have adult beverages, and an illuminated dome just for kids, with Santa,” Bass told me, “though we couldn’t get him to work past the 24th.” Visit their website for early-bird tickets until Nov. 13.

This being Santa Fe, the garden also doubles as an art gallery. The show that’s up through April is going to be really spectacular when it’s lit up for Glow. Sixteen of Santa Fe’s most prominent sculptors were invited to install work, including Allan Houser, Roxanne Swentzell, Dan Namingha, and Tammy Garcia. I bet even Santa can’t resist pausing as he punches out for the night in his namesake city.

Back to the garden,

Jenny Kimball

Recipe for Adventure

If you are making Thanksgiving dinner this month, you will really enjoy Chef Lane’s featured recipe, Spicy Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing.  And, if you have the pleasure of dining out instead of cooking this year, don’t miss out on the scrumptious Thanksgiving Day buffet in La Plazuela at La Fonda. Call soon to reserve your table. 505-995-2334. Gobble, Gobble!

Spicy Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing - Serves 12 

INGREDIENTS

3 C ½” diced cornbread croutons

¼ C  White breadcrumbs/Panko

1 LB. Chorizo, cooked (save oil)

½ C Diced Mild Green Chile

2 T  Garlic, crushed

¾ C  Carrots, small diced

¾ C Celery, small diced

¾ C Onion, small diced

1 T  Cumin

8 oz. Chicken Stock

Salt & Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat a pan, add the leftover chorizo oil to it and sauté the carrots, celery and onions until soft.

2. Add the garlic and cumin, cook this for a couple of minutes.

3. Add the cornbread, chorizo and breadcrumbs to this. Now add the stock, stir in and season with salt and pepper.

4. Add this to a pan, cover and bake for 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Live at La Fonda

Known for her strong melodic vocals and big standing bass, Cathy Faber has made a surprising switch to rhythm guitar, so she can let the band’s new multi-instrumentalist talent shine: Dave Devlin on lap steel, pedal steel, dobro, telecaster, “and he may also play mandolin and banjo too,” she laughs. Devlin’s new bride, Laura Leach, has taken over the upright bass, and Troy Rachau rounds out the sound on drums.

A veteran country singer who’s played nearly every venue in town, Faber has spent much of the last year “catching everybody up” on her repertoire of 100 to 200 songs. But La Fonda is one gig she’s continued to play, because it’s so familiar, “it feels like home. The dancers depend on us,” she says—meaning the two-steppin’ crowd that follows the music wherever it goes. Longtime fans may notice that Faber’s sound has gone a bit more rockabilly and hard-edged lately. “I used to be melodic and sweet and sound like a girl band,” she says.” Now we’re trying to rough it up a bit. But we’re never too loud,” she adds, “or too late. So La Fonda works out for us.” Catch Cathy and her band at La Fiesta Lounge on Nov. 6 & 7, after a preview listen online.

It's a Good Time to...

Too early to think about Christmas? Not if you sneak a peek in our stores! The shops at La Fonda carry tons of unique gifts in a wide range of prices and styles, many of them handmade by local artisans. A good number of them also happen to be edible, in case an immediate gift is needed for the hardworking shopper. From handcrafted knives and belt buckles to rare giant fossils, handmade jewelry, textiles, artwork, clothing, shoes, and housewares, the shops at La Fonda offer a serene way to bring home some delight with gifts found nowhere else. 

You can also check out the up-cycled and recycled gifts at the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival at the Santa Fe Convention Center (Nov. 20-22), and Winter Indian Market (Nov. 29-30), with artwork from 200 Native artists. 

El Museo Cultural brings back its Winter Market of old-style flea market items, every weekend through May 1 at the Railyard. And if you need an excuse to visit Old Town in Albuquerque, the annual Holiday Stroll takes place Dec. 4, with store sales, Santa, and the traditional tree-lighting.

For the noncommercial side of celebration, there are the beloved traditions happening right outside our doors, such as Christmas at the Palace—an evening of cider, biscochitos, piñatas, and a visit with Señor y Señora Claus at the Palace of the Governors (Dec. 11). That weekend, children of the Native artists on the Portal will be selling their own work (Dec. 12-13). And the cherished New Mexican tradition known as Las Posadas, a re-enactment of the Holy Family’s search for an inn, takes place on Sunday night, with hot cider and cookies to follow in the Palace Courtyard (Dec. 13). If you are here on Christmas Eve, don’t miss the traditional farolito walk along Canyon Road, certainly to include more caroling, cookies, and art, of course.

Music

Holiday concerts coming to the Lensic include the full orchestra production of Handel’s Messiah (Nov. 21, 22), the symphony’s Christmas Treasures concert with guest conductor David Felberg (Dec. 13), and the Santa Fe Concert Band’s free holiday concert (Dec. 14), no tickets needed. Celebrate a New Mexico Mariachi Christmas benefit concert (Dec. 11), or take a musical sleigh ride with chart-topping pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Roe in two Christmas Eve concerts. The Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble performs a concert of harp and choral music, “Songs of Joy and Remembrance,” at Loretto Chapel (Dec. 11). Performance Santa Fe also puts on two concerts for New Year’s Eve, with pianist Joyce Yang. 

Outside the holiday genre, Santa Fe Pro Musica presents its concert for string orchestra “Prince of Clouds” (Nov. 7, 8) at the Lensic, where Gil Shaham will showcase Bach’s three Partitas for solo violin (Dec. 1). Performance Santa Fe’s Family Concert series concludes with Rumplestiltskin by the Harlem String Quartet (Nov. 15) at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Harlem String also plays a concert (Nov. 16) at the Museum of Art, and joins Joseph Illick for his Notes on Music (Nov. 17) at United Church of Santa Fe

Back in the modern era, or at least the 1970s, Tower of Power plays what is sure to be a nostalgic show at Buffalo Thunder Resort (Nov. 6). Canadian folky Bruce Cockburn comes to the Lensic (Nov. 10), followed by the Grammy-nominated harmonic duo The Milk Carton Kids (Dec. 8). The imaginative Portland Cello Project comes to Skylight (Nov. 7), followed  by the Dandy Warhols (Nov. 10), Houndmouth (Nov. 15), and multi-instrumental performance artist That1Guy (Nov. 18). Kenny Endo’s contemporary taiko trio comes to the Scottish Rite Temple (Nov. 14), and folk veteran Richard Thompson brings his trio to the James A. Little Theater (Nov. 20). Singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey plays the GiG Performance Space (Nov. 20).

At the Museums

Modernism has been a theme this fall, and you can experience it at La Fonda if you take advantage of our package specials. You can create your own Modernist masterpiece by participating in a morning family program at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (Nov. 14), or come back and spend an evening in the galleries exploring how Modernist painters were inspired by nature (Nov. 17). A lecture Nov. 21 takes an in-depth look at the transformations of Modernism, and a seminar traces the history of collecting (Dec. 17). At holiday time, the O’Keeffe hosts a drop-in day when you can create personalized holiday crafts (Dec. 29).

The Museum of International Folk Art opens the exhibit Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico (through Sept. 11) with live music and dance performances (Nov. 22).

Film and Performance

An annual Thanksgiving weekend tradition, Santa Fe’s own Wise Fool circus presents its 12th annual Circus Luminous (Nov. 27-29). 

Also for the child in all of us, the musical Peter Pan will take flight at the James A. Little Theatre (Nov. 6, 7, 14, 15). And if you want to see a Christmas classic remade for the stage, the hilarious, Tony Award-winning Broadway show A Christmas Story, The Musical comes to Albuquerque’s Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico (Nov. 20-22). Fans of Mabel Dodge Luhan will want to see the world premiere of the biography Awakening in Taos, screening at the Lensic (Nov. 18) with a prescreening party at Blue Rain Gallery.

Meanwhile, Met Live in HD presents Lulu (Nov. 21), with staging by William Kentridge of The Nose, and the National Theatre Live in HD will screen Jane Eyre (Dec. 10), all at the Lensic. What is billed as the “original” and 15th annual Santa Fe Film Festival (not to be confused with the independent film fest in October) takes place Dec. 2-6 at venues around the city.

Donald Rubinstein and Ra-Kalam Bob Moses perform a genre-crossing performance they call “Sounds of Santa Fe” (Nov. 13) at the Lensic, followed by a Rumi Concert including the poet’s longtime translator Coleman Barks and vocalist Jai Uttal (Nov. 14).

In December, a special art event joins provocative Native performance artist James Luna with Guillermo Gomez-Peña and Rebecca Belmore for a one-night show followed by discussion led by art critic Lucy Lippard (Dec. 4). The event is part of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts’ Acting Out Symposium of talks, workshops, and video screenings on indigenous performance art (Dec. 3-4). 

Speakers

International novelist Aminatta Forna, author of The Hired Man and The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, will speak at the Lensic (Nov. 11),

followed by author and Palestine expert Richard Falk in conversation with journalist Ali Abunimah (Dec. 2), part of the Lannan Foundation’s Cultural Freedom speaker series.

Workshops

The four-day series of workshops known as ArtFusion covers faux finish, plaster, stencils, mural making, and other decorative arts at the Scottish Rite Temple (Nov. 3-6), with an art sale and exhibit open to the public (Nov. 4-5). 

La Fonda and Santa Fe In the News

As one of the city’s most iconic luxury hotels, La Fonda presides over the historic Plaza and boasts some of the best views of the city and surrounding mountains and desert. READ MORE

What if booking a $239-a-night hotel room with your sweetheart included a free engagement? READ MORE 

The most astonishing aspect of our drive was the ever-changing landscape—from mountain to desert to plains with outcroppings of red bluffs. READ MORE

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