I thought about it as I enjoyed an elegant dinner in a swanky restaurant at New Mexico's Isleta (Pueblo) Resort and Casino (we didn't have these when I grew up here). Surrounded by black and white prints of the first people of the Land of Enchantment, my past and present memories of this area came into focus.
This was the third lap of a trip to Colorado and New Mexico to visit friends and family. Food of course, was part of the journey. For instance, I learned that the classic question, "Red or green?" that refers to the type of chile you prefer on your enchiladas, now has another choice. If you want red and green chile with your meal in a New Mexican restaurant, order "Christmas."
My mind then drifted to a friend's daughter's wedding I had attended a few days earlier in a small town in northeast New Mexico. In the midst of cowboys and country music, I scribbled notes on a napkin to remember what my friends from Missouri said about feeding their cattle.
Their bovines apparently thrived on a crop of turnips planted last year ... after the cows learned how to pluck them out of the ground. I'll leave the guidance on turnips as cattle feed to ruminant nutrition experts. For humans however, they are extremely nutritious.
Turnips are root vegetables (edible roots that grow underground) and are in the family of cruciferous vegetable such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale. Substances in these particular vegetables can fight the growth of cancer cells and have the attention of cancer researchers.
Turnips are also an excellent source of vitamin C, dietary fiber, and potassium. Use them raw in salads or cooked as a lower carbohydrate alternative to potatoes.
What's cool about turnips is that we can eat their leaves as well as their root bulb.(I remember my mom cooking both). Turnip greens are smaller and tend to be less bitter than their collard green cousins. Like other green leafy vegetables, turnip greens are extremely low in calories and bursting with nutrients, including vitamin C, calcium, and iron. (They are also a significant source of vitamin K, which people on certain blood thinning medications may need to limit.)
But I digress. My best food memory on this trip was in Colorado, where we met up with cousins. Back at our cabin after a 6-mile hike to a familiar mountain lake, my sister volunteered to make stacked enchiladas with an egg on top _ a family tradition. We reminisced how our mom used to make enchiladas for dinner when it rained _ a rare occurrence in New Mexico. Right about then _ as we shared memories around this familiar meal _ it began to rain.
