Favorite Recipes El Charro Cafe and the Story of It's Colorful Past

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Description: This book is not just a cookbook. It is a book that involves my heritage and family traditions. It is a blend of many nationalities: French, Spanish, Mexican, Irish and Scottish. Favorite Recipes El Charro Cafe is a tribute to my ancestors, and a legacy to the younger generations of our family. I hope it is a story that they will be proud to come home to and hand on to their children. 

What I want to share is the story of a French stonemason, Jules Flin, my great-grandfather, who helped build the city of Tucson, and of his daughter, Monica Flin, who founded El Charro almost seventy years ago. My book has recipes that explain in detail the methods of preparing many dishes for which Tucson and, more particularly, El Charro are famous. I have included recipes for dishes that can be made ahead of time to provide meals when your time is less than abundant. 

Throughout the history of the New World, people traveled great distances and settled to make a new life for themselves, taking with them their tastes and traditions and learning from others they encountered. That was especially true in Mexico. European and ancient Indian influences blended together over the centuries to give birth to the rich and varied flavors of Mexican cuisine. Mexican cuisine is by far one of the most intriguing of all cuisines, not to mention one of the most colorful, healthful and enjoyable styles of eating in the world today. 

The wonderful mix of cultures became further blended when people from Mexico began moving northward into the Tucson Basin. They brought with them their ideas of what good food was, and gradually learned to modify their tastes out of necessity and through the discovery of foods that the area natives were already enjoying. What we enjoy in Tucson today is a unique cuisine that is not found in any other "border town." 

Although you may recognize some of the names of dishes -- tacos, enchiladas, burros, chimichangas, chile Colorado -- the way we prepare them is different from ways anywhere else in the world. 

Perhaps, though, on these pages you will recognize recipes that have been in your family... perhaps we are related. If so, feel flattered knowing we are now passing on recipes for others to savor. 

In Spanish there is a saying ... Haz todo con amor -- Do everything with love. That certainly will make your meals taste even better. 

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Condition: Good condition. Light crease in front cover's corner tip.