Box of Chocolate

"Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what your gonna get" that's about the only line I remember from that movie. But I'd have to agree unless of course you slice the chocolate in half or ask the owner what's in every one, which I did when we visited Todos Santos.

This place was nestled away in a little courtyard off the main street from the Plaza in Sante Fe. Todos Santos (All Saints) has this kind of day of the dead theme.

Many of the gift boxes are Saints, Mary being one of the bigger ones. I'm not into this, but chocolate I am all over.

Every one of these was so beautifully made and the flavors were exotic and surprising.

I wanted to buy some gifts for my co-workers so I bought a few boxes of chocolate and had them wrapped in nice little boxes. They were so pretty we didn't want to eat them....but we did.

The store is tiny and dark but lots of vibrant colored decorations.

I love that each type of chocolate is in a pretty colored candy holder tuttu.

With all the beautiful chocolates in the display cases, it was hard to choose which one I wanted to eat right away. I finally choose the dark chocolate with candied orange peel and pistachios. It was worth every bite. It's a hard to place to find but worth the search. The courtyard was lovely in winter as Sante Fe had snow on the ground and evergreen garlands over all the wood beams throughout the plaza area. I'm sure this courtyard will be hopping in the summer as there was a restaurant with an outdoor patio. Make sure you seek out this chocolate treasure.

Todos Santos
Sena Plaza Courtyard
125 East Palce #31
Sante Fe, NM 87501

The Range Cafe

Everytime I go to Albuquerque this place is a must visit. It's in the town of Bernalillo (pronounced Burn-a-leo). It's a great cafe that has been cloned through out the city of Albuquerque, but the original is the best. The food is good, nice American fare with a touch of New Mexico.


Often when you order your food here, burritos, tacos, burgers and eggs the question always comes, red or green? Chili that is. New Mexico chili is fantastic. I usually go for the green its roasted just right with a smokey flavor, really it goes with just about everything.


The coffee is perfect her, just black, no need for sugar or cream and I love both. SB and I always take home a bag of beans of the Range and Blue Lightening blend of coffee, to have at home. I have to say though my favorite part of this place is the ambience, it's eclectic and warm.


It's in a building with an old soda fountain. Art on all the walls (much of which was donated by local artists), colorful chairs, plates and fanciful decor.
It always makes me happy when I go here.

You have to visit this location and experience a great local place.

Range Cafe
928 Camino del Pueblo
Bernalillo, New Mexico
505.867.1700

Chocolate Maven

Ok so everyone knows I love to watch the food channel. Well there is a show called Giada's Weekend Getaway and a few months ago she featured Sante Fe. I jotted a few places down that I've never been too while visiting. One of them is off the beaten path of the famous Plaza in Sante Fe. It's called Chocolate Maven.

I told my mom about this place and told her that it was a bakery and that you should be able to sit and eat by the window and watch them make the baked goods. However, that did not register to her as she went barreling in the place, right up to the counter and quickly asked "i want to see where they make the candy," the lady was really polite, as most New Mexican's are, and simple told her "we don't make candy, we make pastries. " She says "oh, well I want to see where they make the pastries." The woman points to the dining room and then my mom bolts in there not realizing that there are 3 tables next to the window where people are dining. SB tells me "quick move over to the end of the store, pretend like we don't know her." Seriously we got a lot of laughs out of this episode.

If you've never been here you'd never find it. It's in a warehouse district of Sante Fe. Literally we drove into a warehouse parking lot that was packed with cars, dirt, snow and ice on the driveway. The visit was well worth it. I had a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, mom had a mini cherry tart and SB had a chocolate white chocolate chip cookie. Very crunchy cookies with texture like brown sugar. Worth every calorie and bite. Mom went back to Chocolate Maven and few days later and ate at a table buy the window and enjoyed watching them make the "pastries."
Chocolate Maven
Bakery & Cafe
821 W. San Mateo Rd.
Santa Fe, NM 87505
800 • 511 • 0113
505 • 984 • 1980

Route 10

Here's the pictures I've promised.

So this winter I had 1 -1/2 weeks off from work so we decided to take a road trip and visit my family in New Mexico. As the weather was extremely bad we had to take the southern route to Albuquerque. This made our road trip 15 hours instead of the usual 11. Seriously the last 3 hours where the worst and most disappointing as it was so dark and we were going through a part of New Mexico that SB has never seen. The stars where amazing though. Here's a sampling of what we saw along the road.

Early morning...I love to see the sun rise and the clouds were everywhere so it was amazing.Palm Springs energy windmills.

Colorado River crossing into Arizona.

Texas Canyon Rocks, in Arizona, very cool.

Sunset time in New Mexico....finally.