Easter Campfire Breakfast

For our Easter breakfast we met with friends at Dripping Springs in the Organ Mountains above Las Cruces. The views were stunning, the air was clear and warm, the company was great, and the food was delicious.

Everyone brought a dish to share, but since all of our friends are so generous and creative there were a lot of extras, including candy Easter eggs, flowers, tablecloths, and holiday decorations. The menu was superb:

Mimosas (champagne and orange juice)

Cowboy Campfire Coffee (2 quarts of chilly spring water pumped into an antique graniteware coffee pot and brought to a boil over an open fire. Add a handful of coffee, and toss in a clean eggshell to settle the grounds; simmer over the fire for a bit, then pour)

Tea

Lemonade

Farmer's Omelette, an all-in-one dish with eggs, cheese, sausage, peppers, and onions; mostly cooked ahead of time and finished off over the campfire in a heavy black iron frying pan (because that's what our family used on breakfast picnics when we were kids)

Sourdough bread and butter

Jean's Blueberry Coffee Cake

Pat and Mary's Buttermilk Poppyseed Cake

Fresh pineapple, strawberries, grapes, and blueberries

We decided to make our Easter Campfire Breakfast an annual event, although I believe that I can foresee some Spicy Breakfast Burrito Picnics in the near future.

Breakfast at The Shed

This photo is totally unconnected to the following post. I've just put it here to buck us up until spring. It's a close-up of a blossom on my desert willow tree back in Clovis.

Some of you have mentioned, here or there in the comments, that you might be traveling through Las Cruces some time in the future. I could tell by the reaction to On the Trail of the Best Green Chile Cheeseburger on this blog the other day that there is some interest in hearing about good local restaurants. Hey, if there is a need out there, the Zees will make the big sacrifice and do a little restaurant reviewing from time to time. Someone's got to do it.

My husband, Beez, is always happy to try another green chile cheeseburger (he calls them GCCBs) and writes about them over on his blog, Pirate Dogs and Pilgrims. He is also very fond of pizza, and managed to eat two meals in one day this past weekend from the newly-opened and anxiously-awaited Zeffiro's New York Pizza (his review is here).

I'm more of a breakfast person, and was pleased when we got an opportunity to try out the well-reviewed Old Mesilla Pastry Cafe/The Shed. For some reason it is known by both names, although I've mostly heard it called The Shed. It looks like there was once a separate bakery that was overtaken when the restaurant expanded, and lots of fresh-baked goods are for sale.

It was a great place with wonderful food and really nice people. Auntie Bucksnort had the special--Eggs Benedict with salmon and fresh asparagus (such a huge salmon steak, she brought half of it home). Beez had migas (scrambled eggs with tortilla strips, cheese, peppers, onions, etc.). I had the oatmeal pancake because I had read some exclamatory reviews about it online. In honor of its deliciousness, I plan to post my version of oatmeal pancakes over on my recipe blog and will come back and post the link here in a day or so.

Here you go--as promised: Oatmeal Pancakes.

If you would like to read a little more about The Shed, you can check out some reviews on Yelp.