Welcome to The Nostalgic Pantry

My Dad's favorite Restaurant in New Mexico

I have started this blog mainly for myself and my family, but all are welcome to take part in the journey. My family and friends know the reason behind this blog, but I will tell the story to the new comers, assuming there are any. 

In December of 2012, the week before Christmas, my dad was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. It was obviously devastating for our family, but we pulled through. My little Brother was my Dads bone marrow donor, and by that following July my Dad was in remission. We celebrated with a family feast, and my Dad started living his life again. He always was a family man, but after cancer he always did a little extra, because we never know when our time comes. My parents traveled to Germany and made unforgettable memories. We all came home for Christmas and made up for the one we lost the year before. It was an amazing Christmas. There were two new grand babies to snuggle papa. It was like a Dream. We all returned to our homes with our families. A couple weeks later, we got a call, and my Dad's cancer had returned. This time it showed up as tiny little tumors all over his spine. I was on the next flight out and preparing for the worst. The doctors told him that without treatment he would die within 6 weeks, but with it he would probably have 6 months maybe more. We had two family dinners. One was green chili burritos, a classic in our home, and the other was another Dewey favorite: spaghetti with garlic bread with too much garlic salt, its the way he always made it. The next morning, he left for the hospital to start his chemotherapy. We took turns visiting, babysitting kids, and making the food runs. Going to the hospital was hard for me, so I spent most of my time with the kids, meal planning and cooking. It helped me stay positive, and there few things that bring me peace like creating a meal for people I love. On February 14, 2014 my dad was taken to the ICU because he had developed pneumonia. Because of the cancer and chemo, he didn't have any way to fight it off. The next day, by some miracle, we had babysitters lined up for all five grandchildren. So we all went together to the hospital to be with my dad and talk with his doctor, who we all had grown to love. While we were there, they were performing a biopsy of his lung to see if the cancer had spread. During the biopsy, he went into cardiac arrest. They were able to revive him and told us it was time to say goodbye. My dad was surrounded by his amazing wife and children. He was not alone, and we talked to him until the end. My dad died on February 15, 2014.
I grew up in a home that was full of food. Both my parents are incredible home cooks. I spent my evening watching them both cook. My dad taught me how to cook things like Salmon patties, Chili Verde, Chili Colorado and just about any dish that had New Mexico Chili. He grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico and taught all his children to worship just about everything New Mexico, especially the food. I was raised to appreciate all foods from the county fair to the gourmet. My dad had compiled a list of dishes that he considered to be his favorite. Some of the dishes are there because of the story behind them, and others are on the list because they were so delicious that he couldn't stop thinking about them. There are well over 100 dishes on the list. My goal is to create as many recipes as I can for the dishes he considered special.  I will be posting some but not all recipes on this blog, and the rest will be available in the cookbook I will create.
If you know our family, you'll also know there is no subject more discussed than food (except maybe sex). You can imagine how often the idea of a cookbook came up. Dad never got a chance to put it together. Perhaps it's better that I do it, since now we can put hot sauce in the beans.