Food Adventures of a Comfort Cook

by Mary Cokenour If a barn could speak, what secrets and stories would it reveal? Surely it would tell of the birthing of a calf or foal; the death of a long milked cow or well ridden mare. Amongst the hay bales, the trails of rodents hunted by cats or lovers having a roll around....
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Originally, the site where the Stagecoach Dining Room is located first started out as a movie prop when John Ford began making movies down in Monument Valley. It became the mess hall for movie crews and cast. The cook would prepare the food, ring the...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Hospitality to travelers, strangers really, goes back to the beginning of recorded history; an extension of religious beliefs and culture. A perfect example is Xenia, the concept of Greek hospitality where generosity and courtesy were reciprocated between...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Heads up, this will not be about the Mormons and their travels to Utah in 1847. No, I am going ahead in time to 1914 with the establishment of “Russian Settlement”. It is not known if the settlers there had another name for this now ghost town in the...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, a day celebrating romance, love, passionate embraces and kisses. For some, it is just another day on the calendar. Either they have no one to lavish their love upon and vice versa, or the spark has gone out of a...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Chuck Wagon, Ranch House, Wagon Train; the cook had one of the toughest jobs of the Old West. Not only was he responsible for providing meals, but they better be good ones if he didn’t want to find himself staked out over an ant hill, or worse, lynched....
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Parking lot full, parking on the street stretches from the corner and past the restaurant, patient patrons sit or stand inside the entry way waiting. That’s right, it’s Mexican Night at the R & F Restaurant in Monticello! Locals plan on this special...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Nowadays, the American economy is full of unemployment, federal and state funds being consumed by teenagers living on welfare due to unplanned pregnancies, and an American school system that does not provide skills for adulthood. Small towns can no longer...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Better start this off with a disclaimer: “No Andes Candies or York Peppermint Patties were eaten, melted, nor harmed in any way with the making of this recipe.” That should make the politically correct or anti-whatever groups happy. Now to the good stuff…...
FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour This story begins with an email to Bill Boyle, the San Juan Record Publisher and Editor: “Hi Bill, This is not a letter to the Editor. It is just a suggestion. We finally had the pleasure of going to the San Juan River Kitchen for dinner last night, here...

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