Coming in Wednesday's Nevada Appeal

"I just flew back from Santa Fe and, boy, are my arms tired."

Except we didn't fly. We drove " 2,600 miles in nine days.

So, it's not our arms that were tired.

Santa Fe, if not the birthplace, is arguably the incubator for contemporary Southwestern cuisine, and our trip, therefore, was to be a pilgrimage.

Like Charleston Heston in "The Ten Commandments," I hoped to return to Virginia City, hair bleached white and a couple of stone tablets filled with recipes collected from the "Land of Enchantment."

Read Brian Shaw's complete column and check out his recipe for Painted Desert Soup by picking up Wednesday's Nevada Appeal or checking back online.