I just checked out a cookbook from the library that I'm going to buy
for my collection: _Rancho Cooking, Mexican and Californian Recipes_,
by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan.

Ms. McMahan is an 8th generation Californian whose Mexican/Spanish
family owned a rancho in the Santa Clara Valley from the late 18th
century through the early 20th century. The cookbook is a well-edited,
comprehensive collection of recipes and stories from the cuisine of the
Californios, the Mexican Californians who settled here long before the
USA acquired sovereignity.

Chapters include "Chiles", "The legacy of ollas" (stews), "The asador
and the glory of the barbecue", "the olive and the lane", "the tortilla
and other breads of the west," and more.

True foodies will find the information on curing of olives and
California barbecuing detailed and fascinating. There are innumerable
recipes for chile sauces, enchiladas, chilaquiles and so forth. This is
a book you will cook from - but it's also full of history and family
lore, with photos from the 19th and early 20th century of the Higueras
on their Santa Clara valley ranch.

I like her description of the foods and plants the Californios used,
parsing out the imports from Spain and the natives of the New World:
the olive, fig and rosemary for the first, and the squash, tomato and
chile for the second.

If you want to know how to make tortillas from scratch, Ms. McMahan
will tell you.

Long time RFC denizens might remember that she authored the famous
chocolate and ancho chile cake - a google search on RFC should locate
the recipe.

This book will be invaluable not only for the recipes but for the
culinary and cultural history of a Bay Area (South Bay) rancho, before
the coming of the North Americans. It fills in my understanding of the
time before statehood. Spanish and Mexican culture has deep roots in
this part of California, too, not just in the far south.

The publisher is Sasquatch Books, in Washington State, so I hope it's
still available, as it was printed in 2001.

Leila