The self-published high school cookbook was intended as a gag gift for a white elephant exchange.

“It’s supposed to be funny prank things, stuff you’ve pulled out from storage,” chuckled Roz Gallegos. “And so it was a joke about who got it.”

Courtesy Roz Gallegos

But as Gallegos and her family pored through the tome from Antonito High School, they got more than recipes for Watergate Salad and albondigas soup. They got homesick for Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Naturally, it had to be shared with residents and ex-pats on the Forgotten Southern Colorado Facebook page — and the memories came flooding in.

“Because it's going home,” Gallegos explained. “Now that we have social media, we're connected again. And so when we bring these things up, it's going home through your food. You're connecting. ‘Oh you're so and so's cousin!’ and ‘Oh you were at that funeral!’ and ‘Oh my gosh, remember this cake Mrs. Salazar made?’ and it's going home.”

Gallegos, a teacher in Colorado Springs, grew up on a ranch in the valley and, like many of her friends, she moved away.

“So many people had to leave the valley for generations for work, for education, to survive,” she said.

The Antonito High School cookbook was published in 1986 and is fat with treasures like dueling Sopaipilla recipes. One was labeled “Never Fail.” It was an obvious place to start — “...because it's a no fail,” Gallegos quipped — and soon they were in deep.

“It was a taste-a-thon. Are we trying Mrs. Salazar's sopaipillas or are we trying Mrs. Ulibarri’s sopaipillas? So we tried those and it was a tie. We couldn't decide whose were better.”

What really caught Gallegos’ eye were the many different recipes for biscochitos, all seven of them.

“So seven different families chiming in about biscochitos!” Gallegos exclaimed.

To the uninitiated, a biscochito is a cookie, which she describes as a more refined snickerdoodle with cinnamon and sugar. It’s also the official state cookie of New Mexico.

“This is the cookie you have at a wedding,” she said. “This is the cookie you have at a funeral. This is the cookie you have at a graduation. This is the cookie you have to celebrate the birth of Christ. This is THE cookie.”

As the family baker, Gallegos plans to try the recipe for piñon puffs soon, made with pine nuts, vanilla, and plenty of butter. But her real hope is to get the cookbook republished as a fundraiser for Antonito High School, which was the mission of the original.

Never Fail Sopaipillas