Welcome to
The Chile Peppers Bilingual Cookbook website!

Presenting a bilingual chile pepper cookbook by the Mexican People of Nevada County. Click on the blue colored links / text for a Spanish translation of the website. Haga click aquí en los vinculos azules/o en el texto para una traducción en español de este sitio.

Nevada County, California, located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills east of Sacramento, is made up of several small towns whose past livelihood has depended on gold mining and the lumber industry. Nevada County has not generally been a place of cultural diversity, with the exception of a number of Chinese men who arrived in the 1850's to work in the gold mines and then complete the railroads, and a large number of families from Cornwall, England, who also came during the gold rush to work in the mines.

Over the course of time, however, the identity of Nevada County has changed as families from different parts of the world have found their way here. That change has brought about this cookbook. Families from all over Mexico are now settling in the county, and they are enriching the area with their cuisine, their strong work ethic, and their cultural traditions. These days Spanish is heard on the streets and in many places of business, and more and more adults and children move easily between the two cultures and the two languages.

Colaborando en Español is composed of people from various agencies in Nevada County who work closely with Hispanic families. We visit families in their homes and often come to know entire families very well. We are invited many times to sit down at the dinner table and share a meal, and anyone who is familiar with Mexican culture knows how difficult it is to refuse such an offer. We have, as a result, been able to savor some delicious Mexican home cooking.

One day in 2003 we read a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about a bilingual cookbook that was created in Mendocino County, California, by the Mexican women of the Anderson Valley. It was called Secrets of Salsa / Secretos de Salsa. We were intrigued and ordered a copy. After reading and preparing salsa recipes from that simple, charming cookbook, we decided to ask our Mexican families and friends for some of their favorite recipes, and to publish them in a companion book to the Secrets of Salsa. Our book would be called CHILE PEPPERS Spicing It Up! The Salsitas of the Anderson Valley welcomed the idea and helped us in many ways to get started, and to keep going!

We decided on a theme of chile peppers, since chiles lend themselves to a variety of interesting and healthful dishes. We collected only authentic family recipes, asking for ones that were both simple and healthful. Women and men from cities and small villages from 12 different Mexican states came forth with their favorite chile recipes. We were delighted. We hope you will be too.

¡BUEN PROVECHO!