recommendation of Yazzie’s. “It’s really cool to showcase how Native communities are thriving, how we’re growing and how we’re becoming staples for our communities,” Yazzie says. Yazzie posts many of her recipes to her blog and hopes the site is a resource for people. For example, home cooks can access recipes ranging from mini blue corn doughnuts to yellow corn salsa on the blog. “I want them to be free for the commu- nity,” she says. Yazzie also uses her online platforms to connect with her growing following. Questions from her following about when a cookbook was coming started flooding her DMs and comments. Creating a cook- book felt like taking the next step, she says. “Having a cookbook is important to me because there aren’t many Native American cookbooks, especially ones that focus on modern cuisine, written by a Native American author or a Native American woman author,” she says. “A lot of stories are retold by non-Natives.” But between managing her blog and navigating day-to-day life, she acknowledges it was difficult to take the time and figure out how to shape the book. “I really had to think about what route I wanted to go,” Yazzie notes. “Everything aligned perfectly,” she says, when in 2023 The Quarto Group, a global publishing house, reached out to her about creating a cookbook. “If they weren’t there to give me that push, I’m not sure the cookbook would be here,” she says. Cooking up a book from scratch Yazzie put the skills she learned while blogging to use in her cookbook, like photography. “I fell in love with the bright and airy photography of the early lifestyle bloggers and I began learning and researching how to take photos like that,” she says. She notes that was before high-quality iPhone cameras were commonplace. “My mother-in-law saw my interest in taking photos and she bought me my first DSLR camera,” she says. “I remember it The Modern Navajo Kitchen from p 17 The cookbook features a recipe for Navajo Tacos.(Photo by Lauren Topor/Good Karma Photo) Yazzie shares her love of food on her blog, social media and in her new cookbook. (Photo by Lauren Topor/Good Karma Photo) was a Canon Rebel and I felt so over- whelmed with it and I didn’t know where to begin.” Through Instagram, Yazzie connected with Jennifer Hubbell of Chandler-based Jennifer Hubbell Photography. The two became friends and Yazzie says their styles “just clicked.” Like Yazzie, Hubbell is also Navajo. “She taught me a lot about what I know about photography. She helped me to learn how to use a DSLR and really mentored me during the earlier days,” she says. A number of Hubbell’s landscape photo- graphs appear in Yazzie’s cookbook. Yazzie authored and photographed each recipe featured in her cookbook, which is an impressive accomplishment for anyone — especially, a new mother. “My daughter was one, going on two,” she says. “I got so much done during her nap times.” On a typical day, Yazzie says she spent her mornings shopping for ingredients that she’d put to use in her test recipes around lunchtime. After the recipes were perfected, she made time to photograph her dishes before the sun went down. At night, she edited the photos and wrote down her recipes. “I was making at least six to eight items in one day,” she says. “We had so many left- overs, but I tried to plan out the meals so we could eat throughout the week.” Yazzie says she continued the extensive routine for about four weeks. “I can’t believe I did that,” she says. Skills and stories passed down through generations Like her own mom, Yazzie will be able to pass on her recipes to her daughter. She also hopes to share the Navajo language. Inside her cookbook, Yazzie includes her recipe names in English and Navajo. Although she says that she is not fluent in the language, she has studied Navajo for many years, including taking a beginner language class at Mesa Community College to strengthen her skills. “Navajo can be a difficult language to learn if you don’t speak it regularly,” she says. “I wish it was something my parents taught me at a younger age. Whenever I go home I ask them to teach me more of the language.” When asked what she hopes people will take away from her cookbook, Yazzie emphasizes that Navajo cuisine is much more than the “stereotypical” foods people see at big markets and powwows. “I hope that they learn that Native or Navajo cuisine is very diverse,” she says. “It’s not just Indian tacos.” Yazzie’s favorite dish in the book is the Braised Red Chile Mutton Stew. She describes it as a contemporary take on tradi- tional stew that’s infused with flavorful red chiles and Navajo white cornmeal. Yazzie recommends serving it with a side of fresh blue corn tortillas or savory blue corn mush. Additionally, Yazzie notes Navajo cuisine is both local and “in tune” with the seasons — which is apparent when you page through the book. Yazzie includes tips about how to roast green chiles in the fall and shares which seasons her recipes are suited for, like the Sumac Berry Spritzer, which she says is “the perfect summer drink.” After lots of recipe testing, editing and research, the cookbook launched on Oct. 8. “I’m really excited to share my perspective of Navajo cooking and my modern and traditional takes on Navajo cuisine,” she says. >> p 20 Blue corn is an ingredient that’s featured in many of Yazzie’s recipes, including these Blue Corn Flour Tortillas. (Courtesy of Quarto)
