Hello 2020, and goodbye 2019!!! Wow 2019 was an amazing year filled with so many new adventures and opportunities for The Fancy Navajo. It was by far one of the busiest years!!! We did a lot of traveling, eating, gardening, cooking, and my favorite part…. getting to meet YOU!! I am getting a late start to the New Year because I wanted to take time to relax and reflect on the past year, because WOW it was A LOT.
Today I’ll be sharing some of my highlights of the year and checking in to see if I accomplished my 2019 goals. If you want to read last years goals, head here.
First of all, THANK YOU so much for all your support. I am so thankful for each and every one of you for taking the time out of your busy lives to be part of my world. It really means a lot to me and I appreciate it! I say this every year but that’s only because it’s true, the Fancy Navajo Community is the BEST!!! Ya’ll are always so kind and supportive and I truly love you!!
When I first started The Fancy Navajo it came from a yearning of creativity and loneliness. I didn’t have many friends and I was adjusting to adult life. If you want to read that story head here. But now I have a community of friends from all over the world who share the same passions and interests as me. This past year we grew to 11.5K Instagram friends and 6.1K Facebook friends. That’s a total of over 17.6K Fancy Navajo friends!!! OMG WHAT???
To be honest this number freaks me out. Never would I have imagined a network of so many people. It’s never been about the numbers for me, but rather the connections and impact I was making. With the added growth meant the responsibility to make sure what I was sharing was not only staying true to who I am, but also beneficial to those around me. It really plays a huge impact on what I want to do with The Fancy Navajo. Meeting some of you this past year really solidified that for me and can’t wait to see what 2020 holds!
Okay now onto the fun part…
Did I meet my 2019 goals? Yes and No….
One of my biggest goals this year was to focus on food and home cooking. This was probably one of the simpler goals to achieve as food is just a part of life. Ha! But I stayed consistent in sharing my love for all thing’s food and cooking. I became a bagel making connoisseur and shared my love for bagel making and even shared the recipe with all of you here.
My garden continued to be a big part of what I share on Instagram Stories. Every Monday, I share an update on garden on my Instagram stories. My garden is my happy place and I love being able to grow my own food. This year included adding more Native plants to my garden from Hopi Amaranth, Navajo Watermelon, and even Navajo Tea. Tomatoes and green chile are growing in abundance and they made frequent appearances.
I shared some of my favorite childhood recipes which included Fancy Navajo Mutton Stew and two Fancy Navajo twists, Fancy Navajo Picadilly and Fancy Navajo Piñon Latte’s. They weren’t the most popular recipes but usually when it comes to Fancy Navajo twist recipes, they take about a year or two to catch on. Ha! So, if you want to get a head start on the future, then go check out these recipes.
Fancy Navajo Piñon Lattes 
Fancy Navajo Picadilly 
We had our stew with Peublo bread.
The next goal I had was to host more events, and I did!! I hosted 3 Fancy Navajo Coffee Meetups this past year and they were a blast!! Not only was there a local meetup here in Phoenix, AZ, but we also had two in Albuquerque, NM and Window Rock, AZ!!! It was so amazing to meet you in person and give you real hugs in person. I loved how new friendships were made at these events and how we could just enjoy being Fancy Navajo’s together. I hope to do more of these events this year.
Phoenix, AZ 
Albuquerque, NM 
Window Rock, AZ 
Window Rock, AZ
The third goal was to have more collaborations with businesses and creatives. Boy did we collaborate this past year!! One of my dream come true collaborations was with New Mexico Piñon Coffee. If you don’t know, that is my most favorite coffee in the world!!!! This past year we not only collaborated on recipe, Fancy Navajo Homemade Biscochito Lattes here, but they also hosted our meetup in Albuquerque, NM here.
We also partnered with Gila River Hotels and Casinos where I got to sit down and have a private tasting with comedian, George Lopez for his new restaurant Chingon Kitchen at the Vee Quiva Hotel and Casino. Like what???? I still can’t believe that! If you missed out on that post head here.
Another favorite collaboration was with Bashas’ grocery store. They hosted my Fancy Navajo Coffee Meetup during the Navajo Nation Fair. Not only was it the BEST meetup ever I loved working with Bashas’ and their team. They truly went above and beyond and made this a special event and wowed all my guests. Ahhh can I relive this meetup again??? You can read all about it here.
The Heard Museum also played a big role in The Fancy Navajo, by allowing us to demonstrate our Fancy Navajo Recipes. This past year I did two cooking demonstrations with the museum and it was AWESOME!!! I was so nervous but loved talking about the recipes I was most passionate about. Never did I imagine I would share my recipes in person. It was like I had my own cooking show.
Okay no onto the goals I was less than stellar at….
I was not consistent in blogging this past year. However, I did share more Instagram stories with all of you. I think this is just a shift in social media in general because most of you enjoy the videos more than these posts. And no, I did not start a YouTube channel even though I was considering it as a goal for 2019. That option is still open, and I did dabble in recording a couple of videos for Instagram TV.
A lot of this had to do with the amount of traveling I did this past year. Do you remember my Fancy Navajo Rez Tour? As someone who likes to post in real time, blog post ideas started to build up and soon became irrelevant. So, I had to reshift and dedicate more time to video stories than taking the time to sit down and write out a post. Going into this new year, I have a better idea of how I want to utilized my blog.
Wow this is turning into a really long post and could have gone longer had I went the recap a decade route. But I won’t do that to you.
So I’ll get into my goals for 2020.
- Share more recipes: This is the number one question I get asked and seriously have been slacking. I have a list of recipes that I need produce but haven’t really dedicated the time sit down and write them out. With that comes another goal of creating a cookbook. Other than here on TheFancyNavajo.com I would love a physical location for my favorite recipes.
- Produce more videos: Next to, what is the recipe? I often get asked when I am going to start a cooking channel. Not sure if I am ready for that. But hey if you are reading this Food Network, I’m ready! 😉 I would love to dedicate more time to this medium. Don’t worry though, this blog won’t go away. Perhaps this is where you will get the first sneak peeks!
- Incorporate more Native and Plant based foods: As some of you may have noticed, I have taken a greater interest in learning about indigenous foods. Not only how to grow, but how to use them in my cooking.
- Lastly, continue to collaborate with businesses and creatives: So with all the goals above, if you are a business or creative who would love to partner I am always open to discuss!!! Just send me an email TheFancyNavajo@gmail.com
If you don’t already give me a follow on my social media channels:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefancynavajo/
