SCENIC DRIVE

KEY INGREDIENTS

You can't photograph a list of ingredients for herb crusted pork chops. Well, you could, but it wouldn't look as appetizing as a four-color image of the entrée itself. In food photography, you need food. And it needs to look spectacular if you're trying to persuade a reader to follow a recipe. That's one of the reasons Food & Wine has a test kitchen. We don't have one of those at Arizona Highways. All we have is a 1960s lunchroom with an old Hamilton Beach microwave and an even older GE refrigerator, which makes food photography impossible. I thought about that as this piece was coming together. I knew we'd get some great recipes, but I also knew shooting them on location in four or five ranch kitchens around the state would be an ordeal, like trying to poach an egg in a Dixie cup. We needed someone to create them locally, so I reached out to Matt Pool. He and his wife, Erenia Lara, are the dynamic duo behind Matt's Big Breakfast. They're also at the forefront of the "shop local" movement, which is so important to our community. They were my first choice for making these recipes, and I didn't have a backup plan. Fortunately, they said yes. But first, they insisted on doing a test run to ensure that everything would be perfect for our photographer and film crew. (It was.) "Our focus was to make every recipe exactly to specification," Matt says, "so that we represented each ranch as best we could." The pork chops took the most work. "The dish wasn't super complicated," Erenia says, "but it had several ingredients and sub-recipes - the dressing, the Brussels sprouts and the apple bourbon sauce." A lot was happening on the day of the photo shoot, and helping out was Matt and Erenia's son, Christopher, who was home for a few days before moving to New York. "It was so great to have him here," Matt says. "Literally, he grew up around our restaurants. He worked as a server and a line cook in high school and became a skilled cook in his personal life, which made him especially popular with his roommates in college. One of my wife's favorite things to do is to cook with Christopher. So, this project was perfect for that." It worked out well for us, too. Perfect, I'd say. Thank you, Matt, Erenia and Christopher. In the same way you can't make cranberry sauce without cranberries, we couldn't have done this piece without you. We're much obliged. - Robert Stieve AH

scenic DRIVE A-CROSS ROAD Dutchwoman Butte and Bull Mountain are two of the landmarks you'll see on this back road, but the centerpiece is a big lake with up to 128 miles of shoreline. BY NOAH AUSTIN

Or a reservoir that once was among the world's largest, Theodore Roosevelt Lake doesn't get a ton of attention - possibly because it's been surpassed by, among other humanmade bodies of water, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. But while Arizona shares those reservoirs with Nevada and Utah, respectively, Roosevelt remains the largest body of water located entirely in Arizona. A-Cross Road, which runs along the north side of the lake, offers a little-seen perspective of it, along with plenty of Sonoran Desert scenery. Start this drive along State Route 288, which connects the Globe-Miami area to Pleasant Valley and the Mogollon Rim. At the point where SR 288 transitions from pavement to gravel, head west on A-Cross Road (Forest Road 60), a wide Tonto National Forest path that has several rough stretches but is navigable in any SUV. To the north is the Sierra Ancha, a rugged mountain range known for its isolation and numerous archaeological sites. Early on, the road traverses a landscape of healthy saguaro cactuses, along with smaller paloverde trees, creosote bushes and prickly pear cactuses. Within a mile, you'll get a look at the reservoir ABOVE: Theodore Roosevelt Lake forms a backdrop for healthy saguaro cactuses along A-Cross Road. Eric Heaton OPPOSITE PAGE: A saguaro-studded butte near the road overlooks a field of Sonoran Desert flora. Byron Neslen