It’s official — we are Hatch Chile fanatics.


It was pretty official before, but ever since fresh, roasted Hatch chiles appeared at our neighborhood HEB this season, we’ve been hooked. Every single dish we cook features Hatch chiles in some form. We’ve added them to our eggs, side dishes, main dishes and desserts. I’ve made pastes, sauces, salsas and gravies. I’ve used them to marinate meat, wrapped them in meat and cooked them alongside meat.
I told you…we’re addicted.


One of our greatest resources this Hatch chile season has been a fantastic cookbook I found at Half Price. I didn’t really discover this tome…I just recognized it as an amazing find. A’s parents (who lived in Santa Fe for a time) own this cookbook. A has referred to it as the ‘Bible of Green Chile Cooking’. I have to agree…it’s pretty damn great.


In addition to providing pretty amazing dishes, Huntley Dent (you can’t go wrong with a name like that) gives you a bit of background about pretty much every Santa Fe dish you can imagine.


For example, here’s a snippet from the recipe this concoction was based on:
Cooking fresh vegetables with milk and green chilies is one of the most traditional ways among the old village cooks.

It’s been fun engrossing ourselves in Santa Fe culture as we work our way through this cookbook.

Green Chile Corn

Adapted from ‘The Feast of Santa Fe’ page 313
2 1/2 cups canned, frozen or fresh corn
1 T butter (substitute 1 T olive oil to lighten)
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
4 chopped, roasted green chiles
1 jalapeno, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream (substitute 1/4 cup milk to lighten)
salt and pepper
Preparation:
Heat the butter and oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onions, jalapeno and chiles. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the cream and allow to boil up for about 1 minute. Add the corn. Cover the pan and simmer for about 2 minutes. Don’t overcook.

It’s Hatch Green Chile time!

We love this time of year. Central Market (and sometimes even HEB) sets huge roasters out in front of their stores and roast the chiles on-site. It’s amazing to pull into the parking lot and get knocked over by the smell of spicy Hatch chiles.

The best part is seeing all of the creations they come up with…
They somehow combine green chiles with pretty much everything you can think of. Green chile hamburgers, green chile stuffed pork loin, green chile marinated chicken. There’s green chile bread and green chile scones. Green chile cheese and green chile pesto (also known as ‘crack’ in our house). Every year, they seem to come up with something new and inventive.

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There are pros and cons to gardening.

I can go on and on about the pros. They do, in fact, outweigh the cons.

But…
One of the cons? Everything harvests at the same freaking time. It’s so much fun when you pluck your first cantaloupe (insert vegetable/fruit here). You bring the little goodness in to show the hubby…
‘Look. I grew this. I planted the seed. I watched the little seedling push its way out of the soil. I painstakingly weeded around the growing plant. I watered it every day. Look.’
It’s exciting.

And the next day, when you venture to the garden. What’s this? It’s not just one more cantaloupe ready for harvest. No…back there behind the garden box, a stray cantaloupe vine has been growing. You have two cantaloupes that are ready to be consumed. Sweet!
You devoured yesterday’s little trophy, so this is perfect.

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When I was little, one of the staples in our house was taco salad. We lived in Nevada, so we had no concept of real Mexican food. I think Mom’s concoction consisted of iceberg lettuce, Nacho Cheese Doritos and ground beef cooked in Lawry’s Seasoning. Oh…and lots of cheese. She mixed it all in the same big yellow tupperware bowl my dad used for popcorn. Sometimes we’d add the chips ourselves, but usually she did it for us. The soggy chips were kind of part of the recipe. It was crazy fantastic.

Don’t be fooled…my Mom is a fantastic cook. It’s just that it was the 80’s and meals like this were kind of the thing. Remember curried chicken salad, tuna casserole and chow mein? Adding potato chips and little crunchy rice things with absolutely no nutritional value was just what you did. Or, was that the ’60’s? Geez…when did food get so good!? (more…)

Before the evil vine borers decimated our squash crops, we harvested A LOT of butternut squash.

I really love butternuts, but most of my recipes are much more Fall oriented.

There’s a reason people grill in the Summer and it’s not just about the food. For each meal I plan, I try to minimize my use of the oven or stove. Cooking on a gas stove in 100 degree heat in an 80 year old house makes the kitchen feel like the Sahara.

Despite that, I’ve made soup…twice. I’ve even tackled risotto which definitely does not meet my Summer-oven routine.

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