Happy Belated St. Patrick’s Day.

I intended to post a fabulous Irish Coffee recipe yesterday. Andrew and I researched and practiced and photographed and tweaked ingredients. It was going to be a thing.

But then I got an early morning phone call.
(more…)

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.

(more…)

We’ve been digging our new grill.

Our first grill was a cheapo…purchased when we were new homeowners and funds were tight. Like most large appliance purchases go, we got what we paid for–in no time, it was falling apart and gross. The curb scavengers were happy to take it off our hands.

Choosing a new grill was tough. Gas or charcoal? The stainless steel gas ones are so pretty. But, we’re both grill snobs when it comes to flavor. There’s just something charcoal adds to the flavor of meat. With gas, you get the grilling experience but you might as well be cooking it indoors.

My parents have had their charcoal grill for over 10 years and it’s still working like a champ. We decided to copy them.
And, we love it. It was totally worth the splurge.

After about a month of grilling meat very simply, (herbed butter for steak, salt and pepper for chicken…) we decided it was time to start experimenting.

This chicken recipe is one of our favorites.

(more…)

My husband’s mom is a vegetarian. He ate meat as a kid, but definitely much less than I did.
He went to visit his grandparents once and didn’t even know the word for ‘bacon’.
‘Grandy, can you make some of those long things?’
He was 3…they haven’t let him live it down.

My house was a different story.
It was pretty common for the meat on my childhood plate to be something my dad killed. Fish, deer, quail…if you ask my brother, my dad even killed pigeons.
He was 3…we haven’t let him live it down.

I had nightmares about dead coyotes caught in traps.
A had nightmares about eggplant.

(more…)