Something different - an El Paso Christmas

When I was a child growing up in El Paso, Texas, I longed for snow during the holiday season.  The strains of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” bombarded me from the radio (I was born before TV!).   The cards my family sent and received each year featured frosty scenes of sleigh rides and carolers.  In my mind, snow and Christmas were synonymous.  But year after year, December 25 in El Paso dawned clear and bright, and yes, sometimes downright warm, and I felt deprived and cheated.  I wanted a real Christmas.

Only very occasionally did El Pasoans awaken to the sight of a serene, still, snow-covered landscape during the holidays. On those rare occasions, we children bundled up and rushed out the door. Outside, we searched for clean snow to combine with vanilla and milk to make snow ice cream. Then snowmen were hastily built only, alas like Frosty, to melt away all too quickly in the Sun City.

As I matured, my appreciation of the El Paso Christmas Experience grew.  First, there was the Star on the Mountain which, until recent times, shone only during the Christmas season.  Its first appearance during the season was a symbol that the festivities could begin.  Nowadays, it shines all year long, but, perhaps a bit more brightly during cold, crisp December nights.

An El Paso Christmas came to have a special flavor for me as I began to appreciate different ways of celebrating the winter holidays.  I learned to play a guitar lullaby song  to the Baby Jesus in Spanish, “A la nanita nana,” which became as familiar to me through the years as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.’’   Many years later in London, England that I actually tasted a roasted chestnut on a street corner, and it wasn’t that tasty!    

I also became fascinated with the ritual of the posada, a reenactment of the search of Joseph and Mary for lodging in Bethlehem.  Typically, area Catholic churches organize posadas in which groups of people carrying candles walk to several pre-selected houses in a neighborhood where they request admittance, using traditional songs.  They are told gruffly by the inhabitants of the house that there is no room at the inn. Finally, at the last household, the travelers are invited in.  Hot drinks, traditional holiday sweets, prayers, and perhaps a piñata for the children complete the night’s activities, which are repeated each night from December 16th through December 24.

My collection of nacimientos (nativity scenes) grew from an inexpensive one purchased at a five and dime store to elaborate figures given to me by friends and family.   The last time I counted, there must have been well over twenty nacimientos covering every conceivable spot in my house during the Christmas season.

So, as each Christmas season rolls around, would I give up the Star on the Mountain, posadas, nativity scenes and tamales hot from the stove for a sleigh ride through the snowy woods on a crisp, cold night in Connecticut?  No, I guess I wouldn’t.  I’ll probably  just watch a rerun of “Holiday Inn” and unwrap another tamal.

Happy Holiday to all.  See you again during New Year's Week.

A different Christmas holiday

After a wonderfully traditional family Thanksgiving holiday, my husband Wayne and I were ready to do something a bit different for the Christmas holidays, for which we would be Home Alone.  Rather than decorate a Christmas tree for our cat Bitsy to climb on or watch reruns of old Christmas movies, we decided to participate in area community events.

La Fonda Hotel on the Plaza

Our first move was to splurge and make reservations at La Fonda Hotel on the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What an atmosphere that hotel has, not to mention gourmet food in a unique dining room and beds to die for.  (You can guess my priorities in life!)  We hope to spend Christmas Eve joining strollers on Canyon Road. I'll report after Christmas if our dreams matched reality.

Meanwhile, we have searched the El Paso Times every morning for holiday events.  Last Sunday, we attended a free concert by the El Paso Brass at St. Clement's Episcopal Church.  Not only was the music beautiful, but hearing the Brass again brought back good memories of when they used to perform in the lobby of the El Paso Train Depot. 

El Paso Brass concert, St. Clement's Episcopal Church

Another interesting event was announced for Friday, December 12th, Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe (Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe), patroness saint of Mexico.  The matachines dancers from St. Pius X church were scheduled to perform in front of the mural of the Virgen across from the Ysleta mission.  Rain was predicted for late afternoon, but we bundled up and joined in the celebration.  (After all, rain in El Paso is a welcome event.)  It was a wonderful, feel good event in the part of town in which I grew up.

Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe, Ysleta

These events are putting me in a Christmas spirit.  After all, I don't want to end up like Scrooge, described by Charles Dickens as liking "To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance..."  How could it be possible for me to have re-read  A Christmas Carol probably thirty times in my life?  

Best wishes to all for a happy holiday season.

El Paso Holiday Entertainment

Our 28 year old son announced that he was coming home for Thanksgiving this year.  Great news! Elation was quickly followed by a feeling of anxiety.  How were we going to entertain him in El Paso, Texas? Our son lives and works in exciting Los Angeles, California.  Think Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Dodgers, Hollywood, beaches, fantastic restaurants- the list goes on. Frantically, I searched online sources and found some local events that I hoped would give us a family holiday experience.

Our first stop on a sunny Sunday morning was the Christmas Market at Ardovino's Desert Crossing, located just over the state line in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

http://www.ardovinos.com/

A large, indoor market with handcrafted arts and crafts, plants, music, and warm holiday drinks greeted us. We wandered around and each emerged with a small purchase or two. The wait for brunch in the restaurant was worth it.  An elegant setting, gourmet food, and a prickly pear mimosa for our son.  Plus great people watching-one of my favorite hobbies.

Husband and wife team Nadya and Craig Russell

Our next stop was the Scottish Rite Temple   The setting was formal and solemn for musicians Nadya and Craig Russell to play familiar Christmas carols.  The sound quality of the Liberace Concert Grand Piano was inspiring.  It renewed my long-held desire for a baby grand piano.  Alas, my cat Bitsy and her sharp claws keep me from giving in to that wish.

A short walk took us to the El Paso Public Library, where a CD release by El Paso author, song-writer, and musician, Gene Keller, was being held.  What an inspirational, humorous, creative gentleman!

Gene Keller

Almost out of entertainment ideas, I suggested a drink in the glass-domed lobby of the historic Camino Real Hotel.  How sad.  We were the only bar patrons, which felt a little depressing.  (But to be fair,  it was Sunday afternoon!)    The Camino Real is one of my most beloved El Paso icons.  I would love to see it as lively and as full of tourists and locals as the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Our last two stops were in the Lower Valley, closer to home.  Our son had requested a visit to Pro's Ranch Market on Zaragosa.  Now here life was happening!  Cold horchata (rice drink), ripe mangoes, and vanilla were our purchases.  A quick stop by Valentine's Bakery on North Zaragosa for pan dulce  (sweetbread), and we were ready to head home.

The evening ended eating homemade tamales made by our friend, Joy Leos, and her family.  And would you believe?   Good entertainment with a very old-fashioned jigsaw puzzle.

We are still working to complete that jigsaw puzzle!

Okay, it wasn't Los Angeles, but I hope we made some El Paso memories. We have Canadian visitors coming to El Paso in March.  How in the world am I going to keep them entertained?  I had better start researching that right now.

Thanksgiving with a touch of the Southwest

Turkey and dressing again this year for Thanksgiving, I ask?  Yes, and sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce and both pumpkin and pecan pies, my family replies.  Not much room for innovation here.

But I'm going to sneak in a Southwest appetizer - Pico de Gallo.  The literal translation is "Rooster's Beak." Maybe the name comes from the 'pecking' you get from the jalapeño peppers in this fresh salsa.

Pico de Gallo is one of the few dishes I can prepare without slavishly following a recipe. So, it's hard to share the recipe, but I'm going to give it a try.

Here are the ingredients.

fresh jalapeño peppers

roasted and peeled green chile peppers

fresh tomatoes

red onion

garlic

fresh cilantro

salt and pepper

fresh lime juice

You may notice that there are several fresh items on the list.   The first step is a trip to the grocery store. Fresh cilantro only lasts a couple of days in the refrigerator.  (I've even tried cutting the stems a bit and putting the bunch of cilantro in a glass of water in the fridge.)  But if you have to make the trip for cilantro, you might as well buy other items as fresh as possible also.

Then there is the decision about amounts. It's all about personal choice.  Do you like your salsa fiery?  We do at my house. I put on plastic gloves, deseed and devein the jalapeños, and chop them and the green chiles very fine.  If chopping the chiles is making my eyes water, I add fewer.  Another idea is to add some of the chiles to the mixture, taste the sauce, and add more if you want to. It works better that way than to try to fish out those green specks as your guests are breaking out in perspiration from the chile heat.

Finely chopped tomatoes, finely chopped red onion, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped cilantro go in next. Once again, personal taste for amounts reigns here.  The finishing touches are salt, pepper and fresh lime juice.

The dish is ready to eat immediately or chill in the fridge until guests arrive.  Pico de Gallo is very tasty, very healthy, and very easy to make.  My dilemma comes with the dipper.  Traditional tostadas are probably the best dipper, but they don't make anyone's list of healthy foods.  What I do sometimes, if I am feeling particularly righteous about my eating habits, is steam small corn tortillas in the microwave or on a comal (griddle). The calories are still there, but at least I can control the salt and oil.

Another idea is to sauté the mixture above (minus the cilantro), add a little white cheese, and make chile con queso.  This dip won't give you the food guilts like the chile con queso make with (horrors)  processed cheese spread.

Now, if I could just locate a healthy dipper.  Somehow pico de gallo on a celery stick just doesn't get it.   Any ideas?

 

Brrr. It's time to prepare the Official State Dish of Texas

It's not this cold in El Paso today,  thankfully.

Yes, the cold front blew in last night, just like the weathercasters predicted. Gone were my hopes for a southwestern Indian summer lasting forever.  With highs predicted today only in the 50's (that translates to "really cold" to a southwesterner), I found myself craving a warm bowl of chile con carne.  (It has been the official Texas state dish since 1977.)

Let's get the nitpicking over with first.  "Chile" or "chili"?  My vote is for the first, but sometimes the automatic spell checker doesn't approve of that choice.  There are also other important decisions to be made before making chile con carne.  Beans or no beans?  And just how much chile should be used in chile con carne?

Which brings up another point.  When I use the word "chile" in culinary discussions with friends who are not from the southwest, I generally mean the green or red vegetable.  We eat "chile" in some form almost every day at our house.  But when people without a chile habit say “chile”, they generally mean “chile con carne.”  So when I go into raptures about stuffed “chiles,” I get some strange looks.  I’ll use the shortened name for the dish here. Now that those important points are settled, let’s explore how to make a great bowl of chile. 

Let me confess that my former attempts to produce a bowl of chile that tastes like the restaurant variety have not succeeded.  I think I have discovered the reason.  A recipe in Texas Home Cooking by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison, listed as “Sam Perdergrast’s Old-Time Texas Restaurant Chili” (pp. 125-126), sheds some light on the topic.  They explain that the unflattering term “greasy spoon” to describe an eatery of dubious quality originated from the chile con carne that was served which had “enough grease to lubricate a Model T.”  What an image!

My goal as a home cook is to prepare healthy dishes that are also tasty.  I chose three Texas cookbooks from the kitchen shelf to research chile recipes. And there are many of them!  They appear to have these ingredients in common:

Ground meat

Onions and garlic

Spices like cumin (comino), oregano, salt and pepper

Something tomatoey – tomato sauce or canned tomatoes

Some kind of hot chile – from dried chile pods reconstituted in hot water and blended to chile powder to Tabasco sauce

Cornmeal or masa flour to thicken

Other suggested additions were cooked beans, red or green bell peppers, and even a bar of milk chocolate candy. I have the impression from reading a variety of recipes that there is much room for innovation and individualization of chile con carne recipes.   

So that’s what I’m going to do - experiment with making a healthy but delectable bowl of chile.  I’ll check the kitchen for supplies (it’s way too cold and windy to venture out to the grocery store) and see what I come up with.  If my chile con carne is a success, I’ll feature it in my next blog post.  If not, well, you can guess the result.

Holiday Recipes - Southwestern Style

San Marcos brand chiles are ready to go.

Do you have a cherished family holiday recipe?   Remembering my grandmother’s pound cake, my aunt’s thumbprint cookies, and my mother’s pumpkin chiffon pie gives me warm feelings. 

I decided to start my legacy early by recording favorite holiday dishes.  I’m only going to include dishes with a Southwestern flair, which of course means chiles must be featured.  This is a modified version of a recipe I found on bonappetit.com several years ago.  It’s really easy!  Here’s what you do.

 Chipotle Cranberry Sauce (makes about two cups)

Buy a 12-ounce package of fresh cranberries. They can be purchased early and frozen in the bag. 

Combine cranberries, three-fourths cup Splenda sugar blend (or one and a third cups sugar), two chipotle chiles in adobo finely chopped, and three tablespoons lime juice in a medium saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.  Continue cooking about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Cranberries will begin to pop.

Add one small chopped garlic clove, one-fourth heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon, one-fourth heaping teaspoon ground comino (cumin) and cook about five minutes longer on simmer.  Sauce will begin to thicken.  Keep chilled.  And a great feature is that the sauce can be made up to one week ahead of time.

This recipe has helped me wean my traditionalist husband off of canned jellied cranberry sauce. Not an easy task!

Stuffed Jalapeños

Buy an eight ounce can of jalapeños, wash and cut in half lengthwise, and place in ice water.  (Did you know that washing and soaking jalapeños reduces their ability to set your mouth on fire?)

Cream an eight-ounce package cream cheese, a small jar of processed cheese spread, one tablespoon grated onion, and one tablespoon half and half.  Add a dash each of Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Drain jalapeños and fill cavities with cheese mixture.  Can top with pimentos for holiday garnish.  Refrigerate.

My recipe for this dish is so ancient that it is written on a half sheet of a Big Chief writing table in my large handwriting from schoolgirl days and is dotted with brown splashes. Stuffed jalapeños will liven up a traditional holiday meal for sure!

If you try these recipes, let me know how they work for you.  And send me recipes for your favorite Southwestern holiday dishes.  I"ll be sure to include them on the next post.  Happy cooking!

Do we dare host another tamalada?

Can Thanksgiving holidays be only a few weeks away?  I am becoming concerned about how to entertain out of town guests.  A typical groaning board of Thanksgiving treats and marathon hours of TV football games will keep everyone engaged on Thursday.  But how about Friday?  “Do we dare try another tamalada (tamale making)?”  I wondered.  

Bittersweet memories of our last tamalada several years ago come to mind. We had decided to streamline the traditional process.  My chuck wagon cook husband Wayne always has a cooked brisket or two in the freezer, so we substituted the typical pork for beef.   I usually spend an afternoon making sauce by hand from the dried red chile pods, but this time I used a package of freeze dried chile and reconstituted it.

We had seven people in an assembly line in the kitchen, with my husband as head chef, barking out orders about how thick to spread masa (dough) on the husks, and our son Clayton as sous chef, demonstrating the best husk rolling and folding technique.  I was relegated to selecting wide, sturdy husks and draining them in the sink (truly an art form!).  Guests were allowed to do whatever job they felt comfortable doing.  Soon the little tamale packages were stacked in the pot and placed on the stove.

Now, how long before we could eat tamales?   The chile con queso that I had prepared to tide the guests over had long since disappeared, and the jar of jamaica (hibiscus flower water) was almost gone.  My various recipes and notes gave a range for cooking tamales from 30 minutes to 90 minutes.  Checking the tamales meant reaching into a steam-filled pot and unwrapping a tamal (the singular form of the word in Spanish) to see if the husk would pull away from the masa, not a job for the faint-hearted.  Finally, “ten more minutes” announced my husband to the expectant guests.  About two dozen tamales were consumed in a matter of minutes, most of them pulled directly from the pot and consumed standing by the stove.

After our guests departed, tamale husks littered the kitchen, red chile sauce spotted the kitchen counters and stained the blender, and leftover tamales cooled in every conceivable spot.  We stuffed the tamales into freezer bags, labeled them, and put them in the freezer for future feasts.  “Do you think everyone had a good time?”  Wayne asked me as we wearily climbed the stairs to bed.  

Now the big decision is whether we want to host a tamalada this year.  I'll keep you posted!  Do you have tamale making experiences to share?

                                                                                                                                                                                           

Autumn- A Bittersweet Season

I think autumn is a bittersweet season. It's the comfort of harvest abundance tinged with more serious thoughts of the season to follow.   In the US Southwest, an occasional cool breeze in late September brings relief from the scorching temperatures of summer.  But the leisurely pace of summer is beginning to fade away.  It’s time to get on with life – school, work, house projects, holiday plans.

Farmers' Market, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Southwesterners often have “see the colors change” on their bucket list, and my husband and I were no exception.  In the desert southwest, I have to search for signs of autumn- one lone tree turning yellow or red or a few pumpkins piled up for sale at supermarkets.On a recent trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, I experienced what a full blown autumn season can look and feel like.




But in Cape Breton, there was no doubt that the fall season had arrived.  There were miles upon miles of dazzling colors, light orange, golden yellow, deep red (my favorite), all on a contrasting background of brilliant green.  We drove the Cabot Trail and lost ourselves in those wonderful palettes.

Can you spot the fly fisherman?

Warm days and cooler nights greeted us in the Canadian Maritime province.  Everyone, almost without fail, commented on the (unusual) temperate weather and abundant sunshine.  “Nice weather we’re having, eh?”  seemed innocuous enough, but I caught a faint reminder that soon winter would be closing in.

On our travels around Cape Breton, I saw giant woodpiles stacked by neat cottages.  The marquee at an automotive shop reminded car owners to be sure to winterize their vehicles  (a task I could put off in El Paso, Texas, but not in Nova Scotia).

 

Wayne and I shared a porch dining area at the Dancing Goat Bakery and Café in Margaree NS with a foursome who were trying to convince each other that they really did enjoy the winter season.  I think it was just tough talk to dispel the specter of autumn abundance giving way to a chilly, snow-covered landscape.

Another group at a fish and chips restaurant in Truro, NS, was discussing the upcoming winter season.  “Are you going away for the winter?”  one elderly gentleman asked another.  Interesting, I mused.  In the desert Southwest, we dream about escaping the dog days of summer or the gale force winds of spring, but we would never leave our cold but sunshiny days of the winter season.

I loved the experience of a picture book autumn in Nova Scotia and returned home to El Paso wanting to pile up mounds of orange and white pumpkins on the front porch (I have three lone pumpkins to date), stock wood for the fireplaces, and prepare harvest dishes.

One idea I got at the Rusty Anchor Restaurant in Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia was so simple that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it myself.  Being a fan of meatless dishes, I ordered a grilled sandwich made with cheese and sliced apples.  Apples are crisp and abundant everywhere in fall.  And their nutritious addition to the sandwich gives me a momentary relief from the guilt of enjoying a calorie-laden grilled cheese sandwich.

I also picked up a recipe for a cranberry pie.  If I make it successfully, I’ll include it in the next blog. 

Do you have a favorite fall recipe to share?

Foodville Food Trucks

An El Paso food truck experience.  That’s what I had been searching for this fall.  I ‘’liked’’ a location called Foodville on Facebook, hoping to learn more about local food truck offerings.

My first food truck experience was when our son invited me to one in Austin, Texas that served exclusively crêpes.   The experience of eating a gourmet item sitting al fresco at a wooden picnic table under leafy trees was quite cool.   I felt liberated and part of the “Keep Austin weird” movement.  An enormous cupcake for dessert at another food truck location topped the meal off royally.

My only other food truck experience was in Taos, New Mexico, another town where even stodgy people feel they can kick up their heels a bit.  My husband Wayne and I pulled into a food truck location on a large parking lot and lined up to order homemade tamales. It was more economical to order a half dozen than the three tamales we wanted, so we gave away our extra three to some other patrons. We found a seat at a big communal table and woofed down these delicacies ( I shudder to think about the canned tamales I was served as a child).

Would El Paso food trucks offer the same old stand-bys, tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and hamburgers (not that there is anything wrong with these foods), or would the food truck chefs come up with something inventive to tempt diners?  My first hint that El Paso was going to jump on the gourmet food wagon was when I read in the newspaper that a food truck was offering a fusion of Jewish and Mexican food.  Unfortunately, I missed that experience.  But my curiosity was piqued.

Last week, plans came together, and my husband and I headed to downtown El Paso to do errands and find Foodville. Three trucks were parked around the perimeter of a city lot with picnic tables made from wooden pallets placed in the middle.  Fortunately, each table was supplied with an umbrella to shield diners from the noonday sun.  Two of the trucks offered main dishes. 

“The Reef” announced mainly seafood.

The other, Takorexico, appeared to be a fusion of Asian and Mexican food. A pyramid and a pagoda were painted on the side of the truck.

 The third truck , “Sweet Addiction,” was the cupcake seller.

Wayne was drawn to the first truck for fish and chips.  I saw vegetarian offerings at the second and went to examine the menu more closely.  Bean tostadas with oriental vegetables on top sounded good. We met back at a table to eat our meals, both of which we pronounced as delicious. You may be wondering about the cupcake truck.  Yes, true confession time, we split a red velvet cupcake.

It was a pleasant experience.  Food does seem to have added flavor eaten outside.  The downtown area was sunny and busy at the noon hour, and people watching at Foodville was great.  Office workers with tags around their necks arrived in small mixed groups.  A lone soldier in camouflage dress was enjoying a cupcake.  Two millennials, one male and one female, were discussing what appeared to be business at another table.  Cell phones were in evidence everywhere.

I had discovered another reason to live in the Southwest.  I can sit outside in beautiful weather and enjoy a gourmet snack prepared by someone else.  That’s a lot more fun than sitting at my computer eating half of a peanut butter sandwich, which is what I am doing right now!  Have you had food truck experiences?

PLEASE NOTE:  The Southwest Kaleidoscope is going on vacation for three weeks.  It will return on Halloween.  See you then!

  

Overwhelmed by Autumn Pears

Pears in our back garden

The pears are everywhere.  We had been keeping watch all summer for the moment when the pear tree in the back garden would provide us with luscious, ripe ready-to-eat pears. 

When the birds started pecking at the fruit, we knew it wouldn't be long until the crop would be harvest ready. Mama birds must not teach baby birds to clean their plates, because birds never eat the whole fruit (which I wouldn't begrudge them), but they take random bites out of many pieces of fruit.  It is always a race- who will get to the fruit first, the birds or the humans?

Wayne tries to convince me to pick the fruit when it is not quite ripe.  He prefers crunchy pears; I don't.  So I leave them on the tree until they are soft and wonderfully sweet.  Unfortunately, this is also the point at which the pear tree decides to start dropping its fruit.

I wandered out to the back garden recently and found the ground littered with pears, none of which were edible because they were already rotting or had telltale signs of bird bites.  I rushed into the house for a bowl to pick and save as many pears as possible, the purpose for which I hadn't a clue.

As I stood on tiptoe to search the tree for edible pears, a large pear came loose and bonked me right on top of the head.  Should have worn a helmet for this dangerous work, I suppose.  In a few minutes, my bowl was full of more pears than we could ever eat in one season.

Surely old reliable Joy of Cooking would have pear recipes.  They have recipes for everything under the sun. I didn't want a labor intensive recipe, just something to get those pears off of the kitchen counter.  There were recipes for pear turnovers, but I would have to make dough; several recipes had verbs like freezing, canning, and pickling, which was not what I had in mind for an afternoon's activity; and one was for Pear Pandowdy, which suggested that I should read about Slumps and Grunts on p. 693 before I made it (Does that sound good to you?).

Stuffed pears in baking dish

In desperation, I checked out a recipe called "Stuffed Pears," which looked doable.  And the result was an elegant looking dessert.  Here is the original Joy of Cooking recipe with my adjustments. 

Take four pears, peeled, cored and halved, mix together 1/2 cup honey and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, place the pear halves in a baking dish, and coat them with the honey mixture.  I had red chile honey bought in New Mexico this summer, so I used that to give the dish a southwestern taste.  

Next step is to mix together 1/4 cup golden raisins, 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, 2 tablespoons Splenda, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.  I filled the cavities of the pear halves with the mixture and dusted them with more Splenda and cinnamon.  I covered the dish with foil and baked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, then uncovered it and cooked about 15 minutes longer.  The pears were supposed to be basted once or twice with the cooking juice, but who wants to open a hot oven when the outside temperature is still in the 80s?

Stuffed pears can be served at any temperature or refrigerated and reheated.  I thought the dish had an autumn taste.  Next time, I may find an excuse to top the pears with Ben and Jerry's vanilla ice cream.  

Have you tried Anasazi Beans?

I find ‘autumn’ to be a more appealing word than ‘fall.’ Maybe it’s because ‘fall’ has other meanings, and autumn can only mean one thing – the season between summer and winter. 

That being said, when I visited my son in New Zealand several years ago,  I had to revise my mental associations with autumn.  In the Southern Hemisphere autumn ushers in the warm season.  There it will soon be time for picnics and sports on the beach.  I remember a Christmas Day on a beach near Auckland NZ, slathering on sunscreen because of the strength of the sun’s rays.

But in much of the Northern Hemisphere, the word autumn brings to mind colorful falling leaves, frost on pumpkins, and plans for Thanksgiving celebrations, the traditional images.  In the Desert Southwest, we put our own special interpretation on autumn.

It is now mid-September, and trees and grass are greener than ever and will remain so until mid or late November. Flowering plants and bushes show their appreciation of the new season by putting on new growth and actually blooming. The 100 degree days, and even 90 degree days, belong to summer.  The mercury still hits 80-something in the daytime, but occasionally I catch just the hint of a cool breeze, the first sign that autumn has arrived.  Mornings and evenings are perfect for outdoor walks or dining.

I would name autumn as my favorite season and also the most melancholy of seasons.  Where did the promise of summer go?  Why am I now applauding summer's demise and welcoming the cooler weather with open arms?  Will autumn slip away like summer and send me searching in back of the closet for a warm sweater?  Surely not, I console myself.

Autumn recipes reflect the harvest bounty.  I can bear to heat up the oven again to cook apple crisp, green chile quiche, and pear coffee cake .  I’m happy to simmer lintel soup or friijoles de olla (pinto beans in a pot) all day on the stove top.  Here is one of my recent cooking successes (we won't mention the failures). Let me know how you like it!

Anasazi Beans

I am embarrassed to admit that I paid double for my first bag of Anasazi beans.  The cute little bag made of burlap in a grocery store in Ruidoso, New Mexico was designed to attract the uninformed tourist. I took the the bait.  Several weeks later, I found a package of Anasazi beans in the produce section of a local grocery store for a much more reasonable price.

Here's how I cooked the Anasazi beans.

Take 2 cups of dry beans, rinse them, cover with water, bring to boil on stove, and let boil for about 15 minutes.  Careful!  I recently let the water boil away and ended up with burned beans.  And if you have never smelled burned beans....

Then I set the beans aside for an hour.  When it's time to cook the beans, I add more water, about a fourth of a roughly chopped onion, and a large chopped garlic clove.  I bring the beans to a boil again, then turn them down to simmer and cook for several hours.

At some point in the cooking process, I walk by the stove and add a heaping teaspoon of New Mexico red chile powder and a dash of ground black pepper.  The salt I leave until the end.  It is as usual - salt to taste.

You may be able to tell from the casual directions in this recipe that beans are one of the few dishes I can cook without a detailed recipe.  I hope that you will add your own touches to this easy recipe.

  

Tomatillo Sauce - Finally!

Have you ever passed by those small green tomato-looking vegetables in the produce department and wondered what they were? I have, many times. And my husband, Wayne, has asked me the same question innumerable times, "Do you know what these little green things are used for?" No, I didn't, but now I do. They are tomatillos.

Tomatillos resemble small green tomatoes but are covered with a husk. The husk is easily removed. They are a member of the nightshade family and are often used in Mexican cuisine to make green sauces. 

Craving a new taste in salsas recently, I pulled an old cookbook off the shelf,The Great Salsa 

Book by Mark Miller (1994) (ISBN 0-89815-517-7). Why had I never used this book before? 

The pictures of 100 salsas, each in a small decorative dish, were seductive.

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This is how I made Tomatillo Salsa Verde with Avocado. Starting with 15 tomatillos, I removed the husks and rinsed the tomatillos under running water, then chopped them into medium size pieces. Into the blender they went. Then I chopped three chiles serranos, leaving seeds in, and added them to the blender. (I am a wimp, so I put on disposable gloves to handle the chiles.)

Next step was to add a bunch of fresh cilantro and two tablespoons of fresh lime juice. I don’t cheat here. I buy small limes and squeeze them with my Mexican lime squeezer. A teaspoon of sugar and one of salt completed the ingredients. I hit the purée button.

When I poured the salsa out of the blender, the taste was great, unusual really, but the texture! Oh my. My salsa was watery, nothing like the picture in the cookbook. Then I noticed that there was a similar recipe in the book that called for an avocado to be added. I poured off some of the liquid, chopped an avocado, dumped everything back in the blender, and puréed again. Ah, much better. This salsa not only tasted great but looked appealing also.

We ate it on everything – chips, corn tortillas, tacos. I even caught Wayne dipping a spoon into it. I think the salsa would even be good on rice or a baked potato. And it is healthy (well, except for the chips we dipped it with, I suppose). The taste was tart and a pleasant change from our usual green chile and jalapeño salsas. And for less adventurous taste buds, the amount of chile could be reduced, but I liked the slight picante aftertaste.

Now I am remembering that I tried to grow tomatillos in the garden many years ago without knowing what I was going to do with the crop. But there was no crop. All I found growing were empty husks. Later I learned that several tomatillo plants are needed for pollination.

Only 98 more salsas from the Mark Miller book to go. Do you have a favorite salsa? If so, I would love to add it to the list.. 

The gorditas may have changed me into a gordita.

This year was the 50th anniversary of the Labor Day celebration at St. Anthony's Seminary in El Paso, Texas. Having lived in El Paso all of my life, I decided it was time to finally find out what has made their celebration such a local tradition.

And I found out.  It was those famous gorditas. A gordita is a specialty snack, often served at church bazaars and other outdoor celebrations.  A gordita (which also means "little fat female" in Spanish- hope you caught the joke in the title) is made by forming a corn meal cake about the size of a hamburger patty, frying it, cutting it partially open, and stuffing it with cooked and seasoned ground meat, lettuce and tomatoes. 

Always concerned with my expanding waistline, I can usually discipline myself to pass up the gordita booth. But, this was a holiday, and after all, once in fifty years.....  

Wayne and I took our paper carton of gorditas, found a seat with other diners at a bench and table provided on a large, grassy rectangle, and enjoyed our lunch.  I was trying to be a dainty eater, but Wayne said, "Just let the grease drip on the grass."  So I did.

A variety of music was playing over loudspeakers, from old-fashioned rock and roll to Mexican favorites.This was a family affair.  I'll bet some families had been attending for several generations. One small boy near us was a two-fisted eater - an ice cream cone in one hand and a hot dog in the other.  He alternated bites without skipping a beat.

Our hunger satisfied, we were able to focus on the other offerings of the fair, which is an annual event to raise money for the seminary. Wayne bought a raffle ticket for a new Chevy, I checked out plants for sale, and we peeked in at the rummage sale, but it was quite crowded.

In another area, game booths for children were set up.  I saw my favorite from a long ago childhood - the fishing pond.  I could never win anything at those throwing games, but I think I remember that no child went away unhappy from the fishing pond.  Is that what you remember also?  Someone asked Wayne if he knew where the cake walk was being held.  That brought back memories of those luscious iced cakes waiting for a lucky winner.  Do you suppose  the cakes are still homemade these days?

Walking on the grounds of religious institutions is always a pleasure for me.  They often have beautiful landscaping and nooks with benches for quiet contemplation. I can escape from the modern world for a short time. 

I'm looking forward to next year's excuse to eat gorditas.  St. Anthony's Labor Day Festival is a super way to end the summer.

The Green Chile Harvest- Can You Smell Those Chiles Roasting?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbum/2834468157/tion

Oh, if I could only include aromas in this blog with the ease that images and sound can be posted. In the technology of the future, I would post a picture taken outdoors by a large chile roaster and let you share in an aroma that is unique to the Southwest. 

My husband and I have had many adventures with the fall chile harvest each year, from picking our own chiles and roasting them on a grill in the backyard, to buying chiles that were so over roasted that no green chile was left (just blackened skins), to sharing the excitement of chile harvest with friends.

This is what happend one chile season.

It’s usually around mid-August when my husband Wayne starts asking me how many packages of green chiles we have left in the freezer.  “It’s almost chile season,” he observes ominously.  “We’d better be sure to get a good supply this year.”

One of the joys of living in El Paso, Texas is celebrating the chile harvest of our neighboring state of New Mexico.  During the waning days of summer, chile pods ripen to a bright green until they are ready to be picked and sold at roadside stands.  Many El Pasoans pride themselves on buying large quantities of green chiles to store in the freezer.  A quick defrosting and peeling of the chiles produces the basis for unforgettable dishes and sauces.  Fresh salsa, chiles rellenos, green chile cornbread, chiles fríos, chile con queso, and even green chile cranberry sauce come to mind.

For several years, our family ritual was to drive the 60 miles to Las Cruces, New Mexico on a warm autumn day and buy a 50 pound bag of green chiles at a roadside stand.  For a few extra dollars, the vendor would roast the chiles on the spot using a round metal cage mounted on a propane burner. 

propane chile roaster

With the chiles stowed in cardboard boxes in the trunk of the car, we would drive to the nearest convenience store to buy a package of flour tortillas.  The next step in the ritual would be to stop under a shady cottonwood tree on the side of the road.  We would pull over quickly, anticipating our first taste of the season’s green chiles. The procedure never varied.  Standing by the trunk of the car, we peeled the blackened skin off of a chile, wrapped the chile in a tortilla, rolling it up expertly by tucking in the ends as we rolled, and took a large bite, oohing and aahing over the flavor.

One year we invited our friends David and his wife Linda, who were raised on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, to join our chile harvest celebration.  “Do you just eat the chiles straight on the tortilla?  Aren’t they too hot?” they questioned cautiously.  “Naah.  You’ll love them,” Wayne replied confidently. 

The first part of the trip went as planned.  Drive to New Mexico, find a chile vendor, buy a large bag of chiles, have them roasted, buy  tortillas, and drive to a shady spot.  The aroma of chiles tantalized us on the short drive down a leafy back road.  We hopped out of the car and ran around to the trunk.  Wayne was the host, directing the ceremony and postponing his first bit of chile until everyone else had theirs.

David, Linda and I were happily munching on our tortilla and chile when we saw Wayne’s face change color as he took a big bite.  He started hopping around and gasping for breath.  “That’s the hottest chile I ever put in my mouth,” he managed to croak.  Wayne mopped his head and forehead, wet with perspiration, searching for something to put out the fire in his mouth.  We had water and cokes in a cooler, but as veteran chile lovers know, those liquids only spread the hot sensation throughout the lips and mouth.  “I’m dying,” Wayne moaned. 

We didn’t have any milk or butter, but bread is supposed to dampen the hotness, so we urged Wayne to eat several tortillas.  As with many bad experiences in life, the only real solution was letting time do its healing.  By the time we arrived home in El Paso an hour later, Wayne was back to normal, if a little shaken that his beloved green chiles had betrayed him.

What a great feeling to have a freezer shelf full of chiles.  I can make fresh salsa by chopping green chiles and adding chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, and salt and pepper.  If I want a hot dish, I combine the above ingredients (minus the cilantro) and cook them at a low heat on the stove in a large cast iron skillet.  The cooked chiles can be spread over grilled chicken or beef.  But, not being a carnivore, my favorite dish is to add a little white cheese to the cooked chile mixture along with a dash of evaporated milk to give the dish a soupy texture.  This chile con queso is great with tostadas or warmed tortillas. 

Another dish I like to make when I have a little extra time is chiles fríos.  I stuff the chiles with guacamole and chill them in the refrigerator.  I imagine that they could also be stuffed with other ingredients as well.  At Thanksgiving, I add some chopped green chiles to homemade cranberry sauce.  The hotness of the chiles and sweetness of the sauce make a great taste experience. 

I love chiles rellenos, but since we aren’t using the frying technique much in our house these days, I haven’t made them in a while.  Before we decided that we had better get healthy, I would make a modified chile relleno by stuffing a chile with cheese, wrapping it in a won ton wrapper, and frying it in oil.  Green chiles and cheese added to a corn bread recipe make a complete meal in one.  And, although I don’t cook them myself, I used to love buying green chile bagels in Las Cruces on my way home from teaching classes there.  Somehow I always start out with half a dozen bagels and make it to El Paso about an hour later with only four left in the bag.

They say that the sense of smell is one of the most evocative of human experiences.  The aroma of roasting green chiles in autumn, even more than the actual taste, takes my mind to warm, sunshiny days, crisp mornings and nights, and outdoor festivals with food booths and music.  I also feel a little sad that we are enjoying the bountiful harvest now, but in a few short months our world will turn cold again as the cycle of life continues.

Bountiful harvest of green chiles