Wood and Green Chile Are In

A couple weeks ago I was at our local Mora Farmer's Market and the weather was unseasonably cool, in the 50's. Everyone was bundled up and there wasn't a pair of shorts in sight. Peggy, one of the farmers, said, "It's a reminder to get your wood in!"

We've been working on that.

Almost everybody uses wood heat around here. This is a common sight, although there's usually a dog of some sort riding on top of that load.

In town, the cool breezes carry the sharpspicysmoky scent of roasting chiles. The folks who tend these baskets with their fiery heat will roast the chiles you choose in nothing flat. You can find them on street corners, in front of grocery stores, and at the fancy mall in Albuquerque. The smell of roasting chiles is a reminder to get your chiles in. So okay, that's what I will do.

People line up for their favorite roasters selling their preferred chiles: Socorro, Hatch, Rocky Ford are all represented around here. I've been buying Socorro chiles from a crack team of roasters led by a man in a wheelchair.

When the chiles are done, they are shoveled into a heavy duty plastic bag (I suppose there is BPA there but I will pretend not). Inside, it looks like an inferno happened. At first I was kind of, "Ewww!' but they smell so good.

I split 40 pounds with a friend, so we each left the chile roaster with 20 pounds of chiles. At home I removed chiles from their black bag a handful at a time and packaged them in smaller plastic storage bags.

This year I listened to friends who said, "Don't peel or seed them, just put the chiles in the bags and do all that when they're defrosted." So I defer to experience, and it was a lot faster and easier this time around.

What will I make with all this green chile?

Here are a few links to my favorite green chile recipes:

Pie Town's Famous Green Chile Apple Pie

Grilled Cheese and Green Chile Sandwich

Green Chile Mac and Cheese


While I was at the post office today I noticed the aspens up higher in the mountains are turning yellow, another reminder that autumn is here. I didn't take this photo, but if you are near Taos, you are in for a big show.

Happy Autumn!

Apple Pie Two Ways

If you are like me, you've had Thanksgiving swimming in the back of your head for several weeks now, but haven't done much about it.

My mind churns over what sides to have with the turkey, what can I do differently, and what should stay the same because we just can't have Thanksgiving without (insert your favorite family dish here.)

Some of my friends have the whole event planned and foodstuffs have been prepared and frozen for the past couple weeks. I salute you and want to be you when I grow up! Is the dining table already set with a sheet over it to keep everything pristine? Well, here the dining table has three pairs of binoculars on it along with some books and a couple magazines.

But really, Thanksgiving is moving front and center today and I will take the 50 mile Taos drive to Cid's Food Store for an Embudo turkey and other freshies I don't have hanging out in the pantry or in the freezer.

What's an Embudo turkey? It's a turkey raised in Embudo, New Mexico, pasture raised in probably the best way a turkey grown for food can live. Here's a photo of Embudo turkeys in their pens, moved over to fresh organic pasture daily.

They are pricey, but it's just once a year or so, and the turkey is delish! And I can support a local small farmer at the same time.

Really, though, this post was about apple pie, so let's get to it.

The slice of apple pie at the top of the post was from a recipe I found here and it is unique because it isn't as gooey as most apple pie recipes. You cook the apples and then drain them well before piling the slices into the pie crust. I didn't use the pastry recipe, even though it looks good, because there were refrigerated crusts in the fridge and slothful laziness won out.

There is another apple pie recipe on our blog here, the famous Pietown New Mexico Apple Pie. There is a little kick to this pie because it has a secret ingredient: green chiles and also a little surprise crunch with the addition of pinon nuts. I love this pie and it will probably be served for dessert (among other goodies) after Thanksgiving dinner.

It's been a busy time, with making quilts and teaching quilting classes, but sometimes you just have to focus. (That's me giving myself a pep talk!)

Last Minute Cooking? Some Reader Favorites, Right Here For You

Merry Christmas Eve, friends! I wanted to share with you a photo from a friend of mine, Debbie Watral Kitchen, who really has an artistic eye. I was so surprised to learn that all her amazing pics were snapped with an iPhone. Some people have an i for photography, don't they? (Sorry for the goofy pun!)

Are you doing a little last minute Christmas cooking? I noticed some activity on the blog site today and it looks like you folks are looking for stuff to cook.

So here are a couple links to the recipes you are looking for:

This link is for the Cheesy Potatoes recipe. If you want to make this a festive Christmas casserole, saute red and green peppers and add to the mixture before you bake it.

Apple Pie for Christmas? Why the heck not? Here's the link to Pie Town's New Mexican Apple Pie recipe, renowned throughout the country and featured in Smithsonian magazine.





I'm supposed to take a side veggie to the family Christmas gathering tomorrow, so it's Calabacitas for dinner at Pattie's and Bill's home. What's that? It's a savory amalgam of zucchini, corn, onions, chiles and cheese. Bet you can't eat just one!

Merry Christmas!

Today I Wish I Had My Own Barista

I like to read Dianne Mott Davidson's Goldy mysteries not only because of the great recipes included in each book, but because Goldy is a caterer with a kitchen that includes an espresso machine. That seems to be the height of luxury. Need a pick me up? Just make a cappuccino!

But I will raise her one, because what I really want today is my own barista. He'd be a laid back surfer dude in flip flops and shorts, t-shirt optional. He wouldn't be a big conversationalist because I have work to do. His job would be to make me artistic coffee drinks like they have at Kean Coffee in Newport Beach, Martin Deidrich's little mini-coffee empire he created after Diedrich's and Gloria Jean's.

So why do I want my own barista? Well, today is a busy day since tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We will start our engines today, cooking and preparing ahead for a big feast tomorrow. I am missing a few ingredients which requires a drive to Mora. Gotta brine that turkey and where's that extra box of Kosher salt I thought I had? And how the hell did I forget onions?

So a cappuccino is in order for starters. Then an almond milk latte, and maybe some Mayan hot chocolate or an iced tea drink. I would share the surferdude barista with MBB since she is cooking, too.

Here's what's on the menu. I'm writing this to force myself to focus.

Celery and Carrots with Onion Dip
Green Salad (Starring a Survivor Lettuce from the Growing Dome)
Cider Brined and Glazed Turkey
Fig/Cranberry Compote
James Earl Coots' Famous Mashed Potatoes
Rice
Turkey Gravy
Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Sauteed Green Beans and Red Peppers with Pinenuts
New Mexican Apple Pie
Baked Pumpkin and Sour Cream Puddings

What's on your Thanksgiving menu?

Crab Cooker-Newport Beach, California

Okay, so I don't have a new recipe for you today, but if you're thinking about Thanksgiving and pie, you might want to look at Pie Town's New Mexican Apple Pie recipe for an interesting apple pie guaranteed to keep eaters wondering, "What is that flavor I'm tasting?"

But today is cloudy and we are going outside in a few minutes to string barbed wire. (Bob-wahr is how it's pronounced in parts of eastern New Mexico).  The fence around the dome is done, but a little barbed wire along the top will keep The Angus Boys from extending their heads over the fence to find any delicacies growing there in the future.

The cold and cloudy weather makes me think of the beach, and in particular, the warming goodness of Crab Cooker's clam chowder.

This is not too far from the original site where a 1950's girl remembers the large steaming cauldrons used for cooking crabs and lobsters outside the restaurant. As a kid I never ate there: We were too poor but I didn't know it. Instead, Mom would bring a picnic lunch and we'd eat on the beach with my dad who worked at South Coast Company, a ship builder. That building is still just behind the Crab Cooker, family historians.

Tom and I discovered Crab Cooker's clam chowder during our early married beach days. Sometimes we ate in, but because we were poor college students and then because we had little kids at the beach, we did what surfers have done for decades: I ordered hot soup and bread at the fish market counter and took it back to that same sandy beach where we used to eat lunch with my dad.

Tom likes to fill his clam chowder with the cracker balls the counter man throws into the bag.

I like mine unadulterated, daintily dipping hunks of Crab Cooker's French bread boule into the Manhattan style chowder.

I like the other seafood Crab Cooker offers as well. So did President Richard M. Nixon (R), who wanted to make a reservation to eat there. Crab Cooker doesn't do reservations, and there was usually a long line of patrons snaking out the door waiting for a table. It is said that when The President's advance staff was told the President would have to wait in line like everyone else, an incredulous staffer asked, "What kind of place do you run here?"  "This is a democracy," the staffer was informed. Hell, baby sister, even John Wayne had to wait in line.

So that's your beach lore for today, folks. Have a great weekend and Eat Lots of Soup!

PieTown's New Mexican Apple Pie

Photo courtesy of Molly Boyle

PieTown is right smack on the Continental Divide, located in West-Central New Mexico, in Catron County. Tom and I drove through this dusty, two restaurant town about ten years ago, starving, on a Saturday afternoon. Pretty much all we could see were the two places to eat and nothing else. It was just a wide place on the road. 

We stopped at a place called Daily Pie because there was an assortment of cars in the parking lot, most of them with local license plates. (That's how you find good restaurants while on the road.) Saturday was special in PieTown because the only meal served that day was dinner: Your choice of beef, chicken, or ham, with mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and of course, for dessert, pie. It was a basic, down-home meal, and everyone in the dining room was loving it: forest service workers, ranchers, sunburned bicyclists, elderly couples who probably make the drive each Saturday for diversion, and travelers like ourselves. 

The pie was excellent: I had the New Mexican apple pie and took a slice of banana cream to go. It was a decadent breakfast treat the next morning. Later, I found an article in Smithsonian magazine about PieTown's history and felt right there on the cutting edge of coolness.

This New Mexican Apple Pie is a family favorite and we've made it for the past couple Thanksgiving dinners. It's sweet and spicy at the same time. There's just a hint of green chile.....it's kind of mysterious and people wonder what they are tasting. If you are in a hurry, those Pillsbury Ready Crusts work just fine. P.S. The Daily Pie Cafe has changed its name to Pie Town Cafe The Good Pie Cafe if you decide to go looking for it.

 New Mexican Apple Pie (From Daily Pie Café, Pie Town, NM)

Ingredients

4 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 c. sugar
4 T. flour
2 t. cinnamon
¾ t. nutmeg
2 ounces of New Mexican (Hatch) green chili, hot or mild or more! to taste (canned or frozen chiles are okay)
2 ounces of pinon (pine) nuts (I toast mine in a skillet, but you  don't have to)
1 T lemon juice

Peel, core and put apple slices into large mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients mix well.
Set aside to blend flavors while the crust is being prepared.

Pastry crust (makes four crusts)
This recipe will use two crusts.
The other two can be frozen for future use, always handy and makes for a speedy pie.

3 cups of flour
¼ t. baking powder
1 t. salt
½ c. salted butter
½ c. shortening
1 egg
1 T. white vinegar
1/2 c. ice cold water

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter and shortening to pea sized pieces with pastry knife or fork and knife(do not use your hands yet). In separate bowl, mix egg, vinegar and water. Add wet mix to flour mixture small amounts at a time and blend with spoon or pastry cutter until dry ingredients are moist and form a ball (more or less water may have to be added depending on moisture content of flour).

Roll into a ball wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour. Divide dough into four sections. Roll out one section on a floured board to fit 9” pie pan. Put crust into pan. Place apple mix , mounded in the center. Top with one rolled section of crust. Flute edges, cut vent holes into top crust. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle natural sugar on top (optional). Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, turn, then 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an one hour. Pie is done when golden brown and juices bubble thickly around the outer edge. Serve with vanilla ice cream (highly suggested).