lunch

One of my most favorite lunches has got to be from Yatagan Kebab house. I have watched the price go from $3.50 to $5.50 in a slow and steady 20 year climb. It has always been the best of these types of sandwiches as far as I am concerned. I always bring out of town guests here. I tell everyone who wants to know.

tostada

After much discussion surrounding the 'taco factor' the conclusion was drawn and the elders agreed that if -you- call it chili then its chili and everyone applauded the swift decision.

I think thats how the 'ancestors' used to tell the story.


Really!


Tostada






So good you dont even know.

wild onions

My mushroom hunting buddy brought me some wild onions he found. Still too chilly for mushrooms but the greens are up and tasty. Morels are first on the list and I am hoping to find some doozies, followed closely by the winecaps and then its full blown mushroomgasms. In fact each month has some glorious offering and I cant wait.

6:29 pm update
These are Ramps, Wild Leeks not Wild Onions....I'm gonna need you people to be a little more alert....All day they sat there in their broad leaf obviousness. Its ok though because Bina is finding christmas tree sponges and is enjoying the heck out of them. How do you spell jelus?

grits au gratin

Cracked cooked hominy, four cheeses, or five cheeses or three or two or one -just use cheese. Bake till bubbly and golden and serve with breakfast. This is a more chunky grit.

secrets

I mentioned Bueno, brand chile and it is a good one available all over the southwest and some specialty stores as well as the internet. Bueno was a small company many years ago that has had good success as the years progressed. I offer this chile to anyone and everyone including myself because it is easy to get. There are some chiles though that I use exclusively and they come from a small town in Northern New Mexico. Most people who like this kind of chile are familiar with Hatch chile. Hatch is a place in southern New Mexico that has the ideal climate and soil for truly spectacular chile - fresh green chile, but this chile that is grown in the mountains is best when dried and red. Long story short - I just ordered 10 pounds of bright red, super tasty, reeking of sunshine dried red chile powder. I wont tell you where since it is my secret and they dont have a web page so it wont be easy to find even if I tell you its a trading post in Chimayo, New Mexico. Whoops I told the secret. I am running out of the 5 pounds I brought back at Christmas. You can buy a brand called Chimayo Chile but its not the same, the stuff I buy comes in a ziploc bag. When its not in the freezer waiting for me it is in the coffee can I got from my grandmother more than 20 years ago. This coffee can was filled with my grandmothers dried and powdered red chile that she gave me as a going a way gift when I came to New York, sweet right? At the bottom is an old baggie with some of that chile, I just keep it there to remind me of my roots.

food: 101

The guy made another sandwich today. This time:
Peanut butter,marshmallow, fresh strawberry.

with a twist

I didn't have any bulghur wheat so I used spinach couscous and it came out tasty and filled with those bright flavors of sunshine, my tabouleh is better than your tabouleh. For those that dont know and want to and et al: Tabouleh is a Middle Eastern salad, it is a lot of parsley a little mint, some onions and tomatoes, a little salt and pepper and as much lime juice as olive oil tossed together with bulghur wheat - I think. I added some green olives I pitted and some scallions along with the onion, and usual recipes call for lemon juice, plus I used fresh and dried mint to add a layer so you see its twisting already.

Tabouleh update:




This is it all mixed - I forgot to show that .... Very good with the couscous, I might add.

posole

After a while I have to start preaching and when I preach its all about chile. I am so damn fickle that when my buddy gives me some powdered from New Mexico I cant help but complain that its over roasted. I sent some super fresh stuff to a guy in michigan and I know it was good because I have several bags my self, although that oregano was darn strong - strong. Whats my point? Chile. I always revert back to chile.

The birthday went well and people stopped by that were unexpected and it all turned out real nice. We ate such a cacophany of flavors that it seemed like an excessive post.

this was the menu



Oh..posole...it can easily be made to fit any diet..in this case it is meat eaters but if you want to do a non meat version just boil the corn more. (there is no non meat way)

This posole is the easy one

ingredients:

all the pigs feet you care to eat in two days

same with pork neck bone

two pounds of tripe

salt

garlic

onion

pinch of oregano

10 chile pods


boil all together(only 2 chile pods) for two hours or until tender.


sauce

chile pods with seeds ninus stems
2 peeled garlic cloves
fill a blender with about 6 or 7 pods add water garlic and another pinch of that oregano,
blend until smooth and after its smooth blend another minute.

warm sauce over low heat serve over

hominy:

buy two cans of hominy
and warm up

ladle all together and you get this

Posole.

cake

All I need is an excuse to eat butter.

10 years old

This is our kitchen window.



This guy and queen elizabeth have a birthday today....

jokes

An elderly couple, still very loving after all these years, was shocked when the woman's doctor said she had a heart condition that could kill her at any time.

She had to avoid stress, eat right, and never have sex again, or the strain might kill her.

They reluctantly tried to live by those rules but, over time, both got really horny, so the husband decided to sleep on the downstairs couch to prevent temptation.

For a few weeks, this arrangement worked; until one night, about 1 a.m., when they met each other on the stairs -- she coming down, he heading up.

"Honey, I have to confess," she said, her voice quavering. "I was about to commit suicide."

"Glad to hear that, sweetie," he answered, "because I was just coming up to kill you!"

easy breezy

I guess lazy should be my middle name. My son has been away on a school farm trip this week and there was nothing resembling meal time around here.

Grilled asparagus, grilled salt and pepper shrimp and grilled spicy squid and some clams steamed in beer with lime, butter, garlic, jalapenos and onions. Dipped slices of a nice baguette into the broth and ate everything else with fingers.

poems

ditch fish



on top of Acoma Pueblo



on top of a massive lava flow




words to live by

forgiveness is the
scent left by the flower
on the foot that has crushed it.

trust is the scar
left by the knife
on the heart that
entrusted.

faith is the lasting
act of accepting
the unknown
over that
that is known.

and to be trespassed
against and to still
erect no fences
is the ultimate home.


CG 3[2002 -2008]

huh say deeya

No, its - kay suh deeya! I must eat something like this every 12 hours it seems. Its chile with eggs or tortillas with soup or a tamale on a regular basis. You can take me out of New Mexico but you cant take the New Mexico out of me.

memes

I dont ususally do these things but when akakarma asked I thought 'heck, why not' this one seemed do-able. 7 wierd/random things about me.

Its not going to be easy making this list so short, I remember a quote by Mark Twain in which he says "sorry I wrote you a long letter, I didn't have time to write a short one." Well I took my time.


1. My overall lifestyle

2 thru 7 see number 1.

I guess that was easier than I thought.

EDIT
ok I'll put one more: I am agoraphobic....I hate contained crowds like movies, concerts, etc...I get anxiety in the worse way. There! I opened up.

Seriously though you cant even begin to imagine and if I told you it wouldn't make any sense so this little glimpse you get of me through my blog is your window of opportunity to bask in whatever wierd you can draw from it.

congee breakfast

This place is like crack, once you go you always want to go back, I'm talking about Congee Village, I've told you about this place before. Took some friends there for breakfast just this morning and while we didnt take pictures of all we had I can easily list it for you. We had three different congees: seafood congee, pork duck and chicken congee and frog congee, all three were delicious and subtle with the mild congee flavor of ginger and cilantro contrasting with the various meats cooked to perfection. We also had some salt and pepper squid and both steamed and fried dumplings. You cannot find a better breakfast loaded with more flavor than this.



It was time to clean the chinese spinach.

guts and glory

Forever growing up as a boy I was presented food challenges. It started with the farm and it moved on to hunting and whatever. The 'whatever' became things like yoghurt or 'field' rice or whatever mixed with that cured 'thing'. Life was different 30 years ago when some of us was 18.


We had cool shit but not the shit you got now. Our shit could go 80 miles an hour just like that. We used to gather and eat an entire animal and the garden that fed it. Now. Well now its more gentle.






When do you see 2 Ferarri?s I see one all the time but then on broadway we are met with two. ( I let them get in front of me) Lucky, thats all I can say.