This Month Makes 9 Years

My blog is 9 years old! Where did the time go? I have learned a lot about blogging and even more about myself in this little process and I have shared as much of it as I could. Thank you to everyone who has been reading since the very beginning and thank you to all the new readers. I thought I would leave you with one of my favorite lunches - the simple bean burrito.

Too much to say and too few words to say it

Being busy has its advantages and it has its disadvantages as well. I can only think of the disadvantages, though, when I am set on complaining. For me one of the greatest catch 22's of the advantage/disadvantage conundrum is how it triggers creativity. On many occasions it lights a fire and then on an equal number of the same occasions it puts the fire out. So where am I now? I'll tell you. I have so many pictures and no words to go with them.


A couple of posts ago I had mentioned the wonderful people at Goose Valley and the delicious rice they had sent me, well I made some more and this did not disappoint. The grains had a definite strong tooth feel and the flavor was spectacular, this wild rice is the best.


The natural wild rice was served up with some European Soldier beans from MarxFoods, an egg and a little hot chile, if you are so inclined.


After braising some pork belly for a couple hours or so in five spice seasoning and rice vinegar and rice wine and brown sugar nothing seemed more perfect than having it on a nice warm tortilla.


The pork was so tender and so succulent and so rosy pink even after hours in the braising liquid in the oven - I am going to work on this a little and definitely make it again.



Catching up to this mornings breakfast enchiladas with eggs and mache.


Nothing makes me feel like I am back in New Mexico more than stacks of corn tortillas, cheese, beans, red chile and fried eggs - and for fun we threw a few little green leaves in there. So you see folks I am losing my whimsical edge, I need to swim in the ocean to get my mojo back. (the first photo is a little steam action we did over the weekend with some blue crabs, we also had some fish and oysters)...Tomorrow its the Share our Strength event called Taste of the Nation in Princeton, New Jersey, photos and info to follow.

choices

Whenever I am given a choice I choose seafood or food from my native New Mexico. Since it is now chile harvesting time in the Land of Enchantment and I have caring parents who have a food dehydrator I get the best dried green chiles you could ever imagine so I choose chile. You soak these in a little warm water just to soften and then chop em' up and you are good to go, they re-hydrate into the most plump and succulent chiles you could ever imagine. In a few weeks it is red chile season; after the green pods sit in the sun for a while they turn red, same chile - different flavor. There is so much you can do with chile, it is a fruit after all, but simple foods made with care are always the best.

A bowl of beans with a couple spoonfuls of chile is an excellent example, or the more popular 'texas chili' where you mix it all together and let it stew so that the flavors get a chance to know each other and eventually get married. I have posted chiles rellenos, which are roasted and stuffed fresh peppers with a chile sauce poured over. I have posted flat enchiladas, rolled enchiladas, I have posted burritos so whats left? Huevos Rancheros a New Mexico diner classic. ...And someone says it makes you sleep better... cool. (thanks anonymous)



Chopped green chile ready to go. This is good just like this in a quesadilla.



New Mexico green chile with meat.



snapshot of red chile dryng in the sun.



One plate of Huevos Rancheros. Pinto beans, green chile with pork and blue corn tortillas topped with a sunny side up egg.

Beans

Whenever I am hungry for something fast and easy I make food that comes naturally to me. I could make this in the dark and blind drunk and it would always come out the same, delicious. I am talking burritos. Nothing is easier than rolling up some beans and rice and cheese in a flour tortilla and drizzling some chile, either red or green, and grating cheese on top. It is good it is filling and it is spicy all the things I like. Its like the hot dog for little southwestern children, my mom would make brakfast burritos, lunch burrtios any kind of burrito and they were always perfect - especially since she made the tortillas too.

Seeds

Everytime I eat an avocado, and that is weekly and during peak season sometimes daily, I plant the seed. I have 8 avocado plants right now and many seeds germinating. I have given away 4 plants recently and many more in the past. Avocado plants are so cool. They sprout up real tall and have the biggest most "new looking" leaves you could ever see - plus they make me feel tropical.

These are in the bathroom since this room gets the most light all day long.

If you look closely you will see a new one sprouting up. It takes a few months for the seeds to germinate. I have not calculated or measured or tracked how long but someone once said the germination time is relative to seed size. This is a view out one window of a sunflower.

And these are two other windows - one with squash and cucumber. I like vine plants since they crawl up and shade the window with green in the summer plus you get squash blossoms for fritatas. The other box is beans. I buy the bag of beans in the supermarket that are for mixed bean soup because you get this nice variety. Beans are cool because some climb some dont but they all have different colored flowers and they all produce green beans.