Back from vacation means...

Well if you've read me earlier, you know I don't mind the laundry at all. One batch is on the line and the other is on its way. So only whites are left and there's no urgency for that since we are in that part of the curve where we each have lots of smalls...or in plain English...underwear.

My emails have been answered (mostly done on vacation which is a snap with Mac's MobileMe) and I'm caught up with my Swap=Bot swapping and rating. I've thought of some of the postcards and atcs I'm doing so now it's just get them from head to paper and then mailed out in September.

The bugaboo hanging over my head this week is The Camera. Since we didn't manage to take a cable between our two wise and experienced heads, there are WhoKnowsHowMany pictures on each camera. I fear to plug the cable in. But I have verified, much to my shame, that it is the leaving the camera plugged into the computer after I have uploaded pictures which drains the battery. I get so excited seeing them appear on the screen, I forget to pull the plug. This is one time that pulling the plug is a Good Thing - a la Martha.

Well...the answer is 280 pictures from my camera. There are more I took on dh's but I'll just deal with these today.

We are happily dealing with these - 2 suitcases full of peppers, all waiting to be roasted, bagged and frozen. We try to do this every two years.


In addition to 40lb of Big Jim peppers from Hatch, we bought a pound of Chimayos just north of Santa Fe at one of the pueblo markets. They are the thin ones on the right.



This is the first batch of roasted Big Jims. It is now my job to pack them for the freezer. FYI 4 of these babies is equivalent to one of those little cans of Ortega or whatever. However, these have flavor AND heat as we usually leave all the seeds in. Talk about good....!!!

Getting Back to Soup

Winter has always seemed like a good time for soup round here. It gets colder, and there's nothing nicer than a steaming pot either simmering on the cooktop or bubbling up in the oven. If the day starts with a good chill in the air, the LeCreuset comes out, the Trinity (carrots, onions, garlic & sometimes celery) gets browned or roasted, and the cookbooks come out.

Most recently, it was posole again. I had some nice small pork roasts from the Amish Market, and after boning and cubing one, I roasted the bones along with some riblets as a base for pork stock. Roasted bones went into the water with some veggies that had also been roasted...the usual carrots, onions and garlic...and away the bones simmered.

When the stock was chilled and slightly skimmed, I got the pork cubes browned in the trusty 5.5 qt LeCreuset. As I only had a half bag of New Mexico Big Jim chiles upstairs in the freezer, I made the decsion to add some ground red Chimayo pepper. 1 tsp. Well, foolishness got the better of me, and I added the 2nd tsp. Mistake. The red overpowered the green, and despite our love of 'heat' it was too much. Veggies and fire roasted tomatoes went into the pot, but the damage was done. Simmering away, the mixture warmed the house, but something needed to be done. After letting it chill overnight a plan emerged.

Since I had saved the water from boiling potatoes to make bread, I had a starchy bland liquid. I replaced 4 cups of 'hot' broth with 3 cups of potato water. This toned down the heat but the lovely taste of the green was lost. With corn, carrots, and hominy, the soup was ready.


4 men later, there was barely a full serving left. All's well that gets eaten up - but I have learned my lesson, I think!