Pueblo, CO, Chile and Frijoles Festival -- PHOTO TOUR (Victor: home, to buy)

[McGowdog]

I was amazed how many people were here on a Sunday. I heard Saturday was packed too.

I got my 1/2 bushel; enough to get us through winter. Hope you enjoy the pics.







































No lipstick on this poor guy

[COflower]

McGowdog I soooo wish I could have gone. I am kinda peesed off that I couldn't make again this year but my car just can't make it. I wanted to buy some serious green chiles and HECK I keep getting a thumbs up for my Chile Verde recipe:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/recip...ml#post1245276

Anyhow, I am envious of your photos as I so wanted to go this year. Yum, I wanted a bushel of fresh chiles along with tasting some of the local beans.

[McGowdog]

Thanks for checkin' out the pics COflower. And thanks for the recipe! Even though I have one in my head, I like to pick and choose from other recipes to tweak my own. I'm seeking the PERFECT green chile!

Can I tell you a secret about the chiles? You don't buy them during the festival like I did yesterday. You can go down to these farms on the mesa next weekend and get them there for cheaper.

I went to the Musso farms stand where they have blue ribbon Pueblo Chiles (Hot), Big Jims (Medium hot Anaheims), Anaheims (milder), etc., and got the Big Jims- 1/2 bussel for about 16.00 roasted. A full bushel would have cost 20.00 and 25.00 roasted. I still have some Pueblos from last year frozen and those babies are too hot for most people. I can eat them, but they'll burn your tongue off. Those are the red and green mixed. They said those sold out quick this year. Then they have an extra hot chile as well.

I made a batch of green last night and it was the best I've ever done. I slow cook a pork shoulder in the oven, then pull it out and pour the grease into a frying pan on the stove, cut the pork up, roll it in flour and brown it again with the freshly chopped garlic, then throw that into my pan of chiles, diced tomatoes, etc. Even my wife will admit that my green is better, due to the extra work I put into cooking the meat. She'll whip up a batch of green in twenty minutes and it's ALMOST as good as mine. But I need something to keep me in the kitchen for 3 hours while the Broncos are ripping my nerves out.

Oh, and last week, I made my first ever batch of salsa and it's the best on the planet.

Quick and easy Salsa

1 26 oz can of jalapeno peppers. (I buy canned with carrots and onions)
3 14 oz can's of stewed tomatoes.
2 medium sized onions
~ cilantro to taste (remember a little bit goes a long way)
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of Worsteshire sauce
3 TBLS of ketchup
1/2 tsp seasoning salt

Chop everything finely. Do not drain tomatoes. Mix in a bow and pour into jars. Can eat it fresh or you could can it.

It will taste like "More" put some on a chip and you want more. Also, it will be mild the next day. But let it set in the fridge for 3 or 4 days and it tends to warm up some.

PS: it was almost too hot for me, too hot for most. You might add 16 oz of hatch diced green chiles or something. It costs 80 cents for a 4 oz can of this stuff at the store! Maybe get the frozen stuff.

Enjoy.



And for us bachelors (you may be married now, but if you were ever a bachelor), we've got a simple meal to get you through the Bronco games. It's great if you're sick of pizza. It's called Cheese Crisp. Lots of cheese, lots of crisp. I was evidently born in Phoenix Arizona, so this is indigenous food to me. My uncle picked this simple recipe up from his repeated trips back and forth from the California's Mojave desert and Apple Valley-Victorville area to Arizona when he'd come and visit us.

You , well, let me just drop in a simple cheese crisp recipe. I've been making this wonderful cuisine since I was about four;

Cheese Crisp

When it comes to simple, this is it

2 flour tortillas, cheddar cheese grated, salsa,
butter, maybe a bit of salt.
Salsa used to come in a can back in the early 70s. Ortega was a brand that came to mind. Now, Pace would work. If you have a homemade salsa, all the better, but this dish isn’t too fancy. Something you might make between commercials! =)

Butter the tortilla and put that on a frying pan heated to medium heat, or you could just sprinkle some salt on the pan if you're watching your calories, but the cheese is gonna get you anyway.

Then sprinkle on some cheese, enough to cover the tortilla and cover with the other tortilla. When it's sufficiently crisp, flip it over. At some point in the cooking of the other side, lift the tortilla and pour in the salsa and remove when done, cut like a pizza and serve, and be ready to make another batch.

[DOUBLE H]

THE BIG YUMS!!!! Looked like a great time over there McG! Great pics too! Always appreciate that old architecture Pueblo has retained. It's sad so many cities knock down buildings just to keep up with the Joneses'. I don't get it.

[COflower]

McGowdog

Try my green chile recipe, of course you can change it and that it a poor example of a photo but it was all I had to offer. But, the landlord/friend requests me to make it every time he's is in town.

I promise you it is TRUE to New Mexican green chile. I promise. I adjust my onions and my garlic but always, lots and lot of green chiles. Much more than the recipe calls for. I don't put in potatoes and if you want, that's fine with me but I don't like it with taters even if I am a tater girl, it's a recipe I adapted from a New Mexico cookbook actually. Use your imagination to make it your own.

[McGowdog]

COflower, that looks very good! That's an awesome pic. The colors in that and texture looks perfect. I would eat that up.

I don't have a written recipe, well I have yours now, but our methods are pretty much identical. The only difference is the cut of pork and how we cook it. I probably overdo it with the slow cooking of the shoulder and all, but this last batch I made was just what I wanted. It was tender and the Chile had the texture I was looking for too.

My chile came out more green and although I did have some tomato in the recipe, I had it diced up so fine that it was hard to see. Last year my Pueblos had red and green chiles in the batch, but they were just too hot. I'm not needing to put any pepper or jalapeños in my chile because those Pueblos or Big Jims are hot enough as they are. Some are mild, and some you can just smell the heat when you're cleaning them.

So you said prior that the chile is good for you. Could you elaborate on that. This is good to know.

[Pilot1]

Great pics. That looks SOOOOO good! Thanks!

[COflower]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

COflower, that looks very good! That's an awesome pic. The colors in that and texture looks perfect. I would eat that up.

I don't have a written recipe, well I have yours now, but our methods are pretty much identical. The only difference is the cut of pork and how we cook it. I probably overdo it with the slow cooking of the shoulder and all, but this last batch I made was just what I wanted. It was tender and the Chile had the texture I was looking for too.

My chile came out more green and although I did have some tomato in the recipe, I had it diced up so fine that it was hard to see. Last year my Pueblos had red and green chiles in the batch, but they were just too hot. I'm not needing to put any pepper or jalapeños in my chile because those Pueblos or Big Jims are hot enough as they are. Some are mild, and some you can just smell the heat when you're cleaning them.

So you said prior that the chile is good for you. Could you elaborate on that. This is good to know.

So you said prior that the chile is good for you. Could you elaborate on that. This is good to know.

Green chile, the way I make it (which is not how my La casita makes it as they tomatillos to it's really green), but anyhow, outside of the pork (which most anyone can get the pork from King Soopers for cheap if they go with the stew meat, BTW, it still turns out good) so many veggies with the meat and you can add in some beans if you want, in the stew. I do that to extend it. I get many more servings from it when I do that.

Just drain a can of beans and if meat isn't in your budget, use two cans of beans instead of the meat. I know a lot of people, myself included, need to cut back. If you use beans or make it vegetarian (with veggie broth instead) add some more of the spices. Specifically chile powder. The beans will soak up some of the yumminess so make it taste right or you will have bland chile.

I have made it both with meat and without and you have to adjust the seasonings, hugely as the pork goes a long way to flavor but you can make it as long as you have the amount of chiles.

Oh man, all this talk of green chile has me hungry!

[COflower]

BTW, anyone that wants to learn about chiles, Bueno has some good facts here:

Bueno Foods - Chile IQ Test

Just look on the left.

BTW, not sure if they have it up there but a chile has more Vitamin C than an orange, pound for pound. They are good for you, by golly. Which is probably why I am rarely sick in the winter. I eat a lot of green chile. I do.

[Bideshi]

That sure looks good! I'll be glad to get back home to some good Mexican food; I could easily spend the rest of my life without seeing another plate of wurst and kraut.