Pueblo Chile and Frijoles Festival

Peppers, Peppers and more peppers. Today we went down to Pueblo for the annual Chile and Frijoles Festival. I have never seen so many peppers in my life. If only I could bottle that smell. Pueblo, Colorado is nationally recognized not only for its green chile, but their chile coined appropriately "The Pueblo" It is a hot version of the Anaheim and man is it good. You can also get every other kind of Chile there including the elusive Ghost Chili of which I picked up 3. I am a Texas girl through and through, and I love my heat! In Peppers...not outside which it was a very warm 90 degrees down there today...way too hot for this mountain girl :-) I have identity problems sometimes....

My day started out with the breakfast of Champions....there is nothing like Coke and Peanuts. From what I understand it is very much a Southern thing....but it is sure a good one. Coke and Peanuts takes me right back home to a summer day at  Milligans Corner Store in Gainesville,  Texas with Sarah, Jeff, and Amy.....love it.

Another quick stop in Canon City, just cause I loved this train track shot

Pictures from the festival

The boys carrying 2 of my 3 bushels of Chiles 

 My haul after getting home..... 3 bushels of Chiles..Pueblo, Big Jim's, and Anaheim, 1 bushel of green bells, 1 bushel of red bells, 3 ghost chiles, and 10 Pablanos.....not a bad day.

And then the slicing of bells began. Cutter bailed on me quick....but 2 hours later.........

I have 42 quart bags of mixed sliced bell peppers for the freezer. We will use every one of them in about 6-8 months. I saved 8 out to roast in the morning and I will marinate them in jars for hummus...yum! I am seriously considering going back and getting one more bushel of bells to make some of  "The Trinity", that is something that will certainly never go to waste in this house. But we will see....I still have 3 bushels of chiles to roast and freeze and make Salsa Verde.....and and and and.....

What a pretty sight that is! Bell Peppers have gotten so darn expensive in the store. I got each bushel for $15.00....I will take that deal all day long!

Welcome the First Day of Fall Dinner

I love love love love fall. More than anytime of year fall is the time of year I come alive. It is beautiful here in Colorado, the air is cool and crisp, the colors are changing into a wonderful painted landscape for all the world look at, and everything is settling in for winter. Magical time of year. Today was the first day of fall. Summer ended here in the mountains with an amazing sunset that said, "Good bye my friend - see you next year" 

 

I was surfing some of my favorite blogs the other day when I ran across this post from  "My Italian Grandmother". I knew then that this was perfect fall food and it was begging me to make it. 

And make it I did...it was fantastic and will be made more often in this house! Below are a few pictures from the adventures, but if you want the full recipe see the link for My Italian Grandmother above. The only thing really different I did was add the jalapeno and added white pepper to the chorizo.

 

 

 

Peach Crisp made from the Apple Cobbler Preserves put up last week, I used Special K Granola instead of all the sugars and flours, and added a few craisins to the topping.

The Butter Beans were canned last week as well. This was the perfect first day of fall dinner! One that will certainly be repeated here. 

Simple Peach Butter - Yeah right!

In the last few weeks I thought I had exhausted my peach tolerance. I lied. My friend Missy was headed down to Canon City and said she would bring me a case of peaches from Colon Orchards. After almost 60 pounds of peaches I had forgotten to make Peach Butter (kind of like apple butter). Now I have 24 more pounds of peaches. I want some simple peach butter. 

Now we all know with me there is nothing simple, I try so hard. But it just doesn't turn out that way. Anyway...I did shock my peaches in a hot water bath to get the peel off easily, then put about 16 pounds of peaches in the stock pot sliced. (rough estimate). Then added 5 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Simple Peach Butter....I did not want the sugar to over power the yummy peaches, because they were super ripe and sweet. Turn them on to simmer for about 35 minutes on medium low heat. They breakdown quite nicely, but I still get the handy dandy immersion blender out because I want butter.

 

While this magic is happening, I make myself lunch from leftover brisket and Fresca cheese from the Pupusas Sunday. Added a little dry coleslaw, and I had a yummy fajita. The Znax is a Mexican Snack seasoning that I have come to love on many things, it is yummy.

Once I finished lunch and had given this time to simmer down to a nice thick butter....it became not so simple. I then added:

1/2 cup of Kahlua (because I love it)

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Now we have Peach Butter that is a party in your mouth!

Ladled into a million half pint and quarter pint jars (for gift baskets) and processed in a water bath for 30 minutes. I will let this sit for a week or so before I let anyone dig in, but from what I tasted out of the pan it will be more that fabulous! Below the butters is a Peach Crisp made from last weeks canning adventures of Cobbler Preserves. A recipe for another post :-)

Salsa Verde for those long winter months

The Hispanic store where I just love to shop in Colorado Springs had tomatillos on sale. 2 pounds for .99 cents. I certainly could not pass it up. I am hoping they keep them on sale a little longer so I can make another batch or two of Verde. I so love to make it in green chile or pour it over a pork roast, I have even been know to put it over tri-tip sirloin and cook them in the crock pot all day long. Makes the best Chile Verde.

Ingredients:

10 lbs tomatillos
7 Anaheim Chile Peppers
5 Serrano Chile Peppers
4 limes
2 Large yellow or white onions
6 heaping Tablespoons garlic
1/4 cup salt
4 Tablespoons Mexican Oregano
1/4 bunch cilantro
3 Tablespoons black pepper
large dash of Cumin

Peel and wash tomatillos, and make sure other veggies are clean. I roast mine on the grill on low heat until soft and have a little color to them. Turning often to keep from scorching. In my opinion, any form of roasted chile or pepper is better, it just really rounds out the flavor and gives it an all new dimension to whatever it is added to.

When they are done, bring them off the grill and put the Anaheim in a separate bowl, cover with foil or a towel for about 10 mintues. The skin slides right off with no problems.

All ingredients then go into the stock pot to start simmering. I leave all the seeds in my peppers. I like a little heat, and during the roasting some of the heat goes away. Many real cooks would die at leaving the seeds in, but we like it.

After it has all simmered for about an hour I hit it with my handy dandy immersion blender until all chunks are gone.

Put it all into hot pint jars and water bath for 40 minutes. Voila! Salsa Verde...just waiting for a pork roast and a crock pot.

I am out of salsa AGAIN??

Salsa - It is that thing in the house that I can not keep on the shelves, that and BBQ sauce (a recipe for a later post) But I seriously can not keep this stuff. I can make it constantly and between my youngest son and friends...it is gone. And fast. So today was a salsa making day because we were completely out and using PACE picante sauce....yuk.

Ingredients:

This makes about 2 1/2 gallons. So adjust according to how much you want to make. 

2  # 10 can crushed tomatoes

3 lbs. Roma tomatoes

2 Large yellow onions

7-10 fresh jalapenos (I leave all of my seeds in)

4-5 Serrano chile peppers
1 Large Pablano pepper (Roasted until soft)

3-4 habanero peppers (I used dehydrated because I had them)

4 fresh limes (juiced and zested)

1/4 cup salt (don't forget it is 2 1/2 gallons)

3 Tablespoons black pepper

2 Tablespoons white pepper

2 Tablespoons Cumin

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

5-6 large spoonfulls fresh garlic

1 bunch cilantro (again, I used dehydrated)

2 pinches of sugar (and I mean small pinches)

Directions for not canning method:

Put all ingredients into food processor EXCEPT crushed tomatoes. Mix crushed tomatoes in well, pulse until there are no chunks.  Adjust spices to taste at this point. Depending on tomatoes you may need more salt. Chill overnight.

To can (or jar) Salsa is easy peasy...All you need is jars and a big stock pot to water bath in. Don't let it intimidate you. Easy Peasy! 

To can I put all ingredients into a stock pot except crushed tomatoes. Hit it with my immersion blender and bring to a simmer. When everything is soft I finish it off with the immersion blender because we do not like chunky salsa. I like my salsa nice and smooth.

Add both #10 cans of crushed tomatoes. Stir well. Adjust spices and peppers to taste. Remember, this will get hotter as it stands. 

I sterilize my jars in the oven on 200 degrees for 20 minutes. While the jars are heating the salsa should be getting warm on the stove. I don't want it to cook, but I want it hot going into the jars. 

 Using a funnel, fill jars to leave half an inch of head space. Have a larger stock pot of water boiling. Seal jars and put them in. Make sure water covers lids by 2 inches. Leave in boiling water for 40 minutes.Then take them out of the water and let cool naturally. Making sure all are sealed well and sit on the shelf for a week before opening. 

I usually have a little bit left over that will not fit into jars and that gets eaten right away. 

  This recipe made 4 quarts and 9 pints of salsa. We will see how long it lasts.

My (Not So) Traditional Salvadorian Pupusas

The other day a friend of mine walked into work with a traditional Salvadorian Pupusas made by his mother. Oh my goodness!!! It was fabulous. So here goes the 3 day search and outcome of that search for making these Pupusas. The amount of information I found was quite incredible and quite simple.......so I thought.  

I decided that I wanted a very flavorful brisket in my Pupusas, so I set out on my adventure. This post is long and a little graphic intensive, but here it is.

I started out by roasting a large Pablano Pepper and a red Bell Pepper on the stove, I did not fully roast them, just enough to get a little char on them and have them soften up a little.

The brisket went into a foil pan, with onions, garlic, white pepper, olive oil, a dried ancho chile, the peppers, salt and pepper. 

 

The brisket cooked on 350 for about 5 hours. And delicious it was all by itself. I did shred half of it and added a fresh chopped jalapeno.

Next was the cheese:

Shredded Cheddar and Monterrey Jack

Mexican Fresco

Green Chiles

Filling is done!

Now to tackle the masa. 

5 cups Mescata (Masa)

4 cups warm water

chili powder

Cumin

Mix into a dough, knead for 1 minute and let rest for 5 minutes

Roll into egg sized balls and press an indention in the middle to hold the filling

Take another ball about the same size, flatten it out to be just a little bigger than the bottom layer.

At this point you can either flatten it out by hand or do like I did and line with wax paper and press it in between 2 cast iron skillets until it is about half an inch thick. 

Put them on an oiled griddle for 3-5 minutes on each side or until browned and done all the way through.

 

Traditionally, these are thinner, smaller, and filled with just cheese or cheese and refried beans. But I am not traditional....so this is what I ended up with. And let me tell you...it was good. I threw a few extra slices of meat on there, and some of the roasted veggies. 

Afterwards I had some vanilla ice cream with Banana Nut Bread Jam....and it was yummy too!!!! I will be spending a lot of time on the treadmill tomorrow!!!

A Butter Bean Sunday

I love Sundays...especially during football season. Sunday = lazy day in pajamas. And Cooking. I usually try to make a big dinner or breakfast on Sunday, today was no exception. Today the Dallas Cowboys are playing, I am canning Butter Beans and drinking wine in my pajamas, and making Pupusas for dinner. (yes, I will post these as they are quite amazing)

Butter Beans - Some people love them...some people hate them...some people have never heard of them. I happen to be one of the people that love them! I had a hard time finding anything about canning butter beans, so I made up my own recipe, just the way I like them.

3 Pounds Dried Butter Beans

Jelly Jar of homemade Chicken Stock - 2 Tablespoons per quart

1 teaspoon salt per quart

1/2 teaspoon pepper per quart

2 Tablespoons of "The Trinity" per quart

1 slice bacon per quart (raw)

"The Trinity" = onions, celery, and green bell peppers. This is my Trinity anyway.

I followed the general pressure canning guidelines for dried beans. I soaked them overnight, then boiled them for 30 minutes. Strained out liquid (but saved it). I then filled each quart jar up 3/4 full of just the beans. Added rest of ingredients on top, then filled with the bean juice from the pot and left about 1 inch of head space. 

7 quarts of yumminess then went into the pressure canner at 15 pounds for an hour and 50 minutes. Dont forget I am at altitude. Follow canning guidelines for your altitude.

Now....on to make Pupusas!