Hatch Green Chile Stew

This post is going to include the Hatch Green Chile Stew I made this weekend. I was introduced to Hatch Green Chiles when I was living in New Mexico. So it had me thinking of New Mexico and how much I loved my time there. I hate to think I've lost touch with a lot of the people I knew there, but darn geography got in the way and life kept rolling. I moved to Nebraska to attend school and then off to North Carolina I went. But since I've started this blog, I have had several great friends of mine reach out to let me know they were reading it and enjoyed it and you have no idea how much that means. No matter how often we talk, these people mean the world to me and I consider them true friends. So I think we need to get back in touch and maybe a NM trip is in my near future? Or you are all welcome to my little spot in North Carolina. Either way, my NM friends mean so much to me and I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you and appreciate your support with this blog.

Now on to the delicious-ness...

We haven't had much of a winter here in North Carolina, but the past few days have been the closest we have gotten! So what did I do? I broke out the Hatch Green Chile Stew. Last fall as I was browsing our local grocery store I stopped in complete and utter shock when they stocked Hatch Green Chile. I have not seen this chile since I have left New Mexico (almost 7 years ago!) Now unlike New Mexico, there was not a nice man roasting the green chile outside in one of those huge tumbler things and the aroma made your mouth water, but I thought "hey, I can roast these myself." ha!

I bought a bunch of bags of chiles figuring I could roast them all and freeze them. I walked in the door and K said "what the heck are you bringing into this house?" Mr. picky eater will get over it.

It took me a few hours to take out the seeds, but it was worth it. I roasted half the batch in my oven, my apartment smelled like heaven. I remember playing soccer and being able to smell the exact same thing because of the fields not very far away. My oven was small and I was a little nervous I was going to burn down the place, so I made K help me roast the rest on the grill outside. This worked MUCH better for me. I chose to freeze the chiles with the skins on.

Fast forward to February, we had not touched the chiles yet. So freezing cold Sunday, with a little snow, was a perfect excuse! Because we have to have meat with every meal in this house (K's fault) I chose a beef stew recipe off my Epicurious App or aka My New Best Friend.

Brown the Stew Meat

Cook the Onions and Garlic

Peel and Chop the Chiles - very proud to say these skins slipped right off!

Add chiles and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes then add stew meat, add about 2.5 cups of water

After about three hours...this stew is getting nice and thick

I chose to serve this over some instant white rice

And eat up!

Now I had enough to feed a small army. Green Chile Stew for the next three days!

The Football Wife

My sweet friend Alison shared this with me last week and I wanted to pass it along to all my other football girlfriends and any other girlfriend living with a husband with a nutty profession. :-) Because I believe it can apply to many areas:

THE FOOTBALL WIFE

The good Lord was creating a model for football wives, and was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared. She said, “Lord you seem to be having a lot of trouble with this one. What’s wrong with the standard model?”

The Lord replied, “ Have you seen the specs on this order? She has to be completely independent, possess the qualities of both father and mother, be a perfect hostess to 4 or 40 with an hour’s notice, run on black coffee, handle every emergency imaginable without a manual, be able to carry on cheerfully, even if she is pregnant and has the flu, and she must be willing to move to a new location 10 times in 17 years. And oh, yes. She must have six pairs of hands.”

The angel shook her head. “Six pairs of hands? No way.”

The Lord continued, “Don’t worry; we will make other wives to help her. And we will give her an unusually strong heart so it can swell with pride in her husband’s achievements, sustain the pain of separations, beat soundly when it is overworked and tired, and be large enough to say, ‘I understand,’ when she doesn’t, and say ‘I love you,’ regardless.”

“Lord,” said the angel, touching his arm gently. “Go to bed and get some rest. You can finish this tomorrow.”

“I can’t stop now,” said the Lord. “I am so close to creating something unique. Already this model heals herself when she is sick, can put up six unexpected guests for the weekend, wave goodbye to her husband and understand why it’s important he leave.”

The angel circled the model of the football wife, looked at it closely and sighed, “it looks fine, but it’s too soft.”

“She might look soft,” replied the Lord, “but she has the strength of a lion. You would not believe what she can endure.”

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her fingers across the cheek of the Lord’s creation. “There’s a leak,” she announced. “Something is wrong with the construction. I am not surprised that it has cracked. You are trying to put too much into this model.”

The Lord appeared offended at the angel’s lack of confidence. “What you see is not a leak,” he said. “It’s a tear.”

“A tear? What is it there for?” asked the angel.

The Lord replied, “it’s for joy, sadness, pain, disappointment, loneliness, pride, and dedication to all the values that she and her husband hold dear.”

“You are a genius!” exclaimed the angel.

The Lord looked puzzled, and replied, “I didn’t put it there.”

Colorblock Challenge

This past week I participated in the Colorblock Challenge over at Marionberry Style. Today she has posted several colorblocking examples, go check them out!

Here is a colorblock outfit I wear to work. I work in a conservative office, so I couldn't pull off the bright pinks and oranges. I needed to stay within the muted tone; however, I try to use rich colors when I can! I usually always wear nude heels when wearing color because they do not overwhelm the outfit.

 

I wanted to go shopping for a new outfit, but the husband put a kabosh on that quickly! When does spring ball start again?

 

Skirt: Part of Calvin Klein skirt suit; Blazer: F21; Tank: Nordstrom; Watch: Michael Kors; Necklace: Dillards; Shoes: Steve Madden

The nude heels: my favorite pair of shoes I own.

I really hope my ghostly skin has not scared you off. Come on summer!