Darienne

OK. The tabletop full of chiles are now all quickly deep fried to blister the skins, set on paper towels to drain, dish towel over them, and peeled. They are ready for the next steps. Some will be frozen whole for Chiles Rellenos, no seeding or de-veining until later thawed for use. Others will be opened, seeded & de-veined, and cut into strips for Rajas, etc. Then some will be used today in my own version of enchiladas and others will be frozen on half-sheets and then bagged. Questions: - is it better to peel them hot, medium or cold? DH helped me, peeling by hand. I peeled using a sharp knife. We came out about even. - thought I had a couple of other questions but my mind is blank. All feedback is appreciated. - this summer, I will try blistering the chiles outside on the B-B-Q or its side burner. What a learning experience this has all been.

My thoughts exactly. The poblanos are from Mexico. Does that mean they have no 'season', but will come all year round, like oranges or avocados? That would be great. I don't really feel like buying them out and leaving none for others. And if there is a 'better' season for them, like there is for tomatoes, then I would buy more then. What kind of peppers are you talking about? You don't mention charring or peeling or deseeding. As for putting the peppers into a plastic bag after charring/roasting/frying someone...maybe Bayless?...says NO! Just cover them with a towel. The plastic bag will continue the cooking process and you don't want that. Last week I had that experience with a couple of poblanos that couldn't be used for stuffing...they were just too soft. No problem, as you know. Yumm. Down to pepper and enchilda work for today. (Aside: today I finally figured out how to multiquote. Took only 2 1/2 years! )

Ditto pour moi.

Googled 'charla'. Talk, speech, chat. Could you give me a little more info about this, Jaymes, please?

Cannot believe my eyes. A Canadian grocery chain, Sobey's, is now carrying Poblanos. For how long I don't know. They have them down as 'hot' peppers. And won't change it either. So because I have no idea of when the supply will suddenly disappear, I bought them out yesterday. Roasted (in oil a la Bayless), peeled, made into rajas and into the freezer most of them will go. The rest will become Chiles Rellenos. So what? You say. That's because you don't live in east central Ontario in the middle of nowhere where no one has ever carried a Poblano before.

Foolish me, I somehow overlooked the Motel 6. Made a reservation for four nights, May 12,13,14,15 but need to know eventually when we are starting and when we are likely to stop. Done. Thanks again, Elsie.

I disagree. While it works better than oven toasting to get rid of the skins, I think it definitely affects the texture and flavor. I sometimes find I have to then carefully roast the hazelnuts to return them to their former crunch state. But then perhaps I am not working quickly enough.

May I be completely overwhelmed? I am grateful for your help so far.

Thanks for the link, Elsie. I did notice that each dog is $25 per night. That's $50 per night for our two dogs. On top of the price. But then it is our problem to solve. Thanks. Canada is so different from the USA re dogs in motels and hotels. Never in any American city or in the middle of nowhere have we ever found any difficulty in finding a reasonably priced motel which will take our dogs. Just me ranting...

What we need, and are prepared to do the research, is a dog-friendly motel, under $100.00 if possible. Driving some distance back and forth is not a problem. I don't know this region and so will have to look it up soon. However, if someone knows of such a place, and can save me the work , do let me know please.

Emptied and cleaned a dog med sprayer of all things...skin irritation...and put in olive oil and vodka. Works perfectly. Brilliant. Problem solved.

I have Bayless' Mexican Kitchen, Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking, Ortiz' The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking (1967 and completely falling apart), Lindsay Greer Cuisine of the American Southwest (1983, admittedly a Tex-Mex book, but a good one), the new Fany Gerson My Sweet Mexico for desserts and an assortment of magazines and books which I have had forever. Mostly I crosscheck the Bayless, Kennedy and Ortiz before I make something new and this seems to work for me. There are so few Hispanics in our area...no one teaches as far as I know, so it's all on my own. With, of course, interference help from my DH, Ed. How could I forget to add: the eGullet topics and the various mentors whom I am gathering about me: Calypso, Theobroma, Pierogi, Jaymes and other kind souls

At the risk of repeating some of the information given above ... here's a list of my current Mexican blogs. http://www.vivanewmexico.com/food.recipes.cocinas.html http://www.fronterakitchens.com/cooking/recipes/recipe_streusel.html http://www.mexconnect.com/cuisine http://mexicocooks.typepad.com/ http://ranchogordo.typepad.com/ http://www.ruthincondechi.com/ http://mexicanfood.about.com/b/ http://www.rickbayless.com/qa/ http://thediningdiva.typepad.com/the_dining_diva/mexico/ http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2011/01/guiso-de-carne-de-puerco-cuban-pork-and.html http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/mexico/#axzz1Cpvde14s

Lunch today was leftover beef enchiladas with a recipe called Southwestern Potatoes that I culled from somewhere, with crema, guacamole, and with tortilla chips and Jaymes' salsa. DH loved it. Can't do better than that. ps. Ed put salsa on his enchiladas and potatoes too.

I must have done something wrong. I love broccoli. So does DH. The soup was like cooked broccoli. Boring. We gave up eating it and put it into the dogs' vegetable container. (They eat pulped greens). I don't know whether to be embarrassed or confused or what?

These look so good I am almost drooling. Will make them next. For sure. Thanks.

In answer to feedmec00kies: no, I haven't noticed a seasonality to my GERD, but I'll keep a lookout for that now. Mine certainly does come and go in 'bunches'. This is very interesting, all the replies...gives me a lot to think about re the NSAIDs, pain pills, particular foods, etc.

Jaymes posted this salsa last June and I just found it yesterday. Made it this afternoon and now report back. Point #1: I had no idea how difficult it is now to find canned tomatoes without sugar and a lot of other stuff in them. Jaymes said canned tomatoes with tomatoes and salt only. In a large local supermarket I could find only one brand with the requisite tomatoes and salt only. Point number 2...which I already knew...just a fact of life for chiles. Some of the same type of chile are much hotter than another. I could not imagine getting fresh Jalapenos in Peterpatch, ON, so hot that I had to add another can of tomatoes to the salsa just to be able to use it at all. DH, Ed, still thinks it's too hot. It probably would have been safer under the circumstances to either use canned or to add the chiles one at a time. Still, all in all, a good experience. Thanks, Jaymes

Gosh, all our friends are here.

Great blog. Who knew? Mexican recipes from the Haligonian girl who lives in China.

Ditto for all the groves and slots and doodads (sorry, Doodad)and extra bits on everything in the entire kitchen.

I was with my husband and two dogs, two hours out in a canyon in Utah (thus five hours from any help at all) when I thought I was stricken by a heart attack and was going to die. The pain was excruciating. I did not tell Ed. What would have been the point? I made my peace with the fact that at least I was dying in my favorite place in the world. Needless to say, I did not die. I suffered my first attack of GERD and nothing like it since. Prevacid was my drug of choice and I took it for a couple of months. That was 8 years ago, making me 61 at the time. Before that day I had NEVER EVER suffered any heartburnish upsets in my entire life. Never a Tums, never a Pepcid. Nada. I ate nails: I spit rust. Mostly I can get by by taking nothing, but just monitoring my foods. I can eat spicy, hot, acidic...what I can't eat is meat and legumes together. The day of my non-death, I had eaten a 'Cowboy Lunch' at a local Moab watering hole. However, having said that, I am currently on an obsessive Mexican kick which is giving me some trouble, so I have a trusty vial of Raniditine at hand for difficult times. Interesting enough, there is apparently no connection between legumes and GERD. Except for me. Borrowing from the British playwright, John Mortimer, 'I am still clinging to the wreckage'.

I freeze extra oranges quite regularly when we can't eat them in time. Zest the peel, break the oranges into sections, fast freeze them on a sheet, then pop into a bag. Later they'll be used in smoothies and Orange Juleps.

Waking up in the morning to the incredible smell of a pork shoulder cooking slowly all night in the slow cooker and knowing that pulled pork on a bun with smoky BBQ sauce could be for lunch.

Thanks for all the information, Theobroma. The farmer who plants our fields plants either hemp or ethanol corn and it's usually a surprise to us which he plants. Last year he told us corn...but then the hemp came up. We'll wait to see what it is this year. Maybe I can find someone locally who is planting cow corn if we don't have it. Then we can offer our unsuspecting guests Sleeping Excrement of the Lords for a tasty dinner dish.