Fall Food Rituals--Fire Roasted Green Chiles

Late last month I indulged in my favorite of all fall food rituals--putting away my annual supply of fire-roasted green chiles.

I'm happy to say that beautiful, fresh green chiles are available locally here now--not too long ago, my dad would ship them to me from New Mexico via UPS (and I imagine the UPS truck smelled wonderful!) and I'd roast them on the charcoal grill. This year's local chiles were particularly delightful--very flavorful, and hot enough but not too hot.


We bought two burlap bags of chiles--about two bushels--which the vendor roasted for us in his rotary cage: the most wonderful fragrance in the world! After letting them steam in plastic bags for a while, the blackened peels slip right off, and we then freeze the chiles in bags of five or six, ready to use. We'll enjoy their smoky flavor in our southwest-style dishes throughout the winter!



Credit to 'Inside Nanabread's Head' for the photos!

Fall Food Rituals--Onions

Last week I indulged in one of my favorite ways of celebrating the fall season--my annual purchase of a very big bag of onions.

Onions seem to me to be the essence of the fall harvest--I look forward to the 25-pound bags appearing in the produce department of my favorite small grocery store. The texture of the onions and of the bag make me happy--and I simply adore the labels and graphics!

(I will admit right here that I am developing quite a collection of onion bag labels--many of them definitely deserve to be recycled and celebrated, and a couple of projects are swirling around in the back of my mind. We will see what comes out!)

While I was horrified to note that my bag of onions this year cost $6.00 (much more than I've paid in the past), it still comes out to only $.25 a pound--a definite good buy!

A 25 pound bag gives me plenty of onions to share and cook with for some time to come, though it's sometimes a race to use them all before they start sprouting in late winter or early spring. It then becomes a challenge!

Now to bring out my collection of onion recipes: onion soup, baked onions, onion pie, grilled onions. . . what else?