On the Wednesday, before the Friday we were married, Steve’s friend, Mike, arrived from eastern Montana. At the time, it was snowy and windy and the drive was a bit harrowing in spots along the highline.
Good to see an old friend safely here. And the good friend brought some things to share…
Dried Hatch chiles to make red chile sauce…for enchiladas. Part of the marriage contract was that I learn how to make Mike’s red sauce. Steve tells me often what a great cook I am and I believe it was my homemade chorizo that was responsible for the marriage proposal. However, it was strongly suggested that I add the red sauce to my repertoire :)!
In addition to enough of the dried chiles to make 3 or 4 batches of sauce, Mike brought some sauce he had already made. Wednesday evening, he made enchiladas with the sauce for my folks, Steve and I. There was nothing left on anyone’s plate when we were done. Although the plan was for me to make a batch of sauce with Mike’s supervision, we all ran out of steam with the various other things we were up to so I made my first batch solo – day before yesterday – based on Mike’s instructions given verbally before he returned home.
The chiles get soaked and brought to a boil, then pureed. To the puree, some spices and a bit of flour making a red chile “gravy”. Then the test…
New Mexico style, stacked enchiladas which include a fried egg(s) on top. And yes, Mike, I snuck in some black beans which were not part of the original recipe! The sauce was pronounced a success…
Red Gold.
Published on
December 29, 2009 in
Pets.
I’m not a huge fan of floral in decor but my sunroom chair and pillows on the bed sport floral motifs. While not enough to offend the sensibilities of my newly acquired mountain/hunter/manly man….still… And only one comfy chair in the sunroom to sit of a morning and share coffee and quiet time…
Yesterday, another chair arrived. It has trees, rivers and fishermen on it. It is a manly, lodge, outdoorsy kind of chair and it goes with the fly fishing print already in the corner where the chair was to go. The sunroom now has a man corner.
Bob wasted no time claiming the man chair. Bob wasted no time claiming Steve! Seriously, the darn cat jumped ship as soon as Steve was on the scene – laying over his legs on the footstool, lounging near him whenever possible and head butting him to demand attention and affection. Bob has conveniently forgotten that I gave him food, shelter and many fleece blankies over the past 8 years!
And then he went right to the chair. I hadn’t even finished fiddling around with exactly where it fit best.
Obviously, I will never sit in this chair… It remains to be seen whether Steve will get to sit in this chair!
The man chair and Mr. Bob
Published on
December 28, 2009 in
Montana.
Low stratus over the valley continued yesterday. The Road Home looked a bit dismal, especially with so little snow on the ground.
Sun broke through in a few spots up high, though – creating unique vistas of light.
And a few mountains majestic.
The Road Home: Inversion version.
Karl’s and my Christmas Day tradition has been a decadent breakfast followed by a long snowshoe run. It continued this year with Steve and several cameras…
Snow is scarce in the valley. We headed around Flathead Lake on the way to Blacktail Mountain Road an higher elevation.
Driving along the lake, a few mountain peaks of the Continental Divide were visible in sun holes in the cloud cover.
We drove up the road through the low inversion layer of foggy clouds and emerged above it all.
It was a world of sunshine, snow ghosts (see Steve’s Flickr) and mountain mystery.
