Good Bye Summer, Hello Green Chile!!

Well, it is time to say good-bye to summer even though technically summer doesn't end until Sept. 21st, but in Santa Fe, one begins to know it is Fall by the smell of Green Chile roasting throughout the city. It is exciting to see the roasters in the parking lots of grocery stores... the first sign of Fall. I am always sad to see summer end but I must admit that I love Fall in Santa Fe...something I never quite experienced living in CA. The weather gets cooler and the leaves change to red, yellow and orange. The Aspens begin to turn and it is a beautiful sight to take a drive up to the basin and see the Aspens first hand. Their golden leaves are amazing!!

Saturday, Gene and I got up early and went to the produce market to buy our bag of green chile, and Ziplock Freezer bags. We were so excited to be able to get our chile so we can bag it and load up the freezer with quart size bags of peeled green chile. It was an all day production, but we managed to get 30 bags done! Gene's eyes were dancing with excitement as our bag of chile was being roasted! He was so happy to have his green chile for the season... We were down to 1 bag from last years batch so we knew it was time to load up the freezer for the year.

I must admit that I enjoy the flavor of green chile. I am not a chile eater, but I do like the taste of green chile. When the cold hits I bring out the ever famous "Crock Pot" (Andrew cringes when I bring out the crock pot) and make green chile stew, pot roast with green chile and whatever concoction I can think of... Gene will make his famous green chili chicken enchilada casserole from time to time and is it ever yummy! Comfort food is in order for Fall and especially Winter around here. It is nice to come in from the cold and have a warm meal ready to gobble up and warm up them bones.

So, good-bye summer... I am going to miss wearing my capri pants, slipping on my sandals, and wearing light cotton blouses. Time to bring out the long pants, light sweaters, and my closed toe shoes... But I feel a bit better saying good-bye to summer because just knowing I have green chile in my freezer makes things look a whole lot brighter!!


The best green chile comes from Hatch, NM... Green Chile capitol of the world!



Bags of green chile waiting to be roasted... this year we got medium-hot.


Our bag of green chile getting fired up for a tumble in the roaster.



Our bag of green chile getting roasted... the smell is fabulous!!



Gene carrying our roasted chile to the car! We could not wait to get it home, let it cool a bit so we could start peeling it, bag it and then freeze it.