Prince Charming and I took a little trip to the Land of Enchantment last weekend to surprise his brudder on his 60th birthday.
His brudder was so surprised to run into him (quite literally) in the hotel hallway (seester set him up) that it took him two apologies and at least thirty seconds before he realized he was looking at his own brother.
So.
I guess that all worked out just right!
We had some good times and some good Mexican food while we were in Albuquerque (Sadie's - try it).
And, since Able Baker Dana had asked me to bring home some roasted green chiles for her, we also spent quite a bit of time in the BIG Mexican market near our hotel.
Ohhhhhh!
It was like a party.
Lively music, yummy food, lots of people.
It put me in such a festive mood.
So festive, in fact, that I bought 144 white-corn tortillas and...wait for it...
Sixty pounds of green chiles.
Just because they were there.
And they were fresh.
And it seemed liked a holiday sort of thing to do.
The chiles come in big burlap sacks - thirty pounds to a sack.
A sack for Able Baker Dana, and a sack for moi.
And after we bought them, we took them out to the parking lot to The Roaster.
And The Roaster dumped them, one sack at a time, into the roaster...
...making sure he got every last one of them.
Then he went 'round to the back of the roaster, turned on the gas, and fired that baby up.
We all watched...
...as the chili skins quickly became charred.
It made some of us very happy to be outside in the absolutely perfect weather, surrounded by family, and smelling the wonderful aroma of roasted chiles.
Well, our beautiful little great-nephew didn't actually say that's why he was so happy, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was.
In just a few minutes, the chiles are ready to come off the roaster and into the plastic bag to "sweat" so they can be easily peeled.
I wish you could inhale in front of your computer screen right now and actually smell these beauties. (I also wish you could have been here when we returned home exhausted Sunday evening and had to peel and prep our thirty pounds for the freezer.)
But let me tell you the 'rest of the story'.
We forgot to pack our coolers before leaving Oklahoma, so we bought some inexpensive styrofoam chests (and doubled them up) to tote our chiles home in.
The Prince's seester and brudder-in-law, who were driving their own car, said they could actually smell the chiles when they were behind us on the road.
I thought it might just be her imagination.
But when we took the chests out of the Prince's car trunk when we arrived home, we discovered that one of them had sprung a leak.
And, until today, when we actually removed some pieces of his trunk for a more severe scrubbing (which we hope has solved the problem -they're still drying), the royal Prince has been driving the one, the only, the incredible...
Chile-Mobile.
Don't be jealous.