[lisarea]

So, a little ways back, we were in the grocery store, and they had flats of mangos for $2.99! $2.99!!!

So we bought one, despite the fact that we had not yet finished the previous flat of mangos we paid like $9 for or something. So I made a lot of lassis (mango, yogurt, crushed ice, a teeny bit of sugar or honey, and enough milk to make it the right consistency), and a sort of mango custard thingy that wasn't really a custard, but just mangos, milk, a little sugar, and I think some lemon, with plain gelatin to thicken.

And last night, I used the last of the second flat of mangos, without wasting a ONE. Not ONE. We ate two whole flats of mangos in succession, without a single one getting rotten. We rock.

Also yesterday, I got a call from Mitchell's Garden Center, telling us that THE CHILES ARE HERE THE CHILES ARE HERE! So we went straight away, and we got the first bushel of hot Hatch chiles roasted on the roaster the guy had just finished setting up. Hell, he had to take our batch of chiles out of the truck.

So, tonight is green chile stew, which is almost the same thing as posole, except with potatoes instead of posole, plus I'm making it with chicken instead of pork. And I'm making chicken stock out of the chicken, too, because we are out of chicken stock. And that's bad.

OK. Here:

Chicken
Roasted green chiles
Potatoes
Garlic
Cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, etc.

Marginally related stock-making: Put your chicken in a big stock pot, cover with water, and add spices like rosemary, sage, garlic powder, salt, pepper, a bay leaf, etc. Boil it, then simmer for a long time until you have stock. Drain the stock and put most of it in the freezer.

Dice the remaining chicken.

Now, saute some garlic in EVOO. Peel the chiles, removing some of the veins and seeds, depending on how spicy you want it. (The more veins and seeds, the spicier it'll be.)

Add the peeled chiles, the diced chicken, and some chicken stock to the pot. Add spices as you see fit, and simmer, correcting the spices as you go along. Once the flavors marry, add some diced raw potatoes, bring back up to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are done. It'll kind of be a thin stew or thick soup consistency.

Eat with flour tortillas. Yum.

Anyway, youse guys! Youse guys in the cowboy states! The chiles are here!

Also, liv? Do you have any pasta e fagioli recipes? I made a decent one last week or something, but I put hamburger in and stuff, which is not the good Friday Catholic pasta e fagioli I remember. (Just so you know, I like to pronounce 'pasta e fagioli' as 'PASta EE FAG-ee-o-lee' to make people mad, but it never works.)