45 days of bliss

Ok... So I officially lived back in Las Cruces, NM for a whopping 45 days! I haven't lived here since I graduated from high school in 2003.  Now I am back, and it has been a total dream and for one main reason... (ok, there are multiple reasons, but I am going for dramatic effect here)... GREEN CHILIES!!! Yes... I live in the land of green chilies! They are amazing and pure goodness. If I could describe them to you I would, but there are no words fit for them. Now if you are thinking "well I've gotten hatch green chilies in a can and I don't see what the big deal is" get that thought of your head right now because those canned chilies are not even close to what I am actually talking about right now.  They are worlds apart.

One of the joys of living in a place that is the 20 mins from literally the "Chile Capital of the World" is that you can go anywhere and get good chilies on whatever you want. I am being completely serious... want a burger from McDonalds with green chile? Yup, you can get that here. Want to order a pizza from Papa John's with fresh green chile? Also totally on the menu. Even our local custard place used to sell green chile as a topping for their custard sundays.  It is everywhere you go, and I will never complain a second about it!

This is literally the view from the front door of my house. Those are all just miles of chilies. So beautiful huh?

So speaking of which... what did I do with my night tonight? Well, after I came home from work and the gym, I put 35 lbs of fresh roasted green chilies in freezer bags and stuck them in our freezer.  That's another way to keep the goodness last all year long.  You literally can go to Walmart here, buy a 20 lb bag of chilies in a garbage bag, go to the parking lot, and pay a guy $4 to a guy to fresh roast them for you on the spot. It's a beautiful process.

This is what they look like before... 

This is the roaster.

This is what they look like after. And they smell like heaven! 

So have I gotten you excited to come visit me here in NM yet? Sure hope so!

More evidence that it is the chile capitol of the world! Even the water tank says so! 

So since we are on this topic... I might as well confess something... remember how I said I have lived here for 45 days now? Well that also means that today was my 45th day of eating Mexican food at least once a day since I've gotten here. Yup... I have eaten Mexican food for 45 days straight.  Not for every single meal, but at least one meal a day is a burrito, taco, torta, green chile enchiladas, etc... It has been great! Just don't ask me about how all of my pants are fitting me right now. I got a gym membership last week to help remedy that dilemma.

So there it is... my first blog post from NM. And it was also about one of the greatest foods on earth! Next time I might actually try and talk about teaching and all the other stuff going on in my life :)