davepolaschek

When we moved to #NewMexico, one of our new neighbors told us that the official state hobby was rearranging rocks.

Well, I guess we’re officially New Mexicans now. Heading to town in the morning for a second two pallets of rock, another two yards of topsoil, and a bunch of plants. But I think the place is looking a lot better with the work we’re having done.

#HomeImprovement

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Didn’t have much of an actual #sunset tonight, but the sky lit up real nice after the sun dropped below the mountains. Happy Monday, #NewMexico!

#photography

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My sweetie has been working in the yard this evening. And three times now she’s been interrupted by a passing shower. I don’t think we’ve had a measurable amount of rain between all three of the showers, but each one has settled the dust a little and made the air smell a little better. It’s a nice evening!

Beautiful sunset, too.

#photography #NewMexico #sunset

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On my morning walk today, I noticed this cholla with its yellow fruits. It was a nice splash of color on a cloudy morning, and something I remember seeing here on some of my first walks after we moved to Santa Fe.

Hard to believe it’s been a year already, but it has. Time flies when you’re having fun!

#photography #cholla #plant #NewMexico

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Looked out this morning to see this spectacular sky to our northeast. It’s quite a #sunrise. There’s a little hint of smoke left in the sky, but mostly we’re back to our normal #NewMexico skies. Yay!

#photography

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It seems like it’s been quite a while since we’ve had a normal #sunset here. Between the smoke from the fires, and then the storm last night, there was always something. But tonight we got back to normal, after a fairly normal day. There was a storm that threatened around 5pm, but all we got here was some wind.

Sometimes normal can be awfully nice.

#photography #NewMexico

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A storm hit just before #sunset tonight. The rain is super welcome since we just finished working compost into the area where we’re going to put in some plants tomorrow.

The sunset was kinda pretty, too.

#photography #NewMexico

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Made some chicken enchiladas this evening. They came out pretty tasty. More Minnesota heat than New Mexico heat, which suits our palates just fine.

Enchiladas are a two part meal (three if you’re making your own tortillas, but I’m not that hardcore yet). Filling is meat or cheese or beans, which gets wrapped up in tortillas, and then covered in sauce and cheese.

The #recipe for the filling was just basic taco meat seasoning, with some sautéed chicken. We make our own, but the packets of taco seasoning from the grocery store are fine, too.

The sauce is something I’ve never made before, though I’ve done a lot of sauces. A couple chiles and some diced onions, sautéed until they were nice and tender (I should’ve had roasted chiles, since it’s that time of year, but I’m out); four tomatoes from the neighbor’s garden, chopped up pretty good; a teaspoon of garlic; and a cup of chicken broth. Put it all in a saucepan, cook for a while, then hit it with the stick blender to smooth it. It wasn’t thickening as quickly as I liked, so it got a heaping teaspoon of corn flour to encourage it. It was a more tomato-y sauce than you get at most places in New Mexico, and it had a little more heat than you see at places in Minnesota, so I figure I did ok.

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Made these to go with dinner tonight. I got the spice just about right, so I want to save the #recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ C finely chopped onion
• 2 roasted green chiles or poblanos, seeded and diced
• 2 cups diced zucchini
• 2 cups diced summer squash
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

• Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
• Add onion; cook, stirring, until soft, about 4 minutes.
• Add zucchini, summer squash, peppers, and salt; cover and cook, stirring once or twice, until tender, about 3-5 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and stir in cilantro (if using).

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Made some bread this morning. The #recipe was:

• 2 C bread flour
• 1 C corn flour, plus a couple tablespoons while shaping the loaves
• ¼ C minced roasted poblano peppers, seeds removed (about 4 peppers)
• 1 Tbs bacon fat
• 1 Tbs dark wildflower honey
• 1 Tbs bread machine yeast
• ½ Tbs salt
• 1½ C water

Throw it all into the stand mixer and mix it on low until it comes together as a dough, then increase the speed to medium and knead for 10 minutes.

Let proof in the mixing bowl until doubled in size. Turn out onto the (floured) counter and punch it down. Divide into three equal parts and roll into small loaves and place into three small greased loaf pans.

Let rise until the top is just spilling over the top of the loaf pans. Bake for 22 minutes in a 425F oven and turn out onto a cooling rack to cool.

Once cooled, enjoy!

This has (just) enough heat that you can tell there’s peppers in there, but the #bread still tasted great wrapping a ham and cheese sammich.

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