Jenmenke

Road Warrior

pozole

Epic Vail

I’m only updating this from Vail because

  1. I can. (thank you macbook air!)
  2. my dear friend Pam’s daughter asked me to, stating, she is “tired of looking the bladder thing”
  3. i realized she is right
  4. i got such funny photos today, I had to share.

So on with the show.

First, understand that skiing for spring break is not always an easy pill to swallow for a Minnesotan. Even harder for a 16 year old girl Minnesotan. Marginally less so for her mother and probably equally less for the younger brother.

Vail Dave, however, has no problem at all. So it is off to the airport that his little squad of ducks follow him.

Did you know that Vail Dave actually bought a Colorado season ski pass this year? Yes, he did. That should tell you how much the man skis. It was a better deal to buy a season pass. Is it me, or is there something wrong with that?

It’s usually a stretch to plan a ski vacation in early April. You just never know if there will be snow, and if there is snow, will it be good enough to make an expensive vacation worth skiing on it?

No worries this year. Colorado, and particularly Vail, is having an — to use an overused cliché — epic year. And today was no exception.

It started snowing on and off yesterday (our first day of skiing) and it never stopped. We woke up to about 10″ on the ground outside our hotel at the base. There was easily 12 or 14″ at the top.

And powder is the best, right?

Not to the uninitiated.

Good skiers make powder look so easy to ski in. So fun!

(Like Dave.)

His squad of ducks quickly wanted to leave the nest. After only 2 or 3 runs, the smiles were gone. Well, I’m exaggerating I guess. My smile was still there. I’d fallen two or three times, but there was so much snow it didn’t hurt. My smile was vanishing quickly though, when the kids went south on us. There’s nothing like a $100 lift ticket in the back of your mind to make you say to your kids,

“Get over it! This is supposed to be fun! We are spending way too much money for you not to have fun! No, you are not going in!”

Then, Charlie fell and hurt his ankle. Not too bad, but enough to be bummed. Morgan has been battling an illness. The wind picked up:

…and we decided it was time for an early lunch.

I’ve always loved Two Elk Chalet. (It’s where I first had my beloved Posole.) But now I love it for another reason. It is like the band-aid for a tough ski morning. About $500 in lunch expenditures later (I didn’t say it was cheap), all warmed up, it was like a new day!

Everyone had their mojo back. We went back into Blue Sky Basin, and even though a lot of the powder was skied out, it was still unbelievably soft and light. We went on tree runs and steeps that we could never go on without all that deep snow to slow us down.

(Like this run called Skree Field with actual cliffs.)

Normally, I stay out of the trees. I fancy myself a pretty good skier (advanced, not expert) but I am a serious disaster in the trees. I also fancy myself a pretty smart person  and therefore when Vail Dave leads the other two ducks into the trees, I stick to the edges.

But today, I threw caution to the wind. And I must admit: I was a rock star.

Here a picture of one of the trails leading out of Skree Field

…Oh, wait… Is that Vail Dave stuck in a tree well? It just might be!

(That’s the beauty of having possession of the camera: no one captured my wipe-outs.)

It was a great day. First chair at 8:30 am and skiing almost to the bell at 4pm. Dave insists I try fat skis tomorrow. I’m not so sure. I’ve got a pair of Rossignol S7’s all ready to go. I just am so used to my vintage K2 T9s, I’m a wee bit scared.

But it’s nothing Two Elks can’t fix.

Morgan is busy planning our meals out. And she tells me it’s time to go to La Bottega. But first she is doing my make-up. So I must go. We are having a blast. Just don’t leave any comments about beach vacations, OK? I’m not having that much fun.

Throw-and-Go Green Chile Posole

Green Chile Posole! Ole!

Great for Turkey Leftovers!

Disclaimer: This was throw and go for me.

Remember, I am the one with all the psycho frozen accouterments in her freezer. But…

But.

If you follow my psycho ways, unfolding in snippets on this site, you too can have this ridiculously amazing posole made for dinner in about 20 minutes.

Another Disclaimer: I like to geek-out in my approach to many things in the cooking world. I eschew (it’s a big vocab day, people) casseroles and church cookbooks that use gross canned ingredients.

Actually, I don’t.

I just think I do.

It’s hard to explain.

I’ll try.

I’m a snob. But see, even though I’m a snob, I still like when other people make the kind of food I don’t like to make. I love it, in fact. Rarely, do I stick my nose up at anything (except beets). But for some reason, I can’t bring myself to use recipes that use cream of chicken soup, lipton onion soup mix, etc.

As I write this, it’s sort of coming clear to me (Really, who needs therapy when you can write and solve your own problems?): It’s the martyr thing! Everyone knows I’m a martyr! That must be it. Even though I like the dishes made with these maligned ingredients, I feel as though I can’t use them. Why? Because it is too easy! I have to work in order for it to be worthy.

That’s really stupid, isn’t it?

Anyway. I digress.

My point, is that I have concocted a way to make dinner fast and still find a way to be smug about it. How great is that?

I did use one secret canned ingredient in this concoction of mine because I had no other choice. (Driving to the grocery store is an automatic “then I’m not making that tonight”.) Of course, the next time I make this, I will feel the need to find the ingredient in its natural state and do it the ‘right’ way. Only then will I be confident to say ‘it isn’t worth the work’ and feel just fine about this super easy way to make it.

Remember the Barbecued Pulled Pork from summer? And the fact that I really prefer the pork without the BBQ sauce? And that I always sneak some out and freeze it? Provided Lola doesn’t get to it first and eat half of it? (That really happened, by the way). Well, the pork I used for this recipe, was in fact, the pork from the pulled pork I made and posted during the summer. Anyway, you use about a pound or two of pulled pork. Whatever you happen to have.

Next time I make this, the plan is to use leftover dark turkey meat. I bet it will be as good, if not better! If you try it first, let me know!

I grabbed about two precious cups of frozen chopped onion and sautéed that in Garlic Confit oil with about three cloves of Garlic Confit for a few minutes.

Then I added 8 cups (because that was the amount I had in the frozen bag, which, in hind sight, was too much) of frozen chicken stock made from — once again — garbage. But I haven’t photographed that process yet, so it will be a post for another time.

tomatoes frozen whole and grated into broth

Because I wanted this be green (the color), and because I’m still trying to figure out how to use all those whole frozen Green Zebra and Aunt Ruby German Giant green variety tomatoes (They really make for a nasty color sauce, or salsa.), I thought, “Aha! I’ll grate some frozen green tomatoes into the broth. Once again, I realize it is only me who happens to have frozen green tomatoes at the ready. But really. You can use fresh red, or canned. I used a microplane grater and grated about 3 small tomatoes.

I added two cans of hominy. Yes, this was to be a mother-load batch of posole, due to that damn ridiculously large amount of chicken stock.

I added about a cup of chopped frozen peppers. (Hot green ones) I just realized I never posted my chopped and frozen pepper process? Duh. It’s the exact same process that I use for onions. And just as handy.

peppers

I toasted about 3 tablespoons each of coriander seed and cumin.

fresh cilantro seed (coriander) and cumin

Then I ground that up in my mortar and pestle and threw that into the pot.

rough-grind it up!

But here was the problem: it turns out that green chile is actually a type of pepper. That is to say, jalapenos or Thai hot peppers just won’t do. At least, that’s what I learned when I researched it. I never knew that! So I was stumped. Lord knows I wasn’t about to get in the car and go to the store to buy some. So what could I use, what could I use… something green…

La Victoria Green Sauce? The one and only thing I put on top of my signature tacos? … no. Too thick. And the ingredients list green tomato as the first ingredient. No ‘green chile’ in sight…

Should I just give in and roast some poblano or pasilla dried chili?

No, dammit. I want a green posole! Like the one at the top of Vail mountain that I pay $8 a bowl for.

So I dug around in my pantry and came up with this:

hominy and green chile enchilada sauce. Ole!

Green Chile Enchilada sauce. I don’t even know where I got it or how old it was. And I poured it in.

Wa-la! A few grindings of pepper. A sprinkling of salt to taste… Simmer for another few minutes…

Then I fried up some corn tortilla strips, topped each bowl with pepitas (fancy name for shelled pumpkin seeds) and a big handful of crumbled Cotija Mexican cheese. And in my bowl, went a big dollop of cottage cheese. I know it sounds gross, but it’s like a mild sour cream with a lot less fat. It’s really good!

Green Chile Posole! Ole!

Start to finish: 20 minutes.

And of course, you don’t need to get this stuff from your freezer. You can just go out and buy it and use it fresh and chop what you need. But once I was almost done throwing this together on the fly in just minutes, I realized it was this poster-child recipe for all the stuff I’ve made and frozen over the past months. And so fast!

…Well for me anyway.

Nah nah nah nah boo boo.