Red, Green or Christmas!!

When it turned into October, all the sudden I saw big roasters being placed in front of grocery stores, then on every empty street corner. I had no idea what was going on or why there were lines of people. 

When you go to restaurants here to eat, breakfast, lunch or dinner. The waitress with ask you, do you want it green, red or Christmas. I was really confused and just said neither. So, what this is all means, it is CHILI season here in Albuquerque. When they ask you green, red or Christmas, they are asking, what kind of Chili sauce do you want, Christmas means a mix of the 2. It really depends on your taste buds which one you like. Boomer and I LOVE green and Morgan likes red.

Back to the roasters, you go and buy chili's...you have to buy a minimum of 8-10 pounds. So, I jumped in a decided to learn the culture. I bought 10 pounds,  then I had them roast them there, you can do it at home but it would take longer. You can buy mild, medium or HOT or a mixture between them all.

After purchasing them, you have to leave them in the bag they give you, for at least 2 hours before preparing them. They are still cooking in the bag. After you have to take of a thin layer of the skin, the part that was roasted, then you take the seeds and stem off. It is a process. It felt like skinning fish and taking out there guts out, a little less stinky :0) but very slimy.

A fact I didn't know, when you look at the pictures, green chili's are green because they are picked before turning red. So, there are a few that have red streaks in them. After getting mine all prepared, I made a chili sauce. It was REALLY good, Boomer puts it on every thing. The other stuff, I just chopped and put in 4oz baggies in the freezer. I am set for any recipes that call for green chili's. It was a fun thing to learn. My friend even brought me over red chili's on a string, I see them on every ones house. I feel very New Mexican with them hanging in my kitchen :0)