The Return of the Foodie

Met my foodie TTU Red Raider son at the airport yesterday, home from a summer internship in Germany. He'll only be here a few days, so we went to Central Market second thing this morning. He loves to cook, he's good at it, and it was fun to share the shopping trip. We got delicious Texas peaches, items for Greek salad, Italian cookies, tomato/mozzarella with fresh basil, Smart chicken, and some very nice pork chops that we made for lunch before the outdoor temp reaches 100 again and makes the kitchen unbearable. We glazed the pork chops, carrots, mushrooms, and green pepper with "Austin Slow Burn" Green Chile Jam. Went great with the Texas peaches.



I've grown rather fond of Central Market for the occasional nutritious/delicious inspiration. I've never again met the foodie lamb puppet that traumatized me on my first visit, thank you very much. It's the Hatch chile harvest festival at the store, but the chiles are quite mild this year because of all the rain. "All the rain" is a strange phrase to use in connection with New Mexico. The village of Hatch is near Las Cruces in SW New Mexico, and it's the Chile Capital of the World. This brief from today's Dallas Morning News:

Flash-flood watches were issued for much of New Mexico as monsoon rains continued Monday. The governor sent a formal request to the White House asking for a presidential disaster declaration for the southern New Mexico village of Hatch, where more than 400 homes were affected by the floodwaters last week. Officials warned of more flash-flooding there Monday evening.

Very bad news for my UNM Lobo son with his acquired fondness for spicy chiles. Wish we could sit down with Al Gore at the Frontier Cafe across from the UNM campus for a good breakfast and bizarre global weather update! By the way, Al, if you're near Dallas, we are going to have a really good Greek salad for supper tonight. There's enough for Tipper, too. The Foodie is in charge, and it will be delicious.