Roasted Hatch Green Chili Peppers and Memories from a Road Trip

MMMMM Yummy!

So, if you will recall, Bryson, we went on a road trip.    …a little over a week ago.  ALLLLLL the way across the country, with a couple of detours.

The detours were to check out a couple areas of the country I have heard about all my life, but never seen. We drove through Oklahoma instead of all the way through Kansas. We did that so that we could see a huge flat piece of land in Oklahoma, and then nip back up over the border to the SW corner of Kansas and check out Elkhart, Kansas… a tiny town on the Kansas and Oklahoma border. We stopped first at an abandoned cemetery just outside Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I wanted to see if we could find the grave of Daisy May and her newborn baby. Daisy May’s portrait has hung on the wall of my mom’s house, and now my home, for my whole life. She is beautiful! She was my Great-Grandma’s (Zinnia Jane) sister.

We found Keys Cemetery… it was in rough shape.

I had high hopes and dreams that we would find the final resting spot of Daisy May.

Even though we did not find her gravestone, it was a really sweet and special time as we wandered around the cemetery and tried to find all the headstones. There was a feeling of connection to that overgrown piece of land.

Our next detour was to the latitude and longitude: N 36°53’06.9″, W 101°47’06.2″.  That’s the center of Section 20, Township 5 North, Range 12 East, Cimmaron Meridian.

This exact spot is where my great grandparents (your great GREAT grandparents) homesteaded (they had the northwest corner of the section, which would be 160 acres). In 1905 they traveled by covered wagon from Iowa with next to nothing in their pockets, in search of MORE.

Your great grandfather would stop and do odd jobs along the way to earn money for food. They would not touch the registration fee for their new land. They had been told that for the mega whopping price of $14.00 US dollars registration fee they would receive the rights to 160 acres of CRAZY flat, WINDY, hot, dry land in the Panhandle of Oklahoma.

A piece of land they could call their own.

There was nothing there but sky, grassland and a few wild sunflowers.

It was beautiful in a somewhat anxious way. Maybe I only felt the anxiety because when they first viewed it, they must have had such high dreams and hopes.  When I first viewed it, I knew their future.

I am really glad that we where able to see the land that helped shape our family.

*******

We drove through a tiny section of New Mexico as  we continued out journey to Utah.

NEW MEXICO! Do you know what that means? Hatch Green Chilies!

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT GREEN CHILIES. Hatch green chilies are grown in a valley in New Mexico and they taste amazing. The entire time we drove through New Mexico all I thought about was how much I was craving anything with really good green chilies! As luck would have it… we were nowhere close to Hatch Valley, New Mexico… no green chilies.

But after we got home from our trip, I walked into Sprouts this week and what did I see? Like mana from heaven … HATCH GREEN CHILIES! Right here in good ol’ Georgia.

God is real.

Moral of this long tale, sons… Family is important and if you see bright green Hatch Chilies in your local market, buy a ton, roast and freeze them for future use!

Joy!

Roasted Hatch Green Chili Peppers

Simple roasted green chili peppers. Great to freeze and have on hand for soups, stews, casseroles, salsas and so much more!

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course How-To

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 2 - 3 pounds Hatch Green Chili Peppers Or any fresh green chili pepper

Instructions

 

• Wash and dry green chilies. Turn broiler on and move oven rack to highest setting.
  
• Spread in peppers in a single layer on cookie sheet.
  
• Roast in the oven, turning ever 5 minutes to char all sides.
  
• After all sides have been blackened remove from oven and place in bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool.
  
• Once peppers have cooled, peel the tough leathery, blackened skin off. You will have the soft, tender juicy pulp of the pepper left.
  
• Split pepper open and remove the top and all the seeds.
  
• Mmmmm yum.
  
• I portion the peppers out and store in the freezer. They will keep in freezer for 4 months.