What’s in the Woods?

I just posted the blog on Chili Rellenos a few minutes ago. I actually wrote the text on both blogs and had everything ready to post a week ago, but did not get time. So here are two in one day.

From my bedroom window, I saw some mushrooms that looked interesting, so I took the camera with me to investigate. When I first saw them from the window, I thought they might be some kind of morel mushroom that we frequently see this time of year in the woods. As I got closer, this is what I saw.
Even closer yet, I could see they were not morels.

I looked in our Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. The closest I could find was “Shaggy Mane” which was listed as “choice”. There were enough differences (like the cap on top) that I was not going to try them out. There were also some similarities to “Scaly Inky Cap” which was listed as edible with caution. Regardless of what kind of mushroom these actually were, I decided to go with the caution philosophy and only take photos.

While in the yard with the camera, I thought I should check out the growing sink hole. A couple of years ago, a new large hole opened up in the front sink hole. It had steep sides and was pretty deep with lots of mud in the bottom. We recently had lots of rain. We had about 5 inches in one day, so I was wondering how the muddy sink hole was, because the scouts are coming to our house to play capture the flag in the woods at night on Wednesday evening, and I did not want it to eat any scouts. This is what it looks like now.

The diameter has increased from erosion and filled in the bottom so it is not as deep as it was a few months ago. Rocky used to go nuts when Joseph would go down in the hole, which made it more fun.

I think I need to mark it off with some caution tape and glow sticks for Wednesday night so we don’t lose any scouts in the dark.

Chili Rellenos

One of my favorite places to eat Mexican food is Pueblo Nuevo in Hazelwood on Lindbergh. They serve chili rellenos that are really good. They use poblano or ancho peppers which are shapes somewhat like bell peppers but they are mildly hot and are usually picked when they are dark green. They are called ancho peppers when they are fresh and called poblano when they are cooked.

I liked the chili rellenos so much that I decided to grow my own poblano peppers. I started with 6 plans and recently picked the peppers. The photo below shows the peppers we had AFTER about 15 had been roasted, including the 6 Mom used to make our dinner last week.
The peppers are roasted to get the skins off. We used the oven method by putting them in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. When the skins puff up, they are done. The peppers are then pulled out and wrapped in a wet towel. When they have cooled down enough to handle, the skins are removed and the top of the pepper is opened and seeds removed without completely opening the pepper. Strips of Monterrey Jack Cheese are then placed inside the peppers as shown in the following photo.
The peppers are then rolled in flower.
Once coated, the peppers are dipped in an egg mixture described at the end.
They are then fried in hot oil until golden brown.
Mom made 6 of them.
This is what it looked like on the plate with rice.
They were really really good. We each had two for dinner. Mom had one the next day for lunch and I froze my leftover one and took in my lunch to see how good they were after freezing and then re-heating in the microwave. It was still really good.

I roasted quite a few peppers and pealed them and then froze them to use in future foods. Mom also roasted a bunch of peppers and made a green chili stew that was really tasty. We still have about half of the peppers in the refrigerator that I plan on roasting one of these days and making a bunch more chili rellenos.

The recipe that Mom used was scaled from the recipe on page 7 of Ryan and Hailey’s Family Cookbook.

6 ancho (poblano) peppers
Monterrey Jack Cheese
4 eggs – separated
½ tsp salt
Pinch of baking powder
1 T milk
Oil for frying.

After baking the peppers in the oven at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes, or when the skins puff up, they are removed and placed in a wet towel. Remove the skins when the peppers have cooled enough to handle. Cut open the to and remove the seeds without completely opening up the pepper. Some recipes say to leave the stem in, which is what they do at Pueblo Nuevo, but since we do not eat the stem, there was no point to leaving it in. Stuff the pepper with cheese and then roll in flour. The peppers are then dipped in the egg batter made as follows:
Combine egg whites, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl and beat until stiff. In another bowl, stir the egg yokes and milk together. Very gently fold the whipped egg whites into the yoke mixture. This is a very critical step. Don’t mix, just fold 2 or 3 times maximum. Don’t crush the little bubbles of egg whites
After dipping in the egg batter, fry in hot oil until golden brown and the cheese is melting and oozing out of the pepper. Remove from frying pan and drain on a paper towel. Serve with favorite salsa and sour cream. Our favorite salsa is actually Salsa Verde, but we were out and use Pace mild salsa instead.

Chain Saw Skills

Each year on the first Saturday of October, Art’s Lawnmower in Blackjack, where we bought our mowers, chainsaw and tiller, has a big open house where they have chain saw experts to demonstrate the new equipment. The also have free brats and soda and chain sharpening for about half price. I like to go between conference sessions and get my brat and soda and get my chains sharpened for the winter wood cutting season.

The Brats were good. The served them with the traditional sauerkraut, with ketchup and other condiments. They also had home made apple butter this time. I tried it with the sauerkraut, and it was really good.

They had someone from Stihl Chain saws demonstrating how you do sculpturing on a log with a chain saw. The first photo is the chainsaw expert in action.
The next photo is a completed eagle.
I think I’ll just stick to cutting up logs for firewood. That is more my skill level.