brian-in-alaska
Active member
I feel like I have been in hibernation for sure. Actually I have been travelling quite a bit in the past six weeks. One 10 day trip to Las Vegas, and three trips to Fairbanks.
I am in Fairbanks now, and last night was invited to a staff member's house for dinner. The caveat was I had to cook it!! That was a challenge I gladly accepted. They had a bunch of friends coming over, and chili was the dish of choice. I accepted the challenge, but changed the theme from chili to chile, and went shopping at the local Fred Meyer's. Fortunately they have a pretty good selection of New Mexico chile, both powdered and whole, dried. Got a bunch of stuff and made an awesome pot of New Mexico Red.
I will admit it had a few different ingredients in it. I normally do not use tomatoes or beans if I want the "real" stuff. But since it was a crowd I let caution fly to the wind. I made the red sauce first, then added some pork, and caribou. The caribou was really good it it, and fried up well in the pork fat. Then I reconstituted five packages of various dried pepper varieties and pureed them, adding the juice to the pot. Also added the sauce from a can of Chipotle's in sauce.
Bottom line is it came out well. It had that burn that I always look for, i.e., not real spicey when you put it in your mouth, but, after you swallow it the burn builds slowly and peaks several seconds later. Even folks that cannot handle hot and spicey went for seconds.
And on the way back to my hotel room the Northern Lights were out and very bright. So all in all it was a good night. Except for the fact that my ladies were back home in Anchorage on Valentine's Day. But, I found out they went to Simon & Seafort's for the half price appetizers and had a great time too.
I see you are in Seattle for a week. They have a "Ruth's Chris" there in one of the hotels on the Grayline route. And a place called "Jasmine" right near the old Four Season's Hotel (I think its the Fairmount or something like that now) and across the street from the Hotel Monaco is a pretty eclectic asian place.
Have fun ....
I am in Fairbanks now, and last night was invited to a staff member's house for dinner. The caveat was I had to cook it!! That was a challenge I gladly accepted. They had a bunch of friends coming over, and chili was the dish of choice. I accepted the challenge, but changed the theme from chili to chile, and went shopping at the local Fred Meyer's. Fortunately they have a pretty good selection of New Mexico chile, both powdered and whole, dried. Got a bunch of stuff and made an awesome pot of New Mexico Red.
I will admit it had a few different ingredients in it. I normally do not use tomatoes or beans if I want the "real" stuff. But since it was a crowd I let caution fly to the wind. I made the red sauce first, then added some pork, and caribou. The caribou was really good it it, and fried up well in the pork fat. Then I reconstituted five packages of various dried pepper varieties and pureed them, adding the juice to the pot. Also added the sauce from a can of Chipotle's in sauce.
Bottom line is it came out well. It had that burn that I always look for, i.e., not real spicey when you put it in your mouth, but, after you swallow it the burn builds slowly and peaks several seconds later. Even folks that cannot handle hot and spicey went for seconds.
And on the way back to my hotel room the Northern Lights were out and very bright. So all in all it was a good night. Except for the fact that my ladies were back home in Anchorage on Valentine's Day. But, I found out they went to Simon & Seafort's for the half price appetizers and had a great time too.
I see you are in Seattle for a week. They have a "Ruth's Chris" there in one of the hotels on the Grayline route. And a place called "Jasmine" right near the old Four Season's Hotel (I think its the Fairmount or something like that now) and across the street from the Hotel Monaco is a pretty eclectic asian place.
Have fun ....