The Friday Fives

1. It’s October! What is your favorite part of autumn?

Crisp mornings, the smell of the leaves changing. I like the colors of the October sunset.

2. What are your thoughts on pumpkin spice?

It is overrated. It doesn’t have to be in everything. But here is a nice pumpkiny thing:

Russian Tea (an old recipe from my grandmother)

Steep 4 tea bags in a pot. Add half a cup of sugar and about a cup or so (to taste) of orange juice.

In a cloth bag or cheese cloth put in some whole cloves and allspice and some cinnamon (to taste)

Let the batch steep a bit to bring in the spice (about 4 or 5o minutes)

And voila, spice tea. Enjoy.

3. When the fall comes around, what song comes to mind?

Probably something from .38 Special because it was part of a heavy rotation high school mix listened to out in the parking lot before classes began.

4. What foods come back to the kitchen in the cooler months?

Baking up some artisan sourdough bread. Which sparks me to retrieve my starter from the back of the refrigerator and bring it back to life.

5. Is there a favorite fall movie that isn’t a Halloween/horror film?

Well, the obvious is October Sky.

3 Replies to “The Friday Fives”

  1. 1) Less people in the mountains and less traffic going to the mountains.

    2) Used to like me a pumpkin spice latte, but then I grew up and only like eggnog lattes. Pumpkin spice as a spice can be useful on very rare occasions.

    3) Hazy shade of winter by the Bangles (not the Mamas and Papas).

    4) Slow cooker soups and stews. Love me some slow cooker.

    5) Not really. Movies are movies and fall does not come into the selection.

  2. Friday Fives – Let’s talk green chili!
    Posted on October 7, 2022

    It’s October! What is your favorite part of autumn?

    The weather… which I know is an obvious answer. Being a weather dork, let me be specific. The stability. The weather in Colorado is remarkably stable. It’s nice in the days, chilly at night, and cold in the am. All day, every day. See… April and May can have that nice weather, but those are also the months of blizzards. June? Tornados. Plus, our Rocky Mountain leaves change as the Aspen’s drop their foliage. I know its nothing like the Adirondacks… or Quohog, but its pretty great.

    What are your thoughts on pumpkin spice?

    Have none. Neither furit, nor am I aginit. This is real hard hitting journalism, Mr. Editor. Pumpkin Spice? You sicken me. THIS is what you did with your fucking Harvard Law School degree? This is what a Rhodes Scholar asks people now?

    When the fall comes around, what song comes to mind?

    Can’t say why, but I have Big Head Todd on my mind a lot in the last few days. Wait… I do know why. Has to do with this Stratocaster. Whenever I pick up a Strat, by law I am required to play the great ‘Bittersweet’. And I just got a new (to me) Strat.

    What foods come back to the kitchen in the cooler months?

    I have a kinda secret little recipe called ‘jam hatch green chili into everything’. At and around Labor Day, farmers from Hatch, New Mexico migrate up to Denver just after harvest to sell fresh roasted Hatch green chilis. When people in Colorado talk about ‘green chili’ anything, it means they are talking about the Hatch chilis. It’s a very Colorado (and New Mexico) thing. I had never heard of or seen any of this in Arizona. Each year, I buy a basket. Is that a bushell? Are those same things? I think a bushell is more. Now we start making ‘green chili’. Every good Coloradoan has a green chili recipe. So let me quick explain, in case its not implied.

    5 Places to Buy Hatch Green Chiles Online | Kitchn

    ‘Green Chili’ is a pork stew that requires a metric butt ton of roasted Hatch green chili’s, and a butt ton of pork diced up. At 3 or 4 huge cans of tomatoes, and start bragging. I use Hatch chili’s on cheeseburgers, eggs, and lots of other stuff. For baseline, here is what a basket of green chili looks like. You buy them like this at a roasting place… which will be on an unused dirt corner or vacant lot. Look for these huge roasters. They will roast them for you, and they will look like this when they are done. You are then left with a large hot and heavy sack of fresh roasted green chili. I let them sit in the back for at least a day to steam themselves into complacency. Then I get home and I break the whole thing into half pound ziplock bags to freeze. Each ziplock is like a week or two’s worth of chili.

    There is a Colorado citizenship test. A lot of people think it involves weed and Subarus and Nalgenes. And it does. You will also be asked what your green chili recipe is, and which lot you prefer at Red Rocks. Or, keep watching this terrific video until you get all the references.

    Is there a favorite fall movie that isn’t a Halloween/horror film?

    Well, I am too cowardly to watch horror movies, so my answer is skewed. But Fall is as good a time as any to re-watch ‘Big Fish’.

  3. 1) I love the smell. The smell of fall is just something magic. Nothing else is quite like it.

    2) Like pineapple on pizza if it’s your thing go for it, if it’s not your thing don’t. Who am I to judge. That being said! The holiday flavor game gets so overplayed it’s embarrassing how dim people are for being manipulated by marketing tactics.

    3) Neil Young – Harvest Moon

    4) Usually warm croc pot foods but even in the fall it’s still fucking hot & humid in Florida.

    5) Apocalypse Now, cuz ummm why not?

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