Most of the time, I feel that time just slips by. I check my email and facebook and the next thing I know it's time to make dinner. But Sundays are different. On Sundays, the husband sleeps in and I can tiptoe out of bed and change into my exercise clothes and go for a brisk walk. I love these morning walks. Often the marine layer is just beginning to clear and the light is getting sharper as I progress through my standard 1-mile loop. I love seeing all the variations in my neighbor's lawns. Some are perfectly manicured (in fact, my neighbor across the street putters in his front yard every day!) and some are more like ours -- unmowed, dry, but not too chaotic. And then there are the yards that make our yard look wonderful. I like that our neighbors are all different; we fit right in.
After my walk, I make the coffee and feed the cats and start making breakfast. Sunday morning breakfasts are delightful. My husband wakes to the smell of coffee and muesli toast and we spend about an hour eating, talking, listening to NPR week-end edition and reading the paper. It's sublime.
Then he heads to the office to work on his research and I do the weekly cleaning. Today I was more energetic than I've been in a long time so I managed to clean both litterboxes, vacuum, wipe down the sofa, water the garden, do 4 loads of laundry, dye 2 lots of silk, wash the dishes, wipe down the kitchen, spill dye on the floor which made it necessary to mop.... and then I made the Hatchbakus which DH will grill when he returns home.
Hatchbokus are a new invention, a variation of the Hamboku. Hamboku is the Korean word for hamburger and Bill's halmoni (grandmother) made fabulous hamboku with scallions, fresh chopped garlic, more garlic, an egg, some sesame oil and a dash of soy sauce. My innovation was to put kimchee on the grilled hamboku. My mother-in-law said she'd never heard of such a thing. Kimchee ON a hamburger? Now she thinks it's the best idea since rice cookers.
Hatchbokus are hamboku with the inclusion of chopped New Mexican roasted green chiles from Hatch, NM. This is the first year we have found them fresh roasted in San Diego and we are trying to collect, eat and freeze as many as possible. If you have never tried them, you might be lucky because roasted green chiles are like crack, heroin, and cocaine...though I have never tried any of those substances. Roasted green chiles are flavorful with a great pepper taste, a smokey overtone and just enough heat to make sweat pour down your forhead and onto your enchilada. And then, after that first chile tasting, you crave them. We spent 2 glorious summers housesitting for a friend in Taos, NM back when we lived in Austin, TX. On our first night we had dinner at Fred's. Green chile chicken enchiladas. The next morning, we sought out a cafe that served green chile sauce over fried eggs and potatoes.... then we had to have green chile tacos for lunch.... and the addiction was established. When our job was finished, we filled our cooler with fresh roasted green chiles and smelled heaven all the way home.....
Austin is a foodie town with eclectic tastes. And it was not long before we discovered that Chuy's had a green chile festival every year. So we were able to satiate our cravings. Then we moved to San Diego.
What a culinary shock! No tex-mex, no Texas bbq, and no green chiles. Over the years we have adjusted and grown to love Rubio's and Smokin' Joe's bbq, but we had no access to green chiles. It was a tough withdrawal, but we managed. Last year I discovered that a few Albertson stores carried frozen green chiles.... and they were an acceptable substitute.... but this year, we found Richard Utter and his chile roasting stand at the farmer's market in Little Italy! And yesterday, he was roasting at Whole Foods in Hillcrest. We are in green chile heaven! But the season is short, so we must work quickly to fill our freezer for the winter. And in the meantime, we are inventing new uses for the chiles and today's invention is the Hatchboku....
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