Green Chile’s Great, But Don’t Forget the Red!

Although green chile is a New Mexican staple, it’s easy to forget how darn good some red chile can be. Indeed, red chile has a rich history in our region and there are lots of different kinds.

For hundreds of years, farmers in New Mexico have grown a more distinctive kind of red chile: known as Chimayo pods, these small, wrinkly chiles need to be matured for a bit longer, but it’s worth the wait. They’re delightfully sweet and mellow, unlike green chile, but they’re ideal for making a red chile sauce that’ll go with almost anything you put on your dinner table.

New Mexico Magazine published a great recipe for an authentic red chile sauce - we couldn’t help but share:

Makes approximately 4 cups

¾ cup ground dried New Mexican red chile, preferably Chimayó (available from santafeschoolofcooking.com)

2 tablespoons minced onion

1 teaspoon garlic salt, or more to taste

4 cups vegetable broth, preferably, or water

2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in an additional 2 tablespoons water

Combine chile, onion, and garlic salt in a large, heavy saucepan. Slowly add broth, mixing carefully. Break up any lumps of chile. Cook mixture over medium heat and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cornstarch mixture and cook about 5 minutes more. Completed sauce should be reduced by about one-quarter, coat a spoon thickly, and no longer taste of raw cornstarch. Add more garlic salt if you wish. Serve sauce warm with tortas, enchiladas, burritos, or other dishes.

Ahead-of-time note: Red chile sauce keeps for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. It also freezes well.

Click here for the full recipe, along with a recipe for bread pudding, from New Mexico Magazine. 

Get Around: Get a Round, Sweet, Donut

While Albuquerque might be most known for its Mexican-American cuisine, don’t underestimate the sweets! There are a ton of amazing bakeries in the area and one classic, American item you can find virtually anywhere is the good old donut.

Last week, ABQ Newscastic put together an awesome list of the best places to get a donut and a great bonus is that they’re all local and independently owned. So why don’t you support these local shops and satisfy that sweet tooth?

Lovin Oven Bakery (Espanola)

At this small family bakery, Dino hand cuts the donuts himself, because he believes hands on and fresh are best. "If a customer is going to pay for something, I'm going to make it fresh," he says. The daily assortment is not big, but if a customer wants something special, a call to Dino will see it made the next day. Classic donuts include the popular cherry glazed and chocolate chocolate, which typically sell out before the noon closing time.

West End Donut & Deli (Gallup)

Fans of West End Donuts swear by their blueberry donuts and buttermilk bars. It's a little out of the way, as in, is it really out there? Should I turn around? Doubt not. Your donuts will be crumbs in the box in no time.

Bosa Donuts (Las Cruces)

Las Cruces fans love Bosa Donuts for their classic fare. Glazed, cream, jelly-filled, turnovers and donut holes are popular, but their apple fritters have fans clamoring for more.

Sarina's (Carlsbad)

The small, family business in Carlsbad brings in fans from across the Texas border. Sarina's offers classic bear claws, filled and cake donuts and cinnamon rolls the size of your face. Their apple fritters are a standout.

Mama Tuckers Donut & Cake Shop (Roswell)

The sign for this no-frills shop claims "Best Donuts in the Universe," making it hard to pass by. There's a nice assortment of donuts, but you better get there before the farmers and ranchers do, as they sell out fast.

Click here for the full article from ABQ Newscastic!

Host an Exchange Student and Share Our Culture

If you happen to have an extra room or two in your apartment, you’ve probably thrown around some ideas in your head as to what to do with them. Sure, you can turn that spare room into a den or game room, but there’s a wonderfully fulfilling opportunity for extremely dedicated individuals.

The ASSE International Student Exchange programs are currently looking for homes in the Albuquerque area to house international high school boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 17. All students selected will be conversant in English, bright, and anxious to learn about the United States and study at local universities.

In addition, all ASSE students are fully insured and will have their own personal spending money to contribute towards household expenses. Families will even have the opportunities to choose students from a variety of backgrounds, nationalities, and interests.

Here’s some more information on ASSE, courtesy of the organization’s website:

When you host a foreign exchange student, your entire family will discover a world of fun and enlightening adventure. Simply by sharing your home for as little as three months, a semester or a school year, you will be giving an exceptional young person from another country the opportunity of a lifetime—to live with your family and experience the language, customs and culture of our country. In return, your exchange student will bring to your family a bit of his or her homeland. Students come from Europe, Asia/Pacific, the Middle East, the Americas and Africa.

Each year, ASSE and its affiliates place several thousand students, ages 15 to 18, in host families like yours throughout the world. ASSE International Student Exchange Programs invites you and your family to join all the families in our country and throughout the world in this memorable and valued cultural experience.

If you’re interested in more information about becoming a host family, contact Cindy at ASSE, at cindy@asse.com or 1-800-733-2773

Thanks For Making us TOP RATED!

The Arbors Apartments is proud to be recognized as a Top Rated Apartment Community for 2013, by ApartmentRatings.com!

Thanks to all our residents who have left us a positive review on the site over the past few months. We look forward to continuing to improve our community and winning many more awards to come!

ApartmentRatings.com (www.apartmentratings.com), the leading website for user reviews of apartments, today announced the 5,521 winners of the 2012 ApartmentRatings.com Top Rated Awards.

Only about 5% of all the communities listed on ApartmentRatings.com qualify for award consideration, making winning a Top Rated award an exclusive accomplishment. Winning communities demonstrated a combination of outstanding resident satisfaction ratings and excellent recommendation ratings, as reported by actual residents on ApartmentRatings.com throughout 2012.

Gritty Mexican Art at the National Hispanic Cultural Center

The National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico is one of the foremost museums of Hispanic history and culture in the Southwest. And when you pair that with New Mexico’s great universities and its thriving arts scene, it makes for some fantastic attractions.

One of the center’s latest exhibits is sure to please, whether you’re a connoisseur of Mexican art or not: Getting Up Pa 'l Pueblo: Tagging ASAR-Oaxaca Prints and Stencils is a new exhibit that features block prints, graffiti, and stencils, courtesy of the ASARO (Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca) at the University of New Mexico’s College of University Libraries and Learning, the Zimmerman Library, and the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections. The pieces, made by contemporary Mexican artists, can even be “tagged” physically or viewed virtually at asaro.unm.edu/exhibit. These labels will be collected and digitized, eventually becoming a permanent part of the CSWR collection at UNM.

Here’s some more information on the exhibit, courtesy of the NHCCNM’s website:

Getting Up Pa'l Pueblo is curated by Dr. Suzanne M. Schadl, Latin American Collections Curator, College of University Libraries and Learning Science, UNM and Mike Graham de la Rosa, Curatorial Intern, NHCC and Master's candidate in Latin American Studies, UNM, and is dedicated to the memory of UNM Distinguished Professor of Art History David Craven (1951-2012).

The exhibition was partially funded by a grant from the New Mexico Humanities Council, as well as through the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Additional sponsors include the Latin American and Iberian Institute, Center for Regional Studies, Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, and College of Fine Arts at UNM.

Click here for more information about the exhibit!