New Mexico - The Land of Enchantment

New Mexican food is a mix between Mexican and Pueblo Native American cuisine.  There was a lot to choose from for the menu, I decided to go with a traditional Christmas New Mexican Main dish called Posole Rojo.  The main ingredients in Posole Rojo are pork, hominy and New Mexico chili peppers.  As I was making the Posole I thought it was going to be a failure, in the end it turned out OK.  I have never used hominy before and to be honest canned hominy is really disgusting, but it worked in the stew. 

The salad (Ensalada de Fiesta) was good and the tostatdos (tortilla chips) were really good and the company was great.   My friend Polly came for dinner, she has been to every state in the US (except Alaska) and brought the best part of the meal, a dipping sauce (it's not from New Mexico but it is so delicious).  Sydney's friend Jacqueline and Lauren come for dinner too.

               

Polly and I had Margaritas (with vodka substituted for tequila) and the kids had Jarritos (Mexican soda). For dessert we had Bischochitos, which are like sugar cookies with cinnamon sprinkled on top. The recipe called for anise but we hate licorice so I substituted vanilla. The biscochitos were OK. I would definitively not make them again.

    

We are moving on to New York, the kids have requested New York Style Pizza...

New Jersey - The Garden State

It has been months since we had a family state dinner, life got in the way.  Now that I am finally settled into the new house and we are all together for a few weeks we will try and eat our way through a few states.

It is fitting that we started back on NJ.  I spent my formative years at exit 4 in The Garden State (5th grade through high school).  Whenever someone would ask me where I was from I would always say I was from the Philadelphia area.  New Jersey is divided into two separate cuisines, South Jersey and North Jersey.  Southern New Jersey  is Philly style food and North Jersey is New York City.

Karen, Soren, Louise and Lauren came for dinner.  Karen, who is one of my best friends in the NW, grew up in NJ and graduated from Trenton State.  For graduation she asked for a one way ticket to Seattle, that was 30+ years ago. 

 

I forgot how much I miss the food.  I grew up eating Taylor Pork Roll, it was a staple in our house.  I was able to find it in Seattle at DeLaurenti.  Taylor Pork Roll is best fried and then served on a hard roll.  Jersey is famous for its tomatoes, asparagus, peaches and corn so we had them all for dinner. The sliced tomatoes, spicy corn and roasted asparagus recipes are ones I use all the time and are fool proof and always good. 

I also made Disco Fries, which are french fries with gravy and mozzarella cheese.  I had never heard of Disco Fries, apparently they are popular in North Jersey.  They are delicious!  We also had Welchs Grape Juice to drink with dinner (made in NJ).

For dessert Sydney made a peach cobbler and topped it with peaches ice cream.  Our second dessert was some Whipped Vodka which we had in honor of the show Jersey Shore.  It was surprisingly tasty, I think it was Soren's favorite.

Karen and Soren wore their Jersey Girl and

Springsteen T Shirts and brought Salt Water Taffy. 

Next week, New Mexico!!!