It’s chile season in Denver and that means road side stands have popped up all over town offering bushels of fresh roasted chiles for a steal. Green chili is a Colorado winter staple and the true ‘Coloradoan’ way to make it is with fresh chiles that you cleaned and froze earlier in the year. In a pinch you can use canned but in my opinion it’s just not the same.
As a Colorado Native buying and cleaning roasted chiles is a fall tradition I love! Moving outside the state it never felt like fall because other areas of the country just don’t have the crops to support the big scale roasting stands we have here. They do sell fresh roasted chiles at Central Market in Texas, but I’m not sure where else you can get them. If you are somewhere else in the US, please comment if you know where to find Chilies in your area!
Shopping at a road side stand means the best deal will be on a full bushel. Sometimes you can buy less, but it’s not as good a value. If you have the space just go for an entire bushel and hand off whatever doesn’t fit in your freezer to neighbors and friends. The stand we went is located off 92nd and Federal (in Federal Heights) and bushels were $40 buy one get one free.
You start off by picking the level of hotness you want in your chile. Since these are fresh less is usually more, unless you really do love extra spicy. We went with one bushel of medium and one bushel of hot. Usually I would actually get a mild chile but at the time there were not any available.
The roaster tosses all your chilies into a propane powered roaster and spins the chilies until they have a nice crispy look. This is when they load them into a big trash bag for you to take home. Pro Tip: Bring a cooler for your car and toss the chilies in there to prevent filling the car with the smell of roasted chilies.
Once home, leave the chilies in the bags overnight to cool. This allows the chiles to ‘sweat’ and will make it easier to remove the skins. The bags will begin to drip so you can either keep them in the cooler or toss them into a sink.
Once you start cleaning you need a large sink, two plastic colanders and a pair of rubber gloves. Chilies are spicy and the capsicum will get into your skin and cuticles. If you don’t use gloves, definitely don’t plan to touch your eyes for a few days!
Turn the sink on low and run the chilies one at a time under the water. The skin will peel off quickly and you can toss it into the first colanders. I then place my clean chilies into the second colander.
If you like heat, leave the caps and seeds on your chiles. If you do not, remove the tops and wash out as many seeds as you can. The spiciness lies in the chile seeds.
Once you have finished the first cleaning round I like to go through the entire batch a second time as I place them into 1 qt freezer bags. I usually count out 20 chilies per bag.
A single bushel produces about 6-8 1 quart bags depending on the size of the chilies. Once everything is sorted and cleaned, lay them flat in the freezer and the chilies will keep for up to a year!
Frozen green chilies are perfect for making Pork Green Chili, breakfast casseroles, chili relleno and more. Do you have a favorite green chili recipe? Leave it in the comments!
For Colorado natives like myself, Denver has changed a lot in the last few years. Heavy population growth and rising home prices are both a good and a bad part of living here, ultimately resulting in a much longer commute into the city. I work downtown and live about 30 minutes north of the city. Depending on the day my commute into work could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
While Colorado is working hard to improve public transit options, we have a long way to go. If I want to take a bus or train I have to drive to the station and can only get within about a mile of my office. With the possibility of our office parking lot turning into a new building, finding a good way to commute is becoming more and more important.
When I attended CES in January I had a chance to visit with the folks at the Razor booth and learn a bit more about their electric scooter options. Razor has a scooter share program already in place here so I knew that the scooters existed but I didn’t realize that they also have a number of options for people to buy and own.
Being able to hop on a scooter and jet from Union Station over to my office makes commuting so much easier. What would normally be a 20 minute walk turns into a 5 minute scooter ride and there’s no need to worry about being gross and sweaty for the rest of the day.
I’ve been testing out the new E Prime Air Electric Scooter and it hits all the marks for everything I need for a commuter scooter. With the ability to go up to 15 mph and a battery that lasts 40 minutes on a single charge I can easily get to and from Union Station downtown without needing to worry about charging during the day. The scooter itself folds up, so when I jump on the bus or train I don’t have to worry about storing it securely or keeping it locked up.
Just so you are aware, 15 mph is pretty fast! It doesn’t seem like it inside of a car but when you are on a scooter you can feel the speed. Having a good helmet and proper lighting so cars can see you is important both for your safety and those around you.
Both the throttle and break are thumb operated making it easy to speed up or slow down depending on the flow of traffic. In Colorado electric scooters are allowed to use marked bike lanes, so being able to easily stay with the other vehicles in that space is really important for safety.
The E Prime Air is perfect for getting to class
In addition to being a great option for getting to work, both college and high school students would love the E Prime Air for commuting to class.
My sister Emily is starting her first year on campus at CU Denver (Go RAMS – It hurts me too) and she’s living in the dorms. Her classes are throughout the downtown campus so being able to get there quickly is really important. My cousin Kerry is in her second year at Metro and together she and Emily both are attending classes on the same campus. Kerry was amazing enough to help show me around campus and share how a scooter is perfect for students!
With the E Prime Air it’s easy to zip from the dorms to class and fold up the scooter before going inside. It becomes as compact as a skateboard so you can safely tuck it under a desk and not need to worry about finding a place to lock it up between classes.
Overall I love the E Prime Air and have been really enjoying spending more time outside, and less in a car! The added value of lowering the amount of times we have to use a car makes having an electric scooter a no-brainer way to work towards protecting the beauty of Colorado!
Razor E Prime Air Electric Scooter
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Disclaimer: I received a demo product from Razor to facilitate this review. All photography and opinions are my own.
Interested in other product reviews? Check out my experience with Ring Doorbell!
One of my favorite things about traveling is food. Ok, one of my favorite things about LIFE is food…. During our last trip to London we found a few resturants that we absolutely loved and I was excited as we started planning our anniversary trip to London and Scotland to find more places that we’d talk about for the next couple of years.
Historically the UK gets a bad rap for cuisine. Baked beans, mushrooms and meat, everything is brown and beige. While thats usually true of an English breakfast the rest of the day is a stark contrast from what we are accustomed to in the US.
Instead of aimlessly wandering with the hope of stumbling across good food we signed up for the East End Food Tour with Eating Europe. Lasting four hours the walking London Food tour starts at Spitalfields Market and covers a history of both the cuisine and the development of the area.
Historically the East End has been a hub for immigration, starting with the Huguenots fleeing France in 1685 to to the Jewish community from the 1880s and beyond. As a result the area is a melting pot of cultures, making the options for dining out endless. We visited this area on our last trip as part of a Jack the Ripper Tour (the East End also home to his hideous crimes), we didn’t get a chance to experience the rich culture that you see during the daytime.
A Walking London Food Tour
Our London Food tour group met up at the Huguenots Gate and started off the day with a Bacon sandwich from St. JOHN Bread and Wine. Know for their ‘nose to tail’ cooking style, we enjoyed a traditional Bacon Sandwich. Served up on thick fresh made bread with house ketchup the simplicity of the dish showcased the rich flavors of the bacon without overshadowing it through additional toppings.
After learning the history of the area and the market (Spitalfields coming from the word Hospital) we were off to around the corner for a morning ‘pudding’ at The English Restaurant. This was one of the few locations we sat inside to enjoy our dish and the interior is cozily decorated to feel like you were invited into a friends house for a bite. In England most desserts are considered puddings and served with extra custard this individual serving treat did not disappoint. Made using a thick bread and soaked heavily in a rich flavorful custard I could have eaten both mine and Drew’s dish if he had let me!
We continued our walk around the corner where we learned about council funded living before stopping for a bit of cheese and bread at Bedales. Thick crusty french bread was the perfect compliment to blue cheese and cheddar. Unique from the bright orange ‘American Cheddar’ we are used to in the states this cheddar cheese was more of a light yellow and didn’t have the sharp edge of flavor that you might find state side. Blue cheese is always my favorite so I had both my portion and those belonging to the other guests who don’t understand how mold can taste so good. The creamy texture and edge of flavor is everything I look for in a blue cheese.
A quick walk took us back through Spitalfields and over to Poppies Fish and Chips. Open since 1952 the interior of the restaurant evokes the feeling of a classic 50’s diner and each serving came wrapped in Poppies own food safe newsprint. While Fish & Chips were served in newsprint for decades food safety and the predominance of lead and other chemicals has changed the presentation of this iconic British dish. We enjoyed our portion with a serving of mushy peas, intended for dipping the chips in. Fried up with a fluffy yet not heavy batter the fish needed only a bit of vinegar to pull out the full flavor of the fish.
Our next destination took us through conserved block of 17th century architecture, including a quick whispered point toward the home now occupied by ‘High Sparrow’ of Game of Thrones fame. This area was once occupied by large families and considered low-income housing but today is home to multi-million dollar renovations and properties.
As the walk evolved the path changed from well manicured historic homes to a more modern art experience as we entered the block known as Brick Lane. Famous for being the home of the best Bangladeshi food in London, we enjoyed a wide array of street art as we made our way past countless resturants each calling themselves the purveyor of the best curry on the street.
Our journey stopped at Aladin Indian Restaurant where we journeyed inside for a serving of three incredibly flavorful dishes. Here we enjoyed the London made tikka masala alongside a spicy lamb and vegetarian veggie curry. The lamb option was my favorite and I could have happily swung back by here for an early dinner if I had any room left to eat after the end of the tour [I did not].
We continued down the block where the road transitioned to a more modern and hipster spin. Here we walked past several ‘Beigel’ shops until we made it to our intended destination ‘Beigel Bake’. For those wondering about the difference between Beigel and Bagel the item is the same, but the word itself has become Americanized. Baigel is derived from the Yiddish word Bajgiel.
These Baigel’s were similar to what you expect [round with a hole in the middle] but that was where the comparison stops. Freshly made each morning these were light and fluffy and not at all the carb-gut-busting heavy you expect in the United States. Our portion was served as a salt beef sandwich (corned beef) and the combination was amazing. This was Drew’s favorite stop on the tour and we did strongly consider coming back here more than once throughout our trip.
What floored me the most was the price point. A dozen bagels (no flavoring) came to just 3.60 sterling or roughly $4.25. A salt beef sandwich would have been 5.00 sterling / $6.00. Even with the extra cost of being in a big city this was a steal!
While we didn’t have any room left for more food there was one more stop on the tour. We took the scenic walk back around the Brick Lane area and landed at Pizza East for dessert. We each received a slice of salted caramel tart alongside a pot of english tea to help wash down the day’s delicacies. The last time we visited London I learned that salted caramel is the best thing ever created so I knew I was going to be a huge fan of this dessert.
Each slice was on the smaller side, making it perfect for enjoying after an already full day of eating but what I really loved about this stop was the tea. Tea is not something you have a hard time finding in London, but this tea was really really good. It could be that it had steeped a bit longer or it was the tea leaves themselves that made the tea the ideal rich compliment to the sweet creamy texture of the tart.
After five stops I couldn’t possibly havent eaten anything else so we called it a day and headed back through the Spitalfield’s Market to explore before heading back to our hotel in Westminster for the night.
This London Food tour was hosted by Eating Europe and we experienced the East End Tour. Eating Europe has two other London Food tours and offers similar experiences in Italy, Amsterdam and Prague. I loved getting to check out places I would have never found on my own and enjoying the day alongside other tourists provided the opportunity to make new travel friends at the same time.
If you are interested in booking a London Food tour (or any other city tour) with Eating Europe our amazing guide Josie provided her discount code to pass along for 10% off your booking! Use JOSIE at checkout and the discount will be applied automatically,
Disclaimer: I received a discounted experience to facilitate the writing of this review. All opinions and photography are my own.
Interested in other travel tips? Check out my posts on how to travel to London with just a backpack or vacationing in London as a couple.
The Instant Pot has been a game changer in my house. With how easy it makes getting dinner on the table I wanted to try out some options for other meals – like breakfast. Recently I’ve been loving the Garden Lites Frittata’s from Costco for a quick and easy breakfast but unfortunately they aren’t an item that is sold year round.
I heard that it’s super easy to make Frittata’s using my instant pot so I set out to find a few recipes. To cook these up easily you need to pick up an egg bites mold and you’ll be on your way to a quick and easy breakfast in minutes (or as soon as Amazon delivers).
Continue Reading…Welcome to My Bliss
