Visiting our neighbors to the south

This morning is glorious. The sun is shining and warm, the air is cool and just a little breezy, and the birds are singing like they're holding a concert for the world. When I took Zia out for a walk this morning, I started thinking about the two Anaheim peppers and the poblano sitting on my counter. We ordered them last week,  and they were starting to look a little wizened. So I decided to make rajas for breakfast.

I've had rajas several times at Mexican restaurants, usually as an appetizer. In my head, they were poblano strips, cream, and onions, usually served with warm corn tortillas. When I got home and looked them up, they were very different. The recipe I found (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/213710/rajas-poblanas-poblano-strips/) had corn in it, which I liked, and it also had a lot of things I didn't have, like cream cheese and crema. Since I was hell bent on having them, I did a lot of improvisation. I did roast the peppers, but then Walter said he had a morning meeting starting in 45 minutes, so there was no time to let them cool enough to peel them. So I pulled a bag of roasted red chile pods out of our freezer. I sauteed onions until they were soft, then added the corn and sliced red chiles to let them defrost and the flavors to meld together. I also added some garlic powder because who doesn't like garlic with chiles?I then pulled out my creme fraiche, which I figured was close enough to crema, and grated some gruyere cheese to give it that cheesy feeling. Added in some 1/2 and 1/2, and whizzed those three ingredients up in my food processor, and added it to my skillet with the onions, chiles, and corn. Finally, I cut some corn tortillas into strips and fried them, and scrambled some eggs because it is breakfast. I think it came out really good, but there were too many onions in it for Mr. Gude. He ate most of it, but shoved the onions around in the bowl so he could get at the good stuff.

There was quite a bit of the rajas left over, so I whizzed it up in the food processor and am going to use it as a sauce on some tacos or baked enchiladas tonight. It's a Mexican food kind of day I guess.

For a little sunshine in your day, here's a super cute picture of Zia. She was looking out of the doggy window Walter put in our fence. Our yard is about 3 feet above the sidewalk, and the window is about a foot above that, so she is right about head height if you're on the other side. It's really funny to see and hear people's reaction when she is looking them straight in the eyes as they walk by.

All for today - I'm off to plan the next meal, and take on the rest of my day!

Be well and take care of each other.