Desert Magnolia

Here in New Mexico we take our green chili seriously. We love it. We talk about it endlessly, we await each new harvest with great anticipation, and then we do what we do, in our own special way when it's time to bring it home. First, there is choosing the temperature. This process requires conferring with the local roaster, reading recent articles about the heat of this year's crop, then deciding which way to go. This year we got Hot, which, we were told, is really Medium Hot. Second, there is the roasting. This requires waiting in line, usually in sweltering heat, while a sweaty roaster person dumps the chili in the roaster and begins the process. They adjust the flames a few times, monitor the progress of the roast, and when it's just right, they dump it into a plastic garbage bag they've put into a box, then twist the top of the bag shut, then hand it to you to take home and do with it what you wish. Third, and this is where most of the variations occur, the...

Everyone is back to school, and the shopping has commenced. We don't normally do the full on back to school clothes shopping blitz; instead we tend to pace ourselves. We shop all the time...and, as a result, have become quite the sale junkies. Yes, the economy is in the toilet. But we take our responsibility for the greater good seriously--we throw a pretty constant stream of cash at the retail endeavor. Yes, our money has to go a looooong way what with a child in college on the East Coast and many many ways to spend our hard-earned dollars, but...in truth, we like sales. We like to shop. Sales allow us to justify our purchases, consciences clear, as we proudly display the absolutely darling pencil skirt that goes with the heretofore lonely charcoal patent pumps that have been waiting to accent the perfect skirt. The sleeveless black sweater, also deeply discounted, with the cool rhinestone-y zipper that really, miraculously does not render the sweater hooker wear, will top t...