Posole / Pozole: Sign of the Season

In the Southwest, there's nothing like a pot of posole this time of year. I've been arguing with folks lately about whether its more seasonal to have posole or tamales...there's been no definitive answer.
So I added posole to our recipe list. We had that fresh local pork, and I knew I had the posole corn in my freezer at the store, so I turned it over to Tyler to do the rest.

My ties to posole go back to my time in Alamosa, CO (the coldest spot in the lower 48). This time of year I would go to house parties and every single event would have a huge pot of posole with green chile corn bread. One event in particular was an annual gathering and we would sit around with songbooks and sing together. The group was all grown hippies so all of the songs would be 60's peace songs and such.

Well, our guests for the posole I'm sure are hippies in some way, but more along the lines of foodie hippie friends. Previously mentioned tamal/tortilla instructor, Consuelo and local intellect, Tom joined us, as did computer whiz/classical guitarist Ron and Therapist/mood uplifter, Kat.

Two bottles of wine were downed before the first bite, courtesy of our down/up the street neighbors.

Ron and Kat kicked off the meal with this fantastic salad weighted down with voluptuous blackberries.


Then came the soup. Tyler filled the table with every chile we had in the cupboard for folks to season their own soup: habañero, pequin, New Mexico red, and nora Spanish chiles. He also included the traditional oregano.

A little bit of my sourdough and...

Look at how hearty that spoonful is!

And finally, a revamp of Elvis' poundcake using dried cherries and pistachios.

This essentially ends the pre-holiday since there are no more events planned. I have no more caters, just a few small dessert orders. That means, we just hunker down and make sure our customers get all of the holiday joys that they need. For some that will be gifts, for others just the joy of time with friends (and/or store clerks).

Today we also celebrate the passing of one of our employee's husbands who passed last night. We also lost a dear church friend the same day. I sure look forward to solstice and the promise of a new season!