I Made a Salad!

Dan and I did the food co-op thing again last week. It's really encouraging my culinary creativity because there are always random food things in there that I've never cooked before. The box we picked up on Saturday had: honeydew, cauliflower, green onions, bananas, pineapple, lettuce, some stuff I'm currently forgetting and some Hatch chilies.

Now, we aren't rabid Hatch chili fans like some folks down here are but surprisingly, I like them. 'Surprisingly' because they remind me of bell peppers. For that reason alone, I've never wanted to buy any, but if they are on offer I will eat them. But I had no idea what to do with the eight or nine we got in our co-op basket. I had defrosted a venison backstrap, so I figured I might as well use them for that. I wrapped the venison in sliced Hatches, then wrapped everything in bacon. Cooked it all up (baked then broiled) and served it with a Hatch cream cheese dip. It was awesome. The thing that made it though was the dip. Dan even gave it five and a half stars (out of five) so I'm happy with it. Pretty good for flying recipe-less!

In case you ever have some Hatch chilies and no idea what to do with them, I shall share what I did (and maybe this will help me remember it so I can repeat it!). I cooked four (cleaned, trimmed and deseeded) chilies in the toaster over at about 375°F until they were soft and the edges were a bit charred (25-ish minutes?). Then I used the immersion blender to blend them with eight ounces of soften cream cheese, a quarter cup of mayonnaise (I would have used sour cream but we didn't have any so mayo it was), some onion & garlic powders and some salt. Then I served that with the venison. Amazing. I even put it on the salad we had (because I really can't figure out what else to do with the lettuce we get from the co-op so yeah, I made a salad even though I'm not a fan of them... at least I also added mushrooms, squash, cucumber and green onion so it wasn't a totally lettuce salad) and it made a great ranch-like dressing. Num.

Sadly, the dip doesn't take a good picture (I mean, it's a faintly green blob), so instead I will give you a fluffy kitty yawning in a box.

ETA: I now have a picture!