Hatch Chiles: Roasting, Recipes and More with Melissa's Produce

Team Super Mamas has a thing for chile 🌶️. This past weekend, Melissa’s Produce invited us to join their event team for a live Hatch Chile Roasting at a local Northgate Market. Hatch green chiles are similar to Anaheim Chile that we know and love, but instead are specific to Hatch Valley in Southern New Mexico, so we jumped on the opportunity to experience this live chile roasting.

We arrived at Northgate Market in Long Beach, California to a large group of people waiting for their hatch chiles to be roasted. We knew it was a big deal, but not like this! Chile lovers had been standing in line since 6AM that morning to purchase their boxes of chiles for the year. Many people purchase in bulk and then freeze a portion to last them to next season.

Lacy and Peter with Melissa’s Produce welcomed us and not only explained the roasting process but also helped us choose our own chiles. Then they walked us through the market and showed us all the great products customers could purchase - anything from fresh chiles to dried and powder hatch chile, plus hatch chile polenta, tortillas, bolillo con queso y rajas de chile hatch (so incredible 🤤), hatch chile muffins and pan de elote. Even the hot bar had items like macaroni & cheese with chiles, chicken & hatch chile tamales and ceviche with hatch chile. The combinations were endless and each Northgate Market has a variety of fresh hatch chile items that are available for purchase.

We also spoke with Fernando, the head buyer of hatch chiles for Melissa’s Produce, who gave us some fun facts about the veggie. He told us one thing to remember about hatch chile season is that it’s over almost as fast as it arrives, and harvesting really depends on weather conditions. A storm or cooler weather could roll in for two to three weeks, like it did this year, and could delay the maturity of the chiles.

• The hotter the weather patterns prior to hatch chile season, the hotter the chiles will be.

• Mild chiles are longer, hotter chiles are a bit shorter and the lumbre, or fire, chiles are the shortest.

• At the end of the season, the chiles get ripe, turn red and get a sweeter flavor. Around Labor Day, the chiles are the most mature, have thicker wall (perfect for chile rellenos) and tend to be spiciest.

• 50% of the crop is to sell fresh chiles and 50% is for processing - salsas, powder, frozen - but it’s definitely not as good as fresh hatch chile!

There are two weeks left of Hatch Chile season and you have a few more opportunities to join Melissa’s Produce for a live roasting! Join the Melissa’s Produce team on Saturday, September 7th at the following locations. The events start at 7AM and run until 2PM or until chiles run out.

Locations

Northgate Market La Habra

1305 W. Whittier Blvd. La Habra, CA 90631

(562) 691-8032

Northgate Market Vista

1150 E. Vista Way Vista, CA 92084

(760) 724-4900

Don’t forget to check out your local Northgate Market for more delicious hatch chile items and if you’ve already purchased your chiles for the season, you can find delicious recipes like Hatch Chile Deviled Eggs, Roasted Hatch Chile Mc n’ Cheese, Hatch Chile Apple Pie and more at Melissas.com.

Major thanks to Melissa’s Produce for the invite!

Celebrating 50 Years on the Moon with McDonalds, NASA & Peanuts

When you were young, there was nothing like going to McDonald’s and getting a Happy Meal. That iconic red box with deliciously salty fries, a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets, and the toy of the month from the coolest new movie or tv show. Now you’re an adult and there’s nothing like seeing your child’s face light up when you hand them that Happy Meal box with the same great food, but also healthier side options like apple slices and yogurt and better drinks like milk, apple juice or water.

Team Super Mamas had the opportunity to share this feeling with our little ones this week when McDonald’s invited us to an exclusive lunch at Ronald McDonald House in Los Angeles, California. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, McDonald’s is partnering with Peanuts and NASA to on a limited run of Happy Meals featuring Snoopy and Woodstock books that celebrate astronauts and space exploration.

Families staying at the Ronald McDonald House were invited to attend the lunch. Paul Propster, story architect for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, gave a live reading of one of the new Snoopy and Woodstock books that are available in Happy Meals now through September 3rd, 2019. The children were invited to ask questions throughout the reading about the constellations featured in the book like the Little Dipper, Hydra and Orion.

Paul also gave a presentation about JPL headquarters in Pasadena, California and about all things space exploration. We learned that JPL is bigger than Disneyland and also talked about the Juno spacecraft that traveled to Jupiter. The space craft was launched to take images of the planet and to gather data about how the planet formed. Did you know it launched in 2011 and took 5 years to reach Jupiter?? Paul also taught us about Marsquakes, which are very similar to earthquakes but look a little different that what we’re used to in California. You can watch a video about marsquakes here.

At the end of the session, all the guests were invited to enjoy their Happy Meals and talk to Paul one-on-one, where he shared cool NASA stickers and mini solar system poster with even more space facts. Many of the children asked for autographs too! It was a sweet ending to a fun lunch.

You can visit McDonalds now through September 3rd to collect your Snoop & Woodstock books, and from September 4 - 16, 2019, Happy Meals will feature Astronaut Snoopy STEM action toys designed to help inspire kids to play with science through fun.

To learn more about Ronald McDonald House Charities, please visit https://www.rmhc.org.