Chile Time

Once again we find ourselves telling our customers that we can't sell them something.  In this case it is actually two things that we are going to be without for awhile.  The first is again the Red Hots.  Unlike the last time this isn't an issue of finding the red jalapenos but in storing them.  When we get ready to make our move our freezer will be down for four days and we don't have anywhere to stash 2,000 pounds of frozen jalapeno.  As soon as we get the freezer over and operational we'll order the jalapenos and make Red Hots again.  The other product is the Green Enchilada Casserole.  The source for one of our ingredients went out of business so we switched to a new source; they are currently sold out and we can't find anywhere else to buy vegetarian chicken broth powder.  We'll keep you updated on how everything goes.

Jim Hawman

I know it seems like we've been stringing all of you along with the promise of us telling ya'll that we would be moving to a new place.  We've gone from an estimate of  5-6 months to 3-4 months then finally about a month.  The 6 month estimate was way off as it will soon be two years since we first decided to move.  The current estimate of about a month has been the current estimate for the past three months.  We have finally finished almost everything we can do without electrocuting ourselves, so hopefully the month timetable is correct.  Soon we'll start estimating "about a week" and a month or six later we should be moved into our new place.  This is a long way of saying that we are the worst contractors in the history of mankind, and while we are availble for hire I would advise against it. Also, from now on we will stick to what we know: Chile.

Justin Hawman

I was going to post a recipe for green chile sauce here that had been culled from hours of research on the internet so as to provide you all with the best possible recipe out there.  Then looking at most of the recipes I realized that they take upwards of an hour and usually involve ovens and blenders and saucepans.  So instead, how about the recipe for what we use in our house for when we want to make green chile sauce.

Easy Green Chile Sauce

1 Jar Just Plain Green Chile                                                                                                                        1 Can Cream of Chicken soup                                                                                                                Open jar and empty it into a large mixing bowl.  Open can and empty into the same bowl, if you use a different bowl it won't work at all. Mix.          

You can add garlic or salt or whatever you want to get the taste right for you, but this is a great way to have a base to start from and it takes less than five minutes.  Ten if you have to hunt for the can opener. You can then use this recipe on anything from Green Enchiladas to Green Chile Smothered Burritos.                                                                                                                                                        Jim Hawman

In our blog a while back we talked about adding a forum to this site so that our customers can connect with each other easier.  It will only work with new people with new e-mail addresses who have never been here before, so we've scrapped that plan until we can get a complete redesign going for the site.

The Truck Farm

We've been listening to our customers, and as part of our new stuff for a new year we are now on twitter.  Okay, so it was only one customer who wanted to know our twitter address.  But either way we are now @TTFSweetHots for those who want to know.  There is no guarantee that we'll keep it as current as we do Facebook, but we'll see how the response is.

Justin Hawman

It is that time of year again when we update our best sellers page to include what sold best over the past year, and to exclude anything that fell out of the top ten.  Two products dropped out this year, the Jalapeno Jelly and the Salt Seasonings.  The Salt blends came close, but they were a casualty of the doubling of the sales for our No-Salt blends.  The Jalapeno Jelly met a similar fate as more people went for the Chile Marmalades than the jelly this year.  The biggest surprise has been Jalapeno Honey Mustard Hot which grew greatly from 2010.  It's sales combined with the other honey mustards earn them a place on this list. In order of the top selling products here are the top ten for 2011.

1. Sweet Hots (Mild and Hot)

2. Besito Caliente

3. Just Plain Green Chile (Hot, Medium, and Mild)

4. Chile Verde Stew (Original and Mild)

5. Jalapeno Catsup

6. Jalapeno Mustard

7. Chile No-Salt Blends (Green Chile, Chipotle, Jalapeno and Red Chile)

8. Instant Picante Salsa Mixes (Medium, Hot, Muzzle Blast, Mild and X-tra Hot)

9. Honey Mustards (Jalapeno, Red Chile, and Dill)

10. Chile Marmalades (Green Chile and Red Chile)

Jim Hawman

We haven't been updating this blog as much as we would like to, so it has been awhile since anything has been posted here.  Now is the time of the year to tell you about changes we will be making in the New Year.  We aren't going to try to reinvent the wheel or anything, but there will be a few changes.  First off, on the 2nd of January we will update the bestsellers page to show the top ten most popular products of 2011 based upon units sold.  Secondly, we hope to add a forum area to the site to make it easier for the fans of our products to communicate with each other.  Thirdly, we will be updating the Chile Time blog on a more regular basis.  Lastly, tell us in the comments below what else you think we need to do, and the doable will be done.

Thanks,

Justin Hawman

If you've come to our site looking for the ever popular Chile Verde (Green Chile) stew, you won't find it for awhile.  One of the main ingredients in the stew mix are dehydrated potatoes.  These potatoes come out of Idaho which is currently experiencing a shortage.  We hope to be able to get ourselves some potatoes within the next few weeks and the stew mix should be back on the site shortly thereafter.

The Truck Farm

It's now after Thanksgiving, and as everyone knows it is leftover turkey time in the U.S.  Once the feast is over, you have to decide how to eat what's leftover.  There are many options availble from feeding everything to the dog to cold turkey sandwiches for a week. My absolute favorite thing to do with leftover turkey is Chile con Queso. 

1 packet Instant Picante Salsa Mix
1 lb. Velveeta

1/3 cup Milk

Turkey

Heat up the Velveeta, stir in the milk and the salsa mix.  Pour the Chile con Queso over the leftover turkey and serve.
Justin Hawman