Hot Chili Peppers in the Blistering Sun

No llores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango.
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango.
Maybe there is not a Dylan song for every occasion, but there are certainly times when one is appropriate. What we had was not a Romance in Durango--but it was a love affair with Golden. Which, when you think about the rest of the song, is just as well--no need to involve the law in our lives unnecessarily!
Golden is wonderfully situated in the foothills of the Rockies, just west of Denver. The altitude is less than 6,000 feet, so air hunger is less of an issue, and the population is less than 20,000 so it is an easy place to get to know your way around. We have a child living there, going to the Colorado School of Mines, and we couldn't be happier about the situation.
As we were driving through Denver, en route home after dropping him off, we stopped at another roadside attraction. A large sign promising roasted chilies caught our fancy. And we were not dissappointed. Two men, one tent, five kinds of chilies, and a roaster like nothing we had ever seen. It was simple, functional, ingenious, and magnificent. It consists of a metal barrel, easily opened to load the chilies into, and on a rotisserrie, so it spins. Aimed at it are so many torches that spit a propane-fueled fire at the slowly revolving cage full of the peppers that impart their own kind of heat when added to food. The remainder of the connection between pepper and plant, the hook at the top of the pepper, catches in the mesh cage. So as the cage spins lazily, the peppers hook in and dangle in front of the flames a bit longer because of their tendency to catch, and the roasting is faster and smoother for it. We bought a bushel and this is a picture of them roasting. We then popped our heat-resistant plastic bag into the back of the car, and drove off with our peppers slowly continuing to cook as they cooled, seperating pepper skin from flesh as the miles rolled by. Once we were home, we peeled, seeded, and bagged them for the freezer. We look forward to a winter of green chili inspired and infused meals to come.