Kaohly Her, St. Paul’s new mayor, answered a series of questions on her candidacy for a Pioneer Press survey earlier this fall.

In her responses she touched on immigration enforcement issues, safer neighborhoods, housing as well as establishing an Urban Wealth Fund to allow the city to manage its assets — land, buildings and infrastructure — in ways to create more revenue streams.

Here’s what she said qualified her to be mayor, her thoughts on the role of government and her priorities as mayor.

What qualifies you to hold this position?

I have been a State Representative for seven years. Before that, I spent years working in the private sector in investments and finance, running a small non-profit empowering women and girls, overseeing operations and grant distribution for the largest community foundation in our state, serving as the first Board Administrator for the Saint Paul Public Schools, and leading as the Policy Director during Mayor Carter’s first term. In between my professional experience, I found time to be a stay-at-home mom and care for my aging parents struggling with healthcare needs, while trying to build wealth as a first-generation refugee. My experience spans private, public, foundation, and nonprofit sectors. Those experiences, coupled with my personal experiences, have prepared me to solve problems at the intersection of these sectors, rather than in the silos of traditional elected leaders. As a result, I can handle complex situations and bring people together to find solutions that we may not all agree with, but that can help us move forward for the greater good. My relationships at the city, county, state, and federal levels will bring more dollars to the city and ensure that we reach collaborative and innovative solutions to the most significant problems facing our city. Responsive communication and proactive leadership are sorely missing in City Hall right now, and I will work to bring those values back.

What would your top priorities be if elected?

I have four main priorities based on what I’ve been hearing from people while doorknocking across the entire city: a vibrant economy, safe neighborhoods, affordable and abundant housing, and defending our neighbors from the federal government. Building a vibrant economy is critical as our neighborhoods lose essential retailers, such as grocery stores. Without those businesses in place, the property tax burden will increasingly fall on the shoulders of renters and homeowners. This impacts those with limited fixed incomes, such as seniors and students, the most. Guaranteeing safe neighborhoods encompasses more than violent crime. Equally important is protecting access to our city resources for our kids to use, addressing the public health crisis of addiction and mental health, and supporting critical services like EMS, which is delivered entirely by our firefighters in Saint Paul. Building affordable and abundant housing will help us welcome even more neighbors, increase our tax base, and bring down the cost of living for everyone. Finally, our communities are at risk from our own federal government. People from immigrant and refugee communities are scared to leave their homes. The city needs to do more than just passively say we’re not collaborating with ICE; we need to provide real-time alerts for residents to inform them when ICE is in their neighborhoods, forbid agents in our community from hiding their faces, and teach our residents how to be constitutional observers.

What do you think is the primary role of government?

It is essential to recognize that the various levels of government have distinct responsibilities. Local governments are responsible for meeting the basic needs of their residents. It must maintain the infrastructure to deliver essential public services, public safety, and development. To make Saint Paul work for its residents, we need to get the nuts and bolts of running a city right, so that we can welcome residents, businesses, and development to expand our tax base and get our city moving again. Funding our city to deliver these services can no longer just fall on the shoulders of our residents through increased taxes. I have several plans to protect core city services, attract more development, and invest in our city as a destination for experiences. I propose diversifying our revenue streams beyond taxes by establishing an Urban Wealth Fund. Furthermore, our city must have transparent budgeting that not only meets the one-year requirement by charter but also projects our budget for an entire term, including future liabilities and city operations. Finally, we must be willing to coordinate with other levels of government to eliminate duplicate services and execute our core responsibilities effectively.

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How do you work to understand, and then learn from, opinions that differ from your own and people who disagree with you?

I am known as someone who can build consensus at the State Capitol. As the Chair of the Pensions Commission under Speaker Melissa Hortman, I was tasked with addressing a looming financial threat to our state. I worked with unions, pension funds, employers, Democrats, and Republicans to build consensus around this tough issue. At the end of the process, even if some people didn’t agree with the outcome, they respected the fact that they felt they were not only listened to, but heard. In the end, the bill passed as the largest pension bill in state history, garnering bipartisan support. My leadership style is to bring everyone to the table and hear their perspective. I’ve already committed to meeting with every city council member within my first month as mayor, so I can listen to the priorities they are bringing to the table. When we all feel heard, we’re better off for it. Disagreements are challenging, but they are also opportunities. The key is the willingness to engage even when it is hard. I am someone who does not shy away from conflict and who is always open to tough conversations. I carry that with me into this work and let that guide me.

By ERIC TUCKER and DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dick Cheney was the public face of the George W. Bush administration’s boundary-pushing approach to surveillance and intelligence collection in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

An unabashed proponent of broad executive power in the name of national security, Cheney placed himself at the center of a polarizing public debate over detention, interrogation and spying that endures two decades later.

“I do think the security state that we have today is very much a product of our reactions to Sept. 11, and obviously Vice President Cheney was right smack-dab in the middle of how that reaction was operationalized from the White House,” said Stephen Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor.

Prominent booster of the Patriot Act

Cheney was arguably the administration’s most prominent booster of the Patriot Act, the law enacted nearly unanimously after 9/11 that granted the U.S. government sweeping surveillance powers.

He also championed a National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping program aimed at intercepting international communications of suspected terrorists in the U.S., despite concerns over its legality from some administration figures.

If such an authority had been in place before Sept. 11, Cheney once asserted, it could have led the U.S. “to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.”

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies still retain key tools to confront potential terrorists and spies that came into prominence after the attacks, including national security letters that permit the FBI to order companies to turn over information about customers.

But courts also have questioned the legal justification of the government’s surveillance apparatus, and a Republican Party that once solidly stood behind Cheney’s national security worldview has grown significantly more fractured.

The bipartisan consensus on expanded surveillance powers after Sept. 11 has given way to increased skepticism, especially among some Republicans who believe spy agencies used those powers to undermine President Donald Trump while investigating ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign.

Congress in 2020 let expire three provisions of the Patriot Act that the FBI and Justice Department had said were essential for national security, including one that permits investigators to surveil subjects without establishing that they’re acting on behalf of an international terror organization.

A program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence, was reauthorized last year — but only after significant negotiations.

“I think for someone like Vice President Cheney, expanding those authorities wasn’t an incidental objective — it was a core objective,” Vladeck said. “And I think the Republican Party today does not view those kinds of issues — counterterrorism policy, government surveillance authorities — as anywhere near the kind of political issues that the Bush administration did.”

Intelligence as a political tool

As an architect of the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Cheney pushed spy agencies to find evidence to justify military action.

Along with others in the administration, Cheney claimed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al-Qaida. They used that to sell the war to members of Congress and the American people, though it was later debunked.

The faulty intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq is held up as a significant failure by America’s spy services and a demonstration of what can happen when leaders use intelligence for political ends.

The government’s arguments for war fueled a distrust among many Americans that still resonates with some in Trump’s administration.

“For decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building,” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the Office of National Intelligence, said in the Middle East last week.

Many lawmakers who voted to support using force in 2003 say they have come to regret it.

“It was a mistake to rely upon the Bush administration for telling the truth,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said on the invasion’s 20th anniversary.

Expanded war powers

Trump has long criticized Cheney, but he’s relying on a legal doctrine popularized during Cheney’s time in office to justify deadly strikes on alleged drug-running boats in Latin America.

The Trump administration says the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has declared them unlawful combatants.

“These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Oct. 28 on social media. ”We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”

After 9/11, the Bush-Cheney administration authorized the U.S. military to attack enemy combatants acting on behalf of terror organizations. That prompted questions about the legality of killing or detaining people without prosecution.

Cheney’s involvement in boosting executive power and surveillance and “cooking the books of the raw intelligence” has echoes in today’s strikes, said Jim Ludes, a former national security analyst who directs the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University.

“You think about his legacy and some of it is very troubling. Some of it is maybe what the moment demanded,” Ludes said. “But it’s a complicated legacy.“

Vladeck noted an enduring legacy of the Bush-Cheney administration was “to blur if not entirely collapse lines between civilian reactions to threats and military ones.”

He pointed to designating foreign terrorist organizations, a tool that predated the Sept. 11 attacks but became more prevalent in the years that followed. Trump has used the label for several drug cartels.

Contemporary conflicts inside the government

Protecting the homeland from espionage, terrorism and other threats is a complicated endeavor spread across the government. When Cheney was vice president, for instance, agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, were established.

As was the case then, the division of labor can still be disputed, with a recent crack surfacing between Director Kash Patel’s FBI and the intelligence community led by Gabbard.

The FBI said in a letter to lawmakers that it “vigorously disagrees” with a legislative proposal that it said would remove the bureau as the government’s lead counterintelligence agency and replace it with a counterintelligence center under ODNI.

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“The cumulative effect,” the FBI warned in the letter obtained by The Associated Press, “would be putting decision-making with employees who aren’t actively involved in CI operations, knowledgeable of the intricacies of CI threats, or positioned to develop coherent and tailored mitigation strategies.”

That would be to the detriment of national security, the FBI said.

Spokespeople for the agencies later issued a statement saying they are working together with Congress to strengthen counterintelligence efforts.

California is home to the largest trees on Earth, the giant sequoia.

Standing under these massive organisms, you can’t help but be filled with wonder at how something can be so old and so enormous, yet so graceful.

They’re not the tallest trees in the world (that distinction goes to the coast redwoods in Northern California and Southwestern Oregon) or the widest (that would be the Montezuma cypress in Mexico), but by volume, they are the biggest. And they can be visited at Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, roughly five hours north of Southern California in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

A winding mountain road snakes into the forest, leading to a place of perfect conditions for giant sequoias to thrive. These trees grow on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada between 4,000 and 8,000 feet in elevation.

The trees, also known as Sierra redwoods, once grew throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but today only about 73 groves survive in California, in an area about the size of Cleveland, according to Save the Redwoods League.

The largest by volume, the General Sherman tree, is just over 274 feet tall and 102 feet around, and is estimated to be 2,200 years old, according to the National Park Service.

Visitors wait in line to take the requisite selfie with General Sherman, but other magnificent sights abound at Sequoia National Park. The park boasts 40 giant sequoia groves, ranging from one to tens of thousands of trees per grove. The Giant Forest boasts more large sequoias than any other grove.

Hiking trails range from one- to two-hour hikes to full-day hikes and include not only the trees, but lush meadows, a climbable granite dome and historic sights. Moro Rock is one of many granite domes in the park. A climb up 350 concrete and stone steps, through sometimes narrow passages, can feel unnerving, but once above the trees’ canopy at the top, intrepid hikers are rewarded with stunning 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and forests.

Crystal Cave, while not as easy to access, takes visitors back in geological time. Tickets must be purchased online in advance, and a slow, bumpy road leads to the parking lot. The park recommends allowing an hour to get to the parking lot from the Foothills Visitor Center entrance.

A steep half-mile trail takes you to a spider web gate, but once there, a naturalist leads a 50-minute tour of this marble cavern. Water runs underfoot and drips from the ceiling, continuing the process that has been going on for millions of years. The tour takes visitors about a half-mile into the three miles of known caverns.

The park has many other attractions, too. Among them:

Visitors can drive through Tunnel Log, which was carved out of a fallen sequoia in 1937. The tunnel is 17 feet wide and 8 feet high.
Tharp’s Log is a fallen sequoia named after Hale Tharp, the first non-Native American settler who in 1861 built a cabin in the trunk of a fallen sequoia. A bed, table and fireplace are all that’s left inside the burned-out tree trunk.
Big Stump Grove is a reminder of the fact that giant sequoias were not always protected. Logging reached its peak in the late 1800s, but the immense job of felling and processing the trees protected many of the more remote sequoias.
The Big Stump Loop Trail takes visitors past the remains of the giants. One of the biggest, known as the Mark Twain tree, was 16 feet in diameter when it was cut down in 1891. A cross-section of it went to the American Museum of Natural History. Today, visitors can climb a small staircase and walk on top of the stump.

Sequoia National Park was established on Sept. 25, 1890, and (after Yellowstone) is America’s second national park. It was established to protect the giant sequoia trees from logging, according to the National Park Service.

Protection of the new park fell to the U.S. Army until 1913, before the start of World War I, and the park appointed its first superintendent. In 1940, Kings Canyon National Park was established, and the two parks have been managed together ever since.

Today, more than 1.5 million people visit the parks each year.

Know before you go

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Free shuttles: nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/parktransit.htm

Crystal Cave: 2025 season continues through Sept. 7; $20, reservations at sequoiaparksconservancy.org/crystal-cave

Moro Rock: Accessed off Generals Highway or by shuttle bus

General Sherman tree: Accessed off Generals Highway or by shuttle bus

By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Cooking creates all kinds of wonderful and comforting smells, whether it’s sugar cookies in the oven or a hearty stew on the stovetop. But for me in fall, there’s nothing quite like the smoky-sweet scent of Hatch chiles roasting over an open flame or the grates of a hot grill.

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The aroma is intoxicating, so intense as it wafts through the air that you can almost taste it. And when you actually lay your hands on peppers that have been so blistered by heat that the skin slips off as easily as a too-big pair of mittens? Expect a rush of endorphins.

The seasonal delicacy adds a kick of flavor to so many different dishes — everything from stews and sauces to tamales, burritos, enchiladas and chile rellenos — it’s hard to know where to start.

I first encountered the long and skinny green pepper grown in New Mexico’s Hatch Valley during a trip to Santa Fe in 2010 for a food writers conference. After the gathering, my husband and I traveled to Albuquerque to do some hiking and cowboy boot shopping and get our fill of traditional New Mexico cuisine, which is an (often fiery) fusion of Spanish, Native American and Mexican ingredients and techniques.

Mild to spicy red and green chile peppers, including Pueblo, Anaheim and Chimayo chiles, are a defining ingredient in many regional dishes. But Hatch peppers — the term for any chile grown in the Hatch Valley — is by far the most popular variety.

It is the official state vegetable of New Mexico (even though chiles are actually a fruit) and the smoky, mouthwatering smell of them being roasted was designated the state’s official aroma in 2023.

As we wandered around the famed Rail Yards Market, we could see why. Our noses quickly caught a whiff of the pod-type chiles being roasted in large steel cylinder cages rotating over an open flame. It takes only a few minutes to char the tough skin and roast the meat inside to a buttery, rich flavor. But the smoky, pop corn-like aroma lingers and lingers.

We heard them, too. The chiles crackle, pop and then hiss as the skin blackens over the sizzling flame and begins to split as water inside the pepper turns to steam.

A signature flavor

Ranked No. 1 in chile production in the U.S., New Mexico grows about 3/4 of the country’s chile peppers. In 2023 alone, the state produced some 46,750 tons of Hatch and other chile peppers to the tune of around $41 million in sales. The vast majority — 88%— were harvested green.

Planted in April, Hatch chiles are harvested in August through mid- to late October. Many are picked while they are still immature and bright green but plenty are also allowed to turn red on the vine, which makes them spicier due to a higher concentration of capsaicin.

What makes Hatch chiles so special is the area’s unique climate and rich volcanic soil. The Hatch Valley sits so high in the mountains of southern New Mexico that it enjoys hot days, cool nights and lots of sunshine. That imparts the chiles with a distinctive bold and earthy flavor that can’t be replicated.

Both red and green chiles can be turned into salsa or a more blended sauce; whether you opt for red or green alone on top of your enchiladas or breakfast burrito, or go “Christmas” with a mix of both, is personal preference.

Locally, you can find New Mexican cuisine made with Hatch chiles at TacoCat on East Ohio Street on the North Side. Along with Hatch red and green salsas, Chef Chris Acosta’s menu includes green chile chicken and red chile pork tacos and burritos, and he also offers a green chile burger built with braised pork, egg and pickled veggies.

A Pittsburgher since his teens, Acosta grew up in Phoenix, Ariz., and spent summers at Gil’s, the restaurant in a former gas station his grandparents owned in Las Cruces, N.M. Gilbert started working in the fields of Hatch Valley when he was 6 years old so he knew every part of the Hatch chile growing process — from digging up the fields and planting the seeds to helping roast the peppers after harvest.

“That smell to me is wholly intoxicating, of tons of emotion, memory and ancestry, ” he says.

So when the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded and he needed reassurance everything would be OK, the chef asked himself: When was I most content?

“That would be a Sunday morning waking up in my grandma’s house and smelling that Hatch green chile as part of whatever she was cooking on that back cauldron,” he says, “and then her making me huevos con chorizo y papas [eggs with potatoes, chorizo and homemade tortillas]….

“That to me was love. And as we pass on these traditions to Pittsburgh, I think it equates very, very well with pierogies or Primanti Brothers sandwiches. We want to try to make [New Mexican cooking] as iconic as those food offerings here in Pittsburgh.”

Since he couldn’t find anyone local who was making the foods he’d grown up on, he decided to “package that love in between two corn tortillas,” and pass it on to people through New Mexican pop-ups. “Then they would feel that love and hopefully that would change their day,” he says.

The Hatch green chile means New Mexico, Acosta says, and New Mexico means hospitality.

“When you arrive in New Mexico, they ask you if you’re red or green. That’s how devout we are about these chiles…. It’s a part of everything we do. It’s indigenous, it’s deep-rooted. We were doing it before it was America.”

While canned and jarred chiles are fairly easy to find in most larger grocery stores, fresh Hatch chiles — which are low in calories and significantly higher in vitamin C than oranges — can be hard to find in Pittsburgh.

Freshly roasted chiles are tougher since Reyna Foods in the Strip District won’t be roasting them in a cage this year on Penn Avenue, as it has in the past. (The grocery still has a small selection of frozen Hatch chiles from 2024.)

Cooks who don’t mind a drive will find the peppers over the next few weeks at two specialty markets: Fresh Market in Mt. Lebanon ($2.49/pound) and Whole Foods ($4.99 for a 2-pound bag containing 11-13 peppers).

Or follow in the footsteps of my oldest sister, Kathy, who orders a bushel or two of fresh chiles along with bags of flash-frozen, chopped chiles, direct from the Hatch Valley.

My family is of German heritage, but Kathy lived in Denver for nearly 25 years before boomeranging back to Pittsburgh in 2001. She has been roasting and eating Hatch green chiles since her bartending days in the late 1970s, she says, because “they’re awesome.”

Nothing, in fact, is better in her opinion than digging into a bean burrito smothered in green sauce or wolfing down a Denver “Mexican” burger — a hamburger patty wrapped in a flour tortilla spread with refried beans and topped with green pork chile.

So since moving back East, she’s had the peppers shipped to her house in Emsworth each fall, first by friends, then by her son and for the last few years, through Hatch Chile Store.

This year, I asked for her to order me some, too, so I wouldn’t have to beg for a Tupperware container of her famed green chile sauce but could instead make it myself. Which is how on a recent Tuesday, I found myself spending the better part of an afternoon helping her roast two huge boxes of mild and medium chiles — 50 pounds in total — on a grill on her deck.

We had originally planned on canning the roasted peppers like you would tomatoes in a hot water bath for easy storage. Then I learned because chile peppers are a low-acid food, they have to be processed in a pressure canner so as to reach the high temperatures required to kill Clostridium botulinum spores. A pressure canner is the one kitchen appliance missing in my pantry because it’s scary.

So we took the easy way out and decided to freeze them instead.

How to roast

If you buy frozen Hatch chiles, there’s a good chance they will already be cooked, seeded and chopped. If you buy fresh, you’ll need to roast them not just to enhance their flavor, but to blister and loosen the pepper’s tough skin so they can be peeled.

Chances are you don’t have a large, rotating metal drum for charring chiles like you see in the Southwest. Me neither! But no worries — there are multiple ways to roast fresh chiles at home.

You can spear them as you would a marshmallow on a long-handled fork and heat them over a fire, or you can lay them directly on a gas stovetop, rotating them as the skin blisters. You also can place the pods on a baking sheet and stick them under the broiler, turning them frequently, until they’re blistered and blackened.

But the easiest method might be my sister’s method — fire up your charcoal or gas grill until it’s fairly hot, and place the peppers directly on the clean grill grates. Then, using tongs, carefully flip them regularly so the flames/heat hits all sides and they are evenly roasted.

However you proceed, the chiles should be placed in a plastic ziplock bag after they’re roasted to steam for a few minutes; once cooled, the skins should slip right off. If you plan on freezing them, don’t worry about peeling — the pods will easily peel when you’re ready to cook.

Also, be sure to wash each pod thoroughly to remove dirt or debris and pat them dry with a paper towel before beginning to ensure the skin blisters properly.

It wasn’t cheap to get our chiles from New Mexico, but considering how many bags we ended up with, it wasn’t all that expensive either: It cost $70 per bushel, plus $60 for shipping at hatch-green-chile.com. Another plus: we got to choose our heat level — one mild and one medium (but you also can order hot and extra-hot).

The Hatch Chile Store also sells the chiles already roasted and frozen, whole or chopped. They run from $11.25 to $15 per pound, depending on volume.

Hatch chiles also are available from Young Guns Chile in Hatch, N.M., at www.yghatchchile.com.

Hatch green chiles should be roasted within a few days of purchase. When packed into airtight containers or freezer bags in usable portions and placed in the freezer, they will retain their signature smoky flavor for several months.

They can be used in everything from sauces, appetizers and main courses like tacos and enchiladas to soups, stews and even baked goods.

Below, we offer four recipes that make the most of New Mexico’s signature green chile sauce.

Vegetarian Hatch Green Chile Sauce

PG tested

You can use either mild or hot chiles to make this flavorful condiment; if the heat catches your mouth on fire, reach not for water but for something sweet like honey or a bite of sour cream.

To make a chile sauce with meat, brown 1/2 pound ground pork or beef over medium heat in a skillet until all of the pink is gone, and add to the pot with the rest of the ingredients.

4 cups vegetable broth or water

2 cups chopped, roasted Hatch green chile

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 teaspoons minced white onion

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

Additional salt and white pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients except cornstarch in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce the mixture for 10-15 minutes. Add cornstarch mixture.

Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 5-10 minutes. The sauce should be thickened but quite pourable, with no taste of raw cornstarch.

The sauce keeps up to 5 days in the refrigerator, and freezes well. When reheating, add a little extra water if needed.

Makes about 5 cups.

— “The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook: The Traditional Cooking of New Mexico” by Cheryl and Bill Jamison (Lyons Press, $24.95)

Hatch Green Chile with Pork

PG tested

This hearty, comforting dish is great for topping cheeseburgers for an extra kick of smoky flavor, smothering enchiladas and burritos and, of course, eating right out of the bowl with a warm tortilla for dipping. For a more assertive taste, substitute ground beef for the pork.

2 pounds ground pork

1/2 cup chopped onions, optional

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 14.5-ounces can roasted diced tomatoes

2 pounds chopped, roasted Hatch chiles (about 12 whole)

4 cups water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese or crumbled queso fresco, for garnish

Chopped cilantro, for garnish

In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook ground pork until it is no longer pink, about 7-8 minutes.

Add onions (if using) and garlic, and saute until the vegetables are soft. Push meat and veggies to the side, and use a fork to mix the flour into the grease in the pan, whisking well to combine.

Add diced tomatoes, chopped green chiles and 4 cups water. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.

Simmer chili uncovered for 30-60 minutes, or until thickened to your liking.

Ladle hot stew into bowls. Garnish with shredded cheese and cilantro if desired, and serve with warm flour tortillas for dipping.

Serves 8-10.

— Kathy Trent, Emsworth

Denver’s Famous “Mexican” Hamburger

PG tested

This wonderfully messy chile burger features a grilled burger smothered in refried beans, wrapped in a flour tortilla, and topped with pork green chile.

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper, or seasoned salt (your choice) to taste

1 pound ground beef

1 1/2 cups warmed refried beans

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

4 cups green chile sauce

4 10-inch flour tortillas

Shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes, for garnish

Crushed chicharrones, for garnish, optional

Preheat oven’s broiler.

Stir garlic powder, salt and pepper into ground beef. Shape into 4 1/4 -pound patties. Set aside until ready to fry.

Heat a cast-iron skillet until hot. Add patties without crowding. Season again and cook for approximately 2 1/2 minutes on each side.

Heat tortillas in a moist paper towel for 45 seconds, then place individually on oven-proof plates. Divide refried beans among the four tortillas.

Top with a burger and add a couple spoonfuls of green chile and shredded cheese. Fold over tortilla.

Cover with 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese. Place under broiler to melt cheese.

Remove and spoon green chile around entire plate. Take out and garnish with lettuce, tomatoes and crushed chicharrones.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Huevos Rancheros

PG tested

This vegetarian Mexican breakfast is a hearty regional favorite any time of the day — even dinner. It comes together in minutes and can be served with refried beans and/or Spanish rice to make it a complete meal. So easy!

Vegetable or canola oil, for frying

6 5-inch corn tortillas

12 eggs

2 or 3 cups vegetarian green chile sauce (recipe follows)

Shredded lettuce and chopped tomato, for garnish

Refried beans or Spanish rice, optional sides

Optional garnishes: fresh cilantro leaves, thinly sliced jalapeno pepper and crumbled Cotija cheese

Arrange several layers of paper towels near the stove.

Add oil to a depth of 1/2 inch in a large skillet, and heat until it ripples.

With tongs, dip a tortilla into the hot oil and cook it until it is softened and pliable, a matter of seconds.

Remove tortilla immediately and drain it on the paper towels. (If you don’t act quickly, the tortilla will become crisp.)

Repeat with the rest of the tortillas, then pour out of the skillet all but enough oil to generously coat its surface. Reserve the extra oil.

Arrange each tortilla on a plate and set aside.

Place the skillet back on the stove and heat over low heat. Fry the eggs, 2 at a time, turning once the whites have set and the yolk has thickened.

Top each tortilla with two eggs, arranged side by side. Continue until all the eggs are fried, adding a bit of the reserved oil when the skillet becomes dry.

Pour 1/3 or 1/2 cup of green chile sauce over each serving. Garnish plates with lettuce and tomato and other desired toppings.

Serve with scoops of refried beans and Spanish rice, if desired.

Serves 6.

— adapted from “The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook: The Traditional Cooking of New Mexico”

Smothered Burrito

PG tested

4 7- to 8-inch flour tortillas

4 cups refried beans, warmed

2 cups grated cheddar cheese, plus a little extra for filling, if desired

2 cups green chile sauce (vegetarian or with meat)

1 large tomato, diced

Shredded or chopped lettuce, for garnish

Wrap tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave them for 30-60 seconds to warm. Or, stack tortillas and wrap tightly in foil, and heat in 300-degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Set oven to broil.

Assemble burritos: Place a warmed tortilla on a heatproof plate. Spoon about 1 cup refried beans down the center. If you like, add a little cheese.

Roll up the tortilla snugly around the filling, and place it seam side down on the plate. Repeat with remaining tortillas and beans.

Top each burrito with 1/2 cup of the chile sauce and 1/2 cup of cheese. Melt the cheese under the broiler, 1-2 minutes.

Remove from oven and garnish with lettuce and tomatoes.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

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