Most of you know that we have been living in off-grid bliss for the past 18 years.  Our previous off-grid sequence in western New Mexico, which began in 1977, makes it almost 22 years that we have been living this way.  That first adventure did not include electricity of any sort.  We cooked on a small Atlanta Stove Works wood burning stove, and a windmill pumped our water, which was then gravity fed into the house.  So turning it up several notches to our current place in Taos County was like moving to a palace with real electricity produced by sun hitting solar panels, and being stored in big, beefy batteries. The combination provides enough juice to do almost anything we want to do.

When you live like this, there are regular things one does on a regular basis, such as checking the controller to see how much energy is coming into the system at any given time.  Whether the system is "bulking" - filling the batteries, "absorbing" - batteries are nearly full, or "floating" meaning the batteries are totally full and any sunshine landing on the solar or photovoltaic panels is extra wattage.  Because we chose to be thrifty and incorporate a wood-burning cookstove into the system, 95% of our meals are cooked using the good old Stanley from Ireland.  Not only does it enable us to cook meals, but it provides extra heat, especially on the cold, winter days that frequent the high mesa.  Our inner geeks also heat the water for washing dishes after our meals.  Here is an image of the beast, in full meal mode - fry pan, two pots of water, and a tea pot.

wood burning cookstove and pots  

For this blog, I decided to photograph preparation of our dinner - green chile enchiladas.  I started by photographing the corn tortillas, which we discovered long ago take much patience and practice to make.  Never got the hang of that.  All the corn tortillas we use conveniently come from the grocery store, although both Fred and I make flour tortillas.  Still not quite as round as Lena D. makes, but they are tasty nonetheless.  The concept got my creative juices going and made me really think about the process of making a meal, off-grid. First step was a little styling with the corn tortillas, photogenic as they are.

corn tortillas for green chile enchiladas

corn tortillas for green chile enchiladas

I also grate cheese for the enchilada filling.  This time it was a sharp Kerry Gold cheddar, combined with Jarlsberg cheese.

cheese and grater

While I was doing this, Fred was constructing the fire in the wood burning stove, and lighting it, to get the heating process started.

woodburning cookstoeve with fire

After the stove top gets to a temperature that will heat the olive oil, it is time to gently fry the tortillas.  The job is in Fred's capable hands.

corn tortillas for green chile enchiladas

At this point, I put the cheese on the tortillas and layer them, before adding the sauce which I prepared before hand (chopped green chile, salt, chicken broth, and flour or cornstarch as thickener), and pop them in the wood burning stove's oven.  Add a beverage of your choice and contentment is assured.  

A couple of photographic notes.  First, when using primarily natural light, sometimes black has a tendency to look a little blue.  Adjustments can be made, either to the light source or to the image to rectify that.  Second, while coordinating food photography with actually consuming a meal that comes from a wood burning cook stove, the photographer needs to think things through ahead of time, be organized and ready.  No dawdling around.

green chile enchiladas and wine

Bon appétit!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@