Campos Green Chile Casserole ⁑

This recipe hails from Tucumcari, NM, the Old-Route-66 introduction to many in past days as the first city encountered on a westward journey into the state. I was given this recipe by my sister-in-law Clarwana, conditionally, under a solemn promise, which follows. I was told that Betty Campos, the aging blind daughter of the pastor of the local Spanish Methodist Church, kept this recipe secret for many years. Tucumcari, being a small town, eventually merged its Methodist Churches, and, as is common in western towns, often held church dinners so that its congregation could socialize then more intimately than at regular Sunday services. Betty always brought this dish to those dinners, where all in attendance desperately and repeatedly asked her to give up her secret. Finally, in her later years, she relented, under the condition that each member promise that she alone could bring this dish to these dinners. She dictated the recipe below, which appears just as transcribed, to an oath-taker. I, too, have promised that I will never take this to a Tucumcari Methodist Church dinner. If you are also willing so to promise, please enjoy this delectable dish.

Please feel free to substitute lower fat, less glycemic, and more gluten-free versions of cheese, flour, milk, and eggs in the recipe, according to your needs.

• ½ lb jack cheese, in equal sticks
• ½ lb Colby cheese, shredded
• ¼ cup flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 large can whole green chilies

In an 8×11 baking dish layer green chilies stuffed with jack cheese. Mix milk, eggs, and flour and pour of top of chilies. Top with shredded Colby cheese and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Chile Relleno Casserole ⁑

I do not know Sara Kellum, but someone I friended on Facebook may. This Chili [sic] Relleno Casserole recipe appeared as a photograph of a handwritten note on a kitchen pad with ©Conimar at the bottom, as an item that the friend thought should be shared by all. I am a sucker for dishes of this sort, so I saved it for entry here. I have not taken the liberty to make it a closer fit with my dietary guidelines. However, as with all recipes of interest that I find, substitutions at preparation time have become a matter of habit. I thought the reader might want to see it in its original, but now transcribed, form.

• 1 cup half-and-half
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 7-oz cans whole green chiles
• ½ lb shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• ½ lb shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce

Beat half-and-half with eggs and flour until smooth. Slit open the green chiles and rinse the seeds out, if any. Drain on paper towel.

Reserve about ½ cup [here the recipe ends, at the bottom of the pad]. I imagine the rest of the recipe goes something like this. At least it really tastes good when done this way:

Reserve about ½ cup of the Monterey Jack cheese. Grease a 9”×9” glass pan and line it with the chiles, in which the cheddar has been placed on one half and the other half folded over. Top this with the egg-flour mixture and bake in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes, until the egg topping just begins to set.

Remove from the oven, add the tomato sauce over the top of this, sprinkle the remaining cheese over this, and return to the oven for another 20 minutes, until the eggs and flour have cooked and the cheese topping has melted. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting into squares for serving.

Serves 4-6.