Southwest Pretzels —rsquo; The Snack That Holds the Week Together

Week two. We won, twenty-eight to ten, on the road, against a 5A school in the foothills. Diego had three catches for sixty-five. Marcus threw two TDs. The defense held the other offense to one touchdown drive and otherwise stuffed everything. Daquan had two more sacks, which is four through two games, and which has scouts texting me about him. (I have been forwarding the texts to Tony Davis. Tony is managing the Daquan recruitment with the precision of a guy who has been preparing his whole career to manage a kid like Daquan.)

The bigger event of the week was that the twins started middle school. Wednesday morning. Eight-fifteen drop-off at the front entrance. Marco was bouncing. Elena was nervous in a way she does not usually show. They wore their first-day outfits. Lisa took photos. I took the morning off practice — Mike Reyes covered for me — to drive them in. We got there at eight-oh-five. The twins got out of the car. Marco hugged me. Elena hugged me longer. They walked into the building. I sat in the car for ten minutes. The first day of middle school is a threshold like any other major threshold, and it deserves the ten-minute stare into space that you give it from the parking lot before you drive away.

Lisa picked them up at three-fifteen. They came home buzzing. Marco had made a friend at lunch. Elena had a math teacher who had assigned them a worksheet for the first homework of seventh grade and Elena was, of course, ready to do it before dinner. They had not gotten lost. They had found their lockers. They had survived. We celebrated by ordering pizza, which we never order, but which I had pre-promised them as the first-day reward. The pizza was from the place on Hampden that does a sourdough crust. It was acceptable. The twins did not care about the crust quality. They were caught up in the high of having survived day one.

Thursday I made green chile chicken enchiladas, which is one of the seasonal anchor dishes of the household — the dish I make about every two weeks from August through May, the one the kids will eat without complaint at any age, the one that signals, in a Pavlovian way, that the school year has started and the routines are back. The chicken is poached with garlic and onion and thyme and shredded. The sauce is the green chile sauce I have been making for twenty-five years — diced roasted green chile (Mamá's, of course), chicken stock, a little flour, garlic, oregano, salt, simmered to the right thickness. The tortillas are dipped in the sauce and stacked on plates with chicken, cheese, onion, and more sauce, three layers high, and finished with cheese on top and a fried egg if the eater wants one. The twins both want them with a fried egg now, which is a development. Marco started ordering eggs about two months ago. Elena followed suit. Eggs on enchiladas is a bridge from childhood to a more adult version of the dish, and the twins have crossed that bridge.

Friday I drove south to the away game. Lisa had a shift, so she could not come. The twins came with me to the team bus departure to wave to Diego, then went home with Lisa's sister Carrie, who was babysitting for the night. Sofia was at a meet in Greeley. The team and I rode the bus three hours to a school in Pueblo, played the game, won, rode back. We pulled into the parking lot at midnight. Diego was hoarse. He had screamed himself raw on the sideline encouraging the second team in the fourth quarter. He told me on the ride home in my truck, "Dad, my legs hurt." I said, "It is week two." He said, "I know." I said, "It is going to hurt every Friday. The hurting is a feature, not a bug." He laughed. He fell asleep.

Saturday morning the household reset itself for the week. Lisa was off. The twins went to soccer. Sofia ran a workout and then came home and read for four hours. Diego slept until eleven, which I did not begrudge him, then ate two enchilada plates from the night before that I had wrapped in foil for him. The reset is its own ritual. After the chaos of a week of practice and games and middle school first days and ER shifts, the Saturday morning where the family scatters and then regroups around food and nothing-doing is the reset that lets us do another week. I made a pot of red chile sauce while everyone scattered. The smell of red chile filled the house all afternoon. By the time the twins were home and Lisa was awake from her nap and Sofia had finished her chapter and Diego had eaten his second plate, the house smelled like a house ought to smell on a Saturday in early September. The road bends. Feed your people. The game is won at the table.

The enchiladas carried Thursday, and Diego’s foil-wrapped plates carried Saturday morning—but between the bus rides and the drop-offs and the soccer pickups and the Saturday reset, what this household also runs on is something you can leave on the counter and let people grab without ceremony. That’s where these Southwest Pretzels come in. The green chile and cumin notes hit close enough to the flavors already in the air that they feel like they belong, and a bowl on the counter during a Saturday afternoon where everyone is scattered and regrouping is exactly the right amount of food at the right moment.

Southwest Pretzels

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 1 bag (16 oz) mini twist pretzels
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 packet (1 oz) ranch dressing mix
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 250°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
2. Mix the seasoning oil. In a large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, ranch dressing mix, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and smoked paprika until fully combined.
3. Coat the pretzels. Add the pretzels to the bowl and toss thoroughly until every pretzel is coated with the seasoned oil mixture.
4. Spread and bake. Spread the coated pretzels in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once at the 10-minute mark to ensure even toasting.
5. Cool and serve. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a serving bowl. They will crisp up further as they cool.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 31g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 520mg