By May 2029. The season is months away and I've been in the most productive offseason of my career — not in terms of hours, but in terms of the quality of the thinking. The grief has sharpened something. When Ruben died I learned to cook. When Hector died I learned to write, and through the writing I've started to see the patterns of my coaching career with a clarity I didn't have before. I know what I do well. I know what I've been doing at the margins of excellence rather than the center of it. The remaining years of my career will be the fullest because I'm running them with this particular visibility.
Diego is going into his third NFL season. He'll start from day one. He's been named a captain. He called me when he got the captain designation and said, "I keep thinking about what you said about leadership being service." I said which time. He laughed. He said the first time — when Jordan Rivera was nervous about leading, in my first year at Eldorado Prep. He was twelve. He was sitting in the film room for a session he didn't have to attend, and he heard me tell Jordan: leadership is service. He filed it. He carried it for seventeen years. He's a team captain in the NFL and he's running it on a conversation he overheard when he was twelve. That's what it means to raise a person in a coaching environment. Every conversation is potentially a permanent one.
Green chile season is nine weeks away. I can feel the approach of September the way you feel the approach of something you love and need: with particular attention, an early kind of readiness.
Nine weeks out, and I’m already cooking toward September. Green chile season has its own gravity — you feel it pulling before it arrives — and this year I wanted to meet it with something that matched the mood: fresh, intentional, built from things that are alive and green and ready. Green Goddess Ranch is the first recipe I reach for when the herbs in the garden start telling me the season is turning. It’s the kind of thing you make when you’re paying attention.
Green Goddess Ranch
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, packed
- 1/4 cup fresh chives, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Blend the herbs. Combine the parsley, chives, tarragon, basil, dill, and garlic in a blender or food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add the base. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, lemon juice, and white wine vinegar to the blender. Process until smooth and uniformly green, about 30 seconds.
- Season. Add the salt and black pepper. Blend briefly to incorporate, then taste and adjust seasoning — add more lemon juice for brightness or more salt as needed.
- Rest and serve. Transfer to a jar or airtight container and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld. Serve as a dip for raw vegetables, a dressing for salads, or a sauce alongside grilled meats.
- Store. Keep refrigerated in a sealed container for up to one week. Stir before each use.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 120 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 2g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 180mg