Hey all, it's been a little while since we've posted on our blog. We apologize, we know that you've all been waiting in suspense! But we've still been making yummy dishes, see below:

First, we had our friends--Wendy and Jerry--over to sample our south of the border cuisine. We decided to make some Pork Tinga Tacos (which we also found in our favorite "Mexican Everyday" cookbook.

Slow Cooker Pork Tinga Tacos

So we decided on a slow-cooker recipe since it would be the easiest to prepare in the morning and just be ready when we got home for dinner. Tinga is a very simple recipe that involves an onion, a few potatoes, some pork shoulder, and some chipotle chilies (as depicted below) and a can of diced tomatoes along w/ some Mexican oregano and other spices.

Here is the resulting Tinga that went into the slow cooker:

Here is the final product that came out 6 hours later. We tipped off the liquid and boiled it down to concentrate the tinga flavor!
Rick Bayless suggested topping the tacos with fresh avocado slices, white onion, queso fresco, and of course: cilantro. We had never tried queso fresco before, but it is common in Mexican dishes. It's a fresh cheese that has a very subtle flavor, but adds a nice creaminess to the dish. It's available at most grocery stores (around here at least).

In addition to the tacos, we made a nice roasted corn salad (with roasted corn on the cob) and a roasted green tomatillo salsa that we've blogged about before (one of our favorites!). Below is the resulting tacos with the corn salad on the side! Overall it was a huge success, Wendy and Jerry really enjoyed the tacos as did we.

Pasta Primavera

Since we had been eating so much meat (boy the tacos sure were good), we decided to go for a lighter vegetarian meal. Gina bought a fabulous vegetarian cookbook for college students that has many affordable and simple vegetarian options that are OH SO TASTY! We've tried a few recipes out of it before, but this time we decided to go w/ the Pasta Primavera. We bought one pound of pasta, a yellow squash and zucchini, tomato, onion, frozen peas, and some frozen broccoli. This was a very simple recipe, basically just sautee the fresh veggies in some oil, then mix together with the pasta and a bit of milk. Top w/ plenty of salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese (although we subbed in a little of the leftover queso fresco and it turned out well). This meal was very hearty and was a nice, fresh way to eat some yummy spring vegetables. (see below)

Eggplant Curry

The next dish that we made was also from the vegetarian cookbook. This was an eggplant curry w/ potatoes, onion, red pepper, Japanese eggplant, and tomatoes. First, we cooked all of the fresh vegetables in a little oil until they were soft and translucent. After adding some curry powder (and garam masala for good measure) and mixing w/ a little water and a can of diced tomatoes, the resulting mixture is below:

We served the mixture over some rice and topped with some fresh green onions. The dish was spicy, but not overly so. This was also a great way to get our daily dose of vegetables!

If anyone has any suggestions about what dishes we should make next, we'd love to hear them!

Stay tuned for future posts.

Happy Cooking (and happy Easter!)

Zach and Gina

Mary had a little... well, not anymore...

We are cruising through our cookbook Mexican Everyday! Zach wanted to be adventurous, so we chose to make...

Slow Braised Lamb, Jalisco-Style

http://www.fronterafiesta.com/cook/meat-poultry-pork/250-slow-braised-lamb-or-goat-jalisco-style.html

I know what you're thinking. Poor little Lamb Chop! Or maybe just me? Anyway, I am just not used to eating lamb, and was a little intimidated by cooking it. But it turned out ah-mazing! Let us tell you how it all went down.

Zach blended garlic (softened in the microwave), cumin, pepper, New Mexico chili powder, and water in the food processor to make the marinade/paste for the lamb shoulder roast. He then threw potatoes into the crockpot, with the lamb on top with the marinade, and turned it on. Note about buying the lamb - not all stores carry lamb, so calling ahead probably would be helpful if you are interested. Also, it was a bit expensive ($7.50/lb), but so worth it!

So here's the big hunk of meat:

Oops, not that hunk of meat! :)

We cooked it on high for 6 hours. When it was tender and cooked through, we removed the meat and potatoes. Then Zach added some diced tomatoes to the broth and simmered it to cook off some of the water.

In the meantime, I was working on our salad:

Chayote and Tomato Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing

This was a delish salad with cooked chayote, freshly diced tomatoes, and green onion. Drizzled over the top was a vinaigrette that we blended up in the processor (pan-roasted garlic and jalapeno, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt). Salads help lighten a meal, and this one went really well with the lamb.

Is your mouth watering yet? Here is our meal all put together:

Garnish with a little white onion, cilantro, and lime and there you have it! One of our favorite dishes by Rick that we've tried!

We also bought a cool wine from Trader Joe's.

What a fun and tasty meal! Now you go make it!

Zach and Gina

More Mexican!

Seared Snapper with Spinach and Creamy Roasted Peppers and

Red Chile Fennel Salad

Yes, that's right, we made another Mexican dish from Rick Bayless's repertoire. Zach and I rarely make fish, so it was a fun treat to make snapper. Rick recommends salmon, but snapper is a better buy at the grocery store. We also made a red chile fennel salad (also from the Bayless cookbook).

The sauce on the snapper was fun to make since we got to roast 2 poblano peppers over open flame (which we got to do with our first Bayless recipe). After roasting and skinning the peppers, we threw it into a blender with some masa harina (ground cornmeal), garlic, and milk, blended until smooth, and simmered in a skillet with spinach. Served on top of the pan-seared snapper, it was delish! Zach liked the taste of the sauce particularly because it retained the roasted poblano flavor and added a lot to the fish. I liked it mostly because I love spinach, and it was a light and creamy sauce. We are thinking we like salmon more than snapper, so next time we will probably splurge on the salmon.

The salad was also really good! We have never made fennel before, so the red chile salad sounded fun. It was super easy. For the red chile dressing, we used dried guajillo chilies (found in our Mexican groceria) browned in olive oil for a minute along with some garlic, put it all in a food processor with some white wine vinegar. Meanwhile, cooked diced fennel bulbs in the oven for 20 minutes with some lime juice, salt, and olive oil. Let all ingredients chill (I stashed it all in the freezer while the fish finished up), and toss dressing and fennel together. It wasn't spicy, and had a fresh flavor. The sharp, vinegary flavor was a great complement to the creamy pepper sauce on the fish.

We rate the snapper dish 3.5/5 stars (salmon probably would have been better) and the salad 4.5/5 stars. It was an unusual dish for us to cook, but really worth it to try something new!

Experiencing new dishes, especially non-American meals, allows us a glimpse into a different culture. We enjoy making meals with ingredients we've never used, and learning new cooking techniques is fascinating. For example, we see that in Indian food, spices are often used to add interesting flavors. Often times, meat is used to add flavor in the US, but since Indian food is often vegetarian, spices take over that role. We went to an authentic Indian restaurant in Artesia, CA with a friend, Yasho, and he told us about food preferences in different provinces in India. We each had a sampler with many different flavors, like Dal, curries, and more. It was fun to try a bunch of things and have a friend there to tell us all about it! So good, thanks Yasho!

Look forward to some postings later this week about more Mexican dishes! You know we love Rick's cookbook, and look forward to what we can make next!