I made this recipe from p. 210 of “366 delicious ways to cook rice, beans, and grains.” I was very pleased with the result. Savory and mild, since I had left out the hot peppers since I was cooking for someone else who had a gentle palate. It's worth making again.

This evening I made sautéed collards with onions, mushrooms & garlic from the recipe on p. 316 of “The Garden of Eating.” Interesting. The collards are a bit bitter, most likely because I was trying hard not to overcook them. I used dried shitake mushrooms from the nearby Korean store, which were tasty, and since I had no dulse, I threw in a bit of kombu, ostensibly for the umami flavor. I think this is a dish I will grow to like.

I am scratching my head a bit, though, about how to find dulse in Phoenix. I wonder if we have any local sellers?

I've now made a second batch of the picadillo recipe, this time with cumin instead of cloves. I like the taste much better.

Today I made picadillo (Mexican hash) from the recipe in “Simple Mexican Dishes.” Not bad. The recipe called for a teaspon of ground cloves. That seemed a bit much for such a savory dish. I think next time I'll leave the cloves out and use a teaspoon of ground cumin instead.

Today I made gazpacho for the first time using the recipe from the food processor instruction book. Tasty. Here's the recipe.

Gazpacho

Ingredients

• 1 medium cucumber, peeled & quartered
• 1 medium green pepper, cored & quartered
• 1 small onion, peeled & quartered
• 2 sprigs of parsley
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 cup chilled tomato juice
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• dash of Tabasco sauce
• 6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and quartered

Preparation

1. Place cucumber, green pepper, onion, parsley and garlic in food processor. Process at low to chop to desired texture.
2. Add tomatoes and process at medium using momentary action until tomatoes are chopped. Pour chopped ingredients in bowl.
3. Process remaining ingredients in food processor at medium speed. Pour into bowl and mix. Cover, chill, serve.

Tonight I made “ejotes con chile colorado” (green beans with prepared red chile sauce) from “Simple Mexican Dishes.” Tasty. It has a certain heft to the flavor that I suspect is due to the lard. Next time I make it, I'll try thickening with corn starch instead to see if it tastes as good. I'll probably also add cumin and black pepper.

A couple weeks ago for the first time I made red chile purée from “Special Mexican Dishes” by Amalia Ruiz Clark. I used mild dried red chiles and removed the seeds. I have to say that the taste was too dull for me. Then last week I made it again with the same type of chiles, but this time I didn't take the seeds out. Tonight I'm using that purée to make «pasta de chile colorado—guisado,» which is essentially a basic enchilada sauce. I have to say I like the purée a lot better with the seeds in, although if I had made it with hot dried red chiles, it might be a different story.

Tonight I made Caveman Chili from “The Garden of Eating.” It was okay. I cooked it in a steel pan that was pretty thin, and I wonder if that didn't burn the ingredients a bit more than intended. It also seemed to me that there wasn't quite enough liquid in the recipe, so halfway through the cooking I added a cup of boiling water, and then near the end another cup. Most likely it was a bit dryer than the chef intended because I only found tomatoes that weren't quite ripe enough. I look forward to trying the recipe again.

On second thought it's possible that I also cooked it on too high a heat. I kept it boiling as opposed to reducing it to simmering, so that may have been part of the dryihg out problem as well. It's all still quite edible, though. None of it will be thrown out.