I'm making picadillo again. Tonight's version has a lot more tomato and potato than the recipe originally called for. The calorically significant ingredients are:

Divided into four portions, that comes to 446 calories a serving, which is okay for the main course of the main meal of the day, assuming your side dishes are more sensible.

Last night I made the basic pinto bean recipe from p. 137 of “Special Mexican Dishes.” Turned out well. It's simple but time consuming. Next time I'll use half the amount of bacon grease, and maybe throw in some actual chopped bacon, fried up crisp. The beans tasted even better the next morning.

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.

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.