Let the Cooking Resume

Hawaii was lovely, but 4 days is not long enough. It took almost a full week for me to recover and I finally went to the grocery store Saturday, so can cook dinner again.

Last night was chilaquiles with eggs. I first had chilaquiles for breakfast at some bar in Cabo on a girls’ weekend. We were there in the off season (off season = unbearably hot) so finding food outside of the hotel was a bit challenging. But we were starving, this place was open and they were serving chilaquiles. This is a ridiculously simple meal–tortilla chips, chile sauce and cheese–but oh so delicious. I of course am incapable of making just one thing for dinner, so what should have been a 30 minute meal turned into a 90 minute ordeal. We did have a delicious Mexcian chopped salad however, and my homemade refried beans (and by mine I mean from the Moosewood cookbook).

Chilaquiles with egg from Epicurious: I just used a couple of handfuls of tortilla chips, I did not make my own. I also used California chiles because that is what I had in my cupboard. They are less spicy than the chiles called for, but good for those who like food on the mild side.

Mexican chopped salad also from Epicurious: I loved this. Adam did not. He thought it was too sweet. I used queso fresco instead of feta, since I had leftover queso fresco from the chilaquiles and I love queso fresco.

Refried beans from Moosewood: these are almost as easy as opening a can, and much much tastier.

one onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

2 cans pinto beans

Saute the onion, half the garlic, the cumin and the salt until onion is soft. Drain and rinse the beans (if you don’t rinse they will be unbearable salty) and add to the pan with the rest of the garlic. Mash and stir until warm.

Chicken with Rice (or vice versa)

Last night we had arroz con pollo (sans olives), from the lovely Joy the Baker. I love her blog. It’s just lovely. She seems like she would be a lot of fun to hang out with.

This was delicious. And easy. And only involved one pot, which Adam (official dishwasher of the Silberfein household) appreciated. Will definitely be making this one again, perhaps with more chicken next time so we can get 6 servings out of it.

Vegetarian Enchiladas

Last night we had vegetarian enchiladas, via Pinterest. They were ok. I’m sure if you were a vegetarian these would be worth the effort, but the portobello mushrooms were kind of lost among the enchilada sauce, so seemed to be there more for texture than taste. And I really have to wonder if the effort involved in roasting the pasilla pepper really added that much. Couldn’t I just throw in some peppers from a can?

It was good, just not great. And it took way too much time to make (although, you can make a lot of it ahead of time if you plan accordingly, which I did not).

It will not be entering the regular rotation. I’ll save it for when I have to make dinner for a large group of vegetarians.

We also had Spanish rice, which was quite good. I’ve been looking for a recipe that was close to what we get in Mexican restaurants. This was close, so I think this will be my go-to rice for Mexican food.