Cazuelitas de Queso y Rajas

Happy Valentine's day!  Rick Bayless, pg 186.  We'd made these before, but it's been at least 3 or 4 years.  More or less followed the recipe.  Only used 2 poblano peppers.  Lard.  Asadero and feta.  Yum.  The chorizo was spiiicy this time!

Red Sauce Pasta

Steve was in town, so in his honor we made the standard italian sausage pasta.  Put mushrooms and spinach in it this time.  And of course, caesar salad.

Greens and Sausage Soup with Cornmeal dumplings

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mixed-Greens-and-Sausage-Soup-with-Cornmeal-Dumplings-362971

Bon Appetit, jan 2011. Finally some cornmeal dumplings that worked out.  Made about 21 dumplings. Went for first helping and then cooked the remaining dumplings a while longer.   Collard and mustard greens. 12 oz andouille sausage.

The dumpling action from last week didn't work out so well.

Chicken and Dumplings with Mushrooms

Bon appetit, 2/14, pg 74.  Also:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-and-Dumplings-with-Mushrooms-51214640

Pretty much followed the recipe, except added carrots and parsnips after the onions.  The parsnips were a bit soft to begin with, and turned too soft in the soup.  Some of the reviews said it was bland, but we thought it was pretty good.

We made the cornmeal dumplings out of the Joy of Cooking instead of the ones from the recipe because we thought the cornmeal would be good.  It didn't work well.  We used tablespoons instead of teaspoons which made rather large dumplings, and the dumplings mostly turned into cornmeal mush.  Not sure if we had too many in a pot or what.

Anyway, the soup was good, more work on the dumplings next time.

Tacos of Creamy Braised Chard, Potatoes and Poblanos

Rick Bayless, pg 163.  Basically followed the recipe.  3 red potatoes, 2 bunches of chard.  Yum.

Also made classic Frijoles Refritos (pg 237).  Used pinto beans, which we cooked before-hand using the recipe on pg 234 (basically caramelize onions, then add beans).  These turned out quite well.

Aloo Gobi

Glorious One-Pot Meals, page 164

This was better than the last time we made it. Used 1.5 cups of rice, which was plenty, roughly doubled the veggies and tripled the spices (except the garam masala because we ran out). Still only used half and onion and sliced it very thin. Added broccoli and used a 28oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes instead of the fresh which might have helped make it a little saucier. Cooked about 45 min.

Chicken, Corn and Black Bean Stoup

Rachel ray, pg 89.  Recipe #99.  This turned out ok.  Was a little plain, and the chicken ended up getting chewy.  Next time, brown the chicken and take it out, and then sautee the onions and peppers for a bit before adding the chix back in.