Last night I made Mexican tortilla soup for the first time ever. It was pretty good but there are some things I need to change for next time. I toasted, soaked and pureed the dried chilies but there were still some dry, flaky bits in the soup which I didn’t like. I might try pureeing for longer or just using a good quality chili powder instead (not very traditional but who cares!) I suppose I could try straining the chili puree but that seems like a lot of extra work. The other thing was that it was a little thin. I know that’s how it is supposed to be but I might add some zucchini or corn next time for added bulk. I was a bit spooked at the idea of deep-frying my own tortilla strips but it was really easy. I only needed about 1/2 cup of oil and the strips fried really nicely; no smoke, sputtering or grease fires. I may have to start frying my own corn chips. That way I can make chips that are the perfect shape for scooping salsa. Robert and I decided that trapezoids would work best because you always end up biting off one corner of the triangle chips in order to get the right amount of salsa onto the chip. Look for my tortilla soup recipe on elliemay.com soon.

Last night we celebrated my mom & sister’s birthdays with Mexican food! It was delicious and may have to become a new January tradition. We had chips, salsa, and guacamole (of course) and a really fantastic shrimp cocktail appetizer. I may need to get the recipe and put it up on elliemay.com. Then, we made pork tamales for the meat-eaters and sweet potato tamales for the vegetarians. The sweet potato tamales were really good and easy to prepare because they didn’t have a filling; it was really just a sweet potato, masa, cinnamon, and chipotle chili dough wrapped in corn husks and steamed. They were really good served with a spicy green salsa. Other dishes included mexican rice, anasazi beans (the recipe for which which you can find on elliemay.com), and really good stir-fried green beans with garlic and lime. The sweet potato tamales and green beans were from a Southwestern Thanksgiving spread in a recent Sunset magazine so, if you have that issue, I highly recommend those two recipes. The highlight of the night was the crepes with dulce con leche and pecans. We aren’t usually a dessert-eating family but these were extremely delicious and will certainly be made again in the future. Yum!