I collect
cookbooks.
I'm not actually a
cookbook collector, but I have a lot of cookbooks, especially vegetarian
cookbooks. I love to sit and read cookbooks, usually while I'm eating. While I
read, I take strips of post-it notes and mark all the recipes I want to try
someday. (The irony of this is that about 95% of the cooking that I do is off
of Allrecipes.com, which is an awesome website,
of you haven't discovered it yet and I generally never get around to actually
trying the majority of the recipes I tag in my actual cookbooks).
Cookbooks
from the Moosewood Collection are my favorites to read. Their pages have decorative
layouts and the books are written in a comfy, familiar tone. The recipes are
vegetarian, yummy, and, often, complex. Most of them call for ingredients I
don't typically have on hand. So, I enjoy reading them more than I actually
cook from them.
A few
weeks ago, I pulled out Low-Fat Favorites to make one of the few recipes I
actually use from this enormous 450-page baby. On the opposite page, I realized
there was a weathered orange post-it note I had placed there at least five
years ago. At least. Black Bean Chilaquile. I reviewed the recipe again and
decided I really would like to try
this one and added the ingredients to my shopping list.
I was a
little nervous when the recipe told me to put crushed tortilla chips on the
bottom of the pan, recalling a standoff with my mother in 1982 over a Mexican
casserole with soggy chips in it that required me to eat every-last-bite-even-if-it-took-me-all-afternoon! I pushed through the memory of the horrible
taste/texture and kept assembling. The recipe was relatively easy to put
together and in the oven quickly, a general requirement for my cooking these
days.
Within
the first few bites, I was in love. LOVE. J also thought this was really,
really good. The kids, not so much, even though I tried rationalizing..."You
like black beans! You like spinach! You like cheese and salsa! That's what's in
here, kids!" as I smiled and raised my eyebrows encouragingly. Three sets
of eyebrows scrunched back at me. They do not like all those things together. I shrugged my shoulders and
realized that the less they ate, the more there was for me. That's not a bad
thing. :)
Lucky for
you, Food.com has this recipe posted online so you can try it
yourself! Enjoy & remember to
thank me later. :)
 |
| Yummier than it looks. Which is almost always true of casseroles. :) |
