Sunday, November 15, 2009

Thank you Rick Bayless (have I used that title before)


I will say this again and again, simple food is the best food. You don't have to have a lot of ingredients to have something taste amazing. Well, I have decided that I could basically live off of Mexican food for the rest of my life. Why can't I? Rick Bayless does it. I want to be him. Man, I want to be him. That or just have him invite me over for a meal sometime. Yeah, that ain't happenin anytime soon, so instead, I will just cook all his food at home then I guess.

This weekend I checked out his best book Mexican Everyday. Yeah, we don't own any of his books. Waiting on Santa to come through for us I guess. Just a simple request. So Jason was reading it, like I hoped he would, and said, I found something I want to make tomorrow. Do you mind? Um, would I mind having a full body massage every day? Would I mind eating chocolate cake forever and never getting fat? It was so nice to have all the work done for me and the dishes. Yeah, he does the dishes too. I know how lucky I am, don't worry.

Here is the first thing he made. Slow Cooked Achiote Pork Lovely. It literally fell apart when he accidentally bumped the pork with a fork while moving some peppers and onions off the top. It was so so yummy. I pounded two of them with ease and could have done a third but would have been miserable probably.






He also made the Roasted Fresh Chili Salsa to go with it, which Rick recommends. I have to say, it was good on the taco but I would not eat it alone really. A little too bitter for me. Maybe with one more clove of garlic. You can never have too much garlic I feel.



I also made some pico de gallo which included about 5 diced tomatoes, a quarter of a white onion diced and rinsed, one jalapeno minced and seeded, cilantro, the juice of one lime and some salt. Super simple, super yummy. Then of course I had to make some guacamole. How could I not. I mean, I crave it daily. Plus it was nice that the avocados were on sale 2/$1. Yeah, that's right. Basically free. So I mashed up four of those with about a quarter cup white onions minced and rinsed, one tomato or two diced, cilantro, juice of half a lime, and salt. I guess I could have added a jalapeno. Hmmm. What was I thinking? Simple yet so so amazing.

I hope that someone out there will try these recipes. They are so so easy. Don't be intimidated by something new. Really, it was probably the easiest thing we have ever made and turned out so wonderful with amazing flavor and tenderness. I am so happy we will be eating it for the next two or three days. Yummm.