Chris Hennes

Yeah, I agree, that definitely seems to be the case. Most of the time with tamales the wrapper seems to only be there to hold stuff together, you could probably use paper for all the difference it would make. But the flavor of the banana leaves came through quite clearly in these.

Tamales Colados (Yucatecan "Pudding" Tamales with Achiote and Chicken) (pp. 216–217) These tamales have an exterior texture unlike any I have ever encountered: Bayless's description of them as "pudding" tamales is apt. I found the texture unusual, my wife found it objectionable: it's an extremely smooth just-barely-holding-together pudding like texture that is nothing like what I expect of a tamale. The taste is good, though. I'd also be inclined to include more chicken in the filling to act as a foil for the ultra-smooth exterior, which may also just be an acquired taste. I served them with the Roasted Tomato-Habanero Salsa from p. 218, though I replaced the habanero with jalaeño since that's what I have on hand. A nice simple roasted salsa that went well with the tamales. (Yeah, the filling in this first picture is wrong, it's supposed to be at the top of the masa layer, not the bottom. Oops! I learned after the first one...)

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for working with banana leaves? For example, how do you soften them up for making tamales? How do you keep them from tearing while you work with them? That sort of thing.

Darienne, I'm still hoping that others will hop on the bandwagon here and post about their experiences with the book. It's pretty new, still, so maybe there aren't that many copies out yet. But I definitely think it's worth a purchase, if you like Mexican food and already have some books of Bayless and Kennedy's. Guacamole de Pepita Tostada (Toasted Pumpkin Seed Guacamole) (p. 27) This guacamole was not quite what I was expecting from the ingredient list. In particular, the pepitas are ground very finely so don't provide any noticeable crunch, and there are a lot of them, making the flavor very assertive. In my opinion this guacamole would have been better with the pepitas left much larger, and I'd cut the quantity in half. There was 3/4 cup of pepitas to three avacados, which I think is just too much pumpkin seed.

Pollo a la Crema con Quelites, Chile Poblano Asado y Cebolla Caramelizado (Creamy Chicken and Greens with Roasted Poblano and Caramelized Onion) (pp. 134–135) Bayless should have just called this "Damned Tasty Creamy Chicken" and been done with it. Longwinded title notwithstanding, this was fantastic. Next time I'd double up on the poblanos, I think, but this was great as a sort of taco-ish filling. What was even better was after running out of tortillas, using tortilla chips to mop up the extras. Next time I'll go easier on the salt to facilitate this, I think. This would make a perfect replacement for a Spinach Artichoke dip if you chopped the chicken a little finer. Nothing about this says "Mexican" to me, but that is probably just my lack of expertise in the area. If Bayless says it's Mexican, who am I to argue? It tastes great: make it now.

Thanks, rancho_gordo—since I picked up the book on your recommendation, any suggestions you have for what else I should try out of it would be most appreciated. What have been your experiences with the recipes in the book?

In his recent book, "Fiesta at Rick's," in his recipe for Pollo a la Crema, Rick Bayless states: I'm trying to figure out what he means by this: the Cacique Crema Mexicana I have in the fridge is quite a bit thinner than sour cream, and is much less acidic. It is possible that it might be described both as "rich and velvety" and a "mild, less-curdy sour cream." So, umm... what is Bayless trying to get at here?

chemprof, thanks for the suggestion, that's a good idea. I ended up just cutting deep slashes in the shoulder, like he suggested for the picnic ham. DanM, he doesn't offer variations in this one, but I sorta view this book as a supplement to his others. I don't think I would want it to be my first Mexican cookbook, since a lot of what it offers are themselves variations on other recipes that I was familiar with. Tonight we were using leftover pork from last night, so I made enchiladas. The filling is the Cochito Chiapeneco I posted about above, but the chile sauce is from Diana Kennedy's "[amazon=0553057065]The Art of Mexican Cooking": Salsa de jitomate, Sierra de Puebla y Michoacán (p. 337). I made these enchiladas more like I think of a traditional enchilada (as compared to Bayless's Enchiladas Suizas, for example), quickly frying the tortillas in oil and then dipping them in the chile sauce before rolling them around the filling. Spicy and delicious!

We also had squash volunteers this year, but they didn't survive the hot, dry weather we had in June. Oh, well.

I hade a Coney today for lunch. Not awful. Better than their burgers, in my opinion. It's not a great hotdog, but it's definitely edible. I agree that the bun is clearly microwaved, but I actually don't object to that texture. If the option is microwaved or cold, I'll take microwaved: it's an OK facsimile of a steamed bun. I also had a lime limeade, which tasted a bit more like a Sprite than I would have preferred: they are made with real lime juice, so I was hoping more of that tartness would come through. Oh well.

Yeah, all the tortillas have been homemade, from "fresh" masa. It's not really all that fresh, unfortunately, it's in the refrigerated case at the local Mexican grocer. But I think these are better than the ones I was making from masa harina, so I'm sticking with it for now, until I get an Ultrapride .

Cochito Chiapaneco (Chile-roasted pork on the grill, Chiapas style) (pp. 266–267) Saying this is cooked "on the grill" is a bit misleading, IMO: it's cooked wrapped in banana leaves, in a Dutch oven, on a grill. Why use the grill at all, then? I used an oven, which worked just fine. It's a really nice, flavorful sauce that I think could stand a little more time to penetrate the pork and really flavor the roast through-and-through. Cooked as instructed the flavor is nice, but entirely as a sauce on the outside of the roast. I am thinking maybe next time give the pork a 24-hour marinade in the sauce before tossing it in the oven. All told, though, the pork was delicious. I wound up serving it as a taco filling mostly, though we ate plenty of it plain as well.

Grilled Garlic and Orange Guacamole (p. 32) Nothing bad to say about this one: it's very interesting (in a good way). The grilled garlic pops without being overwhelming, and the little bursts of orange are a nice touch. Overall a very good guacamole.

You can't attach hardwood directly to the concrete, you have to install plywood decking under it first (and probably double up your moisture barrier, too, since solid hardwood is so much less stable than engineered). With the engineered options you don't need the decking, you glue it directly to the concrete, or glue it to itself and let it "float" over a vapor barrier. Dave, are you planning on doing this yourself, or hiring it out?

Yeah, well... welcome to Oklahoma. Sonic does have a "happy hour": they have half-price drinks and slushies every day from 2-4pm. And a dedicated Facebook page.

Sonic was voted "Best Happy Hour" by the readers of the Oklahoma City paper this past year. Made me want to cry, but maybe there's something to it.

On an at-grade concrete slab floor your wood flooring options are limited: you can't use solid hardwood (which for an active kitchen would have been nice because it can be refinished many times). So you're looking at engineered hardwood (built like plywood), or laminate (basically particle board with a veneer, sometimes real wood, sometimes a photograph of the wood). In addition, for these floor types you generally have two installation options: glue-down or floating. In the floating sub-category you have two further options: click-lock or glued-together. Clear as mud? The advantage of a high-quality engineered hardwood is that it's real wood, so it always looks like real wood. And since it's real wood, and that top layer is the actual hardwood you are looking at, it's usually possible to refinish at least once in the life of the floor (and perhaps two or three times, depending on how thick the top layer is and how careful your refinishing guys are). The advantage with laminate is that is is a much stronger, more durable, water-resistant floor, and while it can't be refinished, it's usually cheaper to replace a laminate floor than it is to refinish a wood floor anyway. Laminate is a very cost-effective choice, and is consistently recommended by Consumer Reports for high-traffic areas. The downside is that since it's not real wood, you have to be careful which kind you buy and how you install it, so that it doesn't look too fake (since it's, well... fake). So ultimately, aesthetics are going to play a very important role in this decision. If you can find a good-looking laminate, that is almost certainly your best best for a high-traffic spill-prone area. BUT, it's not "real wood" and so if you are looking at things like resale value, it's got a stigma attached to it. "Real wood" sells better than "Made from 99% real wood."

I was visiting NYC a few weeks ago and noticed that there were calorie counts listed on all the menus at the chains there (Starbucks, Cosi, etc.) In addition, in the recent health-care legislation we find: In Cosí (a 100-location soup/salad/sandwich chain) I was struck by how high the calorie counts were: you tend to forget how many calories are in all that bread, even if you put on relatively low-cal toppings. But Cosí seems to be the kind of place that is trying to give off a "healthy" vibe, justified or not. When a salad cracks 1000 calories that Big Mac sounds pretty good. To me it seems that there are two issues here: first, are restaurants that try to give off this "health-food" vibe suffering because of this sort of legislation? And second, is that reasonable? It's not like the nutrition of our food can be boiled down to just a single number, and an 800 calorie salad may or may not be better for you than an 800 calorie hamburger.

Setting aside the subterfuge and assuming that this person really doesn't like the flavor of celery (which can be a strong, distinctive flavor, so it's easy to believe), it comes down to needing to replace the flavor with something un-celery-like that still fills the role the celery was filling. My bet is that in many cooked applications you can simply omit it, and the dish will still be successful. Raw, you need something that is bright and vegetal, and has that satisfying watery crunch. I'd think fennel is probably your closest bet in terms of texture, but that flavor may be too assertive.

Do those of you who stop there actually do the drive-in thing, or just drive through? I have never understood the appeal of eating in the car, so I just pick stuff up on my way home.

Sonic Drive-In is based here in Oklahoma City (in fact I was at their headquarters not two hours ago), so I feel like I should have some loyalty to the local company, eat at their place occasionally, etc. That, and they just opened a new location near me that makes them the most convenient food option when I am driving around near home. So finally, a few weeks ago, I stopped by. And have continued stopping by on occasion as I am out. But not because it's actually any good: as near as I can tell, everything on their menu is actually pretty crappy. But the convenience!! Surely there must be something worth eating at the Sonic, right? What is it? It's sure as hell not their bacon cheeseburger (today's mistake) or their fries (that was last week, they are terrible).

Glad you liked it: I made a similar crust substitution, using a standard pâte sucrée instead of the pie crust she calls for. I'm not sure why she wants you to use a flaky pie crust in this clearly tart-like thing.

For years I've been using one of those aluminum presses: it hasn't broken or oxidized on me, but I was never quite satisfied with the tortillas. They always wound up a little thicker than I would have liked, and were rarely perfectly flat or perfectly round, and to get them even close I always had to press them a couple times, rotating them in between. Bit of a pain. So this week I finally pulled the trigger on the Imusa Victoria 6 1/2 Ince Cast Iron Tortilla Press, which did not cost any more than my original aluminum one, as it turns out. Wow, what a difference it makes. One push of the lever and out pop perfectly round, even-thickness tortillas, and I can make them pretty much as thin as I can get to release from the plastic. So making tortillas is now faster, and the tortillas are better. I highly recommend going with the cast iron variety.

I am still having a hard time believing just how poorly Stephen is doing: I guess based on his bio I was expecting a LOT more, and he's just sucking it up. Tracey was kinda funny, but pretty clearly bringing up the rear, and didn't seem to have any confidence that she would do well. Either of them could have gotten the axe and it would have been fine by me.

Queso Fundido al Tequila (Tequila-Infused Queso Fundido) (p. 133) You win some, you lose some. This was not good, at all. Maybe it was the cheese I used (quesadilla—one that he recommends for this), but I did not find the taste or texture of this at all appetizing. I was expecting (or at least hoping for) something more like a Tex-Mex cheese dip, and what I got was a mass of melted cheese that tasted a bit too tequila-y for me. Has anyone had better luck with this using different cheese?