Thursday, June 3, 2010

Elisabeth and Aida ~ Parte Uno

I'm not much of a cook. My mom is an AWESOME cook, so I never really felt the need to learn while I was living close enough for her to feed me. Why bother when you have the master making you dinner?

However, my mother lives in Chicago. And I live in Los Angeles. Thus, I can't exactly pop round for dinner on a weekly basis. If I want to eat a real home cooked meal I have to cook it. At home.

I've had some disasters. There were the ribs that were a disaster of Clark Griswoldian proporitions. There were the chocolate chip cookies that somehow turned out salty (yeah, I have no idea either). But, I've been getting better. I can cook lots of things now and I haven't poisioned myself or my Beloved even once.

My darling mother is thrilled with my new found culinary abilities and gifted me with a copy of Aida Gabilondo's "Mexican Family Cooking" for Christmas (actually, the book was technically a gift from the dog. My family is a little weird like that). I've been trying to work my way though it, little by little. While I could never aspire for a "Julie and Julia" situation (despite the title of this entry) I thought it might be fun to document a couple of my tries.

Today, I found myself with some free time (read: I was avoiding writing script notes), so I decided to make some salsa casera. I chopped tomatoes, onions and jalapenos, plucked some cilanto from my windowsill herb garden and gave it a go.

The result?

A little watery and maybe fewer tomatoes next time, but for a first attempt? A definite win. Ole!

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