awesome

Since our return from vacation, I've cooked tired, I've cooked inspired. We had our first fall soup of the season with lentils and some tomatoes, potatoes, and tomatillos that I roasted. I had meant to make a tomato sauce, but the potatoes didn't work too well. So it became a soup stock, some of which is frozen for a rainy -or snowy- day. I made a rather successful palak paneer (that yummy Indian spinach-cheese cubes dish). We've had steamed greens made with fall kale and used up lots of baby bok choy in numerous inventive ways.

The other night, though, I cooked something so good that my first impression was "I didn't know I could cook something that delicious." Believe me, this is not arrogance but incredulity, and I probably won't repeat that level of success for a long time to come.

I roasted winter squash, potatoes, and onions -- cube, toss in a bit of oil and salt, and cook in the oven until a little brown. Then, I put a little vegetable mixture into whole wheat tortillas, along with some fat-free sour cream, grated cheese, and canned green chiles. I didn't roll the tortillas -- just folded them in half and overlaid them in a glass pan.

Then I made chili sauce -- browned some flour in hot oil, added a couple of Tablespoons of chili powder made from New Mexican-grown chilis (a find on a post-dinner trip to a grocery store one night), added a few cups of water and some minced garlic, and stirred until thick. The sauce went on top of the tortillas, and the whole thing went in the oven.

We served it with a side of guacamole and more sour cream. It was border-line hot (so less chili powder next time - maybe add some cumin?) but oh so good. There are leftovers which might just become lunch one or two days this week. Yum.

Tonight, we're planning on making fresh rolls. We have some yummy ingredients -- fried tofu, dried mushrooms (which we'll reconstitute), more baby bok choy -- maybe some quick dipping in boiling water will help, rice noodles, and hoisin sauce (in a squeeze bottle, no less) to go on top.

I'll also attempt baby ganoush with some eggplant and garlic that I roasted a few nights ago. We'll add a little tahini, half a lemon, perhaps a little cayenne or other chili powder.

And we have a lot of mushrooms (a Costco find), so perhaps I'll cook some of them up for a side dish. Or... maybe a little mushroom stroganoff, which is always yummy, especially since we have that terrific fat-free sour cream just taking up space in the fridge. We'll work something out.