Holy Mole.

So, last night I decided to try my first mole recipe. Mole is one of my hubby's favorite mexican dishes and I wanted to do something nice for him since he has been working non-stop on house stuff. Plus, I love using my new food processor.

I found a recipe in Cooking Light for a turkey mole with anaheim chilis. I also wanted to make a vegetable, so I found a beet salad from epicurious.com. I took a nice little run on the Los Gatos Creek Trail and on the way home I went to the grocery store to go shopping for ingredients.

I went to 4 stores to find my ingredients. Four! I started at Trader Joes knowing that I wouldn't be able to find all my ingredients there. Then I went to Luckys. They didn't have the cotija cheese or the dried anaheim chilis. I stopped by this little market across the street from my house and got cotija cheese and a fresh anaheim chili, figuring it was the same thing. When I got home and told my husband about the chilis, he said no they aren't the same thing. So, I hopped back into my car and went to ANOTHER grocery store.

Making the sauce was pretty fun and easy. First you blend 1/2 cup of almonds in the food processor until it is smooth. Then in a frying pan, I sauteed the dried chilis making sure I didn't breathe in the fumes. Then I added onions and garlic to the pan and cooked until slightly brown. The rest of the ingredients went in (crushed tomatoes, cumin, cloves, chicken broth, salt, sugar, 1/2 chipotle pepper) and simmered for 15 minutes.

While it was simmering, I attacked the cooked rotisserie chicken I bought at Trader Joes. I should probably learn how to carve things. The chicken looked kinda mangled after I tore it to pieces and took the skin off, but a couple of swift chops with the knife made it presentable.

I looked at the recipe for the salad and decided that it would take too long to do. So, I modified the dressing (vinegar, oil, lime juice and shallots) and chopped up some beets (precooked, again from trader jose) and added them to arugula and sprinkled the dressing and cotija cheese on it.

The simmering of the mole was done and then I poured it into the food processor (and managed to NOT get sauce everywhere! WHoo hoo!)and blended it until smooth. You then put it back in the pot, add, the almod paste and some vinegar and cook for a minute. Then I tossed the chicken in the pot and cooked long enough to heat it up.

Then I pretended I was in a Quickfire Challenge on Top Chef and plated the mole with some tortillas on the side and presented it to my husband.

Consensus?

I thought it could have used more heat. He thought it was a little too sweet. (whoa...that almost sounds like a rap...or nursery rhyme) And then I racked my brain to remember if I used a teaspoon or tablespoon of sugar and tried to remember what the recipe called for.

Oh well. All in all, it feels good to have a mole under my belt and now I can experiment with other variations and maybe even try to make my own tortillas.

The kitchen is still a mess though.

"How did pancake batter get on the ceiling?"

If you have read my other blog about triathlons (which obviously you have because you are a cool person), you have probably guessed that I am not the most meticulous person. I lose socks, umbrellas, scarves, and that dang strip of fabric used to clean eye glasses. My car can sometimes resemble vehicles parked under freeway overpasses filled with clothes and random recycleables. When I drink a latte wearing khakis, my chances of spillage on said khakis are 9 in 10. But, one thing that I can do which is surprising given my type b personality is bake. Baking requires concentration, measurements, and no spacing out when Project Runway comes back from commercial break. Not to toot my own horn, but people pay money for my cookies. Granted, it was for my charity fundraising for one of my triathlons.

It took my awhile to get good at baking, particularly if it was a brand new recipe. I think that baking forces me to get in touch with my type A side (wherever the heck it is). Sometimes I get a little too focused on what I am doing and don't pay attention to what is around me or how big of a mess I am making. One time after I made breakfast, my husband went into the kitchen and looked around, "How did pancake batter get on the ceiling?"

Honestly? I have no clue. I try my best to clean up after myself (which is slightly easier now that I have glasses and can SEE the dirt and batter), but with a Jill in the kitchen, a mess will surely follow.

So, as I prepare for a new year and new goals, I have decided I want to do something else in addition to triathlon training. I want to challenge myself as a cook and baker. So starting in January 2009, I will be choosing a new recipe each week to try out. I am going to get out of my comfort zone of recipes and will see what works and what doesn't. I am going to start January with American Breakfast Foods. My first recipe? Eggs benedict---which sounds simple enough, but I have never made a hollaindaise or poached an egg before.

So, stayed tuned for this new adventure.