Robin: This lovely dish from northern Mexico is delightfully different from most other soups with similar ingredients. It contains potatoes, but is not thick; it calls for milk, but is not a cream soup, there is cheese in it, but the cheese does not melt. In fact, a fresh, white queso panela or queso fresco…
Central American Chimichurri
Robin: If you’ve had chimichurri sauce before, you are probably thinking that what is shown in the picture does not look at all like the condiment you are familiar with. The chimichurri most people know of is made with fresh green herbs and olive oil, and it’s an exquisite condiment for grilled meats in Argentina…
Grandpa Foley Special (Smoked Sausage Dinner)
Robin: My grandmother, Grace, was the only grandparent I ever knew. She was my maternal grandfather’s second wife and not a biological relative, but that didn’t make any difference to her or to me—she was my Grammy! Looong before I came into the picture, Grammy’s dad, Grandpa Foley, worked at a factory in their small…
Mexican Piggy Cookies
Robin: In Mexico, these piggies would probably not be called galletas (cookies) at all; there they are one of the dozens of traditional panes dulces (sweet breads) that are part of the fabric of daily life. Cookies in Mexico tend to be fancy, delicate little things, and these hog shaped pieces of baked dough are…
Joy’s Dill Dip
Robin: My mother, Joy, absolutely loved “relish trays”—that is, platters of raw vegetables, pickles, olives, crackers, and cheese served as an appetizer or light lunch. There would be one of these trays of good things in a prominent place anytime she was entertaining, and this delicious dill dip was almost always on it. Who knows…
Costa Rican Doctored Up Fresh Beans (Cubaces arreglados)
Robin: Beans, both fresh and dried, are enjoyed in lots of different preparations in many parts of Latin America. Each country or region tends to have its favorite. Costa Rica is no exception. Although dried black beans are the most widely used in that country, a variety of large, fresh, yellowish-brownish-red beans known as cubaces…
Mexican Meatball Soup (Caldo de albóndigas)
Robin: If there were a Nobel Prize for the dish most likely to take the chill out of the body and heal the wounds of the soul, this hearty Mexican soup would definitely be a finalist. Albóndigas (Spanish for meatballs, and made here with rice rather than bread crumbs) and vegetables come together in good-for-what-ails-you…
Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce (Albóndigas en salsa de chipotle)
Robin: Practically any spicy cooking sauce is delicious with meatballs, but chipotle sauce is probably the one most widely used in Mexico itself for cooking and serving the delicious, traditional albóndigas. Chipotle chiles are a smoked and dried version of a particular sort of jalapeño pepper, and they do tend to be quite spicy. This…
Mexican Meatballs (Albóndigas)
Robin: If your experience of “taco meat” so far has been pretty much limited to a seasoned ground beef mixture, you can be excused for thinking that Mexican food in general calls for a lot of ground meat. The truth is, this ingredient is not overly abundant in traditional Mexican cooking; in fact, it’s used…
Lentil Soup
Robin: I learned to make this in Mexico, but very similar lentil dishes can be found all over Latin America, since it was the Spanish and Portuguese who brought this valuable, nutritious legume to our part of the world. In Mexico, lentil soup would probably be served in small portions as the first course to…