Well, another day spend in and out of the kitchen.

I started with the usual…..Partially filling the dishpan with hot soapy water, deep enough to cover the first round of cups and glasses.  After washing and setting them in the sink, I rinse the glasses in hot water over the dishpan.  If this round doesn’t fill the dishpan, the next load will.  I do this to conserve hot water, tho with the kitchen cook stove being kept well stoked during the cold weather, there is lots of very hot water.

Then to make the opening recipe in my latest favorite cookbook: Simple Food, Big Flavor: Unforgettable Mexican-inspired Dishes from My Kitchen to Yours, by Aaron Sanchez.

Simple Food, Big Flavor: Unforgettable Mexican-Inspired Recipes from My Kitchen to Yours, by Aaron Sanchez

Carl recognized the name as one of the judges on a kitchen show “Chopped”  I had read a review of this book on either the Seattle Times or the NY times.  I asked for it at the most-fabulous Deming library.  Don’t know it they ordered it because of me, but from the pristine look of the book, I may be the first reader.  Now If I can just keep it looking that good as I try out some of the sauces.  The cookbook has recipes for 15 chile sauces, mostly Mexican.  Then, following each sauce, there are a few recipes using that sauce.

The majority are meat recipes, but the sauces are good enough to use in all kinds of recipes.

My favorite is the Garlic Chipotle Love sauce so named because the smells and tastes reminds Aaron of his mother’s cooking while he was growing up.

The recipe called for 12 cloves of garlic.  I peeled 12 cloves of the garlic we grew in the garden.  Which was two very large heads, each with 6 thumb size cloves.  Probably equivalent to double or triple regular cloves 😉  I put them and a cup of olive oil into a pottery ramekin bowl and baked it the wood stove oven for an hour, until the garlic cloves were soft.

Then I let the garlic mixture cool for a bit before dumping it and the rest of the ingredients into the blender: (chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped fresh cilantro, grated zest of 1 lime and salt. For full recipe see Aaron’s website for Garlic Chipotle Love sauce)

I didn’t have any lemon zest, so I popper a couple frozen lime juice cubes out of an ice cube tray.  A few days ago, Carl and I had hand-squeeze several limes that needed to be used.  The juice filled three trays.  Now I’m ready for any recipe calling for lime juice. (This idea came from my 94 year oldAunt Juanita, who has a lime tree in her Central California back yard.)

After the Garlic Chipotle Love sauce was finished, I took half a cup of the to make the Smokey Bean Dip, using red beans (what was in the pantry) instead of black.

I poured the rest of the Chipotle Garlic Love sauce into an ice cube tray.  12 ice cubes of 2 TB each.  The next time I make a pot of beans, I’ll  throw a couple frozen Garlic Chipotle Love cubes in.  And I’ll put one in the pressure cooker the next time I cook brown rice.

Dinner tonight was Chips and the Smokey bean dip.  The dip had a very nice bite and loads of mellow garlic and cilantro flavor.  Carl suggested a side of sour cream next time.

And there will definitely be a next time.  I even licked the bowl of the straight Garlic Chipotle Love sauce.