I've Been Cookin'! (Unfortunately, Not With Gas...)

Well, I've tried two recipes so far from my "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant" book.  A couple of nights ago, I made Black Beans for One and tonight I made Salsa Rosa.  Both recipes can be found at http://marylynnestraveljournal.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-recipe-collection.html.  And since I never seem to want to or be able to precisely follow a recipe, I'll be adding notes about what I did differently and/or will do differently the next time.

Of the two, right now, the black beans one was probably the front runner.  I made that one because I love beans and rice in all sorts of ways and because since it was the recipe from the writer's college days, he used canned beans (which I tend to distrust) so I was interested to see how it would turn out.  And I was really surprised - there is hardly any seasoning in this recipe so what I was tasting was very much black beans and they were quite delicious.

The Salsa Rosa sounds Mexican (as the writer points out) but it is a recipe he picked up while in Italy.  I want to make it again with several changes because it was good, but I think it could be better, and I'm not sure, but I think it could come very close to being the tomato sauce that seemed to be served on every pasta dish my husband and I ordered at the cheap little trattorias where we ate during our 9-day stay in Rome forty-one years ago!  I have always remembered that sauce and wished I could figure out how it was made.  It was very creamy, but still tomato-y and just very, very good - totally different from American Italian spaghetti sauce.  Mind you, I love my spaghetti and meatballs recipe (I'll have to post that sometime too) and so does everyone else, but this Rome sauce was a whole new idea.

And before I post my pictures of these two dishes, I'm going to post the address for Chris's (my son) gallery on BetterPhoto and then everyone can wonder how in the world I have the nerve to post my pictures.  But we can't all be stellar photographers!  My dad was an "amateur" photographer with his own darkroom, etc., and my sister and I still have a lot of his really wonderful photographs, so I guess Chris comes by it naturally.  Anyway, here is the address for his gallery:   http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.asp?mem=136794.

And, here are my pics of the two recipes:

Black Beans for One - The onions and garlic browning on the left, and the finished dish with a trial helping of grated cheddar.

Salsa Rosa for One - The ingredients (that I had) for the dish and the finished product on the right.

Bon appetit!