Squash Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

Recipe from Bon Appétit | July 1998

Don't pass these up because they have no meat or poultry - they are fabulous! Even my sister who is a meat and potatoes kinda gal loves them. This would make a great addition to your (non-traditional)Thanksgiving menu, vegetarian or not.

I made these one evening when my meat loving sister was coming over for dinner and as they were baking she asked what kind of enchiladas we were having. I just looked at her, and she knew they were squash... how she knew I don't know. Maybe because I tend to use it often in recipes. We laughed so hard - she was hesitant to say the least, but she ended up loving them. Score!

Success meter (1-3): 3

We love the sweetness of the squash paired

with the zing of the salsa. Trust me - these

are really, really good. You'll be amazed.

Black Rice Salad with Mango and Peanuts

Recipe from Bon Appétit magazine

                   Black Rice Salad with Mango and Peanuts

This month's (June 2012) Bon Appétit magazine has six salads made with grains. I want to make them all! I won't be putting this issue on the shelf anytime soon.

I was happy to find the rice that was called for in this recipe at my higher-end grocery store. I thought I was going to have to order it on-line from amazon - I swear amazon has everything under sun. Yes, they even have the Lotus Foods Forbidden Rice called for in the recipe.

Photo courtesy of lotusfoods.com

I LOVE mango! That is what drew me to this recipe along with the beautiful photo showing the bright colors of the mango, oranges, and cilantro against the black rice.



Photo courtesy of bonappetit.com

For the dressing, the recipe asks for one tablespoon fish sauce (optional) which I did use since I have a huge bottle that I just bought for the cooking group Wok Wednesdays that I recently joined. If you do not have fish sauce I personally would not buy a bottle for one tablespoon. The dressing will be great (I love citrus dressings) without it. If you are like how I used to be and had to make a recipe exactly as written and you do buy a bottle of fish sauce (it is inexpensive) you may want to join the cooking group Wok Wednesdays where we are cooking through Grace Young's book Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge to use up that bottle of fish sauce. I also would omit the peanuts; with each bite that had a peanut, I felt the flavor of this salad dropped down a notch, though the hubby liked the addition of the peanuts. Other than the nuts I loved this salad. When I make this again I will add more mango and orange for I can never get enough fruit.

Success meter (1-3): 3