Cooking up Some Tex-Mex Delights with Gloria Chadwick

The prize package for my February Chili Cook-Off winning recipe (actually Dan's recipe, for Spicy Lentil Chili) over at Gloria Chadwick's Food and Flavors of San Antonio blog was a copy of her newest cookbook of the same title.

I have been delightedly cooking my way through this book and savoring the little snippets that precede many of the recipes highlighting San Antonio's Tex-Mex cuisine. We've all enjoyed the Red Rice recipe, which I've made several times now, and Dan proclaimed the Chilaquiles Calabacitas the best casserole I ever made. Chilaquiles is a layered dish of corn tortillas, veggies and cheese, and Gloria's recipe (enlivened with a little snipped fresh cilantro from our garden) was awesomely good. You'll have to buy the cookbook to get those two terrific recipes, or perhaps win a copy as I did by checking out Gloria's blog, but she is very generous in offering up several other recipes from her book at the blog as well.



I keep forgetting to photograph the Red Rice (it's a very pretty red-orange color) and the Chilaquiles were devoured before I remembered my blog photographer duties, but here's a shot of the lovely and refreshing Watermelon Aqua cocktail (it's actually non-alcoholic) that made use of some leftover watermelon.

Gloria's cookbook is a winner because the cook doesn't have to go hunt down some crazy ingredients or master elaborate techniques to make any of her recipes. That suits my cooking style and since the results have all been warmly received (aka chowed down), this cookbook will be placed in the coveted kitchen bookshelf where all my "go to" cookbooks reside.

The prolific Ms. Chadwick is already hard at work on another cookbook project, this time to benefit her local food pantry, so be sure to go visit her blog to see if you can contribute an original Tex-Mex style recipe and of course, to soak up some of her fantastic recipes.