mangia mangia (vol. 2)

in the first edition of mangia mangia, i told the woeful tale of my fruitless search for enchilada sauce. when the craving for enchiladas struck again, i happened upon a new recipe for shredded chicken enchiladas that lauded the merits of homemade enchilada sauce. skeptical, i clicked the link to the sauce recipe, sure that it would call for two or three or fifteen exotic ingredients that would be just as difficult to find here in Rome as a can of Old El Paso itself.

do you want to know what goes into enchilada sauce?

olive oil. garlic. tomatoes. salt. pepper. chicken broth. (not exactly in short supply here.) and the rest of the spices? chili powder, cumin, onion powder, and oregano. ENCHILADA SAUCE IS A PANTRY DISH, Y'ALL.

so i made it. and it was ridiculously delicious (and actually tasted like real enchilada sauce, not some DIY knockoff). and the enchiladas were excellent. to top it all off (har har), my cilantro is still surviving, although the colder temps have certainly slowed it down, so i garnished with fresh cilantro and felt very pleased with myself.

for the Feast of Pope St. John Paul II on October 21, who happens to be Polish, we had potato & cheese pierogi and kielbasa. this is only the second time in my life i've made my own pierogi. i made this recipe the first time when we were newly married and i had hours to spend up to my elbows in dough. homemade pierogi are delicious, but they require ... hours spent up to your elbows in dough. or, at least one hour, which is still more time than my current daily schedule allows for such shenanigans. but it was a feast day! so i made time. i have to say the pierogi turned out a little dry this time. i'm going to blame it on the flour, because i bought a bag of slightly denser flour that said it was good for pizza and bread, but the pizza i made with it turned out dry too.

at long last, General Tso's chicken. well, something akin to it anyway. i've made this recipe from the Culinary Couple for years, and it's so good! i still couldn't find sesame oil or canola oil here, so i used peanut oil for both, and i had a sweet and spicy chili sauce instead of authentic chili-garlic paste. so it didn't have the perfect General Tso's taste that it usually does, but it still satisfied that Panda Express-shaped hole in my heart.

chili cheese dogs with Heinz ketchup. say no more. i use this recipe for the chili. couldn't find red onions, but we just piled on more Heinz ketchup and were very, very happy.

pork chops with honey balsamic glaze. and a hefty dose of rosemary, because man's chief end is to glorify God and eat rosemary as much as possible. and browned butter parmesan roasted potatoes. these were both new recipes and they did not disappoint. this is a photo of my plate with all the fat left on the chop to give me every speck of flavor. (i don't eat the fat, but leaving it on does make a difference!) meanwhile, Nick prefers his meat closely trimmed. and when it comes to steak, we also have our quibbles. Nick likes a perfectly medium to medium-rare steak, while i want mine to practically still be moo-ing. i don't know what this says about us but there you have it.