Nice Cookbook

Good morning.

Yesterday I went to the Methodist Thrift Shop in SD, and a title caught my eye amongst the books: Mexican Light.  At first I thought it might be about geography, or weather, or photography, or home decor. No, it's about a style of cooking. But I liked the format of the book and the author, Rose Shulman, is well known--although as far as I know, she's as far removed from Mexico and things Mexican as Darth Vader.  But what do I know anyway? The book is full of good ideas.

Mexican food as I know it has undergone a huge change in the long years I've been eating it.  Our idea of Mexican food when I was a kid was of the deeply seasoned, meat-centered cuisine of the ranches of northern Mexico and South Texas.  Nowadays, with so many people pouring into the USA from the more southern and purely idigenous folk from Oaxaca and Michoacan mainly,  the idea of "Mexican food" has surely shifted.

I bet I could look through that cookbook (though I havent done it yet) , through every recipe, without finding one recipe with comino in it.  Cumin is such a staple flavor in Mexican food as I know it, but of course now I realize that it was a staple flavor in Mediterranean cooking, Arabic cooking, Sephardic cooking...and those were our folks as we came over from Spain.  The Indians of the New World knew not of the comino, and still eschew its vibrant flavor in their (rather meek to me) versions of tacos and rice.

Well, I like both types. They are just different. In the meantime, this cookbook has lots of delightful taco ideas with stirfried squashes, onions, corn, chiles, that are plenty tasty.  And having had my heart attack last year, I appreciate the "soft taco" versions that aren't fried in fat.  I do them that way now anyway...how often have you heard me say to lay the tortilla down on the open gas flame...or grill?

Anyway, it is a good read, and I advise everyone who'd like a few new-ish ideas to go onto eBay or Amazon and get a "Mexican Light" by Rose Shulman.  YAZZYBEL