Souped-up soup
I prepared the Spring Fever salsa soup (Dinner Tonight, April 30) and it was wonderful. Since there is such an emphasis on food costs these days, I thought you might be interested in knowing how much I spent.
Actually, we were able to save enough for another meal so our costs (a family of two) were really half of what I spent. Anyway, here’s the recap. All purchases were from Sunset Foods in Northbrook.
Bell & Evans chicken breasts (1 1/4 pounds) $8.99
S&W black beans $1.29
Pace medium salsa $3.09
Milagro corn tortillas (only used one-fourth of the package) 39 cents (for the whole package)
Sargento Mexican cheese $3.39 (used very little of the package)
Cilantro (lots left over) 96 cents (for the whole bunch)
1 avocado 99 cents
Frozen corn $1.19 (a little bit left)
That adds up to $20.20. I don’t think that’s excessive for such a wonderful meal, considering that we will have another one later.
Today’s section (“Flavors of Mexico”) had many wonderful recipes and I plan to make many of them over the next few weeks.
— Bob Meyer, Northbrook
Taste of Mexico
Enjoyed your piece on Chicago Mexican food (“Cooking with Love, April 30). When I started reading it I figured any article on Mexican food and the Chicago area needed to make at least a mention of Rick Bayless and sure enough you quoted him extensively for the article. Enjoyable piece.
— Andrew Cranberg, Buffalo Grove
Pasta pointers
The recipe in Dinner Tonight (“Italy from Jar to Skillet,” April 9) said to cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside. I am Italian-born, but have lived in Chicago most of my life. One big no-no in Italian cooking is cooking pasta and letting it sit for some time after removing it from the water in which it was cooked, or “setting it aside” without adding sauce or butter or oil.
If you let pasta sit after cooking, it will simply stick together and become gooey. The pasta should be cooked and timed to be finished cooking once the sauce is expected to be done cooking also. The sauce can then be applied to the pasta immediately after it is cooked.
Pasta should also be drained so that some of the pasta cooking water is saved should it need to be used as a diluent (in addition to the sauce).
Lastly, in this specific recipe where pasta gets cooked again, albeit only 7 minutes, it should be cooked a minute or so less than the instructions to retain its “al dente” texture, otherwise the pasta will be overcooked and the dish becomes a gooey pasta casserole.
— Maria Betti, Chicago
She takes the cake
Thank you for your cake article (“Just Like Mom Used to Bake,” May 7).
I have a mother-in-law who was Martha Stewart before Martha was born (only with sweetness) and she makes everything from scratch. She is a fab cook and baker and has been very generous with teaching me how to bake.
— Cindy Hansen, Gambrills, Md.
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