Chicken Chile Relleno Pies

You want these.  They're among the best things I've made all year.  These Chicken Chile Relleno Pies are made of a cornmeal dough that's wonderfully sandy and a bit crumbly, and filled with roasted poblanos, chicken, cheese, and corn.  The ingredients, rather than standing out individually, all melt together into delicious, savory mouthfuls.  The poblanos and ancho chile powder heat it up with Southwest flavor.

The pies are admittedly labor-intensive and time-consuming, but you won't regret it.  Double the cornmeal dough recipe, which yielded only enough dough for me to use half of the filling.  Set aside time to make them all, then freeze and reheat to snack on whenever.  They would make a good potluck contribution, but if you're like me you'll hoard just about all of them.  This is the kind of comfort food you'll want to warm yourself up with all winter.

Shredded Pork in Red Chili

As much as I complain about the ending of summer, it's always exciting when the time to make cold-weather comfort food arrives.  This recipe seemed like the answer to that pork loin stashed in my freezer, and I was intrigued by the idea of a pork chili.  In my hurry, I shaved an hour off the cook time and the meat was still fall-apart tender.

I made a few changes.  For one, the recipe doesn't say how much hominy to use, so I just left it out.  Also, I'm not fond of yuca and didn't have any, so I substituted a sweet potato.  I felt the sweet potato absorbed too much salty flavor, and might be inclined to leave it out or cook it separately next time.  And as a spice wuss I cut down on the dried chiles and chipotle.  The verdict: Joe was crazy about this dish, and I thought it was OK.  It was good, but I didn't feel wowed, like something was missing.  And not just the tongue-sear from omitting some chiles.  I might give it another go, now that we're officially in Dutch oven season.