oh rick bayless, why can’t i seem to get your recipes right? several years ago when i was new to the chipotle, i tried to make this wonderful sounding smoky chicken and spinach dish. i misread the recipe and instead of adding two canned chipotle peppers, i added two cans of chipotle peppers. (there is a reason why this is almost foodies) i spent so much time preparing that dinner and it was so over the top spicy, the whole thing went in the trash along with a few tears.i decided that today would be the day to face my fears, so i checked out his most recent book, mexican everyday, from the library. when i saw the mouthwatering recipe for swiss chard tacos with carmelized onion, fresh cheese and red chile i just knew i could conquer it – or something.

i wasn’t able to find the cheese at my local suburban supermarket, so i decided sour cream would be a fine substitute. i’m not sure if it was a substitute at all, but it totally worked. i’m trying to overcome some cheese fears and really didn’t feel like revisiting feta tonight.

i bought some corn tortillas without reading the package first (how dare i). if only i had taken the time to at least glance at the ingredients, i would have noticed that lime was added. i luckily discovered this when snacking on a crumb while the rest were steaming. they were horrible and tasted like chemicals, so i chucked ‘em in the trash. ooh – another reason to buy myself a tortilla press. yes! thankfully i had some whole wheat tortillas in the cupboard, so i quickly moved on to plan b.

the suggestion for reheating the shells is to wrap them in a kitchen towel and then steam like you would vegetables on the stove (i’m totally misinterpreting that suggestion – again with the almost foodies). maybe that works for the corn tortilla, but there was a mishap in the land of whole wheat. one of them stuck to the towel! and yes, it went in the trash, right on top of the lime and corn tortillas. hey, at least we’ve got a fun new phrase around the house – “i’ll throw you out like a tortilla towel!”

so my trip down rick bayless avenue was not a total disaster. we had a somewhat delicious meal of a theme and variation on the original recipe. i’m disappointed that i couldn’t get the right ingredients to give it a fair chance. i’m also kind of hungry because i didn’t have the energy to cook up some beans for a side dish. for some reason it can be extra time consuming trying to follow a recipe. i will think about that some more at another point. i will definitely tackle this recipe again, along with a few others in the book. cheers to conquering fears!