Pipian - 214

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we had been invited to a potluck with some friends of ours. I had prepared a lovely quinoa salad with black beans, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, green onions, and parsley in a very light olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. That was all I was going to do this year after many years of preparing Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends.

But...Javier couldn't resist the low price of good turkey, so he bought one on Tuesday. I always love the smell of a roasting turkey on Thanksgiving Day, and the house stays warm without using the heater or the woodstove.

I was just going to roast the turkey, then after it cooled cut the meat off the bones and package it up to be saved for future Mexican menus. On one of my trips into the kitchen I spotted some pumpkin seeds that Javier had saved from one of our other meals, so decided to toast them on our comal. One thing led to another, and before I knew it I was cooking PIPIAN, a wonderfully simple sauce using ground pumpkin seeds, two kinds of chiles (anchos and guajillos), cumin seed and garlic. Then I found a small package of organic zucchinis that I had bought a week ago that were at their peak, so decided to cook them up and serve them with the leftover red, yellow, and orange bell peppers in the PIPIAN.

The Thanksgiving potluck wasn't until 5:30 last night, so for a late (and light) lunch we ate some PIPIAN over some of the roast turkey and leftover brown rice. The rest of the sauce went over the vegetables, which we later packed up and took to the dinner along with the quinoa salad. They seemed to go over well as there was only a spoonful left in the dish when we brought it home last night.

On another note: the QUESO FUNDIDO the night before was a good idea to try out and write about, but too heavy on the calories despite using the turkey chorizo and a low-fat queso fresco. As of today, we go back to lighter, fresher and healthier Mexican eating!