Check It Out: The New Southwest

 

Yep, got a new cookbook for the collection that I want to tell you about.  If you are a fan of southwestern cuisine, I would highly recommend running out to pick up a copy of The New Southwest by Meagan Micozzi, either for yourself or a gift for someone else.  Is that Christmas just around the corner? Huh.

I love how she takes ingredients from different regions through the southwest and pulls them together in new and interesting ways. I've not done a lot of southwest-based cooking, but I'm anxious to get in the kitchen and start trying out some of these dishes:

-- sweet glazed avocado doughnuts
-- caramel-soaked Mexican chocolate pancakes
-- sage and honey skillet biscuits
-- chipotle twice-baked sweet potatoes
-- coffee-rubbed lamb chops with weeknight mole
-- pomegranate and lime chicken thighs
-- dulche de leche layer cake with sweet pecan "pesto"

Should I go on or do you need a minute to wipe the drool from your chin?

She provides a short guide in the front part of the cookbook to ingredients that should grace a Southwestern panty followed by a section called "Building Blocks" that includes a series of recipes introducing the ingredients that she uses throughout the book.

So check it out, I think you'll like it and I'll test out a couple of her recipes for you this week.

The New Southwest
by Meagan Micozzi
Hippocrene Books, Oct 2013
978-0-7818-1315-0 / 256 pages
$35.00 USD