It's so easy to grill! My beloved told me he wants to lose weight. I can help him with that, because not all tasty food has to be high fat, high calorie food. So I made a grilled sweet potato, grilled zucchini, yellow onion, portobello mushroom and summer squash, and grilled chicken (marinated in lime juice, 1 tbs vegetable oil, cumin, salt, black pepper, garlic powder). Anyway, I microwaved the taters for 8 minutes while I heated the grill. Then I grilled the chicken for 8 minutes on each side on medium. Take the chicken off the grill and put it in foil in the oven on warm. Grill the veggies for 10 minutes. While the veg is cooking, put the taters on the top part of the grill (to get the crackle and the smoke flavor). Take the veg off, take the chicken out of the oven. Serve the chicken with the juice it releases into the foil. Serve the squash, mushrooms and onions on the side. Put the potato next to it, serve with butter if desired.

Perfect Black Bean Dip

When I was in graduate school, I taught a cooking skills group for schizophrenic adults. It was interesting, especially since they got to use knives. One day we had a party and I brought a black bean dip. I was very proud of this dip, a recipe I had devised from basic ingredients I found in the Mexican store a block from my apartment. One of the patients, Albert, was a small, turtle-like man who rarely spoke and could never remember what year we were in. He was convinced it was 1982 and he was still a sports journalist, not a broken man with frequent fungal infections on disability. He had the dip and was very happy, and three months later, when I left the job to move on to my next internship, he shook my hand and said, "I remember you. You're the one who made the bean dip." So there you go. This dip will stick in your brain when even the current year won't.

Start with one yellow onion, three roma tomatoes, one tomatillo, one anaheim chile, one serrano chile, and two jalapeños. Clean the seeds from the chiles well and soak in cold water for about 20 minutes. Pat dry and dice. Roughly dice the onion and chop the tomatoes and combine with the chiles. Heat 2 tbs of vegetable oil in a pan until shimmering and add the veggies:



Cook until very soft and almost melting on medium heat, about 20 minutes. Here's where you add the beans. I've found that canned beans are just fine, but make sure you rinse them first to get rid of excess sodium. Add two 16 oz cans of beans to the pan.



Add a splash of vegetable broth and a diced garlic clove and simmer for another 5 minutes. Now add some spices. I like to use 1/2 tsp of ancho chile powder, a pinch of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of good cumin, 1/2 tsp black pepper and salt to taste. Start mashing the beans with a large fork or a masher.



For those of you with a food processor, you can puree the mix now to make it smooth. If you want it a little chunky, you can just keep mashing in the pan, but I like to puree it.



Up to now, it's all vegan. You can adjust the recipe from here. Return the mix to the pan but take it off the heat. Squeeze in the justice of one lime, stirring well. You can now add 1/4 cup of sour cream for texture and extra flavor. When you serve it, you can melt an ounce of cheddar or queso fresco across the top. However, this dip tastes great as a totally vegan option for your friends.