Brimstone Barbecue

In honor of the whole 666 marketing hype, I thought I'd use it for my own theme and create a sort of hellish dinner. I stumbled upon a dish called Chili Rellenos that was perfect for this. Essentially an oversized jalapeno popper, chili rellenos is a fire roasted pepper, stuffed with cheese, then battered and fried to give it a nice golden crust. These were sinfully good, though because of the battering leave behind terrible leftovers. Shannon is sick and she even loved them, previously having no interest in anything other than dry toast. The spice was a bit of a kick in the face up front, but quickly mellowed out. They are fairly time consuming to make and I found it difficult to seed the peppers without tearing them at all, but it was definitely worth the attempt.

While the peppers were on the grill, I also threw on some aging vine-ripened tomatoes, which I then tossed together into a salsa. This became the base of a delicious Fire Roasted Tomato and Spinach Salad. The tomatoes were deliciously sweet and their juices, mixed with a little lime juice, became a wonderful dressing for the spinach leaves. This dressing was also a nice compliment to the other side, Mushrooms and Beans with Chipotle Cream.

I was a bit timid of adding too much chipotle, since I expected the chili rellenos to be spicier and didn't want to go through the personal hell of day after waste disposal. Other than perhaps benefiting from a bit more heat, it's hard to go wrong with creamed beans and mushrooms. The cilantro took a back seat on this one and the garlic and chipotle picked up where it left off. Being such a fan of beans and these particular spices, this is definitely something that I'd make again.