• DKennedy on September 09, 2015

  Had dinner at Isabel's for the first time during a family vacation in Escondido. We had a warm carnitas and black bean dip served with chips that was incredible. I sent Isabel a Facebook request for the recipe, but have not heard back. Must try to recreate it. It was so good.

• DKennedy on February 25, 2015

  Chowhound thread discussing this book and reviewing recipes: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/969503?commentId=8828012#8828012

• MelMM on February 21, 2014

  Once I got going on this book, I wanted to keep going. Halibut with Cherry Tomato-Habanero Salsa and Cucumber-Cilantro Sauce - a beautiful and tasty dish that is really easy to pull together. I would reduce the lemon a bit in the cucumber-cilantro sauce. Grilled-Tofu with Avocado Salsa Cruda - very simple but great tofu dish. It's really pan-fried, not grilled. Aspirations with Red Bell Pepper and Chile Flakes - "aspirations" are what I call broccolini. This is a very simple sauté, seasoned with just chiles and salt. More than the sum of its parts. I adapted to the wok, and used peanut oil.

• MelMM on February 13, 2014

  Red Snapper Steamed in Foil with Tomato, Hearts of Palm, and Ginger - Really easy and really delicious. Quinoa with Green Olives and Red Onion - This was very good, but next time I would use less water for the quinoa. The picture shows capers in the dish, so I included some in my version. Avocado Salsa Cruda - excellent, very simple. Would be good over grilled skirt steak. Buddha Bowl - the recipe worked well as written, but the dish was rather bland. Needs some lime juice and maybe some herbs included to pep it up a bit.

• DKennedy on July 29, 2012

  Michelle picked recipes out of this book for Supper Club menu in July 2012. The fish en papiote, homemade black beans served on sopes, corn salad, and the Mexican chocolate bread pudding were all standouts.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Seared tuna wontons with avocado salsa cruda

  • MmeFleiss on October 12, 2016

    This would've been great if I ignored the directions for the wontons. As written they remained pale and never crisped up properly.

• Oven-roasted vegetable salad with sofrito vinaigrette

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This makes a good, hearty salad. The dressing is wonderful - it's got a fair bit of sweetness to it from the pepper, onion, and sugar, but it also has a lot of depth and savoriness. I'm looking forward to finding more ways to use it.

• Spanish potato salad

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    I've made this recipe so many times now. It's a great potluck or catering dish that can be served at room temperature. It's very simple and the ingredients are layered rather than tossed together. It makes a lovely presentation.

• Lentil soup with red bell pepper, basil, and chipotle

  • stockholm28 on December 03, 2016

    The recipe is super easy. The soup has a mix of ingredients that I would not necessarily associate with lentil soup (chipotle pepper, paprika, shiitake mushroom, fresh basil). She says the soup has "very delicate, subtle flavors that get a jolt from chipotle chili powder." This soup is anything but delicate and subtle. I thought the chipotle completely dominated. It was very thick and reminded me of a vegetarian chili, albeit one made with lentils. I liked it and it was a very satisfying dish on a very cold night; however, I'm not sure if it is something I will make again. February 12, 2014.

• Buddha bowl

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This one didn't quite work for me. It wasn't bad, but it was pretty bland. Some might find it "comforting", but that wouldn't be me. Squeezing in some lime juice helped. Some chopped cilantro or some other herb would have helped as well, as would some minced chiles or maybe just some chile oil drizzled in. For me, the fusion thing just wasn't happening here.

• Turkey albóndigas in broth

  • DKennedy on October 30, 2016

    Excellent

  • stockholm28 on December 03, 2016

    This is definitely a keeper. I love chipotle in adobo and this is a delicious spicy broth with tasty turkey meatballs. February 26, 2014

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    I went a bit heavy on the mint, because I like it. The mint really makes the dish. The mint in the meatballs, combined with the hot, smokey chipotle in the broth is a study in contrasts, and it works oh so well. We had this with some fresh corn on the cob, and having one ear left over after the meal, we added the kernels to the soup. Let's just say that a little bit of corn (not too much) is a nice addition. We had a Toulouse Pinot Noir (Mendocino, CA), which I mention only because it was a surprisingly good match.

  • PennyG on February 05, 2026

    I just got this book and selected this recipe per the notes listed here at EYB. It is absolutely delicious. A keeper for us!

• Salmon with papaya-mango-mint salsa

  • MmeFleiss on November 17, 2016

    I made this for dinner last night, subbing Trader Joe's island soyaki sauce for the soy joy because I ran out of sesame oil. Really quick and delicious. I did dress the salad with a simple sherry vinaigrette since the recipe makes no mention of a dressing.

• Halibut with cherry tomato-habanero salsa and cucumber-cilantro sauce

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This was very good. The cucumber sauce comes out more lemony than anything, and a bit too soupy. Next time I will reduce the amount of lemon juice (perhaps cut it in half), to allow the cucumber to shine. It seems like she was imitating a tomatillo sauce here, which begs the question, why not just use tomatillos? But then, the cucumber does give it a bit of that Asian feel, so maybe that's the point. All in all, it was a very easy and interesting dish, and attractive on the plate.

• Steamed red snapper in foil with tomatoes, hearts of palm, and ginger

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    You get a lot of bang for your buck (or I should say, minute) with this recipe. About 10 minutes prep, 10 minutes baking, and you have a really impressive fish dish. I was a bit skeptical about how the flavors would mesh, but they went together beautifully. Mr. MM was thrilled with this one.

• Jalapeño shrimp

  • stockholm28 on December 03, 2016

    This is an incredibly simple dish. It took me less than 20 minutes to prep everything and under 10 minutes to cook. This would be an easy weeknight dish. This was a good dish, although not particularly remarkable. It reminds me of some of the Mediterranean shrimp dishes I've had, except with a slightly different flavor from the jalapeno. The jalapeno was milder than I expected. February 26, 2014.

  • TrishaCP on November 20, 2018

    I was really disappointed in this recipe. It was too sour- with the wine, lemon juice and tomatoes, and no fat or oil to balance the flavors. I made a half recipe, using a jalapeño with seeds, and there was no heat.

• Cumin panko chicken

  • TrishaCP on April 15, 2017

    This was fine but nothing special.

• Grilled chicken breasts with roasted chile verde sauce

  • TrishaCP on August 09, 2019

    The chile verde is a great sauce to go with grilled chicken. We did have huge breasts so grilled them to our liking rather than following the recipe.

• Flank steak with sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and green onions

  • MmeFleiss on October 12, 2016

    This recipe is such a neat twist on the classic meat and potatoes dish. Definitely a family favorite. Good for those who are ok with some sweetness in their main dish.

  • TrishaCP on October 25, 2016

    We really liked this too. We couldn't find guava paste for the guava sauce recipe, so heated guava marmalade thinned with water as a substitute. I used a cast iron skillet for both the steak and the potatoes- my potatoes stuck a bit but nothing major. I loved the use of the tops of the scallions, but I did miss garlic in the marinade, so would probably add some next time.

• Latin burger with chipotle-lime barbecue sauce

  • stockholm28 on December 03, 2016

    Basically, this is a turkey burger that is brushed in olive oil and barbecue sauce and then grilled. You serve the burgers with extra barbecue sauce. I liked this ok, but I screwed up the barbecue sauce so can't give a really fair review. The recipe calls for 6 to 8 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce to taste. The problem is, I just added 8 chipotles and lots of adobo sauce without tasting. The chipotle totally overwhelmed the sauce. I couldn't really get much of the lime or sweetness. I'll probably try this again. Next time, I will start with 4 chipotles and add them one at a time. April 22, 2014.

• Grilled tofu with avocado salsa cruda

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This is served with the avocado salsa cruda on top. The tofu has no salt added (unless you use a "chile powder" with salt in it), but that is not a problem, because as I noted above, the avocado salsa cruda is quite salty from the amount of soy sauce. The overall effect is well-balanced. This is a very savory tofu dish. And interesting. You have a Japanese ingredient (tofu), seasoned with Southwestern spices, topped with Southwestern ingredients seasoned with a Japanese condiment. Somehow, it all works. Not going to say this will make a tofu-lover out of a tofu-hater, but if, like me, you like tofu, this is a pretty nice way to have it.

• Black beans

  • TrishaCP on April 22, 2019

    So it’s black beans, which are always going to be good for me. But I didn’t love this recipe. It uses large amounts of spices, including chile powder, which I didn’t care for with my beans. I pressure cooked the dried beans for 40 minutes (Instant Pot) rather than follow the recipe’s directions.

  • JoanN on March 09, 2021

    I was thrilled with this. Tried it after years of making Rick Bayless's pot beans and these are every bit as good. Perfect accompaniment on Taco Tuesday.

  • DKennedy on January 30, 2024

    Back in the days of my first cooking club, we tried both this recipe and the fast version offered on the very next page. The more involved recipe was by far the best at home beans I had ever made (actually, Summer made it that day). I hadn't made a note at the time, but I came across it today while tweeting a pot of beans and sure enough, this does make an outstanding pot of beans. Not surprising, this whole book is a gem!

• Quinoa with green olives and red onion

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This an interesting choice for me to make. Mr. MM claims to dislike green olives and capers. However, he gobbled up the quinoa and had seconds. I enjoyed the flavors very much as well, but if I make it again, I'll make some changes to the technique. I thought the amount of water called for was too much, and the quinoa did not come out as fluffy as it usually does when I make it. I also thought the recipe would come out better if the quinoa were salted from the get-go, and if the pepper and cumin were added to the sautéed veggies. All this repeated stirring in of things to the cooked quinoa didn't do anything for the texture of the dish. All in all, I'd say a good dish that could be great with a few tweaks.

• Aspirations with red bell pepper and chile flakes

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This recipe is so simple, my expectations were low. I was pleasantly surprised. I did make it in my high-heat outdoor wok instead of a skillet, and that might account for its success. There are enough chile flakes in the dish to give it a bit of a kick. This was not the under-seasoned vegetable dish I was expecting. Plus, the simplicity of the dish, allowed for the wok hei to shine through. You would get that in the stovetop version in the book, but in that version, you'd be using a flavorful olive oil, which could also shine.

• Avocado salsa cruda

  • MelMM on November 12, 2017

    This is very Japanese in it's taste and simplicity. To me, this is more of a salsa to be served with or on food, not eaten with chips. I've made this several times now. I love it on the tofu from this book, and I've used it in several other applications. Mr. MM does like it as well as I do, so YMMV. But I really like this salsa, or really more of a salad.

• Roasted chile verde sauce

  • TrishaCP on August 09, 2019

    This makes a lot of sauce, and is endlessly adaptable to different proteins and applications.

• Roasted tomatillo sauce

  • TrishaCP on April 22, 2019

    I served this with grilled chicken and it was spicy and delicious.

• Strawberry-mango cobbler

  • stockholm28 on December 03, 2016

    Absolutely delicious.

  • TrishaCP on April 16, 2017

    This is a great cobbler and was a total crowd pleaser. I liked the combination of fruits and I liked the two-layer format (top and bottom crusts). I was worried that the bottom wouldn't cook through all the way with the juicy fruit but no need to worry. I did use a bit more fruit than called for, and didn't bother with any on the top.

• Croissant bread pudding with Mexican chocolate and almonds

  • DKennedy on October 30, 2016

    Updating this review as I now have made this recipe a billion times. Incredibly delicious and super easy to prepare. It can also be frozen and reheated if need be. . Claire loves this dish. Great for buffets, brunch items, or anytime you want a treat. I use the TJs pre-made mini croissants as my base.