Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

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I absolutely love this recipe. Conversely, The Hubby won't even try it. Something to do with his hatred for cilantro and lime.

I have come to realize that cilantro is really one of those love or hate foods. If you like it, you LOVE it, and want more more more (or is that just me?), but if you don't like it you HATE it and can detect its presence even when it is barely there. I am always amazed at how different one person's food tastes can be compared to another's. How is it that I never crave chocolate, and some people would die without it? Or that I luck out by being someone who has a love of black jellybeans while others will eat around them? Or that some people will gloop ketchup onto everything from potatoes to eggs to Kraft Dinner, while others will only eat these foods plan?

One of the weirdest things that I heard about cilantro in my waitressing days was that customers wanted it left off of their plate because it tastes like soap. Soap? Huh?

Is it weird that this still looks delicious to me?

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

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Happy Valentine's Day!

After a brief hiatus while I was off getting eye surgery, I'm back! The upside to eye surgery (besides the seeing without contact lenses part, which is amazing) is that I think I may have even lost a few pounds! I was so sensitive to light after the surgery (as in I wore my sunglasses at night a la Corey Hart...except if Corey Hart wore them inside with all the lights off and blinds drawn, and the sunglasses were blublockers) that looking into the bright refrigerator was almost impossible. Winning!

"...cuz you got it made with the guy in shades, oh no"

I actually did make a couple of recipes while I was off, but accidentally deleted the photos of some (just in case you are wondering, doing this was a similar feeling to typing a really long email, and then accidentally hitting a mystery button on the keyboard that deletes everything you wrote), and didn't take photos of the others. I also made a halibut recipe that was so-so, which made me wonder whether I should be:


a) only posting about stuff that we really liked, or 
b) throwing caution to the wind, posting about everything regardless of how it turns out, and giving honest reviews. 


I will have to debate this over the next few days, but I'm leaning towards posting about all of my kitchen misadventures so that I can keep track of what I've made and liked or disliked. I would love to hear what you think!?

Back to the matter at hand...who doesn't love a homemade mac n' cheese? Om nom nom nom. My mom handed me this Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese recipe from Chatelaine magazine the other day, and it looked great so I wanted to give it a whirl. Butternut squash in combination with pasta seems to be really popular lately at restaurants...the creaminess of the butternut squash really adds to the richness and creaminess of the pasta sauce.