Rick Bayless’ new book, Fiesta at Rick’s, is great!

I recently saw a tweet about Rick Bayless‘ new cookbook, Fiesta at Rick’s – a book written for hosting friends and cooking his great Mexican food.  We love to entertain, so thought I’d buy the book, and decided instantly I wanted to cook pretty much everything in it.  Last night, I was in the mood for Mexican food and decided to give the new book a whirl.  Even though we weren’t entertaining, I had a hankering, and knew I could downsize a recipe for two (ok, four….gotta have leftovers, right?!).  I am so impressed with this book!  Some of the recipes are more complex (like Lacquered Chicken in Classic Red Mole), but others are quite simple and I have no doubt all are equally delicious.  I chose to make the Grilled Skirt Steak Tacos – marinated skirt steak, grilled and served with grilled onions and poblano peppers, guacamole, and of course salsa.  The big choice was which of the salsas and hot sauces to make…there must be more than 20 recipes in the book, and they all look great!  I made two in the end:  Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and the irresistible Habanero Hot Sauce.  Both were easy to make, and absolutely fantastic.  I love habanero sauce, but often it doesn’t have the right balance of heat, sweetness and tartness.  I have to say this recipe was just right.  I’m so glad I made enough to last a good, long while.  Thanks to Rick for the awesome book — can’t wait to cook from it again soon!