La Mamacita

Like Libbie, I have several cookbooks that I turn to regularly. I love Mollie Katzen, although my husband complains that she's too bland, and Deborah Madison taught me that there was more to vegetables than just broccoli and asparagus and that you can roast just about anything. Libbie has piqued my interest in Nigella Lawson, which may be my next purchase (Libbie, do you get royalties?) but my obsession with healthy food keeps me coming back to Eating Well.

I first subscribed to Eating Well in the early 90s when I was recently married and just learning how to cook. I liked the articles as much as the recipes, and began to look forward to seeing what Test Kitchen Director Patsy Jamieson and the other Vermont cooks would come up with next. When a new issue would arrive, I felt like my sister-in-law Anne feels when one of her favorite catalogs comes in the mail: "It's like a letter from a friend!"

But in 1999, Eating Well hit hard times. I started getting strange notes saying my subscription had expired (it hadn't), and when I ordered the magazine for my sister, it never arrived. One day, I received a letter saying that Eating Well was no longer in publication, and that I could choose from various other magazines to fulfill my subscription. My husband said I looked like I'd just learned someone close to me had died. And really, as corny as it sounds, I had. Somehow, that magazine was a perfect fit for me: The recipes worked, the articles fascinated me, and I loved its quirky New England NPR-listening, wine-sipping liberal humor. I was livid -- no warning? I pulled out my latest issue--it seemed jam-packed with ads. What was the deal? I actually wrote to the publishers, never to receive a response.

Until, that is, a couple of years ago. I happened to check Eatingwell.com, just for old time's sake, and there was a notice with the wonderful news that Eating Well was back! The first issue contained an explanation to loyal readers who, like me, never quite adjusted to life sans their favorite magazine. It explained that the food folks got tired of the tyranny of the business end of the publication and decided that they could no longer publish in good faith AND meet the demands of advertisers. The NEW Eating Well would have --gasp!-- no advertising!

Discovering that I had actually LIKED looking at the ads was a harsh realization for me, as it must have been for Patsy Jamieson and her colleagues when, a couple of thin issues into this high-minded atempt, they realized that they NEEDED advertising in order to stay afloat. So today's Eating Well has a large advertising base and the great health-oriented recipes that somehow ALWAYS work for me. What's more, they put a growing emphasis on meals that take a reasonable amount of time to prepare, which is more realistic for me. As a vegetarian, there are many recipes that I don't use, but I enjoy reading over them and cutting them out for meat-eating friends.

So, Satuday night my husband and I craved something different and tex-mexish, and I turned to my old friend. She didn't disappoint. I actually found this recipe (the potatoes, not the quesadillas) in her online offerings, not in the magazine. My husband and I put a movie on for the kids, opened a bottle of wine and did something we hadn't done together for a long time -- cook! It was fun ... and delicious. My 8-year-old actually cleaned her plate. Here's what we made:

Sweet potatoes with warm black bean salad and quesadillas.
Serves 4

You'll need:
4 medium sweet potatoes
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
8 Corn tortillas
Grated Monterey Jack cheese


1. Preheat the oven to 425.
2. Scrub the sweet potatoes and prick them with a fork. Place them in a baking dish and bake until they're bubbly and crisp on the outside, about an hour. (For cutting time, Eating Well suggests that you can microwave them, but I prefer their flavor when baked).
3. Combine beans, tomatoes, oil, cumin, coriander and salt in a small saucepan; set aside.
4. Soften tortillas one at a time directly on the burner of your stove, turning them often with tongs, for about 30 seconds. Wrap the softened tortillas in a dishtowel to keep them soft until ready to use.
5. Once you've softened all the tortillas, place four of them on the bottom of an ovenproof dish or cookie sheet and top each with grated cheese (I put some canned chiles and cilantro on each before I added the cheese).
6. Place another tortilla on top of each one, and press down lightly.
7. When the potatoes are done, pull them out, decrease the oven temp to 400 and put the quesadillas in.
8. Heat the bean mixture 2-3 minutes or until heated through.
9. When cool enough to handle, cut each sweet potato lengthwise, press open to make a well in the center and spoon the bean mixture into the well. Top each with a dollop of sour cream and a some cilantro.
10. Pull out the quesadillas after 7-10 minutes (keep an eye on them!) and cut them into wedges.
11. Serve with salsa and extra cilantro and sour cream.


If you were in a real hurry to get dinner on the table, you could take Eating Well's suggestion and heat the potatoes and bean mixture in the microwave. That would free up the oven for the quesadillas, and you could probably get this baby on the table in 20 minutes or so...