The best thing my mom ever bought me October 8, 2006

My mom bought me this cookbook as a wedding shower gift. I can count on my two hands the number of times I have opened it in the ten years I have been married. Until I came to Albania. This is my new best friend. I open it at least once a day! So today I cooked Taco Soup (a Loyce Gandy original). The best part about this recipe in the US is that everything comes in a can. You just open them up, dump them in a pot a VIOLA! Dinner is served! Not so much. The only canned beans I have seen were baked beans, and they were $3 a can! So I bought a bag of plain white beans (I really have no idea what kind they are) and soaked them. I do know you are supposed to do this. Mind you, I have only used dried beans in the US maybe 3 times, but the instructions were in English. Here the instructions were in Greek (really)! So Fannie is a great help. She tells you how much water to add, how long to cook them, how much they will increase in size. I bought a can of tomatoes that I was not so sure were going to be diced tomatoes. This was really hard to ask for at the duchand (local store). I was not sure if I was getting tomato sauce or diced tomatoes. It turned out to be whole tomatoes so that was workable. Also, there is no such things as green chilies so I improvised with green peppers and onions, sauted them and added them to the mix! So… Taco Soup… no longer a 30 minute meal, but it was good!