And the Goodbye Makes the Journey Harder Still

May is the official start to much lighter meals and less turning on of the oven.  These blanched Red Cabbage Tostada Bowls coupled with red cabbage apple slaw and corn were in keeping with the purple color theme of the day.  My tomato hot sauce was perfect with the chicken and bean filling too. 

I think of my mother the entire month of May because it was really her month.  Her birthday on the 15th and Mother's Day, spring flowers, her signature lilacs and Peonies, it's all her.  Her garden, her rose bushes, her smell.  May is all my mom.

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes

Mental states can show in your cooking.  This dish started out stable....

...with chicken breast meat.  I made stewed chicken tostadas.  Sounds reasonable.  After sautéing the meat, I stewed it in a spicy tomato sauce for about 45 minutes until it pulled apart easily. 

My friend M at work often tells me about his cooking expeditions that start off interesting enough but  then quickly plummet into a psychotic mass of ingredients not made to ever meet.  I think he just can't help himself from adding that one next thing, unable to finish a dish.  This should be named as it is a common cooking malfunction.  If he already has an Italian dish going he just might get the urge to throw in some curry powder for example and then in trying to find a balance for that new flavor, goes on to add in two more mismatched things.  By the end, I always feel a little queasy and end up saying things like 'hmmm...that sounds...... interesting' or just 'wow'.  He's a mess.

This might be an example of my own mental state coming through in the evening meal.  I tried these 'other' avocados that I never buy because I just didn't believe they would be as buttery and flavorful as the Hass and you know what?  I was right.  Maybe I got a bad batch but these were watery and flavorless. The texture wasn't there and the color is baby poop yellow.

I put the chicken atop a bed of black beans mixed with a little sour cream.  I served a red cabbage slaw side saddle instead of on top because it was just way too crowded up there.

These were good but a better example of a bunch of good ideas that don't necessarily go well together.  If I'd have skipped the tomatoes, radish and avocado and the cheese topping and just went with the slaw over the chicken, I think they would have been a hit.  Black beans with sour cream are really good but a little overpowering for the chicken. They are a good substitute for meat on their own. Cheese is not needed on tostadas and that's just a fact.  I hated the avocado so I should have just scrapped that mixture but you know I hate throwing any good food out.  The colors were a little manic too.  This plate says Crazy Mexican. This was almost too much flavor on one plate.