I really like Mexican food, but it can be hard to find any that is okay for AB’s since a large percentage of it has corn and peppers somewhere in it. However, today I found another dish to add to my list of Mexican food that is okay for AB’s. Chiles Rellenos!

Yes, I did just said we are not supposed to have peppers and then immediately suggested eating a dish made of chile peppers. Here’s my reasoning: we can have chili powder. Many of the chili powders are too spicy for me or otherwise bother me. I wondered why. I also wondered why AB’s could have any chili powder at all in the first place since peppers are avoids - seemed like a real contradiction to me.

After trying many different chili powders over the past two and a half years, I noticed a common denominator: the ones that I could have, with no negative side effects, were always made with ancho peppers and other assorted spices, but never ever with any other type(s) of peppers.

Now, our B nature can have peppers so it is my theory (which means this is NOT official blood type diet information) that while our A half is generally dominate regarding the status of peppers, that the B “peeks through” and allows me to have the anchos without any problem.

Chiles Rellenos are made with poblano peppers (what fresh ancho peppers are called) that are battered with frothy to-the-point-of-almost-being-meringue egg whites, pan-fried until golden, and then sauced with a tomato based sauce. Serve them with sides of Spanish rice (use vegetable broth to dilute plain tomato paste or some plain tomato sauce and then cook the rice in the mixture with a bit of oregano and/or chili powder - not chicken broth and forget the bits of diced bell pepper) and mashed, seasoned, pinto beans with a little oil, and heat it up to make re-fried beans for AB’s. Garnish with some shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream and enjoy with a fresh crisp green salad. Now you know what I had for lunch today!

Hint: make your own sauce for the chiles rellenos otherwise you will most likely end up in Avoid City.

Mail bag time: “G” would like to know how I make pie crust and says that a crust that is fine for B’s as well is needed, too.

When I make pie crust (as I will be later on this evening or sometime tomorrow if it gets too late tonight) I just use whatever pie crust recipe I used in the past and play the substitution game: spelt flour for wheat, cold clarified butter for butter and/or shortening, a bit of sea salt or kosher salt instead of iodized salt, and a bit of ice cold filtered water. This works well for all blood types IF they are secretors AND IF do not have any health issues such as being gluten intolerant.

Note #1: Since the clarified butter has no milk solids in it, I use about 2/3rds the amount of butter and/or shortening that the original recipe called for. All other ingredients that I substitute are the same quantities as the original ingredients.

Note #2: Clarified butter gets somewhat grainy when it’s chilled well enough to make a pie crust. This does not change the flavor any and to my family, it’s not noticeable in a crust, but it can be noticeable like if you use it in something that is supposed to be creamy. For this reason, I suggest that you only chill as much as you will need to make your crust(s).

There is no steam released as the butter heats up that normally would help to puff up the crust (because it evaporated when you clarified it), this means that the crust will be denser than “normal” crusts.

Note #3: Clarified butter that has been allowed to over cook just a tiny bit is what is called browned butter. It has a slightly sweeter and nutty flavor and more of a deep gold color when compared to the regular yellow clarified butter. Next time you make your clarified butter, make a second pot of it and brown it slightly for use in baking desserts. It is also very good with Indian foods, especially curried cauliflower.

What am I going to do with my piecrusts? The first one will be for a tomato tart. A friend of my husband had too many tomatoes for everyone to eat so I slow roasted mine. Roasted tomatoes (also called candied tomatoes) are an Italian tradition as far as I know and a very tasty way to use up lots of tomatoes in a hurry.

All you have to do is this: clean, core, and dry your tomatoes. Cut them in half across their equator and place them cut side up on a baking pan. You want a pan instead of a cookie sheet because you need the lip or rim around the outside to keep the juices and oil from running off and getting all over the bottom of your oven while they cook.

Drizzle the cut tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle them with a bit of salt. Next, you can either season them with some Italian seasoning or some herbes de Provence or whatever strikes you as sounding good or you can just put them in your oven. Cook them at anywhere from 250*F to 325*F for two or three hours, depending on the size of your tomatoes and the temperature of your oven. When they are done they will have shrunk to about half their original size, be shriveled, and still be very juicy inside.

Note: This process can be messy for the inside of your oven because the oil that you drizzled on the tomatoes likes to spatter as it and the tomato juices heat up. I suggest lining your baking pan(s) with something to make clean up easier. One more thing: do not stack the tomatoes on top of each other or to put it another way cook only one layer of tomatoes per pan at a time.

So why do some people call them candied tomatoes? What happens is the sugars that are naturally in the tomatoes caramelize or candy (hence the name) and the water in the tomato evaporates. This leaves you with very little compared to the original bulk of the cut tomatoes, but they have a super concentrated taste. The concentrated flavor is super sweet if compared to that of a regular tomato or that of a tomato that has been dried rather than slow roasted.

I had two full jelly roll pans worth of tomatoes before lunch. Now that they have been roasted, they only take up about half a loaf pan's worth of space. They are going to be the tart filling when I combine them with some odds ‘n’ ends of grated cheeses, caramelized onions, and an egg to help bind it all together.

The second pie crust will be for a pie. Honey-crisp apples (which happen to be my own personal favorite apple variety) were on sale this week so I’m making a Dutch apple pie. Yummm.