<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/insidevoice/327844755/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/139/327844755_b50ed91506.jpg" alt="Homemade corn tortillas" height="333" width="500" /></a><br /><br />I just spent a week in Mexico. You might think I'd be sick of Mexican food. And you'd be wrong.<br /><br />I came home just itching to make some tortilla soup. And I did that last night, with toasted pasilla chile, fire-roasted tomatoes, and chicken. We topped it with fried tortilla strips, cotija cheese, and avocado. It didn't come close to the thick, tangy sopa de tortilla I had at Sayulita Cafe, but it was tasty.<br /><br />Today I made tomatillo-braised chicken in the crockpot using a Rick Bayless recipe, and I made fresh corn tortillas to accompany it. I have a tortilla maker that we received as a wedding gift nine years ago, and I have finally figured out how to get it to make perfect tortillas: don't plug it in. It is basically a very expensive tortilla press. When it's hot, it is nearly impossible to press the ball of dough into a perfectly thin tortilla without it getting lumpy or breaking up. But when it's cold, the dough presses into perfect circles between two sheets of plastic wrap. Peeling the plastic wrap away carefully, I transferred the thin circles to a hot skillet to cook for a minute on each side. Way better than even the freshest store-bought tortillas.<br /><br />Diana Kennedy's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Cuisines of Mexico</span> is my new (old) best friend, along with my Rick Bayless and Too Hot Tamales books. So much to cook, so little time.