So far I've made almost half of the recipes in the newest (December 2010) issue of Cook's Country
, and have been quite pleased with most of them. It is rare that I get that much use out of a single recipe source, and especially rare for a cooking magazine.
The two most recent things I've tried from that particular magazine are a natural combination: posole - a stew common to New Mexico, made from pork, hominy and pureed onions and dried peppers - and fresh, homemade tortillas. The stew was by far the more time-consuming of the two recipes, due to it having several steps - roasting the dried ancho chilis, rehydrating them in hot broth, browning onions, pureeing the onions and peppers, browning the pork and the hominy, long periods of stewing - but the bulk of that was time when ingredients just cooked on the stove top.
The flour tortillas were comparatively quick to make: Mix shortening, flour and water into a dough, roll the dough into small balls, roll the balls into thin, flat rounds and quick-fry them in a smoking-hot cast iron skillet. My Lodge cast iron skillet
came in quite handy for that, naturally. 
Both the posole and the tortillas were pretty easy to make, really. The clearly-written recipes are about as close to foolproof as one can get.
I liked the stew a lot more than Juli did. I found the tender, shredded pork, the rich, smoky, chili-based broth and the hominy to be a great combination, making for a hearty, flavorful stew. Juli, however, was less than thrilled with the texture of the hominy. We both loved the tortillas, though. I'll definitely be making the tortillas again - like, next time I'm in a mood for tacos, more likely than not - but I'll probably only do the stew only occasionally, if I decide I'd like to make some to take to work as lunches. If you like the idea of a hearty stew with a rich, complex mix of distinctly southwestern flavors that does not rely on over-familiar staples like chili powder and cumin, give it a try.
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