Mexican Feast

Smoothy and i made kick-ass mexican food last nite. very enjoyable.
a lovely rich chilli con carne - fairly simple of: tomatoe, mince, mushroom, garlic, onion, cumin, ground corriander, red capsicum, fresh corriander and a smidgeon of chilli. we forgot to put the beans in - but it still rocked!
i also finally made the mexican spiced rice that you get in restaurants. i searched recipesource.com and decided which flavours should be in it and chucked it all together. it's pretty much just lightly puffed rice that gets toasted before you add the water and with a bit of stock and corn in it. but it worked perfectly.
the perfect finish to this ensemble was a delicious salad based loosely on DP's salsa recipe. mine included: tomatoe, capsicum, fresh corriander, red onion, avocado, baby spinach, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper. sides included sour cream and tortias for dipping.
Dp's amazing mexican cook ups have always been very enjoyable and might sometimes include piella or chiroz sausages. but my general experiences in ALL mexican restaurants is that it's over priced and pretty crap. the 1.2litre margurittas do help soften the blow but i'm very unimpressed.
this was also a stand out mexican cooking experience because it wasnt too hot for me - while i do agree that there should be chilli in such food, Smoothy tends to overspice it to such a degree that i can no longer eat it. so now i am The Chilli Controller - oh lai!