Once, Twice, Three Times a Mole

Coming from me, this isn't saying much.... but I just ate the best mole I have ever eaten! In fact, I loved it! But I am not about to declare that I have conquered mole once and for all, for a very important reason that I will get to in a moment.

To review, my first mole was a fucked up conglomeration of bullshit that I used on some vegan enchiladas. My mole loving husband loved that one. I found it rather repulsive. My second mole was an eggplant lentil mole chili. I liked that one ok, but Mole Man didn't even recognize it as mole until I told him it was supposed to be mole. :-/ So, that one wasn't mole enough. Was there to be no mole we could agree on?

Alas, I'm just looking for a mole.

 Tonight, I made a Smokey Turkey Almond Mole.... a "normal" mole recipe which I veganized. It definitely contained many of the usual weird suspects you'd expect to find in mole.... ground up nuts, tomatoes, onions, chilis, a couple of chopped up corn tortillas.... but when I planned to use this recipe, I somehow didn't notice what it DIDN'T contain. It wasn't until I was almost done with the recipe, when I became confused and went, "Wait. When do I add the chocolate?!?!" I re-read the ingredient list about 5 times, not believing my very eyes. But it was true! No chocolate in this mole! Suddenly, I became more optimistic about my dinner!

So, yes. My husband and I both loved this mole... and he insisted that there are many varieties of mole out there in this crazy world, and that this one counted as a true mole, even without the chocolate... but it just didn't seem like The Real Thing. Next time, I shall make sure the mole I attempt contains the dreaded chocolate. And "dreaded chocolate" is not a combination of those 2 words that I have ever used before! Chocolate is honestly one of my favorite flavors around. How can something so lovely be so terrible when used in a spicy sauce?

Before I go, I want to speak of another lovely thing. To go with the mole, I made this Cucumber and Avocado Salad. It was dee-licious! It involves letting the cucumbers macerate. And I'm not gonna lie, I have never involved maceration in my dinner preparation! But this was so good, I'm going to dream about it tonight!

Sweet Dreams are made of this!