I ate some fabulous homemade black mole sauce in Mexico, so I was inspired to make it from scratch for the first time- something I have long wanted to do and never actually done. My friend Michael and I consulted Diana Kennedy's seminal recipe, we went to multiple shops and bodegas looking for all of the ingredients, and we spent several hours toasting and grinding and mixing and stirring and frying. And we used a whole bunch of lard in the process.

Unfortunately, it wasn't... that great. It was OK, but definitely not great. We think we may have burned the chiles a little, although with so many steps and therefore possible ways to screw up, who knows where we failed?

ANYway. My plan was to make this amazing mole and brag about it and share all of the pictures and recipe and tips with y'all, but in light of the outcome, I'm going to try again before I do that, because it seems really disingenuous to share a super long and complex recipe with you when it didn't come out that well. So maybe when the sting of failure has worn off and I once again find myself full of inspiration and free time, I will give it another shot.