Why I had a can of chipotle peppers in the first place

Short version:
Some good friends of ours had us over for dinner and I got the recipe and made it.

This is a close up of their baby. He's about the same age as Jack Jack.

Well, okay. It's actually a close up of his onesie.

Long version:
I love tortilla soup. When I was working at El Centro College in downtown Dallas, I would park and walk to eat dinner at On the Border in the West End, about two blocks from the college.

There was a McDonald's right across the street from El Centro, but at On the Border, I could order a bowl of tortilla soup, get all the chips and salsa I could eat (usually just one bowl), leave a tip, and still make it out full, in time to teach class, and all for less than the price of a value meal at McD's. Whether or not it was better for me is debatable. Think of all those tortilla chips.

Almost every time we go out to eat at On the Border, I order a bowl of tortilla soup and eat blissfully. No other Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant I've eaten at has ever had a dish that even came close to being as good.

So when our friends invited us to dinner, we sat down to Tortilla Soup, and it. was. so. good. Not too spicy for the kids. Spicy enough to interest me. All that chicken, cilantro, corn, black beans, tomato, and tortilla chips. Yum. The hook, line, and sinker for me, though, was the lime juice. Wow. I could go on raving, but just typing this is making me drool and want to go make some Tortilla Soup and eat it, even though I just ate dinner.

This is the first time I actually recall eating anything with a chipotle pepper in it, too. The soup takes on a little of that distinctive smoky flavor that I'd always heard about. But the recipe only calls for one. This is also probably the first time I have ever followed a recipe exactly as written. It needs no improvement.