Mmmmm, Dinner

It was a long weekend of treats and dinners. Did I take lots of pictures? Of course not. Friends were in town, guests had to be fed, and I was absent-minded.

Friday started out with some homemade Mexican. I made a nice meal of tacos, beans and rice. The filling for the tacos was chicken in a green pumpkin seed sauce. It was outstanding, in my opinion, and you can get the recipe here. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but it is close.

Have I mentioned my love of homemade beans? Beans are the easiest things in the world to make from scratch and one of the most satisfying. Bean juice is the greatest tasting substance in the world some days. Everyone should spend time next weekend making beans at home. Pinto beans are a very easy place to start and give you the most bang for your buck.

Saturday dinner was a bit complicated. It had to be a vegan gluten free dinner. Yikes. I ended up with a mushroom ragu (that was way too watery) on polenta. Tisha brought a spinach salad, that was perfect. Dessert was a bizarre concoction of prunes, oranges, and cardamom syrup on ice cream (and soy cream). It was an okay dinner, but not my favorite by any means.

Sunday, my feet hurt from two days of cooking, so dinner was takeout.

Today, was sort-of-meatless Monday. See, CJ gave me these great crocks for my birthday and Valentine's Day.
I also had a lot of chicken stock left over from making chicken Friday night and no room in the freezer for it.

What could I do? I made super nummy, super tasty, super awesome French Onion Soup.

I used the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. It took over four hours to make; 2 1/2 half were inactive. It was very good and well worth it. While very few ingredients are used in the recipe, it would be too much work to paraphrase, so I suggest you get to the library and get the recipe yourself for your collection.

You do have a collection, don't you?

Labels: beans, chicken, mexican, mushroom, onion, rice, soup, vegan

With possibly the exception of Huckabee, anyone would be a better president than Bush.
So, while at the grocery store, thinking about my political meal, I found these massive beans in the bulk foods section.
So big, so beautiful, so pure, everything Bush isn't.

I soaked them overnight. I covered them with water and added half an onion and three cloves of garlic. I brought them to a boil, and simmered them for an hour and a half.

Then I added a bunch of Mexican oregano, two slices of bacon, and a beer.
You know, a real American beer. The Champagne of Beers. This beer would never deny anyone their rights. It would never detain someone at Guantanamo. It isn't shifty or creepy.

After another 45 minutes or so, I seasoned with salt and served.

They were tasty, but be warned, take a Beano with the beans or suffer the consequences.

Labels: beans, beer

CJ really liked this dish, I liked it a lot too. The recipe came from Cooking Light, which I have newly subscribed to. The lamb was very tender and the bean mixture was tangy and tasty. Unfortunately it takes 3 hours to make, mostly inactive time, but not a weeknight meal.

Labels: beans, lamb, slow cook

Sorry about the weeks of not posting. It wasn't that I haven't been cooking, I have. It is just that I didn't get pics of everything and that I'm lazy.

So, here you go, a big long list of things I've made recently, with some pics.

1) Roasted chicken- One of CJ's favorites. Super easy and real tasty.
2) Split pea soup
How I love split pea soup. I made a whole bunch last week, froze some, and have been eating it for a few days.
3) Squash- Sauteed with some onions, one of my favorites.
4) Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Ugly, but good.
5) Fava beans and tomatoes- I threw this together real quick one night, and it turned out good. By real quick, I mean under 3 minutes.
6) Homemade applesauce


7) Carnitas

These were really good. Take a couple pounds of pork shoulder and cut into cubes. Add enough water to cover, the juice from a small lime, and a couple pinches of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes on medium low covered. Uncover once tender and let water boil off. When it does, it will start frying itself in its own fat.

We ate it as we do tacos. It was really good. REALLY GOOD. The recipe came from my new cookbook, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. The cookbook is also great. If you are interested in learning to cook real food, it is a great starter. She does the basics, then goes on to other things, all which look excellent and simple.

Labels: apples, beans, chicken, muffins, pork, soup, squash

Last Friday, I spent HOURS in the kitchen making this not so pretty meal. I make "Mexican Pot Roast" using bison. We chopped it and used it as taco meat. It didn't taste very Mexican to me, probably due to the lack of Mexican spices. I should have known better and used cumin, cinnamon, chilies, and/or nutmeg. Also, the bison was a waste in tacos. Alone, you could taste it, but in the tacos it just tasted like beef.

To the left of the pic, you can see beans. Beans made from scratch. Tasty, tasty refried beans with cheese. They were very good, though I'm not sure they were worth 2 hours of cooking. I guess if it wasn't 80 degrees right now I may think that of course it was a good idea, but the last thing I want to do right now is cook.

Lately, we have been eating meals at other peoples' homes. What is better than a home cooked meal that you don't have to cook? Not much.

Labels: beans, bison, mexican, pot roast

Oh, lord. Jesus has risen and I made the tastiest ribs for dinner. Ribs and bean salad. The salad is my recipe, the ribs are Alton's. They were so tender, tasty, and a bit spicy.

Labels: beans, ribs