Beans and Tomatoes-the perfect meal

When I was in college and shortly thereafter, I didn't enjoy anything more for dinner than a giant bowl of refried beans and sliced tomatoes. Preferably topped with a giant dollop of Daisy brand sour cream (the only real sour cream).

These days you'll find me eating pretty much the same thing. Except when I'm eating bread and cheese, which, seeing as I live with a man who thinks that cheese is the only food group (I'm not kidding, it's like a speciality cheese shop german cheese case in our fridge, jarlsburgh...ick), is just about every other day for dinner.

Quick and tasty snack:

refried or whole black beans, heated
grated zucchini
salsa
grated cheddar (missing from this photo...I'm lazy)
sour cream
handful of chips

Delish! And healthy.

Breakfast of Champions!

Last week I had a big day of work ahead of me, and I thought: "What would be the best, most nutritious, most healthynessfull, best breakfast I could feed myself in order to make it through a grueling day of designing and metal working?" And what did I come up with!?

This:
This, gentle readers, is a Dutch Baby* pancake. Delicious eggy goodness that is baked into a crispy, chewy delight at a high heat in the oven.

Serve it with some lemon or lime juice, some butter, and a bit of powdered sugar and you are set for a lovely dessert...I mean breakfast.


How To Make:


What you will need:

3 eggs
vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
pinch of cinnamon


What is indispensable in this recipe is a well seasoned cast iron pan, which is pictured below. This particular pan was purchased at an antique stone on the Oregon coast while I was on a camping trip with my Mimsy.



Heat oven to 450. Place cast iron pan in oven to heat. While pan heats, make coffee or beg for treats (all treats hidden behind that door):



When coffee is prepared, whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Open oven, remove pan and add a generous pat of butter and swirl around until melted. Pour in batter and return to oven. Bake until puffed and golden, about 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

*Dutch baby is also the name my Dad called me when I was little. Sweet, yes? We are dutch on my paternal grandpa's mother's side. Last name Jackman, perhaps we are cousins, Hugh, what do you think?

I Need to Stop Eating Meat

I was in the shower the other day thinking about what being alive means. I won't bore you with my confused conclusions, but one of the things that came into my mind as a fully formed idea was that I can't eat meat anymore. I don't really eat that much meat anyway, but I do sometimes make meals that look like this:


Roast purple and white potatoes with rosemary, blanched green beans with homemade herb vinagrette, braised napa cabbage with spices (I love me some cabbage), and of course the mandatory sausage...(I live with a German...).

I like these meals, and I like sausage (in fact, I love it. Especially organic!). I also like hamburgers, and lamb, and I am obsessed with pho tai (it's just not the same with tofu and veggies, it's really not!). But can I live without them? I think I can, and I think it's better for my health and for the earth in general. And do I really want to kill another being that has life just in order to eat it? No, I don't.

I've tried being vegetarian before, sometimes for as long as a year or so, but I always ended up eating meat again. Not because I like it that much, but because I love to cook and cooking is easy with meat. But from now on I think I will try to go meatless.

And cook more of this!:


Creamy Tomato and Goat Cheese Soup
serves 2

the goods:

two plastic pints of cherry tomatoes (I used orange ones from our garden that I had frozen during the summer). Cherry tomatoes are pretty tart, so for a milder soup I would just use regular red tomatoes.
3 tblsp roasted red pepper paste (from the Persian grocery store. I'm sure there is something similar at Trader Joes)
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper paste
salt
sugar
black pepper
1/3 cup sour cream (the good kind, not one with guar gum and other artificial thickeners, the best kind is Daisy, but trader joes carries a good one too)
chopped italian parsely
Crumbled goat cheese

sliced french bagguette
olive oil
garlic

the deal:

1. place tomatoes in pot and cover with water.
2. cook at medium until tomatoes have softened and lost their shape.
3. add paste and spices.
4. simmer for 15 or so minutes.
5. remove from heat and cool slightly. force through a fine mesh sieve and return strained liquid to pot.
6. place sour cream into small bowl and add a little bit of soup, whisk until smooth and add to soup pot.
7. add chopped parsley.
8. salt and sugar to taste.

While soup is simmering:
1. brush bread with olive oil and rub with garlic.
2. cut into bite size cubes (skipped that step in the picture above and regretted it. It was hard to eat!)
3. broil until toasty and flip, repeat.
4. put half of bread cubes into bowls and cover with soup.
5. cover with soup and pile the remaining cubes in the center of bowl.
6. Sprinkle goat cheese over bread, to taste, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

The Cure for the Gray Winter Funk

Recently I left the beautiful bay area in order to go to this place:


to see this:


and this:
I had a lovely time snugging my delicious little niece and waiting on my sister hand and foot, the time went by so quickly and then I had to kiss them both goodbye.

When I arrived home I found the German P. (P.=physicist) half dead with the winter funks and a horrible cold. Since I know his eating habits (potato chips+beer+chocolate+wine=dinner) whenever I'm not around I knew that in order to nurse him back to health, I would have to make this on the double and order him to eat half a pot full:


What is that bowl full of deliciousness, you ask? It's my tasty Ginger Chicken Soup, guaranteed to lift that grayish-orange winter funk (or at the very least chip away a little bit of it, I promise).


Winter Funk Banisher Ginger Chicken Soup

the goods:

1 big soup pot worth of chicken or vegetable stock
2 chicken breasts (skinless)
2 small sweet potatoes (I like to mix it up using one white and one orange one), peeled and diced into small chunks
1 small parsnip, peeled and diced
1/2 white onion diced
1/4 head of Napa Cabbage, chopped (I like Napa, it is milder and cooks faster than white cabbage. Chinese cabbage is also okay for this recipe.)
2 good handfuls of spinach
1 carrot, diced
2 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and diced into tiny pieces
1/2 tsp. dried cilantro
a bunch of red pepper flakes
a dash of soy sauce (or tamari)
a pinch of sugar
fresh pasta cooked al dente (or any dried pasta cooked and rinsed)


the deal:

1) Saute onion on medium low in a little bit of olive oil in a big soup pot. Add carrots and ginger, and cook for 2 or 3 more minutes.
2) Add stock, dried cilantro, pepper, soy sauce. Bring to a simmer.
3) Add diced sweet potatoes.
4) While soup is simmering, cook noodles. Set aside.
5) In a heavy pan (I like cast iron), heat a little bit of oil till it is pretty hot and brown chicken breasts on both sides, add a little bit of water to pan and cover with a lid. Simmer/steam until chicken is done all the way through. Remove from pan to plate or cutting board and shred with two forks.
6) Add parsnip to pot, simmer for 3-4 minutes.
7) Tear spinach into smaller pieces directly into the pot along with the cabbage, let simmer until cabbage is wilted.
8) Stir in chicken and noodles. Add salt and a tad of sugar to taste.

While you are cooking feel free to adjust the amount of liquid in the pot by adding more stock, or even water. I like to reserve a little bit of the water that I used to cook the pasta to thin the soup. I even added the liquid from the chicken pan when the chicken was done cooking. This would also be a good veggie soup! Just substitute the chicken for a can of white beans (drained and rinsed).

Black Bean Soup!

But I would just like to share a recipe of my own devising that has now made its way into my sister's kitchen as well as my own as a tasty and quick dinner staple (quick because most of it comes out of a can, fresh substitutes could also be used, of course. It's great to make your own beans from dried, but sooooo time consuming!). It's so nice to have come up with my own recipe and that someday my grandchildren will say: "Do you remember Nana-bean's black bean soup? It sure was tasty". Or something of that sort, hopefully. Of course it could be more like: "Hey Timmy, do you remember that awful sludge that Granny-bean made us eat? I sure am glad she's dead." Who knows?

Nana-bean's Black Bean Soup

the goods:
1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 can sweet corn, drained
1/2 can black olives (if you so desire)
1 small can of fire roasted green chilies (if you want, they are not hot and readily available at the grocery store)
2 cups veg or chicken stock
1tsp. cumin (this is just an estimate, could be more, could be less)
1/2tsp. chili powder
1/2tsp dried coriander flakes (aka dried cilantro)
a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2tsp. sugar
salt to taste
juice of one small lime (if in doubt, add a little at a time)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

the deal:

1. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large soup pot. Cook onion over medium heat until slightly translucent. Add chopped garlic and stir until fragrant.
2. Add beans, tomatoes, chilies, and stock to pot. Add spices now and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Feel free to add more stock or water if soup is looking a little too thick.
3. Add corn and olives and simmer to warm through.
4. Turn heat on low and add chopped cilantro and lime juice, season to taste with salt and a tad bit of sugar (trust me! just a little bit of sugar will make everything taste better. I would recommend no more than 1/2tsp.)
5. Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and some extra cilantro on top. Great with corn chips or over rice.

Fall Dinner Comfort Food

It is finally getting "cold" here. It's not really cold, but it's not hot anymore. Yesterday was especially nice. I had the doors open while I napped on the couch in the sun with Gunter and the breeze just had that particular fall smell to it. I can't define it, but as I lay there drifting images of hand knit sweaters, and tall boots, piles of leaves, pumpkins and canned pears floated through my mind. Strange imagery. After A. came home, Gunter and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. The sun was still shining and there was just the tiniest nip in the air. (Really, the tiniest...imperceptible really. I think I'm just so eager for fall that I feel it!) When I came home, I started reading Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food. It's nice, but a little too preachy for me. I love the slow food movement, and buying organic, but I just can't get into reading someone telling me I should and shouldn't be doing. I just want recipes and ideas. It did get me into the mood to cook though, and last night I made a nice chicken noodle soup and baked apples with caramel sauce and ice cream. It was heavenly.

Bean's Simple Fall Chicken Soup

1. one pot full of chicken broth
2. half an onion (diced)
3. one stalk of celery (diced)
4. one carrot (diced)
5. one sweet potato (diced)
6. one can of tomatoes, drained
7. handful of your favorite pasta
8. crushed red pepper
9. fresh or dried sage
10. fresh Italian parsley
11. cracked black pepper
12. salt
13. sugar

I made the broth ahead of time and froze it. I had roasted a chicken and after we had eaten it with a nice cabbage salad and roasted potatoes (and had chicken salad the next day, wrapped in lettuce leaves), I made my stock with the the bones and the little bit of meat that was left. I did an unusual stock, inspired by my favorite Vietnamese soup, pho.

For the broth:

put the chicken bones into a large heavy pot, add water to cover. Add to the pot:

1. a couple star anise (these are shaped like little stars and taste a little like licorice)
2. a few cloves
3. sliced garlic
4. slices of fresh ginger
5. one stalk of lemon grass
6. plenty of crushed red pepper
7. dried cilantro

Simmer all ingredients until you think the broth tastes good. Skim the nasty stuff off the top as you go along. After it's done and cooled, take out the bones and pick off any chicken meat. Pour the broth through a fine meshed sieve to get the bits and pieces out. You should now have a nice, relatively clear broth. Salt to taste and add meat.

I froze mine, and then defrosted it on the stove in the pot that I was cooking my soup in. That is why I had to cook my onions, carrots, and celery in a separate pan. But if you are using fresh stock, just begin with the veggies in your big pot.

For the Soup:

Begin by pouring a little bit of olive oil into the pot, cook onions, carrots and celery on medium to low heat until fragrant and onions are slightly translucent. Add stock, tomatoes and red pepper. Simmer for a bit and then add your sweet potato. Simmer until potato is tender. Meanwhile, cook pasta in separate pot until done (should still be slightly al dente). Drain and add to soup. Turn down the heat on the soup and add minced up sage and parsley. Taste broth. If it is lacking something, add a little bit of salt, taste again. Still not tasting mmm mmm good? Try adding a tiny bit of sugar.

Bean's Wonderful Marvelously Tasty Fall Baked Apples

1. Baking Apples (or any nice crispy apple you like)
2. Butter
3. Raisins
4. Cinnamon and Nutmeg
5. Pinch of Salt
6. Brown Sugar
7. A Dash of Lemon Juice
8. A Tiny Bit of Half and Half or Heavy Cream

Begin by coring the apples and peeling a strip of skin off from around the middle of the apple. Mix together raisins, sugar, salt, and spices. Fill the centers of the apples with the mixture. Set apples into a deep baking dish with a lid. Add a little bit of water to the dish, just enough to cover the bottom. Put a pat of butter on top of each apple. Bake in a 35o degree oven for 30 or so minute. When the apples are tender, remove to individual serving dishes. Drain baking dish into a small sauce pan, simmer on high until mixture has thickened, let cool and add a bit of cream. If the cream seperates, turn heat back on and whisk until smooth. Let cool and add a dash of lemon juice. Serve apples with vanilla ice cream with sauce drizzled over the top.

Recipes! Rezepte! Receitas!

Chicken Soup and Baked Apples
Black Bean Soup with Cilantro and Lime
Ginger Chicken Soup
Creamy Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese
Modified Taco Salad

Lonely Times French Toast
Sticky Date Pudding Cake
Quick Oatmeal Pancakes with Yogurt Topping
Dutch Baby German Pancakes