My New Food Blog

I like to cook. In the last several months I've noticed that I've been taking pictures of a lot of the food that I make. I'm not exactly sure why, but I do. They're not particularly artistic photos or anything. Yet I don't have anything to do with these pictures for now. (Until I make more progress on this recipe book I'm planning on making.) And what's the internet good for if not to post random things out into the black hole of cyberspace to pretend like people care about everything you do or say? So I decided to start a second blog, just to post these totally random pictures of the food I make. It's not a recipe blog, as I don't really plan to post the recipes. (I'll still post occasional recipes here, or on the joint blog with my old BYU roommates.) (Which I need to post more on...) I really just plan on posting these pictures I take of my food. I know it sounds kind of random, but oh well. It'll also help me remember what I've made for when I actually do attempt to put that recipe book together. (Or maybe it'll give you some dinner ideas. If you do want any of the recipes, just let me know.)

Tonight I updated my new blog, posting an intro/explanatory post, and then cleaning out my files with pictures I've taken of some of the food I've made sometime in the last year or something. There are a lot. (Well, like 20 or something.) Looking through it makes me hungry!

I imagine that not everyone will find this terribly interesting, but just in case you are (or want to passively follow it by adding it to your Google reader), here's the address:

http://foodelizabethmakes.blogspot.com/

And of course I still love/thrive on comments. Here or there. And don't worry. This is still my primary blog. I might even get better at posting on it soon.

Chicken, black bean, rice soup

At the risk of making this turn into a recipe blog, I have another recipe. Apparently I've just been in the mood to try new recipes. I got home from the gym tonight and wasn't sure what I wanted to eat. I think I should be eating more protein, so decided to go for the frozen chicken breasts I had. I figured I'd go for boring chicken and rice (tasty, but boring), then I saw a can of black beans and thought, "I wonder what I could do with that."

So I did a Google search for "chicken 'black beans' rice recipe" and after wading through a bit, came across this one. Well, I have another winner! (And the black bean trend continues.) (I have to use all those cans I bought somehow. :) )

Chicken, black bean, and rice soup

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 x 14 oz can chicken broth
• 2 x 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (16 oz) jar of salsa
• 1 cup cubed cooked chicken breast
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 tsp ground cumin

Directions:

1. Saute onion and garlic in oil until tender.
2. Stir remaining ingredients and heat through.

My notes:

• That's it! So easy and so tasty. I like the mix of spices of the salsa plus the cumin.
  
• I only had one can of chicken broth, so I loosely halved the recipe. It turned out just fine.
• I imagine this would be good with sour cream and cheese or something, but I ate it plain and it was still great.
  

Two New Recipes

One thing I like to do is find and try new recipes. During our last few months as roommates, my last roommate, Michelle, and I would even have nights when we'd experiment with new recipes and make dinner for each other. I've tried a lot of random recipes over the years, and some have been good, others not so much. (Fortunately, Michelle and I never had many--if fact, I can't remember any--of those recipe clunkers.) I go up and down in the frequency with which I try new recipes, usually relating to my motivation and schedule.

I have been motivated to find some new recipes this week, for two, completely different, though not wholly incompatible, reasons:

1. I want to try eating something besides Cheerios for breakfast that is still easy and filling.
2. I've recently fallen in love with black beans.

The internet is such a beautiful thing. I've spent the last night or two scouring it for potential recipes. I've made a short list, and tonight tried just two of them. They were each a great success, so I will share them both.

I give you Exhibit A.

Black Bean Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 28 oz jar tomato pasta sauce
• 12 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 1 3/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese
• 2 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 x 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. Over low heat, simmer tomato sauce, black beans, and water.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine cottage cheese and egg and set aside.
4. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, place 1 cup of the bean/sauce mixture on the bottom of the dish.
5. Place 3 of the uncooked noodles, side-by-side, on top of the sauce.
6. Spread 2/3 cup of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with 1 cup of the bean/sauce mix. Top with about 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.
7. Repeat two layers of noodles, cottage cheese, bean/sauce, and cheese.
8. Place the remaining 3 lasagna noodles and pour the remaining bean/sauce mixture all over it. Top with the remaining mozzarella.
9. Cover pan with foil and bake at 375* for 30 minutes.
10. Remove foil and continue baking for another 15 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes before cutting.

My notes and comments:

• This was great! (Turns out black beans instead of meat in normal lasagna is really tasty!)
• The original recipe called for ricotta cheese, but I used cottage cheese.
• Also, I ran out of the cottage cheese mixture before I put on the last layer of noodles, so I put just plain cottage cheese in that last layer. If that happens when I make this again, I will probably just leave off the last layer of noodles.
• I used Prego sauce, but I doubt it matters what kind you use.

Now I give you Exhibit B:

Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
• 1/2 cup pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour a muffin tin, or use paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together applesauce, oil, and egg.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in applesauce mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in cranberries and pecans.
5. Spoon into muffin cups, 2/3 full.
6. Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan 2 minutes before removing.

My modifications and notes.

• Used 1 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil. Next time I make this I will use 1 1/3 cup applesauce and leave the oil out completely.
• Used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white.
• I used brown sugar instead of white.
• Added a bit extra cinnamon.
• Didn't use pecans.
• I couldn't find fresh or frozen cranberries at the grocery store, so I used whole berry cranberry sauce. (I actually dumped out the can in a bowl, sifted through it and pulled out the berries. Though I threw in a couple spoonfuls of the jelly part too, for good measure, I guess.)
• Made half the batch with cranberries, and the other half with frozen blueberries.
• Only baked them for 24 minutes. Keep an eye on them.
• These were awesome! They are very moist and tasty. It's a very good base muffin recipe and I'm going to try future incarnations of it with different types of berries. (Maybe raspberries? Mmm...)

The Porters got home just as I finished up cooking. (And I had already cleaned the entire kitchen and started the dishwasher. Surely I looked like superwoman. :) ) They already had their own dinner, but tried both my dishes. And they really liked them! So that's three endorsements for you.

Stay tuned, next week I will be making more of the recipes on my short list and will report on them. (I hope you like black beans too...)

You say barbecue, I say barbecue

Since moving to Texas, I've learned that the word "barbecue" means different things to different people, mostly depending on the region of the country you come from and/or live in. I'm from Utah where if someone says, "We're having barbecue," they mean hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on a grill. (Similar definitions are recognized in other northern parts of the country.) However, when someone here in Texas says, "We're having barbecue," they mean that we're having beef brisket (primarily) and maybe sausage and ribs, but it will definitely be served with awesome barbecue sauce. In other parts of the south (Memphis, for example), if someone says, "We're having barbecue," they mean some kind of pulled pork, but also served with good sauce.

Today I was invited to a party to celebrate the recent wedding of a fellow graduate student. The eVite said something along the lines of, "Come hungry, we're having barbecue." So, what are we eating?

We're in Texas, and I've lived in Texas for almost 5 years, so without thinking I assumed we were having barbecue, meaning brisket, etc. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the party only to see the large gas grill fired up, and hamburgers and hot dogs sizzling away. I'd geared up my taste buds for brisket, but the hamburger was plenty satisfying.

It was at that moment that I realized that I've been in Texas too long. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. What I am saying is that my definition of "barbecue" seems to have changed.

Who knew that would happen back in the day when we'd sit in our apartment and talk about the idea of regional barbecue definitions; this was when my then-roommate Mariah wanted to make a documentary about the subject. (I still think she should.) In the meantime, some kind of informal poll may satisfy my curiosity. I'd like to know (a) what region of the country you are from (or seem to have been most culturally affected by), and (b) what your definition of "barbecue" is. While it isn't nearly as cool as a documentary would be, it would still be interesting.

Feeding just one kid...me!

I used to have eating habits that are much different than they are now. Now I try to eat fairly healthy, getting all my fruits and veggies in, trying to avoid junk food, and above all eating "real" food. That sounds funny, but if you knew me back in the day, it would make more sense.

In college I practically lived off Western Family mac and cheese (don't even get me started on how it's better than Kraft), and Banquet fried chicken TV dinners. My roommates would joke with me, "There's no food in your food!" One day I was at the grocery store buying my normal supply of food when the girl who was ringing me up asked, "So, are you feeding a lot of kids?" Ha! I'm not making this up or exaggerating. It made me laugh, and my roommates felt it vindication for what they'd been telling me all along.

This afternoon I had a conversation with my friend Kevin. He was telling me about the hot diggity dogger he has, and that got me thinking about hot dogs. It's been awhile since I've cooked up a hot dog. One of my favorite ways to cook a hot dog is as a cheesey hot dog sandwich: two pieces of bread, a slice of cheese, and a cut up hot dog, cooked in a sandwich maker (which seals the edges) and eaten with fry sauce. (I am from Utah after all.) I used to have a sandwich maker, but it seems to have gotten lost about 3 or 4 moves ago.

Tonight on my way home I stopped at Target. I was hoping some shirts I saw there a few weeks ago would be on the clearance rack; the shirts weren't there (drat). Instead, I ended up buying a pair of leprechaun green pajama pants (they were only $5 and are so comfortable!) and a sandwich maker. The sandwich maker is exactly like the one I've since lost, and it was a total impulse buy (well, I guess the pants were too) -- not something I normally do. Then I stopped at the grocery store (the main mission was to buy the missing ingredients I needed to make my cod tomorrow) and aside from wandering around for over an hour drooling over the food (I was so hungry; this is why you don't go grocery shopping hungry!), I ended up buying what I needed to make a cheesey hot dog sandwich. And I made it in my new sandwich maker and ate it for dinner...along with some steak fries that I also bought. (Apparently it was impulse-buy day.) Oh yeah. It was sort of like I was a kid again; or at least in college again. :) Now that's out of my system, I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of those hot dogs...