beans, beans, good for your heart

Okay, so I hadn't really thought about it until last night, but I made several dishes with beans as the central player. And, that became obvious in our household yesterday evening. I'll say no more.

Except this.

Here's what it looks like the first time you introduce a new bean dish in your home:


And, here's what it looks like when you've introduced the fourth bean dish in one weekend:


And, speaking of bean dishes, here's one of them that I remembered to photograph. We had the Spicy Autumn Burgers last night with some oven baked fries and a basil aioli. (and, I actually had the last burger for lunch today, and they're even better the next day!).


Okay. Enough of beans.

Tonight I think we're going to have pasta with tomato sauce and "meat"balls. There's a recipe in my How To Cook Everything Vegetarian with nuts and rice as the base. Seriously, if you're a vegetarian, you should own this cookbook. It has EVERYTHING, and variations on each recipe. I love it. Mark Bittman thinks of everything. And, he's not even a vegetarian. Amazing.

And, though it has nothing to do with food, I'll share this photo with you of my number one boy and his friend and cuddle buddy, Chewbacca.

fall back

Okay, before I say anything about food or cooking, I'd just like to express my extreme JOY and ELATION that we have a new President(-elect)!!! I actually feel hope; the dark ages are drawing to a close after eight long years of fear, hate and general idiocy. Hallelujah! We Baraked the vote! Woot!

Alright. I've been posting so infrequently over the past few months that I never even think to photograph my plates until they're at least half-devoured. I'm going to try to start remembering, though because I just love all the colors in autumn cooking. There was a time when I compulsively photographed everything I ate. My hard drive is full of memories of meals enjoyed. So, yeah, my fall resolution is to remember to do that, and hopefully that'll make me blog more.

Anyhow, I cooked a lot this weekend. I was inspired by my new issue of Vegetarian Times magazine, and by my very own copy of Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian that Barbara got me since I kept repeatedly checking it out of the library, and not giving anyone else a turn.

On Saturday morning, we got our sustenance for our trip to the Handmade Arcade from some lovely pumpkin pancakes from the VT recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes with Honey Raspberry Syrup in the article "Kitchen Prescriptions"--recipes for fighting off colds and flu (B has a bad cold, and I'm trying to fend it off), though we just used maple syrup since I didn't have any raspberries on hand. They were soft and tender and delicious, and totally hit the spot. I had a yummy veggie dog from Franctuary at the arcade, then headed home to enjoy our fantastic new art purchases, and make dinner. I tried another recipe from the same VT article for Soupe au Pistou. It's a hearty veggie bean soup. The pistou (kind of a French pesto) comes into the picture when you serve it. You put a couple tablespoons of the pistou in the bottom of the bowl, and then ladle the hot soup over it, so the heat releases the flavors without cooking it. It was heavenly, and just extremely lovely to boot. I paired that with some warm Yogurt Herb Bread (a quick bread recipe from Mollie Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoi Forest). E-dawg joined us for our fragrant dinner, and showed off her own arcade purchases. We made hot cocoa with fluff for dessert, and all was right with the world.

And then late last night while cleaning out my book bag (no, it is NOT a purse), I came across a recipe I'd printed from somewhere (maybe Chow.com?) for Butterscotch Brownies (they were really blondies, not brownies, but anyway). They were super-simple, and really nice.

Sunday morning's breakfast was a grilled cheese sandwich with the Yogurt Herb bread with some cheddar and roquefort, and a couple small squares of the butterscotch bars and coffee.

For lunch, I turned to Mark Bittman's gigantic tome, and made his recipes for Braised Turnips, Spicy Autumn Burgers and Fast, Down-Home Barbeque Sauce. I put the burgers on a toasted bun, and topped them with some carmelized onions, cheddar and the bbq sauce. The turnips and a cup of yesterday's soup rounded out the plate, and were washed down with some apple cider. A cup of hot tea with a butterscotch bar made dessert.

Even though it's cold outside, I feel all toasty warm and sated, and ready to sit down with a crossword and some Iron and Wine playing softly in the background. This has been my kinda weekend.

comfort food

I felt the need for some comfort food last night. I was crampy, cranky and all worned out. And, I'm in the middle of a YA vampire book that I'm currently obsessed with* so I don't really have time for time-consuming cooking.

I have the book How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman out of the library. (And, have How To Cook Everything Vegetarian on request). This is one of those books that I'm going to hate to return to the library, and probably going to convince myself before long that I need to actually own. I will justify it by stating indignantly to myself (and maybe to Barbara), "I mean, what well-stocked kitchen doesn't have a Bittman cookbook on the shelf? I mean, really!". Nevermind that the answer is, I'm sure: plenty. But, still. Baby gets what baby wants, right? Uh...

Anyhow, last night I needed to comfort food, and I remembered this recipe I'd paged past in the book where Bittman argued that there was no reason to EVER make mac-n-cheese from a box (or any "convenience food") when you could make this recipe in the same amount of time, and have the result be so much more satisfying and delicious. So, I did, and it was. Apart from the time it took to boil the water, it was about ten minutes start to finish. You just boil some salted water for your pasta, and in the meantime, melt 6 T. of butter (I used half unsalted, half salted) in a saucepan, and add 20-30 fresh sage leaves (or the equivalent of dried--I don't remember what that was) and some freshly ground pepper. Cook that over low heat until the butter is lightly browned, and the sage leaves are crispy and fragrant. Grate about 1 c. of parmesan cheese. When the pasta is done, drain (I used penne), reserving 2-3 T. of cooking water, and add it to your warmed serving bowl. Toss the pasta with the butter, sage and half the parmesan. Pass the rest of the cheese for serving. Enjoy!

It was SO good, so simple, and so perfectly what I wanted.


*Seriously. I went with some coworkers (who led me into this obsession) to Barnes and Noble at the Waterfront at 11pm on Friday night for the book release party. It was us, a few other adult nerdladies, and about three hundred tween/teen girls (and about five boys). We made t-shirts. We got tweens to help us with the trivia contests. We raced home with our books and read them into the night. I'm on page 607 (of 753) now. I can't wait to read the rest. And actually, the writing's not even that great. It's often painfully cheesy. But, I still can't stop reading. One of my co-workers (and the genesis of the workplace frenzy over these books) pointed out that the writing isn't really good, but the storytelling is. I think that's the key. Plus, I just like fantastical books. Especially about vampires. Because I'm a nerd. So?