Black Beans with Cumin and Garlic

If anyone’s curious why there’s a sudden spate of new recipes this week, it’s in large part to the fact that I’m quarantined at home with pinkeye.  *sighs*  So food prep is interspersed with lots more hand-washing than normal, because nobody should look the way I do right now.  It ain’t pretty.

On the bright side, I am getting to try a few new things that I’d have trouble finding the time for otherwise, and I love that.  I was really pleased by the way these turned out, and even more pleased with how well they paired with the previous night’s leftover cilantro lime rice.

Black Beans with Cumin and Garlic (from Carol Anne over at Food.com)

Ingredients

2 16 oz cans black beans or 16 oz dried black beans
4 cloves garlic, minced
2  tsp cumin
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 c chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)

I halved the recipe and used dried beans because that was what I had and I was mostly only making it for myself.

Soak dried beans in water overnight; drain the next morning.  Drain and rinse the beans if you’re using canned.  Toss them into the crock pot.

In a small pan over medium heat, heat the oil, then add the garlic and cumin.  Cook until fragrant.  Add them to the beans in the crock pot, then pour in the chicken broth and the salt.  Stir and cook on low for 6 hours (I started late, so I had them on high for about an hour and then turned them to low for another three).  Serve with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Spice-Rubbed Grilled Pork with Cilantro Lime Rice

My favorite thing about Wednesday nights is getting the chance to make dinner myself and  not be stuck with leftovers or something boring.  Even better is getting to play with the grill, especially when it results in Southern Honey going, “Oh man, this is good!“

While the rice only got a so-so rating, the pork chops definitely got two thumbs up from Southern Honey.  Oh, and the Munchkin actually ate them, which is something of a minor miracle, as they weren’t ground.  :P  These are definitely staying in the mix, and I think the spice rub would be good on chicken or maybe even fish, too.

Spice Rub (Cheryl and Bill Jamison at Epicurious)

(For 6-8 inch-thick chops; I halved the recipe since mine were smaller and I only had three.  I still have some left over, so it’s in a sealed container in my spice cabinet.)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
3/4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp chili powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cayenne

Prepare the dry rub 1 to 8 hours before grill time.  Combine all your ingredients in a small bowl, preferably with a lid if you think you might have some left over.  Liberally coat the chops with the rub, place them in a plastic bag or airtight container, and refrigerate.

When you’re ready to go, fire up the grill and get it medium-hot.  My chops were only about a half-inch thick, so I tossed them on for about five minutes on each side.

Cilantro-Lime Rice (from Chef In You)

Ingredients

1 c basmati rice
1 to 2 c water
1 tsp oil or 1 Tbsp butter
Juice of one lime
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
Approx 3 Tbsp cilantro

Soak the rice for 10 to 20 minutes.  Then, in a medium-sized pan over low heat, melt the butter and then add the rice (or just add the rice and oil).  Coat the rice in the melted butter and heat until it starts to smell good.  Then add the lime juice and stir for 60 seconds.

Add the water.  Cover and cook down for approximately 20 minutes.  I went with 1 1/2 c water but needed about 25 minutes before all the liquid was absorbed.   While it’s cooking, chop your cilantro finely.  Once it’s done, add the cilantro, stir, and you’re ready to go!

Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes

I met up with some friends this weekend for a couple of days of hanging out and generally being a bunch of debauched ladies having a good time in the big city.  I’d been toying with the idea of boozy cupcakes for a while, and suddenly I had the perfect excuse.  Except then I went looking for the right recipe and discovered that apparently nobody else had posted about making strawberry daiquiri cupcakes from scratch.  Either that or my Google-fu was broken that day.

Anyway, I decided, with some encouragement from the intended recipients, to modify the strawberry cake recipe I used for the Munchkin’s birthday party and to give it a go.  The end result, if the fact that I left with 28 and came home with none is any indication, was pretty damn tasty.  And cute, despite the lousy icing job, thanks to the adorable tiny strawberries I found at the farmer’s market to plop on top.

Cake Ingredients

Cupcake liners
3 c self-rising flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c vegetable oil
1 1/2 c pureed strawberries, with rum instead of water to smooth it out
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lime zest
4 large eggs, beaten

Rum syrup ingredients

1/2 c sugar
1/4 c boiling water
1/4 c lime juice 
1/4 c rum

Rum-lime buttercream ingredients (there might be a theme here…), courtesy of BrownEyedBaker

1 c unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 3/4 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp rum
Pinch of coarse salt (which I forgot)

Tiny strawberries for garnish 

Preheat the oven to 325*.  Toss in your cupcake liners — this recipe will, if you fill them 2/3 full, make a full 3 dozen.

In a large bowl (or, if you’re lazy like me, your stand mixer), combine the self-rising flour, sugar, oil, strawberries, vanilla, lime zest, and eggs.  Divide evenly among the cupcake liners and bake for 15-18 minutes.

In a medium-sized sauce pan, heat water and lime juice for the lime-rum syrup to boiling.  Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.  Allow it to cool part-way, then stir in the rum (you don’t want the syrup too hot or the alcohol will cook out of the rum, and where’s the fun in that?).

As the cupcakes cool, brush them liberally with the syrup.  Then either leave them to cool completely or freeze if you’re not serving them for a day or two.

For your buttercream, put the butter in your mixer and beat on medium-high speed with the whisk attachment for five minutes.  Once it’s been creamed, turn the speed down to medium or medium-low (depending on just how many speeds you have *grins*) and slowly incorporate the powdered sugar.  Use a spatula to scrape the sides down periodically until it’s all combined.  Then add the lime juice, rum, and salt if you remember it, and mix until it’s good and fluffy.  If it’s too soft, like mine was, add more sugar, a little at a time, until you get it to the right consistency.

Once you’ve got your buttercream and your cupcakes and completely cool, load the buttercream into a piping bag or a ziploc baggie with the corner cut off, and get to frosting.  Top it all off with an adorable little strawberry, and share the boozy love!

Gardening to Eat

I finally got around to doing something about the horrible landscaping along the front of our house this weekend.  Although I wanted to dig everything up and start from scratch with good soil instead of the rocky clay crap we have, that just wasn’t feasible.  (You can read that as “I was too lazy” and be totally correct, too.)

My original plan was to do nothing more than make it look pretty, but I got a bit… carried away yesterday at the high school FHA sale and then at the greenhouse.  I came home with a variety of herbs and plants: jalepenos, cilantro, oregano, parsley, spearmint, pineapple mint, basil, creeping rosemary, orange thyme, and lavender.  Which doesn’t include the flowers I bought (snapdragons, blue star, dianthus, and another one I cannot for the life of me remember).

In a month of so, there’s going to be some fun going on in my kitchen.  *grins*  Pineapple mojitos for everyone!

Strawberry Limeade Cake

The last twelve months have been absolutely insane, full of ups and downs and a whole host of new experiences.  Today we celebrated with the Munchkin’s first birthday party, and the joy of seeing him sitting in the grass trying to grab soap bubbles made the embarrassment of having to open all of his presents because he still doesn’t get the concept and wanders off after approximately fifteen seconds worthwhile.

Look, I’m not the kind of mom who is going to have a perfectly coordinated party (obviously, judging by that roll of tape in my photo) with favors and tablescapes and fun craft ideas, so if you’re hoping to find those ideas here, I apologize, but you are very much in the wrong place.  I’m too lazy and broke for that.  :D  What I do aim for is stuff that tastes good in a place with enough stuff to keep everyone entertained.

This cake at the park?  Totally rocked.

I also had tons of non-”Hello, sugar coma” foods: pulled pork and chicken BBQ, fruit salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, fresh veggies, chips, and pretzels.  If anyone left hungry, they must have tried for it.

I had never made a cake from scratch before, so before I got started, I hit up the internet for recommendations on recipes and got two excellent-sounding ones, one for strawberry cake and one for a lemon raspberry cake that used a lemon syrup, that got me wondering what it would be like if I combined them to make strawberry lemonade cake.  But wait!  I like limeade better than lemonade, right?  So I would have to like a strawberry limeade cake better than a strawberry lemonade cake.  QED.

So, this recipe is an amalgamation of two recipes and a spur-of-the-moment idea I had as I was debating how to assemble everything.  Cake from A Dash of Sass (a modified version of Paula Deen’s hummingbird cake) and lime syrup adapted from Bon Appetit‘s lemon syrup recipe.

Strawberry Limeade Cake

Cake Ingredients

Nonstick spray
All-purpose flour, for pans (although I admit that I didn’t have any so I used self-rising)
3 c self-rising flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c vegetable oil
1 1/2 c pureed strawberries, strained (you’re aiming to remove the seeds)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
4 large eggs, beaten
Red food color (I actually didn’t need any to get the cake pink; the strawberries did their job)

Lime syrup ingredients

1/2 c sugar
1/2 c boiling water
1/4 c lime juice

Strawberry lime compote ingredients

Juice of 2 limes
3/4 lb strawberries
1/3 c sugar

Preheat the oven to 325*.  Spray your cake pans with nonstick spray and dust with all-purpose flour; shake off excess.

In a large bowl (or, if you’re lazy like me, your stand mixer), combine the self-rising flour, sugar, oil, strawberries, vanilla, lemon zest, and eggs.  Add food coloring if you want a deeper pink color to the batter.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans — this made two 9×1.5 inch rounds and four regular cupcakes and is designed to make three 8×2 inch rounds.  Bake, rotating halfway through (which I just realized I forgot to do), until the tops spring back when gently pressed with your fingertips, 26 to 28 minutes.  The cupcakes only needed 15 minutes.

Transfer cake pans to wire rack and allow to cool for ten minutes.  Then flip the cake pans over to remove the cakes.  The original recipe then calls for flipping the cakes back over to finish cooling, top side up, but mine ended up collapsing in the center a bit, so I wonder if cooling them top side down might help.

To make the lime syrup, put the sugar in a bowl, add the boiling water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Then stir in the lime juice.

To make the strawberry lime compote, toss the lime juice, strawberries, and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook down.  Remove from heat and allow to cool (I didn’t have time to do this and needed to because it ran everywhere).

To prepare the full cake: Take a toothpick and poke holes in the top of the cakes.  Brush tops liberally with lime syrup.  Apply a layer of frosting (I took the easy way out and used canned frosting this time) and a layer of compote to every layer but the top, then put everything together and frost.

Preparation overload

It’s less than two full days til the Munchkin’s birthday party, and I think I have run myself out of steam.  Considering how little steam I have on the average day — and doubly considering I had my wisdom teeth all removed last Friday and so have been dragging around in a drugged haze for a good part of the last week — that’s not really saying all that much, but still.

Almost all of my grocery shopping is done.  What isn’t done is only not done because I forgot to put stuff on my list, except for one thing which I apparently left in my office refrigerator because I am an idiot.

The pasta for the pasta salad is cooked and chilling in the fridge.  The cucumbers for it are already chopped, bagged, and awaiting their fate.

Most of the veggies for the veggie tray are rinsed, cut, and bagged.

The chicken that will supplement the pork loin for barbecue has been cooked and is cooling, awaiting the deboning process.  I got bonus chicken stock out of the deal, too.

The cake is baked and cooling.  Once it’s cooled, I’ll wrap the layers and the cupcakes and stick them in the freezer for assembly and decorating on Sunday.

For tomorrow, I have to pop the pork loin in the crock pot and make an early run into town to pick up the final few things I forgot.  Then I’ll finish chopping veggies for the pasta salad and veggie tray, as well as cutting most of the fruit for the fruit salad.  I also need to finish up my gum paste cake decorations and watch the Big Game.  (Priorities, people!)

On the big day, the biggest thing will be to get the cake taken care of.  The pasta salad should go together easily, as should the coleslaw.  The barbecue will essentially be done, the chips and pretzels just need bowls, veggie tray assembly can be done by Southern Honey, and final fruit cutting should be fairly quick and painless.  My major concerns are getting the cake to look at least decent and getting to the park on time.  I do not want to be late!

Now it’s off to wrap up that cake and get some sleep before I doze off on the couch.  Just not as comfortable as the bed.  Not even close.

Birthday party menu

I’m not sure why I’m doing this, but I’m sitting here torturing myself by going through and planning out the menu for the Munchkin’s party next weekend.  Why is this torture?  Because I had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday, so I can’t actually eat anything that requires more chewing than maybe Spaghettios.  Yet here I sit looking through pictures of deliciousness and pondering a whole host of dishes I can’t do anything more than drool over at the moment.  :P

The party is going to kick off at one in the afternoon at a local park, so I wanted to keep things summery but have enough to be a proper lunch since I know some people are traveling a decent distance.  Plus it all needs to work in an outdoor setting (unless, of course, it rains, in which case we’ll relocate to our house).  It’s a Fraggle Rock themed event, since that’s the Munchkin’s favorite show, judging by all the dancing he does to the theme song, but that doesn’t lend itself much to foods unless you really like radishes and asparagus, so I’m allowing myself a lot of leeway there.  :D

Here’s how the menu is shaping up so far:

• Shredded pork barbecue
• Pasta salad (tri-color rotini with cucumber, green pepper, tomatoes, Italian dressing, and grated Parmesan cheese)
• Poppy lime fruit
• Veggie tray
• Coleslaw (if I can find a no-mayo dressing)
• Deviled eggs  (hooray, Mom!)
• Strawberry lemonade cake

What I like most about the menu is that a lot of it can be prepared ahead of time, and a great deal of it I’ve made before.  Ordinarily I would use a situation like this to try out a load of new recipes, but there are too many variables with having to get everything to the park and ready to eat on time.  So I’m sticking with expending my energy on the cake and its decorations — it will be my first foray into the world of gum paste decorations and using syrup to help flavor a cake.

My grocery list:

• Barbecue sauce
• Green pepper (stoplight peppers if I can find them on sale)
• Cucumber (2)
• Grape or cherry tomatoes
• Lime
• In-season/on sale fruits
• Bagged coleslaw mix
• Lemon
• Self-rising flour
• 8-in round cake pan (I have one, but I need one more)
• Plates, forks, spoons, cups, tablecloths

Once-a-Month-Cooking: March-April

Last month’s Once-a-Month-Cooking experiment was a qualified success.  I say “qualified” only because we had some recipe snafus, and I learned a great deal about just how many major meals I need each week.  Err, I mean, no, I don’t have another month’s worth of spaghetti sauce, Cincy-style chili, stir-fry veggies, and pot roast in the freezer…

This month I’m hoping to take care of the leftovers from last month, as well as trying out some new ones:

• Crock pot teriyaki chicken from Ring Around the Rosies
• Southwestern chili mac
• Creamy Italian pasta
• Chicken noodle soup

I also have to say that I probably won’t use the recipe for crock pot spaghetti sauce I used this time.  It makes way too much for what we can eat, and the recipe came out a bit too sweet and bland for my tastes.  Once I add some sauteed veggies, it gets better, but there’s a ton of spaghetti sauce sitting in my freezer that I’m just not that fond of.

I also learned that I need to have better quick-fix vegetable options on hand to make sure the Munchkin is getting his fill.  I’m still working on that one, but with the Farmer’s Markets opening soon, I foresee us having a lot to choose from.

Entering the final week

As we come down to the final week of my planned- and cooked-for month, I’m ready to declare the concept a victory.  We’ve done well at sticking to the dishes planned for each week, or at least not making anything that wasn’t on the menu, even if we actually dropped planned meals in favor of leftovers.

I also have a lot of meals’ worth of food left over.  I really over-estimated how many meals we were going to need.  So much so that I’m really only going to need to prepare one or two family-sized meals for each week this next time around.  More meatloafs, for certain, and a couple more crock pot dishes, different ones this time from the ones I used the last time.

The only other thing I really would like and need to do differently this time is to plan out my vegetable side dishes a little bit better because I need to find sides that the Munchkin will eat.  I still have kale on hand, which he’ll eat, along with squash, zucchini, and maybe some broccoli.  That will get me through this week with no problems, but them I’m going to have to go back to the store.  I’m fortunate in that he’s shown a willingness to eat any vegetable I’ve presented him, but I still have to temper that with what he can eat, having only four teeth.  :D

So Far, So Good

I’m filing this first week of once-a-month cooking as a tentative success tonight.  I didn’t quite stick to my menu, but it was to swap meals or to substitute leftovers for cooking something new, not to deviate entirely, so I consider that to be acceptable.  I really didn’t account for as many leftovers as we had this week, just starting out, so I’m probably going to be able to get two months’ worth of cooking, thereabouts, out of it.

The best part has been watching the Munchkin try new foods and just start scarfing them. Things Southern Honey won’t even touch.  I mean, he had broccoli sauteed in sesame oil with a little soy and rice wine vinegar the other night with his meatloaf.  And he loved it.  I admit to feeling as though that was a huge win for me.  It was a nice contrast to the sheer amount of suck in the rest of the week.

To review the one new recipe I’ve tried so far, I give the Cincinnati-style chili from What’s Cooking, Chicago? two big thumbs up.  The spice blend reminds me so much of what we used to get for lunch down at the little diner owned by a Greek couple, just down the street from my high school, when we’d get out for lunch once a month or so.  It even had enough kick that I didn’t miss the hot sauce I’d normally add a shake or three of for kicks — I didn’t want to burn out the Munchkin’s taste buds right off the bat.  And he went to town on it, although he had a tough time with the spaghetti; it was slippery and hard for him to grab with his little fingers.

I will definitely make that recipe again!