Category: Recipes

Soup love: Hearty Black Bean Soup

This soup has been a winter staple in our household for about three years.  You can easily substitute the chorizo for italian sausage (as I did this time) or veggie alternatives like “Soyrizo”.  We like to eat it just by itself as a late supper, but cornbread, toast, or a peanut butter sandwich are great compliments.

It’s flavorful.  It’s delicious.  and in three days, it was gone.

Slow Cooker Hearty Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 lb. Chorizo (4 oz.)
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 small green pepper, chopped
  • 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 TB dry sherry (or red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar)
  • 1tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 15 oz. canned black beans (not drained)
  • 15 oz. vegetable broth
  • 1 med. lime, squeezed
  • 1/8 tsp. each salt and ground black pepper
  • 2 TB fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Saute chorizo in a pan for 2-3 minutes.  Add onion, garlic and peppers, saute over medium heat for 5 minutes or until meat begins to brown.  Add to slow cooker

Add all other ingredients except cilantro, salt, pepper, and lime to cooker.  Cover and cook 4-5 hours on low setting.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes.

Yields 1 cup per serving, makes 8 servings (I double the recipe for my 7 Qt. cooker)

Stocking up and making ready

Since December 2, I’ve been living the fantastic life of a housewife.  Working occasionally, blogging frequently, and cooking constantly.  Today, that all changes as I go back to my typical 60-hour work week.

I’m nervous.

When I get nervous, I prepare by cooking lots of food.  That way, even if nothing goes according to plan, at least I’ve got dinner.  It’s winter, so, naturally that means lots of soup.  Lots and lots of soup.  My hope is that these two beauties will last all week and next for dinners.

 

That’s Hearty Black Bean Slow-Cooker soup on the left, and Winter Ham and Beans on the right.  I’ll get you those recipes later in the week.

I was hoping to get a third pot going too, but it wasn’t in the cards today.

That’s right; I said it: we have three crock pots.  When it comes to crock pots, you can’t just have one.  Plus, we have a chili cookout every Halloween and so all those slow cookers come in quite handy.

Piece de resistance: Dragon’s Milk Stout brownies

We tried this coveted beer a few days after Christmas, and, to be honest, Dragon’s Milk was just too much for me.  Not wanting to waste a reputed and expensive bottle of beer, I found this Milk Stout brownie recipe and adapted it to the ingredients in the cupboard and my own taste.

Not for the feint of heart, or the calorie counter, this decadent, sinful brownie was the perfect end to our New Year’s Eve beer tasting fiasco, paired beautifully with both Stone Imperial Russian Stout AND New Glarus Raspberry Tart.  It also marks the end of this delicious week on the blog.  Enjoy!

Dragon’s Milk Stout Brownies

Ingredients:

1 C. All-purpose flour

3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

6 TB softened butter

8 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

4 eggs

1 C. granulated sugar

10 oz. flat Dragon’s Milk or other Milk Stout beer

1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 deg-F.  Grease a 9 x 13 inch cake pan and set aside

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and salt. Set aside

Melt butter and baking chocolate together in a double boiler over low heat, stirring constantly until completely melted.  You can use a regular pot, just monitor very carefully to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn. to the bottom of the pan.  Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, combine eggs and sugar in stand mixer bowl (or use electric hand mixer) and beat on med-high setting until fluffy.  Add melted chocolate mixture* to eggs and continue to beat until combined.

Slowly integrate flour mixture, and then add milk stout beer.  Batter will appear to be runny; that’s ok.  Pour semi-sweet chips into batter bowl and then pour entire batter into the baking pan*.

Bake 25-30 until toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean.  Cool completely before slicing and serving.  If desired, dust with confectioner’s sugar to make them extra pretty.

* DON’T LICK THE SPOON  Remember, the stuff in the pot on the stove is UNsweetened chocolate with pure butter; it does not taste good.  The complete brownie batter does taste good, but has 4 raw eggs in it.  Just wait until they come out of the oven.

 

Peanut Brittle – sans HFCS

Remind me to try this again when I invest in a candy thermometer…

Considering my milk pitcher temperature-reader-thing only goes up to 220-deg, this was a lot of guess work and turned out fairly well.  Candy is not the easiest thing to make, but you can’t taste an amber ale without peanut brittle (as we’ve come to find out).  The thing is, the stuff from the grocery store is really expensive and has gross ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated peanut oil.  This was the recipe I used, and, apart from being a little sticky it turned out pretty darn good.

Homemade Peanut Brittle

Ingredients:

1 C. sugar

1/2 C. light corn syrup

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 C. water

1 C. peanuts

2 TB butter, softened

1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.

Over medium heat, bring sugar, corn syrup, salt and water to a boil.  Stir until sugar is dissolved and add peanuts.  Stir frequently and continue to heat until candy thermometer reads 300 deg-F.

Remove from heat and immediately stir in butter and baking soda.  Then, immediately pour out onto greased baking sheet.

Pull the mixture with two forks into a rectangle and let cool completely.  Then snap into pieces, and call a dentist.

Avocado + Cilantro = Love

Any recipe that includes cilantro, avocado, and salsa instantly makes it to the top of my list.  This one from Weight Watchers is very nice if you don’t mind a little kick in your dip.  I don’t mind.

Creamy Mexican Dip

Ingredients:

1 C. plain, fat-free yogurt

1/2 C. salsa (I used salsa verde, but any kind will do)

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/3 C. cilantro

1/4 C. red onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Garnish with more cilantro and onion, and diced or sliced avocado.

Serve with tortilla chips, or as a sauce to use in place of sour cream.  I used some of it as a topping for chicken tacos last week and it was delicious.  You can also add some drained, canned black beans to make it a sturdier, more filling appetizer.

Fancy fare: Black Forest Ham Crostini

Adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe, this super yum appetizer was easy to make for our NYE party.  Plus, it has great visual impact, looks fancy, and is really delicious.

Black Forest Ham Crostini

Ingredients:

A fresh loaf of skinny french bread

1/3 C. sour cream (reduced-fat still tastes great)

3 TB minced red onion

1 TB horseradish

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Fresh arugula or other green (not too pungent), for garnish

1/4 – 1/2 lb. black forest ham, sliced thinly (I got mine already sliced at the deli counter)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 deg-F.  Thinly slice french bread (about 1″ thick) and place on sprayed baking sheet.  Toast bread in the oven about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, onion, horseradish, and pepper.

Put bread on serving platter, and place one deli slice on each piece of bread.  Add a dollop of sour cream mixture and garnish with arugula or other greens.

Betty knows best: Deviled Eggs

One of my prized possessions is my first edition 1950 Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book.

It has amazing tips on how to be a good housewife and decorating a kitchen with polka dots… “Gayest, most colorful of all!”

Though perhaps slightly dated in its approach and it’s recipes (like: miniature pigs in blankets and pineapple marshmallow creme), every recipe I’ve tried out of this book has been amazingly successful.  It just goes to show that when it comes to classic American cooking…. Betty Crocker knows best.

This New Years Eve, I tried making Deviled Eggs for the fist time, much to the delight of my household and, I might add, me.  Simple. Creamy. Delicious.

Betty’s Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

6 eggs (hard-boiled, see below*)

1/4 – 1/2 tsp. salt, depending on your taste (I like less salty)

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

About 3 TB mayonaise, vinegar, or cream (enough to moisten)

Directions:

Cut hard-boiled eggs in half, slip out the yolks into a small bowl and mash with a fork.  Add the other ingredients and mix until creamy.  Refill egg whites with yolk mixture (you can just spoon it in, or use a pastry bag if you want to be extra fancy).  I like to dust them lightly with Paprika.

There are about 1,000 variations of Deviled Eggs, and you can experiment yourself with curry powder, diced ham, pimentos and the like… but I like them just like this.

If you don’t have a fancy deviled egg tupperware as I do, you can lightly squeeze two halves back together and wrap them in wax paper like a salt water taffy (twisting the sides tightly) for transport.  That is, if you don’t eat all of them before you get to your party.

*Just in case you don’t know how to make hard-boiled eggs, a brief tutorial:

  • Boil water in a pot.  The pot should be large enough for the eggs to sit in a single layer, and fill with enough water to completely cover the eggs.  Add 1 TB vinegar to the pot.
  • Lower eggs into the water one at a time, using a ladle and gently resting them in the water.  Lower the heat to medium-ish.
  • 20 minutes later.
  • Use your ladle again to scoop out the eggs one at a time and place them in a colander.  Place the colander in an ice bath to prevent the eggs from continuing to cook, not to mention they are too hot to handle.