Category: Uncategorized

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)

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.

 

Ringing in 2012

Your RSS feeds will likely be clogged with a bunch of bloggers’ resolutions today.  Rather than bore you with the typical “lose weight, blog more” goals that I share with all my fellow Americans, I shall ease your hangover with a beautiful photo diary of what my New Year’s Eve looked like.

The theme:

A classy beer tasting party.

The setting:

The fabulously retro party basement that lies beneath my humble abode

The menu:

Classic hors d’oeuvres including a fruit and cheese tray, deviled eggs, creamy Mexican dip, black forest ham crostini, homemade peanut brittle, and Dragon’s Milk Stout brownies (recipes to follow for the rest of the week)

Paired with:

Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Unibroue Maudite (amber Belgian-style ale), New Glarus Moon Man, Stone IPA, and a special New Glarus Raspberry Tart for the midnight toast.

Aside: I’ve had many failures in the kitchen, but this shin-dig (I flatter myself) was a delicious success.

Contributing Crafty Lady Nancy took these photos, and selected and sourced the beer pairings….

Black Forest Ham Crostini
Creamy Mexican Dip
Deviled Eggs
Blue cheese, Camembert, Asian pear and a clementine blossom
Milk Stout Brownies

Merry, happy, and a shot of Kahlua

Nothing says Christmas like a hot cup of cocoa with a blanket, family gathered around the hearth, and an overflowing jigger of Kahlua.

Instant hot cocoa mix

recipe courtesy of Alton Brown

Ingredients:

2 – 1/2 C. dry, non-fat milk

2 C. confectioner’s sugar

1 C. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 pinch cayenne (optional)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients until combined.  To prepare, mix 2 heaping tablespoons mix with 8 oz. hot water.  Add Kahlua (optional) and enjoy.

Delicioso.

Damn you, foam roller!

I have a secret to tell you.

I’m a fitness instructor who doesn’t go to the gym that often…. shhh!!

I hate to admit it, but I’ve been to my local Ballys (now LA Fitness) exactly once since I moved (last February).  I’m a prime example of a person that had a routine (we were going at least twice a week), and lost it as soon as something (or lots of things) changed in my life.

Ok, look, during the year I teach a grand total of 18 fitness classes a week, work 12 hour days, commute 20 miles a day on bike, and operate a small dance company.  So that’s my excuse.  But in the “off-season”, that is, the break between semesters, I decided it was time to make good on the $25 a month that is deducted from my account every month.

I’ve been wanting to grab some new tips for the workouts I give in class, and make sure I look ripped on the first day of the semester in January.  Determined to not wait for another “tomorrow”, or, God help us, until January 1 to go back to the gym, I boldly went where no Lauren (that’s me) has gone before: a Pilates class.

I hate Pilates.

It doesn’t make sense to me and just makes my neck hurt.  But, I recognize that people who do Pilates regularly look extremely buff.  I haven’t taken a Pilates class, in fact, since college, and after going I pretty much feel the same way about it that I did before.

Except, perhaps, for the foam roller.

This thing is awesome, and something I never knew could be incorporated into a Pilates workout.  Providing both cushion and support, and a wicked test of balance, that little log of foam kicked my ass.  And I like a good ass kicking now and again.

I love that feeling after you work out.  That soft pain developing in your muscles, adrenaline pumping through you.  And, Pilates aside, today I feel that, and I want to feel it again tomorrow.

Foam roller, I think I’m in love with you.

Long story short, the holidays are tough for me… primarily due to my loves for cheesy made-for-TV movies and pie.  I work really hard and when I get the chance to relax I often relax hard too.  However, when I squeeze back into those tiny stretch pants I wear every day at work, I want to feel confident.  I’d like to know that the students are looking at my face and not my butt.  Or, if they are looking at my butt, they’re thinking, “Man alive! She must work out”.

Because, you know, of course I do!

The 10 days of Christmas

Wait, what?

Well wouldn’t you know it, that big old holiday with the merriment and joy and stuff is creeping right up on me.  What have I done to prepare for it?

Nothing.

Well, I take that back.  I made 20 jars of pickles back in September, but apart from that… yeah, nothing.  In an effort to keep up my image as a domestic goddess, here’s how I plan to spend the next few days preparing for Christmas:

10 trips to the garage hauling in decorations

9 editions of the Nutcracker playing non-stop in the background

8 servings of soup a-freezing

7 times a-shoveling (assumedly… although it hasn’t snowed yet)

6 cranberry loaves a-baking

5  golden teeth

aside: I haven’t been to the dentist in awhile, and am anticipating a few cavities…

4 jars of homemade cocoa mix

3 quilts sewn

2 hands cramping from writing Christmas postcards

… and a big care package sent to my friend Erin in Benin, Africa

Starbucks Around the World: Lebanon, IN

The idea of Starbucks (at least when I was an employee there) was always to come, stay, let it be your “third place” to hang out and relax.  This is completely contrary to what much of America now understands Starbucks to be: just another drive-through fast food joint with really expensive, tasty coffee.  Such is the case with stores like this one in Lebanon, IN, and so many others like it that have giant Siren’s thrusting above the interstate next to the golden arches and the BP signs.

This is not necessarily a criticism, simply a response to what “America” seems to want… which is to have their cake and eat it to.  At 7:30pm, I found this Starbucks to be somewhat sub-par… they were completely out of sandwiches and salads, and the barista put whip on a no-whip hot chocolate that (by my palate) was obviously made with reheated milk.

“Long day?” I asked.

“You don’t even know…. I’ve made like 100 hot chocolates today.”

What I didn’t tell this Barista was that in my day I’d make 100 hot chocolates an hour…

In any case, the staff was pleasant, they fixed my drink – unbegrudgingly and apologetically – when I noticed it was made incorrectly, and the bathrooms were nice and clean.  Plus, if a Siren in the sky gets a truck driver off of bad gas station coffee every once in awhile, then I guess the bending of the business model a bit is totally worth it.