Black Beans and Rice DuJour

I was stumped for dinner and turned to the pantry. I had some jasmine rice and saw a can of black beans. I'm sure real bean connoisseurs go with dry beans and do the whole overnight soaking and hour boiling thing, but having only discovered that beans are not evil recently, I haven't gone that far. Canned suits me just fine.
While cooking the rice per the package instructions, I sauteed some chopped onions and garlic in a pan with olive oil. Then I added some fresh spinach that I happened to have on hand in the fridge and let it wilt. I rinsed the beans well so they wouldn't "muddy" up the rice and added them to start heating. When the rice was done, I added that, and some butter. I finished it off with some salt, pepper, a "table blend" of seasonings and some cumin.
It was delicious, cheap, and it can be switched up in numerous ways. Today was spinach, next time... who knows?

Best. French toast. Ever.

I splurged on an expensive loaf of cinnamon swirl bread from Idylwilde. I've bought this before. It is sooooooo good. It's made within a couple days of purchase at the most and the ingredient list on the label has only a handful on things- mostly flour, eggs and cinnamon. I decided to use it for french toast this weekend and it was phenomenal. I sliced it thick and let it soak in my egg and half and half mixture (which also had a splash of vanilla extract added to it) for about an hour before putting it on the griddle. The end result was super flavorful and like a soft custard on the inside. Fantastic!

This is a vegetable?

I discovered spaghetti squash after seeing someone cook with it on TV. Basically, you just put it in the oven whole and when it's fork tender, cut it in half, remove the seeds and then use the fork to pull the spaghetti-like insides out. My first time cooking it, I did not cook it enough and the insides were not letting go of the sides, and what I did get out was still crunchy. Properly cooked, it comes out easily and is only slightly more "al dente" than pasta. At first I went simple with some butter and parmesan cheese, which is quite tasty. This time I decided to take it up a notch and see how far this squash could substitute for pasta. I found these gorgeous, thin, fresh asparagus on sale and made a cream sauce for these two veggies to swim in. I prepared the asparagus but breaking the ends off with my hands (the spear will let you know where the end gets tough if you just hold it by each end and bend it in the middle till it snaps) and steaming them until just tender with a fork. This dish was rich enough to be a main course, and also reheated quite well. Plus, it was really nutritious (aside from a bit of fat and calories with the cream sauce, but that could easily be cut down). Here is info on all the good things about asparagus http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2316/2
and spaghetti squash
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2655/2.
Suffice it to say, you get a lot less calories, more fiber and vitamins with two veggies than pasta. I think I'll let the cream sauce sneak by ;)

Scallop Scampi(ish)

At the seafood counter today they had nice looking scallops on sale. I hadn't cooked scallops in a long time so I was inspired. When I got home I looked around and came up with a game plan for them. I started with scampi style over angel hair pasta as my jumping off point. Then I thought some color and added veggie would be more appealing visually and texturally, not to mention, add some nutritional value. My hand passed a can of diced tomatoes in the cabinet and I grabbed that, and I remembered an opened bag of fresh spinach in the fridge. The dish then came together in my head.

First I put some butter and olive oil in a skillet and added some finely chopped garlic. Then I added the scallops and browned them on both sides. I added some white wine and squeezed half a lemon into it. After that, I put in the can of diced tomatoes (drained) and the fresh spinach and cooked it all till the spinach wilted and the tomatoes were heated through. I wanted it to thicken slightly, so I added a bit of flour and stirred vigorously to avoid lumps. I seasoned the dish Old Bay, seasoning salt and pepper and then tossed with the pasta.

It was very pretty on the plate. If I were to go back and change something, I would have just seared the scallops off first and removed them from the pan, then built my sauce and added them back in with the spinach and tomatoes. They didn't get quite enough crust on them for my taste and were slightly overdone by the time the rest of the dish came together. Instead of tossing the pasta with the sauce, you could certainly put the pasta on the plate first and then lay the sauce over it.

Leftover Cold Cuts

We had a party this past weekend that included a big cold cut platter from the deli. We had ample leftovers. After eating about a dozen sandwiches, I was hunting for ideas to use the more of them up that didn't involve two pieces of bread and mayo. I decided on breakfast for dinner! I used ham and cheese in the frittata and pastrami in the hash. Breakfast for dinner is always fun, easy, and for some reason just easier to wrap my head around making after a long day than a traditional dinner. The hash also let me use up some leftover vegetable crudite as well. Hash is great like that- it's a good catch-all.

When a potato is a meal

I have a memory of having twice baked potatoes at my Aunt Kris's house when I was visiting for an overnight when I was in middle school and loving them. As I've mentioned before, I love potatoes with a passion. This treatment takes the potato into main course territory because it is so filling and has nearly every food group in it! I've had trouble in the past with how long to cook the potato in the first baking and in scooping it out to create the filling. I initially figured I should slightly under cook the potato at first, as I would macaroni for a baked ziti for example- leaving some of the cooking for the second time around to avoid a mushy mess. This is not the way to go with twice baked potatoes because if they are still "crunchy" at all when you pull them to scoop them out, you can't mash the potato properly and the end result, even when baked the second time, ends up being lumpy with harder, not quite cooked enough, pieces. My second mistake was scooping out the potato too much- leaving barely more than the skin. If you do that, the potato loses shape and can topple and make a mess. You need to leave a good lip of potato intact all around the skin.
With those tips in mind, here's how I did my twice baked potatoes.
Rub the potato with olive oil and sprinkle with Kosher salt before baking on a cookie sheet until they are easily pierced with a fork. Do NOT cover your potatoes with aluminum foil. You will steam them, and the skin will not crisp at all. That crispy, salted skin is one of the best parts!
When the potatoes are done, cut them in half and let them sit for a few minutes, just until they are cool enough to handle. Then carefully scoop out the meat of the potato, leaving a good amount all around the skin to hold their shape and give them the strength to hold the filling.
Put the potato insides in a bowl and then the sky's the limit with filling additions. I went relatively traditional here, with crisp bacon pieces, scallions, sour cream, butter, shredded cheese, salt and pepper. I've seen recipes that add chopped shrimp, crab, chicken, and others, so use your imagination.
Put the filled potato halves back in the oven until heated through and enjoy!

Harvest Moon Pancakes

Erik made the name up for these. They are our favorite weekend breakfast at this point. It's a simple pancake mix (Bisquick Heart Smart to be exact) which I make as directed except with Buttermilk instead of plain milk, and then add about a cup of canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and then blueberries. They are soooo yummy, filling and have some extra vitamins from the berries and pumpkin. What's not to like?!
I have also used cooked, pureed butternut squash, and cooked, pureed or mashed sweet potato as additions to pancakes. Both are good too. So go experiment with your pancakes this weekend and enjoy!