I was about to post this black bean and corn salsa recipe, and then decided to check to make sure that CH hadn't already posted it. Well, she has. So that makes this a pretty boring post. But I'll add that I made this salsa on Monday (without avocado or cilantro) and added the avocado (but not the cilantro) right before serving on Thursday, and I thought that the extra marinating time made the salsa even better.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I swear I would have given CH credit
Saturday, July 25, 2009
remodeling my kitchen
I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.
Before:
After:
I celebrated the successful remodel by making a batch of brownies from scratch. I have no problem admitting that I rarely see the point in making brownies from scratch when you have Ghiradelli's double chocolate brownie mix available. However, I did not, and I wanted to try the Fudge Brownie Recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.
Verdict: delicious (even though I'm still thrown off by my one remodeling mistake: replacing the gas stove with an electric one)
Here's the recipe with my mods:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Green & Blacks)
1.5 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Penzey's double strength)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1 inch overhang on two sides. Set aside.
Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water; stir frequently until chocolate and butter are melted, about 7 minutes. (I heated in the microwave for about a minute at 50% power.)
Remove bowl from heat; let cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes. (I probably let it cool for 5 minutes, while prepping the pan and measuring other ingredients.)
Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture until combined. whisk in eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition.
Whisk in vanilla.
Gently fold in flour and salt.
Pour batter into prepared pan, and smooth top with an offset spatula.
Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes. (Took me 35.)
Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
I'm not sure that they were delicious enough to replace Ghiradelli as my go-to brownie, but I'll certainly be pulling these out when I want to be extra impressive. (Ghiradelli does still have the advantage of being less expensive to make since you don't need to purchase butter and chocolate.)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Spring semester catch up
One of my proudest achievements during my last semester of grad school was cooking enough food on Sunday to last me as lunch through most of the week. I wasn't able to achieve this every Sunday, but it happened on most.
For some reason though, I was not able to combine the cooking with much picture taking or blogging. So, here's a post to catch up with a few of the recipes I tried with a few of the pictures I managed to take. Mostly these were from smitten kitchen, so I'll just post links to her recipes.
First up: Blood Orange Tart. 
NEVER AGAIN. In addition to crust needing days to complete, what with all of the freezing it had to go through, this recipe called for the pulpy middle of the blood orange to be separated from their membranes. Pictures from smitten kitchen make clear what this should look like, but the lovely Deb failed to photograph her blood orange stained hands or mention the HOURS that it might take someone who has no idea how to separate orange innards from their membranes. The real kicker though, was after baking this sucker, the juices all ran out of the crust, so it ended up being rather dry. Oh well. Not every recipe can be a success.
Smitten Kitchen: Indian food recipes.
I've tried the Red Kidney Bean Curry, the Red Split Lentils With Cabbage, and the Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes (same link as Red Split Lentils.) ALL DELICIOUS. Also, all surprisingly less work than expected. Seriously, that middle recipe made me love cabbage (I'd never tried cooking with it before!) and the Red Kidney Bean Curry is super easy. Mmm, and potatoes and cauliflower + cumin is obviously a good choice. Mmm, mmm mmm.
And then, the recipe that now defines comfort food for me: Vegan Mac and Cheez. 
Before you start with the eyerolling, etc, let me just say: this is the most delicious casserole ever. No, it's not really like mac and cheese. But frankly, I can only eat mac and cheese in small amounts. It's just so rich (and delicious, don't get me wrong), but it doesn't work for a weekly lunch. This recipe however, gives the creamy, satisfying texture of mac and cheese but without...well, all the cheese. I also really like a lot of the ingredients. Miso, check. Tahani, yes please. Cashews, always! The nutritional yeast (a yellow flakey powder) may be the one ingredient that is not already on your shelves, but it should be in bulk food sections of fancier grocery stores. (If not, I will totally mail you some. I'm not kidding.) Well, that and the Earth Balance (vegan butter), but hell, it's better for you than margarine, so buy it!
The recipe I use is from Vegan Yum Yum, and she's modified it from other recipes herself. I really really love it though you guys, and it's really not that difficult. I have also found myself adding a little miso and tahini to other recipes when a need a little sauciness or flavor. It's never as good as this recipe, but it makes me happy nonetheless.
If I can take a picture before I eat it all, I'll try to post about the artisan bread you can make in your own oven.
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