Recipes from the past six months!

Hi all! Are we getting into the holiday spirit yet? My husband and I will be traveling soon, first to my in-laws and then my parents, so we're going to have a fun and busy couple of weeks!

Today I decided to do some catching up with the food I've cooked for the last several months. I've gotten in the habit of posting pics on Instagram, but I've been bad about blogging. Almost all of these recipes were spur-of-the-moment decisions that I made with stuff already in my pantry. That's the best kind of recipe in my opinion!

Blueberry Crisp

We happened to buy some blueberries one week back in June, and out of the blue I wondered "can I make a crisp with these?" The answer was yes, as long as you have some basic baking supplies around, like flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. The whole process takes maybe half an hour. Unfortunately I don't remember what recipe I used, but I just Googled "blueberry crisp" and got a million very similar results.

Popovers

I was inspired to make these during a Good Eats marathon on Netflix. (Here is Alton Brown's recipe.) Ridiculously easy to make. Mine are a little smaller than normal because I didn't have a popover pan, only a muffin pan. I think I just baked them for slightly less time than the recipe calls for.

Tuna Croquettes

Another Alton Brown-inspired dish! (Recipe is here.) I used white onions instead of green, and it worked perfectly fine. Usually the only thing I can think to do with canned tuna is make tuna salad (and I make a pretty damn good tuna salad), so it was nice to learn how to do something else! These get nice and crispy and golden-brown on the outside. They remind me of the salmon patties my mom used to make us.

Vegetarian Cincinnati Chili

(Apologies for the ghetto cheese slices.) Cincinnati chili is something my dad would make for us occasionally after he came back from a business trip to Cincinnati. It has a lot of wintery spices like cinnamon, allspice and cloves, as well as chocolate! It's traditionally served over spaghetti with cheddar on top. (I used this recipe.) I replaced the beef with black beans because I had a can sitting around in the pantry.

Thanksgiving Dressing

This Thanksgiving at the in-laws', everyone contributed something to dinner. My husband and I volunteered to do dressing (well, I always call it stuffing, but this was technically dressing!). We used a very simple recipe (here) because we had to keep it kosher and dairy-free. Also, his family doesn't normally eat dressing at Thanksgiving (what???) so we didn't want to overwhelm anyone! This photo is halfway through the cooking process, so it got all crispy and browned after this. It tasted just how a traditional stuffing should taste, lovely and herbacious!



Not Pictured: I made Martha Stewart's chocolate chip cookie recipe and they were AMAZING! Soft and chewy, just the way I like them! I don't know why I forgot to take pics!


That's all for now! Have you cooked anything fun lately? I'll have to write another post all about the ice cream I've made this year!

I made food: nachos!

Yep, another cooking post this week! Mr. ALIQUID has the week off from work, so we decided to mix it up a little with our dinner plans (normally we have very similar dinners from week to week). My craving for Mexican food hit me again, so I made nachos! I got the basic procedure from my dad, who's been making awesome nachos for years.

Nachos are one of those great dishes that you can make virtually any way you want as long as you keep the basics the same: chips + toppings + cheese. Here's what I did...

I heated up a mix of refried black and pinto beans (plus a little water) on the stovetop and added a packet of taco seasoning; if you want to avoid the prepackaged stuff, I imagine a blend of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and salt would do the trick. You can of course use any combo of meat, beans and rice for your topping, just make sure the meat is fully cooked before you put it on your nachos. About 1 to 1.5 pounds of topping should be enough.

I put down a layer of corn chips on a large rimmed baking sheet; make sure to fill in all the gaps, but don't overlap them too much or you'll end up with the dreaded topping-less chip. Then I added my beans on top. Don't be too heavy-handed with this part, or the chips will get soggy and collapse under the weight.

I sprinkled chopped onions and cherry tomatoes all over, plus fresh jalapenos on my husband's half (I'm still a wuss). Finally, the cheese! I used a whole two-cup bag of shredded "Mexican blend" cheese.

Stick the nachos in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. This will melt the cheese, soften the veggies and remove sogginess from the toppings and chips. One large tray will feed four regular people or two very hungry people!

We ate our nachos with homemade guacamole (just avocado, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper). Oh so delicious...

I made food: black bean soup

Before I get started, it's time to announce the winner of the Indigo Bananas giveaway!! And the winner is...

...drumroll please...

Entry #40: Kathryn T.!

Congratulations! You have 48 hours to let me know which polishes you'd like!

Thanks to everyone else who entered, followed and liked--it's great to have you here!

Now on to the food. It's soup season again, so the other day I made this really simple and tasty black bean soup. I got the recipe from How to Cook Everything (gotta keep pimping this cookbook, it's just so good). Here's my not-so-great picture:

Like I said, it's very simple (and quick too): chop up two medium onions and a few cloves of garlic. Cook the onions in a little bit of neutral oil  (I used grapeseed) until they're soft, then add the garlic and a tablespoon of chili powder and cook a minute longer. Add 3 cups (about 2 cans) of cooked black beans, 4 cups of any kind of stock, and salt and pepper (also, if you're not a wuss like me, you can put in a chile pepper). Bring everything to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes. If you like, you can puree some or all of the soup to thicken it up--I used my immersion blender but didn't puree the soup completely, so there were still some chunks of bean and onion in there. Add 2 teaspoons of lime juice and you're done! We ate it with cheese, sour cream and cilantro.

This soup is very hearty (especially if you add sour cream) and flavorful, with just a little bit of spiciness. Plus it satisfies my neverending craving for Mexican food. I'll definitely be making this one a lot over the winter!

I made food: enchiladas

Yay, it's Mexican food time again! It's been a while...I've missed you. Tonight I made enchiladas with homemade sauce. Like so many Mexican dishes, enchiladas are versatile because you can put just about anything you want inside them. As long as you use cheese, of course.

I started by making the sauce (recipe here). It's very easy--basically just tomato paste with seasonings. This sauce has a little heat, but it gets diluted enough once in the enchiladas that it doesn't bother sensitive people like me.

Once the sauce is done, you assemble the enchiladas in a baking dish. I used brown rice, black beans, cheese, and of course the sauce.

 

When you've filled the tortilla, fold over the sides and flip it over--it should stay closed that way. Then spread some more enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with more cheese. Bake them at 350 for 20-30 minutes, basically until the cheese is melted and the tortillas get a little crispy on the edges. (I've seen some recipes tell you to add more sauce halfway through, and you can do that if you like your enchiladas extra saucy.)

Enchiladas are one of those foods that look kind of gross and yet delicious at the same time, aren't they?

I made food: black bean quesadillas

Today I indulged my craving for Mexican food once again by making black bean quesadillas with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole. I decided to try using an actual Mexican cheese rather than the Kraft "Mexican blend" stuff that comes shredded in bags. I ended up buying queso panela, which I've never had before, but the description sounded promising. It turned out to be very mild, like a salty mozzarella (very similar texture too). It didn't actually melt fully, but got very soft.

There really isn't anything better than fresh guacamole, is there? Mine just has tomato, onion, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. (You may notice that I didn't put any jalapenos or anything in. I'm a real wuss when it comes to spicy stuff; it's really just a painful distraction from the food to me!) Alongside my quesadillas I had a salad with oil, lime juice, pepper, and some pomegranate-flavored craisins. I just love that almost everything in my dinner was fresh and easy to make! (Yeah OK, I got the beans from a can, so sue me!)

I made food: Mexican melange

I LOVE Mexican food. I could probably eat it every day. My favorite is anything covered in cheese. Unfortunately for me, if I ate cheesy Mexican food every day, I'd weigh...a lot more than I do now. So this week I decided to make a somewhat healthier dish that still satisfies my craving for Mexican. This was vaguely inspired by the adobo chicken bowl I had at Cosi last weekend.

Looks good, no? Here's what I did:

First, I left some chicken breast to marinate in grapeseed oil, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Meanwhile, I cooked some Spanish rice (I confess, it was a boxed mix!) and made some fresh pico de gallo (tomato, onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper).

Then I cooked the chicken in a pan with some oil. When it was almost done, I added a can of black beans to get them heated up. I threw a bit of everything on a plate, added some avocado chunks and sprinkled some lime juice, and voila!

Super tasty and pretty good for you! Next time I think I'll add some corn too!

Are you a cilantro lover or hater?