cooking

I have a waffle maker, which has become a heavily used appliance in the last several months. Making waffles from scratch is easy, and the variations are endless. I use the recipes in my Betty Crocker cookbook, which provides a basic recipe and several variations — most frequently, I make the whole wheat version. I’ve also made waffles with cornmeal, and have tried buttermilk waffles (though they aren’t as good as buttermilk pancakes for some reason). Usually I make a half batch of the batter, which keeps for a couple of days in the fridge, and eat them for breakfast and snacks. I’ll throw all kinds of things on the batter before I close the lid — flax seeds, wheat germ, chopped nuts. Depending on what kind I’ve made, I’ll add fruit, chocolate chips, butter, brown sugar, honey or maple syrup on top. My waffle iron makes round waffles with four segments, so it’s easy to control the portions.

I made a batch of waffles this weekend, and tried a new recipe. When I opened the fridge to get the milk and eggs, I spied a half-empty container of sour cream, and figured I’d see if I could find a recipe to use that up. My Betty Crocker didn’t have a variation, but a quick Google search led me to Alton Brown’s recipe for Sour Cream and Pecan Waffles. I had just enough sour cream — sold!

As I have found with the buttermilk, these were good but not stellar. I didn’t feel like they really tasted all that different from a plain waffle, which is too bad because sour cream is tasty. I will probably put a stickie note with the proportions next to waffle recipes in the Betty Crocker, as it’s a great way to use up some sour cream that you want to get out of the fridge. But I can’t say I would go out of my way to make them. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago I made a black bean soup recipe that turned out OK, but I wasn’t thrilled with it. I recently came across another one that sounded even better, and boy am I glad I tried it. Absolutely delicious.

I really didn’t make any modifications to this recipe for Spicy, Citrusy Black Beans. I used dried sage instead of fresh, but I think that’s it. The nice thing about this recipe is it gives you some ingredient options to control the heat from the get-go. I halved the recipe, which was really only three lunch servings for me, but I forced it to stretch into four. So, keep that in mind. I made a point of keeping the citrus & vinegar mix separate and adding it in to each serving as I was about to heat it up, and I think that helped. Mixing in flavors like that too far ahead of time will deaden them.

One drawback was that this took a long time to cook, even with a long pre-soak of the beans. But that meant that unlike last time, the beans were thoroughly cooked, nice and soft but not mushy. Just about perfect really. (So I guess the real lesson here is “cook the beans for a long time, dumbass, and go eat something else if you are hungry.”)

I will definitely make this again, but I think I will try to convert it for the crock pot. Obviously you will still have to saute the peppers and whatnot and then add them in, but most of the cook time is just to soften the beans and let the flavors mix. You could probably soak and cook the beans one day (steps 1 & 2), and then pick up with step 3 the next morning and then leave it to finish cooking during the day. This would also help keep the liquid from evaporating away — I found that I had to add a significant amount of water midway through. (That said it is just hitting me now that this isn’t a *soup* recipe per se, though that is how I think of it.)

Overall I highly recommend this, I think it was a great main dish but could also make a tasty side. It’s also pretty easy & cheap to make for a crowd. (And it’s vegan, which is a good thing if you have veggie friends.)

Now, I know that the broiler is a perfectly normal (and perhaps integral) part of the cooking equipment & routines of most people. However, last night was the first time I’d ever used one and I have to say, I am glad that I have finally used it.

I grew up with an electric stove, and as far as I can recall we never had a broiler — just that pots & pans drawer. So, as a not-very-adventurous cook after college, I never really paid much attention to whether or not I had one available. Well, beyond coming home soon after moving into my Somerville apartment to find it *full of smoke* with the alarm going off because my housemate had put something in the broiler and run out for more soda. While no one was home. Needless to say, I never used that broiler because I was pretty sure it never got cleaned after that, and really? That is not a very good introduction to them as a part of your quick-dinner arsenal. Then in my first apartment in Baltimore the broiler door seemed broken, and also I was pretty sure it was filthy. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I was looking for a really quick, easy dinner that would take advantage of some of the veggies I have kicking around. I starting sorting through some recipes ripped out of magazines and photocopied from cookbooks, and pulled out a couple of contenders. The one that won out was Brown-Rice Bowl with Shrimp, Snow Peas and Avocado, from a back issue of Everyday Food. (I would link to this but the search on marthastewart.com is pitiful.) I chose it even though I didn’t have snow peas or avocado. I did have shrimp and green beans, and some leftover brown rice. This would probably also work over rice noodles if you are looking for speed and don’t have the rice cooked already.
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