Blackbean Pepper Cheese

My roommate and I call our apartment Cafe Deja Vu. Why? Because we tend to make vast quantities of one dish and then eat it over and over and over again until it is all finished. Not only that, but all of the dishes that we mutually like contain many of the same ingredients, mainly some sort of bean (or three), canned diced tomatoes, a chopped onion, garlic and bell pepper. This recipe is "loosely" based on the Cheese and Pepper enchiladas from the Moosewood collective and also inspired by my unabashed inability to read recipes correctly.

"Blackbean and Cheese Enchiladas" with excerpts from the Moosewood Collective

FILLING
2 small onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 Tbsp minced green pepper

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1-2 cups shredded cheddar or jack cheese, plus extra for the top

2 cans black beans
2 tsp cumin

SAUCE
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 bell pepper, roughly chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
4 Tbsp minced green pepper
1 clove garlic
3 chipotle peppers and adobe sauce

ALSO
About 24 Corn tortillas
Brown Rice

Serves approximately one army

For the sauce
1. Place all ingredients for sauce in blender and puree until smooth.
2. Put puree into sauce pan and simmer for 20 minutes and set aside.

For the filling:
1. In a large pan, heat oil and saute onion and garlic until soft (about 5 minutes). Then add chopped peppers and saute. Cover with lid until peppers are soft. Add beans and saute until warmed through.

2. Add minced green peppers, cumin and cheeses. Stir until incorporated. Set aside.

At this point, you can either lightly fry the tortillas in oil, drain them, and then dip them in the sauce then fill with the filling and place in a greased 9x13 pan...or you can do it how I do it.

Simply layer the enchiladas in a greased 9x13 pan, going tortillas, filling, sauce until you use up all the ingredients....you may need two pans.

Sprinkle with shredded cheese and cover pans tightly with tin foil. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Serve with a side of brown rice.

Store covered in refrigerator for up to a week, if you have 2 busy new SLPs eating them for dinner everyday and some times for lunch too.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

1 onion chopped
1 bell pepper choped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno chopped

2 cans black beans
1 can corn
1 cup cooked brown rice

2 quarts vegetable broth
3 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp chili powder

salt to taste
lime juice

crushed tortilla strips and cheddar cheese

Really Awesome Cookies

2 sticks butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
~1 cup Reese's Pieces

Bake 350, 8 minutes for Tbsp sized cookies

I Just Need Time

This is the extent of my culinary adventures these days. Bygone are the days of shoe boxes full of fresh baked cookies, fish shaped bottles of homemade liqueur, platters of cupcakes flavored with hard alcohol and citrus, feasts of vegan proportions and bags of freshly steamed scratch-made buns. All i can hope for is that i have time in the morning to make a sandwich, and hope that the half-frozen peanut butter and jelly I ate for dinner the night before didn't go directly to my thighs.

Banh Mi Spam

This is the banh mi my mom would make for lunch on Saturday afternoons. It is so simple, yet so fantastically delicious. Just 5 ingredients.

Baguette roll (or a demi-baguette)
Thinly cut Spam (1/8 inch slice) - you need enough to cover the length of your bread, about 3 should do it
Tomato Slices
Cucumber Slices
Black Pepper

1. Slice the baguette as you would to make a sandwich, you know, lengthwise, but not all the way through. Place the baguette into a 350 degree oven or toaster oven to warm through and crisp the crust. Make sure not to over do it.

2. Meanwhile, place the slices of Spam into a cold pan and turn on the heat to medium-high. Brown on both sides. Drain the slices on paper towels if you don't like all the grease.

3. Remove baguette and place Spam slices without overlapping too much (less is more). Stuff with tomato slices and cucumber slices. Make sure to cover the entire length of bread. Sprinkle with Black pepper to taste.

4. And there you have it, Lunch!

Umami Hotdish

Officially, this is the Minnesota staple of Tater Tot Hotdish (or casserole for people who aren't from the MidWest). While making it, I was adding the mushrooms, soy sauce, milk and Parmesan cheese and figured...no wonder this stuff is so delicious, it's like an umami orgy in your mouth!

This dish is also marking the official end of my meatphobia. Yes, I gathered my courage and traipsed over to the Butcher counter where I asked for 1 lb of local free range ground turkey. Using the convenient paper packaging, i mangled the lump into my pan and browned it up. It tastes grand, thank you very much. Overcoming your fears has never been so tasty.

I really don't like using canned condensed soup...not even for soup. There is something so disgusting about anything that comes (or rather glops) out of a can and stays in the shape of the can. (I'm looking at you, Cranberry Jelly). Never mind that I have to break it up with a spoon and call it "sauce". Whenever i make a casserole, i always make my own mushroom cream sauce. I swear, it comes together in no time and tastes 100 times better. And let's not forget it's probably that many times better for you. It's basically my mushroom gravy recipe, but with an addition of an extra 1/8 cup of flour. I can't really afford alcohol (probably because i buy so much of it in bars nowadays. Damn metropolitan life!) but if i had it, i'd probably also add a splash of sherry or red wine to round out the sauce and maybe even a dash of Worcestershire sauce too. Note to self: i can probably afford that...pick some up.

A funny tangent. Despite the fact that this mushroom cream sauce is floating atop browned ground turkey...i still made it vegan. Old habits die hard eh? After all these years (year?) of not being vegan anymore, i still can't get myself to cook with real dairy or butter...nor can i get myself to buy anything besides Vegetable stock.

And i think tater tot manufacturers purposely make tater tots the size they are so that they would perfectly fit into an 8x8 casserole dish in neat lines, without nary a gap. God Bless America.

Tater Tot Hotdish

The MEAT part
1 lb ground turkey thigh
1/2 onion chopped
A little olive oil
Salt, Pepper, Paprika

The VEGETABLE part
1 bag frozen green beans, thawed (fresh beans, parblanched prior are preferable)
Any other combination of frozen/canned vegetables that you like. Some people like sweet corn or peas and carrots.

The SAUCE part

1 cup of chopped (brunoised?) crimini mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp rubbed dried sage leaves
1/2 tsp thyme
3/8 cups of flour
1/4 cup of butter
1 can of Vegetable (or Chicken) Stock
1/2 cup of cream (or in my case unsweetened soymilk)
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
Salt, Pepper, Fresh grated nutmeg

The TOT part
16 oz. of frozen tater tots
1/2 cup of French's French Fried Onions
Grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Ground black pepper and Paprika

Oven: middle rack, 350 degrees.

1. Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium high heat and add chopped onions. Saute for 2 minutes and add ground turkey. Break up turkey with wooden spoon as it browns. Cook turkey until it is all the way cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and some paprika. Drain and put into the bottom of a greased 8x8 casserole dish.

2. Pour out the remaining juices from the turkey and return the pan to the heat. Add mushrooms and saute for a few minutes. Add minced garlic and saute until mushrooms get brown and a heavenly smell emanates into all parts of your small studio apartment. Add thyme, sage, salt and pepper.

3. Add butter to mushrooms. When the butter is fully melted, add flour and stir to coat. Cook until flour turns a slight blond color. At this point, add your can of stock and bring to a boil which is the point at which the flour will thicken your sauce. Add your milk or cream and soy sauce, stir to incorporate. My favorite part is swirling these elements into the thickened sauce. Finish with fresh grated nutmeg and more black pepper.

4. Assembly! Put your thawed (or freshly parblanched) vegetables in a layer on top of the meat in the dish. Spoon your sauce over the vegetables. Sprinkle a layer of French's French Fried Onions. Now for the fun part. Arrange frozen tater tots in neat rows on top of onions, making to cover every inch (it's part of the effect).

5. Place in the oven uncovered and bake for 35 minutes (remove after 25 minutes to add grated cheese if using and place back into oven), or until tater tots are nice and browned. You may need to switch your oven to broil for a bit.

6. Remove from oven and allow to sit for about 15 minutes before serving (to let the liquids settle and because it's FREAKING hot!)

7. Uffda! That's good.

Vegan Char Siu Bao

Writing this down so i don't forget. Pulled this one out of my rear this morning. (as in improvised with stuff i already had)

1 batch of dough from Cooking of Joy

1 block extra firm tofu (frozen and thawed)
1 packet char siu marinade mix
1 scallion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp minced ginger

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tsp ground cinnamon (and star anise powder too, or Chinese five spice)
1/2 tsp roasted sesame oil
1 tbsp corn starch

A little cooking oil.

1. Make dough, set aside

Filling:

2. Mix packet of char siu seasoning with 1/2 cup water in container.

3.Thaw the tofu and drain very, very well. Chop into 1/4 inch cubes and throw into marinade. Mix till all tofu turns delightfully red.

4. Mince garlic and garlic fine. Mix in with tofu mixture. Chop Scallion, mix in with tofu.

5. Put cooking oil in a wok and heat up. Meanwhile, mix soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, cinnamon (or star anise or Chinese 5 spice), and corn starch together to make sauce.

6.Drop tofu into wok and stir fry for about minutes. Try to get some caramelization on it.

7. Pour sauce over tofu and cook until mixture looks thickened.

8. Put filling aside to cool.

Asssemblage:

9. Divide dough into small golf ball sized balls

10. Flatten on ball into a disk that is thicker in the center than the sides. Disk should be about 5 inches in diameter.

11. Put a little filling in the center and bring up the sides of the dough around it. Give the sides a little twist on top to ensure a seal and to make it pretty.

12. Place bun on top of square of wax paper. Let proof for another 15 minutes until steaming.

13. Steam buns for 20 minutes.

14. Cool and Eat.