Burrito Soup

This started with a recipe that I found online, but then when I actually started cooking I totally ignored that recipe.  This is really a versatile soup now, basically whatever you like in or on Mexican food can go in or on this.

Recipe:
Olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
Garlic (to taste)
2-3 stalks Celery, chopped
2 cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed
Broth (vegetable or chicken)
1-2 cups Salsa
Chili powder

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add onions, garlic and celery and cook until onions are transparent.  Add black beans, salsa, and enough broth to cover them, bring to boil.  Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender (or regular blender). Return to heat, add more salsa and season to taste.

You can also add browned ground beef to the soup (after it's pureed). It's good topped with sour cream or cheese, and I love it with Fritos.  And Guinness.

Oat Macaroons

I was looking for a new oatmeal cookie recipe to try out for oatmeal cookie day, and came across this one in Good Housekeepings Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries.

Recipe:
2 Eggs
3/4 cup Sugar
1 tablespoon melted Butter
2 cups Rolled Oats
1 cup Coconut
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla
3 tablespoons Cornstarch
1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Preheat oven to 350°
Beat together eggs and sugar, add melted butter.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Drop spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Makes about 18 cookies.

These are great!  A little crunchy, a little chewy, and not too sweet.  They're also flour-less and have a pretty minimal amount of fat.  Happy oatmeal cookie day!

Crackers

Crackers probably seem like a weird thing to make at home, but I love these!  They're easy, if a little time consuming, and so delicious.

Recipe:

2 cups of plain flour

¼ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons softened butter

3/4 cup of water

2 tablespoons Saco buttermilk powder (optional)

2 tablespoons spices or seasoning blend (optional)

Preheat oven to 325'F.

Add the salt and buttermilk powder to the flour, and in a mixing bowl or food processor, cut the butter in until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.  Slowly mix in enough water to form a soft, but not sticky, dough.

Divide the dough into two portions, knead seasoning into dough, and roll out one at a time, until paper thin. You can do this on a lightly floured surface, or you can roll it out onto a large, ungreased cookie sheet. This recipe makes enough for two 10" x 15" trays.

Prick the surface of the dough with a fork.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and cut into crackers.  Reduce heat to 300, and bake on top rack until crisp, 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool on the tray, then store in an airtight container.

I cut mine with scissors, for a couple of reasons -- first, it doesn't scratch up my one and only cookie sheet, and second, my kitchen scissors are very sharp, and washable.  However you choose to get your crackers into cracker shape, it's important to bake them for awhile first.  If you cut the freshly rolled out dough into squares, the sides will pull up, and the crackers won't be thin and crispy, they'll be thick and tough.

And here they are!  I added Greek seasoning and sesame seeds to this batch, and they're delicious with hummus and feta cheese.

I've tried a lot of different spices and seasoning blends in crackers, I've also added sesame seeds, flax seeds, and parmesan cheese, and these are all really good.  I add them with the seasoning (if it's sprinkled on top it just kind of falls off after baking).

Here are some successful cracker flavors:

Sage and parmesan cheese

Italian herb

Rosemary and flax seed

Oregano

Krakow Nights (Polish style seasoning)

Tandoori

Paprika and sesame seed

Jicama Slaw

So, in my ongoing challenge to try more vegetables (and more kinds of food in general), I picked up a jicama the other day.  Not knowing what to do with it, I went online and found this recipe, which I basically followed.

Recipe:
1 Cucumber
1 Jicama
1 tablespoon Honey
2 tablespoons fresh Lime Juice (or 1/2 teaspoon True Lime and 2 tablespoons water)
Sea Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

Cut cucumber into 3 inch lengths, cut sections in half and scrape seeds out with a spoon.  Slice thinly, lengthwise then cut into matchsticks.  Peel jicama, slice thinly, then cut into matchsticks.  Stir together cucumber and jicama slices.
In a separate bowl, stir together honey, lime, chili powder, dijon mustard, and salt.  Pour over cucumber and jicama and stir to coat.

This was a great, summery tasting salad.  Sweet, cool, a little tart, a little spicy...very good.

Jicama (if, like me, you've never had it before) tastes sort of like a potato, but more sweet and much less starchy.

Artichoke Tapenade

I was making bread this morning (from this awesome book) and decided I'd really like something to eat on it (other than butter).  And after looking online and through my cookbooks, I didn't really find anything that struck my fancy, so I made something up.  It's essentially a tapenade, but with marinated artichokes instead of olives, capers, and anchovies.

Recipe:
8 - 10 ounces Marinated Artichokes
4 - 5 tablespoons of the oil and marinade from the artichokes
1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds
Salt to taste

In a food processor, pulse artichokes, marinade, and sesame seeds to a spreadable consistency.  Salt to taste.  I also put some Greek seasoning and oregano in mine.

The tapenade on it's own

This was great on the bread!  It's tangy and delicious.  Plus, I wasn't really in the mood for a regular artichoke dip, with all the mayonnaise and cheese and everything.  This is much lighter.

Peanut Butter Bread

This is an interesting recipe, I've only tried it once, but it's really good.  I got it out of one of my old cookbooks Good Housekeepings Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries, 1926 edition.  Yeah, I like old books, and there's great stuff in this one.

Recipe:
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Egg
3 1/2 cups Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 cup Milk
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Cram together the peanut butter and sugar, add egg.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add dry ingredients alternately with the milk.  Mix well and place in greased bread tin.  Bake at 350° for 50 - 60 minutes.

This bread is really easy to make, and quick since there's no rising or kneading.  The texture is not like regular yeast bread, it's more like a soda bread crossed with a pound cake.  I used creamy peanut butter, but I imagine it would be good with crunchy as well, or if you're not a peanut eater, I think this would be great with a different kind of nut butter, like almond or cashew.


It's also really good with strawberry jam.

Surprise Bars

I got this recipe from my Grandma.  It's basically cookies in bar form, but you can add anything you want to it.  Delicious!


Recipe:
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
2/3 cup Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 cup Oatmeal
Approximately 2 - 2 1/2 cups of the add ins of your choice (chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, raisins, nuts, coconut...basically anything that would be good in cookies)


Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9" x 13" pan.
Beat eggs, add brown sugar, oil, and vanilla.  Mix until well blended.
In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Gradually blend into egg mixture.
Stir in the goodies you've picked, spread the dough into the greased pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

To this particular batch, I added vanilla chips, slivered almonds, shredded coconut, and extra dark chocolate Lindor truffles (I had a bunch left over from an assortment and I'm not a huge fan of dark chocolate, so I chopped them up and mixed them in -- the truffle center stays melty after the bars are cooled!)  Also, for the oil I used a combination of melted butter and coconut oil from Tropical Traditions.


This coconut oil is great because, unlike a lot of coconut oils, it has a great coconut flavor.  Also, it's organic and has great health benefits, which are documented on the Tropical Traditions website.  They also have frequent sales and coupons, so even though this oil seems a little expensive, it's a great company and really quite reasonable in terms of price.