I’m alive.

Much has happened since March.  I’ve been to Portugal and taken a trip to Maine, and I’ve moved to New Jersey.  A lot of my kitchen is still in boxes, and given the hour I get home most nights (last night I stumbled inside at 10 pm), cooking has not been happening.  I usually eat frozen dinners.

But this week I was so sick of them, so on Sunday I actually cooked.

We used to have this a lot at home as its cheap to make, but I haven’t actually had it in years.  It’s kind of like cornbread, but its got add-ins – meat, canned soup, vegetables, some kind of seasoning.  I made mine with pork sausage, cream of mushroom soup, chopped onion and green pepper and russian seasoning.  You can use ham or corned beef too, change up the soup and seasoning, and basically do whatever you want with it.

1/2 lb ground pork sausage

1/4 C chopped green pepper and onion

1 C cornmeal

1 1/4 C water

3 T butter or margerine

3 eggs

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 t baking powder

1/4 t russian seasoning

Brown sausage in a deep skillet, when done remove with slotted spoon.  Cook chopped onion and pepper in the rendered fat.  When vegetables are soft, add cornmeal and water, stirring constantly.  Let mixture come to a boil, then remove from heat.  Add butter, and stir until melted.  Add soup, eggs, baking powder, seasoning, and reserved sausage.  Stir to combine.

Pour into buttered casserole and bake in a 350F oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Serve with butter or maple syrup.

The key part is to stir constantly when you add the cornmeal and water, otherwise you’ll end up having to add more water.  As I did.  Twice.

I’ll be eating this all week, or at least until I get sick of it.  Which should be by Thursday.

So, I have a friend coming to visit over Memorial Day, and since she always drools virtually when I tell her I’m baking something (especially muffins) I asked her if she’d rather I make muffins or something chocolate while she was here. Her answer:

“Chocolate Muffins!”

I don’t actually have a recipe for chocolate muffins, so I went searching on the internet and eventually decided on this one: Nigella Lawson’s chocolate chocolate-chip muffins. There were a couple of substitutions, as usual; she called for semisweet chips, I used milk chocolate chips, and I just sprinkled however many chips I wanted to on top, rather than sticking to the quarter cup the recipe called for. Otherwise it’s as written.

1 3/4 C all purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

2 T cocoa powder

3/4 C superfine sugar

3/4 C plus 1/4 C chocolate chips

1 C milk

1/3 C plus 2 t vegetable oil

1 egg

1 t vanilla extract

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, and 3/4 C of chocolate chips together. Mix all liquid ingredients together and pour over dry, stirring until just blended. Remember, batter should be lumpy! Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle with additional 1/4 C of chocolate chips. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes or until done.

I probably wouldn’t bother with superfine sugar next time. I’m not sure it added anything.

With this, I got rid of the last of the useable bananas and tossed the unusable ones. We’re totally getting apples or oranges next week, I swear.

This recipe is from the 1955 edition of the Minonk (IL) Methodist Church Cookbook. Mom sent it to me this week after I said I’d spent time online looking for a recipe. It’s currently in the oven, so I have no idea how it will have turned out, but it looked good in batter form.

2 cups cake flour sifted

1 tsp. baking powder

1tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sour milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs (unbeaten)

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cream sugar and shortening together,

Add flour, baking powder, soda, salt (all sifted together) alternately with sour milk (start and end with milk)

Beat in eggs

Add bananas and nuts and vanilla

Pour in greased cake pan, 12 X 8

Bake at 350F 40-45 minutes – if it looks done test it before.

My mother usually frosts this with chocolate frosting, but I’ll be making a cream cheese frosting later tonight and sprinkling the frosted cake with some more of the chopped pecans I used in the batter.

Stolen from Lovin’ from the Oven and not at all modified (though I am definitely adding nuts next time), this recipe is the reason why I have a crapload of bananas in my kitchen right now and have been scouring the internet for ways to use them (expect banana cupcakes in a few days).  Yes, I overbought.

These are pretty good though they definitely need something.  I’m thinking nuts will help, maybe a bit of cinnamon in the muffins themselves  or an extra ripe banana.  We’ll have to do some experimentation next time around.

Muffins

1 1/2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 C sugar

1/3 C butter, melted

1 egg, lightly beaten

Topping

 1/3 C light brown sugar

2 T flour

1/4 t cinnamon

1 T butter

 1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2.) In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3.) In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4.) Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Fish is one of those things I probably don’t eat enough of.  It’s not that I don’t like it, or that it’s difficult, it’s just I forget to buy it and don’t have many recipes for it.  This is my latest addition.

It calls for slivered almonds, butter, lemon juice,dill, salt, pepper, and paprika, which is all basically dumped over the fish before you pop it all in the microwave for a few minutes, and its really good.  Tangy and rich, and the nuts add a great crunch.  I used flounder, but any whitefish would do.

1 pound flounder fillets

1/3 C butter

1/4 C slivered almonds

2 T lemon juice

1/2 t dill weed

1/4 t pepper

1/4 t salt

1/4 t paprika

Put butter and almonds into a bowl and microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until almonds are golden brown.  Place fish is a greased, microwave save square baking dish, and cover with almond mixture.  Combine lemon juice, dill, pepper, and salt, and pour evenly over fish.  Sprinkle with paprika.  Microwave for 4-6 minutes, depending on the thickness of the filets.

That’s all there is to it! It seriously takes less time than a tv dinner.

I’ve been carless since the end of December, which hasn’t actually been as bad as I thought (though I often have moaned that I miss my car, especially when its cold and windy and I can’t find a taxi to save my life, or I’m running late for an appointment at the gym, a mile walk away).  The worst part, without a doubt, has been grocery shopping.  I started ordering them online, which takes care of most of my food needs, but I can’t order from Trader Joe’s online, so I’ve been going into withdrawal for certain items, particularly their kalamata olive hummus and the freezer section naan and boxes of microwaveable Indian food.

And their mushroom risotto, which was delicious and generally done in under ten minutes.

Tonight I made it from scratch, which needless to say took considerably longer than ten minutes and I had to add a little bit more than a tablespoon of water to the pan.  The recipe was a mash-up of Jamie Oliver’s wild mushroom risotto from Cook With Jamie, his latest cookbook, the recipe on the back of the canister of arborio, and some modifications in the mushrooms (due to the fact that I can’t order “wild” mushrooms online).  The end result was this, which was creamy and pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

1 C arborio rice

3 C chicken broth

1/2 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 C sliced portabella mushrooms

1 t fresh thyme

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 C shredded parmesan cheese

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T butter

Bring broth to a simmer in a saucepan.  Meanwhile, heat olive oil and butter in a large pot.  When melted and foamy, add chopped  onion, celery, mushrooms and thyme.  Cook until softened, then add rice.  Stir to coat, and then add wine. Stir until all the liquid is absorbed and the alcohol has cooked off.

Add ladleful of broth to rice pot, stirring constantly until absorbed.  Repeat this until all of the broth has been added, and the rice is fully cooked.  Add the parmesan  and stir to combine.

The worst part about risotto is the constant stirring, but its definitely worth it.  For the wine, definitely use a white that you like; unlike some recipes that call for wine, you can really taste it here.  I used sauvignon blanc, one of my favorites, and was really happy with the flavor.

This was adapted from a recipe out of Cooking Light circa 2005.  The original recipe called for andouille sausage and great northern beans, which I ended up substituting chorizo and cannellini for due to the fact that I couldn’t find either andouille or great northern beans at the store.  It’s also got a whole can of beans instead of the recommended half a can because what the heck was I going to do with half a can of beans?

 Also, there’s no such thing as too many beans in any given recipe.  Period.

1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (16-ounce) package frozen pepper stir-fry mix, thawed
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1 (3 1/2-ounce) bag boil-in-bag long-grain rice
6 ounces chorizo sausage, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions 
1 (15-ounce) can Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

 Combine the first 5 ingredients in a Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Open bag of rice; add rice to pepper mixture. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until rice is tender.

While rice mixture cooks, heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage; sauté 6 minutes or until browned.

Add sausage, onions, and beans to rice mixture; cook until thoroughly heated. 

And that’s it.  Great for winter, it warms you right up thanks to both kinds of heat and reheats well.  My only problem was that the chorizo slid right out of the casings when I was dicing it, so I had glorified meatballs in my pot. 

Tilapia is a white fish native to Africa, but that can now be found worldwide thanks to fish farming.  You could probably use other mild whitefish in this recipe, but tilapia is usually easy to find and inexpensive.  The recipe might be quite good with either red snapper or flounder, however.

My mother found this recipe in a cooking magazine this fall and raved about it, but I’ve gotten out of the habit of eating fish so I didn’t think of trying it until last week, when I saw fresh-frozen tilapia filets were on sale at Trader Joe’s.   It’s an easy, quick recipe for baked fish, with a minimum of ingredients and a minimum of cooking time required.  (The latter is one of the best attributes of tilapia, in my opinion; its a thin filet, and thus usually cooks up quickly.  I use it for fish tacos a lot)

4 tilapia fillets (6 oz each) – I did it with 2 and cut the other stuff too
3 T butter melted
3 T lemon juice
1-1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 T capers, crained
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp paprika

Place tilapia in an ungreased 13×9x2 baking dish.

In a small bowl, combine the butter, lemon juice, garlic powder and salt; pour over fillets

Sprinkle with the capers, oregano and paprika

Bake, uncovered at 425°F for 10-15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork

I’ll be halving the recipe for two reasons: 1) I only have two tilapia filets, and 2) I don’t need to eat this all week.  Two days will be just fine, especially since I’ll be leaving Friday morning to go home for Christmas.

Or, How to Give Yourself Heartburn in Less Than Ten Minutes.  This may mostly be because I tend to have my chili-cheese dip cravings at midnight.  Still, I’ve made it for New Year’s parties (parties being a bunch of geeks getting together with wine and appetizers and a bunch of movies) and its usually a hit.  My grad school roommate and I even occasionally ate it for dinner, which I don’t recommend on a regular basis.

Anyway.  This is possibly the easiest thing to make in the world.  I use canned chili (the only time I ever use canned chili) but if your particularly ambitious or you happen to have the leftovers, you could use homemade.

1 can chili with beans

8 oz Velveeta, cubed

Dump the chili into a microwave safe container.  Top with cubed Velveeta.  Microwave on high for five minutes, then stir.  If any large clumps of cheese remain, stick it in for another minute or so.  Serve with tortilla chips.

And there you have it.  This author’s junky midnight snack of choice.  I’m so going to have heartburn tomorrow.

I’m making these this week to get rid of my extra cranberries, but we often have them on Christmas morning – after we’ve torn through all the presents, naturally (although, actually, the process has reversed in recent years after we’ve all become supposedly mature adults: we eat breakfast, have some coffee, and then get around to opening the presents).  The recipe’s from the Woodford County (IL) Extension, circa 1985, and has been in asheaf of stapled yellow paper for as long as I can remember.

The recipe calls for chopped cranberries, but by no means should you chop them yourselves.  Use a food processor if you’ve got one (which I don’t) or a blender (which I do.)

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
2 tsp grated orange peel
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 cup shortening (I used margarine or oil)
3/4 cup orange juice
1 T vanilla
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

In a large bowl, cream together sugar, eggs and shortening. In a second bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Alternately add flour mixture and juice to sugar mixture. Add vanilla. Fold in cranberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400o until golden brown, 25-30 minutes.