Comfort Food

Food is a love language. When someone has a baby, is ill, or when we loose a loved one, food comes in to show love and comfort.
This week I've barely cooked. I've been needing comfort, and I'm sure some of you feel the same. But as I've been needing comfort, I've been holding our friends in Florida in my heart. Their beloved son is transitioning through the end-stages of leukemia. He is a bright, brave child. His family is strong and loving.

So. Comfort food. My comfort food is a plain white bagel, toasted and slathered in butter. I've never made my own bagels, so I'm offering my husband's comfort food, which is mac'n'cheese.

Pumpkin mac'n'cheese (not mine, don't remember whose)
1 can pumpkin puree
3 C whole wheat twirly pasta
3 TB unsalted butter
 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4C flour (AP or whole wheat, whichever you have)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper 
1 C milk
2 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
Optional:
2 pieces toasted bread for crumbs
1TB olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
cook pasta al dente, set aside
Combine pumpkin and milk, whisk to combine
In a saucepan, heat butter until melted
Add minced garlic, cook until fragrant, about 1 min
Whisk in flour, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook 1 min, stirring
Add milk mixture to flour mixture, little at a time (roughly 1/4c each addition), allowing mixture to thicken after each addition. Whisk to combine.
Remove from heat and add shredded cheese, stirring to melt
Combine pasta and cheese mixture in a 9x9 baking dish
Optional:
Toast your bread and chop finely (or use a food processor if you have one). Drizzle breadcrumbs over pasta and drizzle olive oil over top.
Bake 20-25 minutes
(*you can try making this gluten-free using gluten-free pasta nad 3 TB corn starch in place of flour)

If you can, please send comfort in the form of food (send order-in) or financial assistance for my friends in Florida, who are in need of comfort for the biggest ache.

https://www.gofundme.com/jkqggc

https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/oll5d1

Sweet Potato of Love

I love sweet potatoes. This is a phrase of maturity. As a kid, I didn't get it. But as an adult, the sweet potato reigns. Black beans are also a big deal. Because, you see, they are cheap and adaptable.
I've made this recipe three times. The second time I made it, my man cake got to the slow cooker before the potatoes were really fully finished cooking, and he STILL ate all of it. So, it's good.

*This recipe is from a slow cooker cookbook (thanks, oldest sister). I've found that anything you are encouraged to cook in a slow cooker can likely be cooked in a casserole dish, with more chaperoning. So, don't be discouraged if you didn't get a giant slow cooker from your sister for Hanukkah.

Oh photography gds, forgive me. But the subject is good.

Black Bean Chili and Sweet Potato Casserole (originally from Robertson)
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 TB tomato paste
3 TB chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1-16oz jar tomato salsa (total shortcut!)
3 C cooked black beans (I soak/cook dried beans, it's easy and good for you)
1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
1C shredded cheddar

Here's where the 'slow cooker' idea is silly to me, but here goes:
Heat the oil in a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, saute until soft. Add tomato paste and spices. Stir in a small amount of water to keep from burning.

In a bowl, combine onion mixture with black beans and salsa.

Spread a thin layer of the beans over the bottom of your dish. Arrange a layer of sweet potatoes, overlapping slightly. Season with S&P. Top with thin layer of chili, followed by the cheddar.
Repeat: chili, sweet potatoes, cheese until it's all used up. Hopefully ending with a layer of potatoes topped with cheese.

Cook in slow cooker on low for at least 4 hours. If using a casserole dish try 350F, covered, for 45min? Let me know if that's too long. You want your potatoes really soft.

Serve with perfectly ripe avocado

HEEEY.

It's been a long, long time. I know you've missed me. A lot has changed. I mean, a freak'n lot. But I don't have time to detail all that, so I'll just get strait to the good stuff (and you'll catch up eventually). Food needs to be good. And these days, it needs to be simple and easy. Here's what we've eaten recently:

Purple cabbage and noodles* with Korean pancakes (I think this happened in an earlier post, in a galaxy far, far away)
Veg sloppy joes* with buns and salad (let's rename sloppy joes when they're vegetarian, eh?)
curried lentils with naan bread, spinach, and sweet potato
falafel with purple cabbage slaw* and homemade hummus*
Black bean sweet potato slow cooker chili*
Massive amounts of peanut butter (like, a lot)

phew.

Let's start with the curried lentils.
I have three recipes for curried lentils, and they all taste different. Lentils are good food, and holy cow they pack a lot of iron in them. If you're in the market for iron support, lentils are your new main ingredient.
This recipe for curried lentils is my newest, and in my opinion, the tastiest. Probably because it contains the most fat, and this lady knows fat is good for you. And it tastes really damn good.

Forgive the photo and trust me, this is good

Curried Lentils with Coconut Milk (originally from Food52)
3 TB EVOO
1 TB minced fresh ginger (a micro-plane is my new favorite way to make this happen)
2 cloves garlic, minced (micro-planed)
1 onion, minced
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 C lentils
1-13oz can unsweetened coconut milk
Salt (1-2 tsp)

Heat large saute pan over medium heat. Warm oil. Add ginger, garlic, onion and spices. Stir occasionally, until onion is soft and kitchen smells enticing.
Add dry lentils, coconut milk and salt. Fill coconut milk can with water, add to saucepan. Stir to combine. Bring to boil, then lower to simmer until liquid is absorbed (this may take a little while, go drink some water).

Serve over rice, or with Naan bread, with cooked spinach, fresh cilantro and a sweet potato. Eat it all day.

Here's the easiest recipe for Naan Bread, and it's pretty fool-proof.

I'd say more about this super delicious combo and how amazingly easy that recipe is, but I need to go serve up an order of breast milk.

*I'll get to these later

Bad Day.

Had a bad day.
Need a dozen of these. Pronto.

*uckityum.

When You've Got Nothing...Make Something.

The last few weeks (or month, really) have been the most anxiety-ridden, stress-inducing, life-blahing weeks of my life.

So, as you might imagine, grocery shopping kinda went down the drain. I found myself with an empty fridge, an acid-filled belly, and in need of nourishment. Enter canned goods and cilantro.

Homemade Veg Burgers

What you need:
1 1/2 C drained black beans (i used a can of beans, but you can easily soak your own)
One 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 C cilantro
1 tsp cumin
1 clove garlic
1 onion
2/3 C shredded carrots
1 1/3 C rolled oats

DRAIN the black beans and tomatoes as much as you can (i just put it all in a strainer and let it sit for about 2 minutes). Put everything in a food processor (if you have it) or use your trusty immersion blender. Get everything nice and mushy, ground together, and smelling sweet. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and dole out the mush in 1/4 cup sizes, and gently shmush into a patty shape. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Flip the burgers (carefully!) and bake another 15 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool. Serve on whole wheat bun or bread with mustard, katsup, lettuce, etc.

The second time I made these (twice in one week), I didn't have enough rolled oats and added old rice, which worked out just fine. I also got lazy and decided not to flip the burgers, but just to see what happened if I left them where they were. Again, worked out well.

image from angrychicken, where this recipe originally came from.

Enjoy.

Not In Kansas Anymore

I guess I'm a big reader of blogs. Writing out my thoughts is requires more concentrated energy for me. But, it's kind of why I decided to do this thing, so thanks to my bugger for bugging me to get back on here...

I went to Portland:

To visit this place:

Because Indianapolis just doesn't cut it. Neither does my current job with its oppressive legislature, choking administration, and the fact that I work full-time for $4/hour. No joke. [Stop complaining, me].

So I went to Portland!

I visited mountains and waterfalls, ate tons of food (mainly Brunch), slept, drank, danced (in kitchens), and tried to imagine my life in a far-from-home-place...

Let's Do the Fry

It's Spring.
Let's stir fry.

Gather your veggies: green onions, broccoli, snap peas, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, water chestnuts, whatever. Cut'em up. Have some protein too- I like tofu (the really firm kind). If you're using tofu, drain the liquid and let the brick sit on towels for a bit so that when you fry it, the liquid won't pop and attack you.  Cut the tofu into cubes.                                                    cook'em according to what cooks longer until they're just soft. Then, pour in stir fry sauce to flavor your veggies, and allow to cook another minute.

1/2 TB minced garlic

1/2 TB minced ginger

1/2 C soy sauce

1 TB sesame seed oil

2 TB corn starch

Stir together. The corn starch will cause the mixture to change consistency, so be sure to stir it up a lot right before you bathe your cooked veggies in it. You can add 1/2 C of pineapple or apple juice to thin the mixture.

serve over fried rice (1 C pre-cooked rice to 1 egg, cooked in a large frying pan until cooked to your liking. Season with soy sauce if desired.)

Make Korean Pancakes to go with:

2 eggs

1/2 C AP or rice flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C finely chopped vegetables (green onions, asparagus, broccoli, breen beans...)

vegetable oil for frying

in a small bowl, whisk eggs until just frothy.

Add flour and salt, which to combine.

Add vegetables and stir to blend.

Add 1/2 C ice water and mix again to blend. You can add more flour to thicken batter, but it should be milky.

Fry batter in 1/4 C blobs. Allow the pancakes to sit until browned and crispy on bottom, about two minutes. Flip pancake and cook another two minutes.

Fry Cook

the ice cream man exists