Black Bean and Corn Salad

Apparently, we post in August these days. Oops. Anyway, we have now made a black bean and corn salad twice, and we like it a lot. I made it up based on a similar salad I had when we were at MathFest this year (except that one had cilantro in it, and I despise cilantro. If you like cilantro, you should probably add it to your salad. Unless you're going to feed your salad to me or anyone else who can't stand cilantro. Then have a heart, and don't send us home with a metallic soapy taste in our mouths). So, anyway, here's somewhat of a recipe (when I say I made this up, I'm serious, so of course I didn't measure):

some cans of black beans, rinsed (number depends on size of group you're serving)
some corn (the better the corn, the better the salad), cooked/unfrozen
some onions, chopped (browned if you're like me and have trouble with raw onions)
some green and/or red peppers, chopped (or another color; these can be browned with
the onions if you so desire)
some tomato, chopped
juice of a lemon or lime (or more than one, depending on how much of the previous
ingredients you're using)
some olive oil (as in, a few tablespoons)
some vinegar (I've been using white--probably 1/8-1/4 cup)
some cumin
some garlic powder or pressed garlic if you want it stronger
some cayenne pepper
some salt

Mix all the dressing-type ingredients together and pour on top of the other ingredients. Mix well; refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

If you like spicy (we do, in case you weren't aware), I think some jalapeños or jalapeño juice would be a nice addition. Of course, I forgot that I think that this morning when we were making the salad. Green onions could work, too, as could jalapeño-pickled carrots.

Minestrone

Yes, we have been eating. No, we haven't been writing about it. At least not here. But, devoted readers, we're back to report on our latest culinary triumph: minestrone soup--it's shockingly easy and really good. Chop up some onions and red peppers and brown them with garlic (we recommend fresh garlic from the gobs of garlic you've recently acquired from friends, of course)--three cloves in this case. Then add 2-3 cups of vegetable broth, a can of tomatoes (not drained), a can of kidney beans (drained and rinsed), a can of green beans (drained--fresh or frozen would also work, but we had canned from a long time ago), some chopped carrots (we used 3 small ones), basil, oregano, salt, fresh cracked pepper, and Cholula hot sauce. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 25 minutes. Add some pasta (we used small seashells), cover again, and simmer for another 10 minutes or so until the pasta is done.

We really liked this. I think I liked it better than Olive Garden's minestrone, but I can't really remember since I've only had Olive Garden's minestrone once in the last 4 years or so. It would have been especially good with some fresh French bread.

Vegetable Mix (Some Might Call It a Salad)

We got a cucumber at the grocery store because I wanted to try the recipe that Catherine suggested in her comment a long time ago. So for lunch today, I made it. Well, kind of--we didn't have any green peppers (they're $1.29/each at the cheapest right now and our pepper plants aren't even flowering yet, so it will be awhile before we're eating homegrown green peppers), so I used some red pepper and just cooked it with the onion. I'm also not a huge fan of vinegar, so I used our new salad dressing (we had a coupon--you can print one from that website--and it was on sale). We had leftover pasta and garbanzo beans in the fridge (separately), so I added some of each. It was very good. Thanks, Catherine!

Vegetarian Curry

I made vegetarian curry in the crockpot Thursday morning, so we ate it Thursday night. We didn't have celery (we never have celery--I strongly dislike celery), vegetable broth, or plain yogurt, so I put onions in it instead (onions belong in almost everything) and substituted beef broth and sour cream. I also added some green peppers (they, too, go in most anything) and skipped the peas (Ryan didn't seem to excited about them). We didn't get home until 8ish, so we didn't bother with rice or naan, but we did have bread that I'd made earlier in the day. So, no, I didn't exactly follow the recipe (surprise!), but I would like to note that this recipe basically says it doesn't need to be followed (at least the vegetable list). It was good, but not amazing. It has gotten better with age, however. And rice. Rice makes it better.

Indian Spiced Chicken

Thursday afternoon, I went to Costco with another grad student who has a membership. While there, I purchased a 3 lb. bag of dried apricots for less than $7. I also purchased two gallons of milk for $5.39 (the cheapest it is anywhere else in town is $7.50/two gallons), but that's not relevant to this story. Ryan was excited when I got home because we could put the apricots in Moroccan Vegetable Stew (about which we shall have to report another time). Then we remembered that we had once made this recipe using apricots instead of raisins, and it was really good. So we made it again tonight, except that we made the rice separately, skipped the baking step, and therefore the phyllo dough, used sour cream instead of plain yogurt (somehow, I don't think raspberry yogurt would be a good substitute for plain, and I was wary of using vanilla), cut the chicken into tiny pieces instead of as described, used ground ginger instead of fresh, and didn't really bother to measure anything. It was really good, and the point of this post was not so much to inform you of that as to document the location of the recipe for ourselves so I don't have to search for it every time. However, it's very easy (at least, when you do it our way), very tasty, and makes really good leftovers.

Creamy Vegetable Soup

I was bored tonight, so I decided to experiment while Ryan was working. I looked through our old Kraft Food and Family magazines, as I usually do when looking for inspiration (though I find them much more inspiring for desserts than for anything else). The recipe for Cheddar Biscuits looked good (and it had amusing cheesy pictures of a mother and daughter making them), but then I had to decide what we should eat with said biscuits. Not feeling inclined toward meat, I decided to make vegetable soup based on our experience with chicken pot pie since I felt that the chicken was completely unnecessary in that recipe. So I made the biscuits, put them in the oven, and then pulled out most of the frozen vegetable that we had and some carrots and onion. I chopped about 1/2 cup of carrots and 1/4 cup of onions (both in pretty small pieces) and stir-fried them in Roasted Red Pepper with Parmesan dressing (which is what we used for the chicken pot pie) for about 2 minutes. Then I dumped in the frozen vegetables, which included red pepper, snow peas, corn, peas, and mixed vegetables (probably about 3 cups of vegetable overall--maybe more--I'm bad at estimating such things). I let those cook for a few minutes and stirred them some, added rosemary, thyme, and a bit of savory, and then poured in 2 cups of vegetable broth. After boiling for about 2 minutes with the lid on, I let it simmer on low for another 3-5 minutes, then added about 3 oz of cream cheese and 1 tablespoon half-and-half (only because we had it in the refrigerator from making scones and it needs to be used). After the cream cheese melted, I let everything simmer a few minutes longer and then decided that I wanted it to have thicker broth, so I stirred in some flour. I was a little lazy about that with the first 1/2 tablespoon of flour and just threw it into the pot and stirred. It looked like we were going to have miniature dumplings in the soup, so for the next tablespoon, I applied the method I learned in....a Christian romance novel (isn't that where everyone learns to cook?!): scoop some of the broth out, whisk the flour into that broth until there are no lumps, and then pour the mixture back into the soup and stir. I'm not sure the flour actually contributed anything to the thickness of the broth in this case, but I felt better. I let it cook for another 2 minutes or so and then we ate. It was surprisingly good, especially with the biscuits (we did not put cream cheese on our biscuits, by the way, despite what the recipe says). I was thinking it was also somewhat healthy, but having reviewed the nutrition facts on the biscuits alone, I'm no longer convinced (though I did use skim milk...that has to count for something...and Neufchâtel cheese, not cream cheese). It does contain a lot of vegetables, so I suppose that's good.