Merry Christmas...enjoying the season

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas!  I sit here on Christmas morning enjoying my family.  Boy how times have changed.  Before we had kids (and even for a  year after), we would always be flying to the northeast to spend holidays with family.  This was a mixed blessing, because traveling over the holidays really sucks, someone is usually sick (or gets sick), and the weather is the big unknown.  But family is awesome.

Most of the time these days, we stick to our little corner of So. Cal. for Christmas.  We had many years of inviting friends over for the holiday dinner.  But now our kids are in school, and all of our vacations are on the school schedule, so our friends tend to be traveling.  And that's okay.  Now with the two kiddos, I have to say that it's nice to just chill out.  Especially today when the baby has a cold...sounds like a barking seal ... poor guy.  He's still sleeping and his big brother is working on the first of many Star Wars Legos.

The advantage to keeping it small is that I can decide which day to do the big dinner (or to do none at all).  This year, the big dinner (ham this year) is today on Christmas day.  We often do it on Christmas eve.  Last night, we kept it simple with leftover crockpot lasagna, roasted butternut squash, and crackers with spinach and artichoke dip.

Santa was good to me this year.  Aside from time with my wonderful family, I got great kitchen items... a salad dressing bottle (with recipes), a new nonstick skillet (mine seem to wear out every 6 months), a new cast iron skillet, and a new rice cooker.  I also got a magazine subscription and four new shirts/sweaters (the pre pregnancy shirts do not fit over the nursing-mother and post pregnancy body).

For my family, I sewed a bag for my husband's tablet computer (from the bottoms of my son's holey-jeans-turned-shorts), and I sewed a Star Wars blanket and pillowcase for my son.  For the baby we wrapped some hand me down toys. :)  I feel very blessed.  I have friends who are out of work and have to scrounge and sell items in order to buy gifts for their kids.

I'm sure the day is going to be full of building the pile of Star Wars legos that my older son got. I've already started on the Zicam and Vitamin C (babies...they cough and sneeze ALL OVER YOU).

Tex Mex Black Bean Dip

I originally got this recipe from Cooking Light in the early 90's, when I was in the Navy living in DC.  My friend Beth was having a party, and I said "I'll bring some appetizers!"  Even back then, I was the appetizer queen.  Or at least, they were my favorite thing to eat.  Truth be told, until I was in my early 30's, my trips into the kitchen were disastrous about 1/2 the time.  I burned or cut myself, or the food wasn't that great.

But this one month, there were many dip recipes, and I made 3 of them.  This is the one I liked so much (they were all good though) that I wrote it on a card and kept it.  And have made it from time to time.  I'm not sure how it hasn't made it into the blog before.

A couple of days ago, I cooked up a pound of black beans.  Lo and behold, about a pound of dried beans gets you enough beans for a triple batch of this dip.  Now, if you are going to go to a party and take the dip, by all means, use a can of beans and make a small batch.  However, if you like black beans, and bean burritos, and bean nachos...then make a triple batch and freeze some for later.  These are destined for bean burritos tonight, and some will end up in the freezer too.

The original recipe can be found here.  This is a pretty versatile recipe.  I generally leave out the cheese unless I am serving the dip at a party.  I've added peppers.  I've used jarred salsa and homemade salsa.  I've used canned or cooked from dried beans.  If I don't have cilantro, I leave it out.  I've used fresh or canned tomatoes. I like mine spicy but generally make it mild for the family. 

Tex Mex Black Bean Dip (adapted from Cooking Light).
1 pound dried black beans, rinsed, sorted, soaked, cooked: 1.69 (you get about 7 cups)
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, chopped finely: 0.58
1 medium onion, diced: 0.50
some diced bell pepper if you have it: 0.20
5 cloves garlic: 0.25
1.5 tsp cumin: 0.10
1.5 tsp chili powder: 0.10
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.04
1 cup salsa: 0.50 (I used home canned)
salt to taste (because of the dried beans)
juice of 1 lime: 0.25

Total: $4.21 for 10 cups of dip.  $0.42 per cup, $0.21 per half cup of pure deliciousness

Saute the onion (and pepper, if using, I had a teeny bit leftover) until soft.  Add the garlic and saute 1 more minute.  Add cumin, chili powder, diced tomatoes and their juice (because, why not, what else are you going to do with the juice?), salsa, and cook down until the tomato juice has mostly evaporated.

Meanwhile, drain and mash the beans until chunky.  Add the beans to the cooked down mixture.  It will likely be a bit runny, so I cooked it on low for 1/2 hour or so.  If you make a smaller batch with fresh tomatoes, it's done quite quickly. I used my dutch oven to make this.  Add salt to taste and mix in lime (and cilantro, if using), after removing from heat.

Sweet Potato Appetizers

So, I had some leftover sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's.  Come to think of it, I have a few still, but they expired yesterday.  Should compost those.  We were headed to our friends and neighbors' house for NYE, so I googled "Sweet potato appetizer".  And I found this recipe.  I already had a package of crescent rolls and was about to head out for my walk to the farmer's market and trip to the grocery store.  So I picked up some more crescents at Trader Joe's.

I liberally adjusted this recipe because I only had about 40 minutes, a few items, and I was tired.  Had a SPLITTING headache most of the day, and napped to recover.

Sweet potato appetizers: (makes 16)
1-2 cups diced sweet potato
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
sharp cheddar cheese
2 packages cresent rolls
Saute the onion in olive oil a few minutes until softening.  Add the diced sweet potato (I diced this very fine, 1/2 inch x 1/4 inch pieces).  I cooked this about 10 minutes on low-medium, covered, then increased the heat to brown the pieces a bit.  Salt and pepper to taste.
When the filling is ready, open the crescent packages.  Break into 4 pieces.  Press the diagonal seams so that you have 4 rectangles.  Cut each in half crosswise and press out to 4 inch square.  Spoon filling into each square.  Place a thin slice of cheddar on top.  Fold up the corners and twist into a little "purse".
Bake about 15 min at 350F.  Enjoy!

Eggplant Caponata

So, Trader Joe's has an eggplant caponata appetizer that I really like. I find it tasty, especially on crackers or bread with hummus.

But it's $3.69 for probably 16 oz? (24 oz? I don't remember). That's $1.85 per cup.

I did some searches for Caponata recipes...crockpot, pressure cooker. Tried a couple, and I found that the one from Lorna Sass "Complete Vegetarian Kitchen" was quite good, better than TJ's. I just made it for New Year's Eve (we're alone this year, our friend's kid is sick). I made an adjustment - added tomato paste to thicken.

Eggplant Caponata for pressure cooker
1T olive oil: 0.11
1 eggplant, approx 1 lb: $1.39
1 red bell pepper, diced: $1.04
3 celery stalks, sliced 1/4 inch strips: $0.30
1 onion, diced: 0.25
2 cloves garlic, minced: 0.08
1/4 c. kalamatas, halved: 0.35
1/4 c. green olives, halved: 0.27
1/2 of a 6 oz can of tomato paste: 0.17
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes: 0.60
1/4 tsp cinnamon: 0.01
1/3 c. raisins: 0.15
1 tsp salt: 0.02
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar: 0.39
1 T capers: 0.14
salt and pepper to taste
Total: $5.27 for 5 cups, or about $1.05 per cup

Dice eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes. Put in colander. Toss with salt. Put paper towel on top, put a plate on top, and add a weight (couple of cans of beans). Let drain for 1 hour.

Heat oil in pressure cooker. Saute onion and garlic for 2 min. Add eggplant, celery, pepper, capers, raisins, and olives. Stir and saute for a few more minutes.

In food processor, puree diced tomatoes. Stir in cinnamon and vinegar. Add tomato mixture to pressure cooker and stir.

Put top on cooker and bring to pressure on high heat. Reduce heat to low (maintain high pressure), and cook 2 min. Remove from heat. Use a quick-cool method (run lid under cold water to release pressure).

Stir. Cook longer if eggplant isn't soft enough. For me, this looks good, but at this point I add the tomato paste and stir.

I prefer it cold, my husband prefers it warm. Bread, crackers...yum!

Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce

I have a need for Cilantro recipes. We frequently get bunches of cilantro from the CSA. My fave recipe is Sesame Cashew Pasta, but sometimes I need something different. This is where a search found me this recipe.

This is very good. I like it with tortilla chips. I had the cost breakdown written down all nicely and then lost it (the perils of scrap paper in a household with a toddler). I'll try to recreate it here:

8 oz cream cheese: $1.79 (this time, I do find it on sale for $1.00 occasionally)
1/2 large bunch cilantro: 0.50
7 oz salsa verde: 0.58
1 tsp pepper: 0.05
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin: 0.05
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder: 0.05
1 T. sour cream: 0.05
juice of 1 lime: 0.25
Total: $3.32 for about 2 cups, or $0.41 per 1/4 cup serving.