The Answer to Your Question: "Because it's Monday"

For about two hours today, I thought it was Thursday. Now I'm sitting here absolutely exhausted wondering how it became Monday again. I made the red beans tonight, but I over spiced OR I got a REALLY spicy jalapeno. The thing is, I can't really wrap my brain around that until it's not Monday anymore.

You know those days when you feel like you've cleaned the kitchen twenty times? Oh.. you don't? Well then you should go and come back when it's not Monday anymore. 

I asked Google to send me Monday photos. This came up. I like it.

I had a bright shining moment in today (you know, those few hours when I thought it was Thursday) when my lovely friends K and A were sitting at my kitchen table eating lunch. A was driving through on her way back to NOLA and K brought lunch. Spending a few afternoon hours with college friends is like sunshine and rainbows. Thursday is also Sunshine and Rainbows, so you can see where the confusion may have begun. 

Really today during the day was not Monday-esque, the day itself was productive and fun. Landy was in a funny mood and we got a lot done. For some reason, the Monday of the day is just sinking in now. Maybe I need some sugar to kick me up a few notches. 

Here are some random tidbits....

Landy had her second breakfast date with her good friend Lawson on Saturday morning. Don't worry, we had a four legged chaperone to make sure there wasn't any funny business.

We were down at the Texas coast with our good friends S & L. It was an awesome weekend filled with King Ranch Casserole, fresh caught flounder, and lots of Cookie Brownies. And lots of wine. There have been times at this house when I saw the sun rise because we hadn't been to bed yet. Times they are a'changin'. This Sunday we saw the sun rise while Landy was still sleeping. Then I threw on some jeans and went outside to catch a pic.

 

Some of my very good friends are undergoing massive power outages and floods in the North East. Most of these friends are seasoned hurricane vets who have NOLA hurricane experience, so I know they know what they are doing. I know how to get through power outages when it's hotter than hell outside... not too sure about when it's freezing. Extra blankets? Can you hook a generator up to an apartment? Curious. 

One last random note for any woman who currently lives or has lived with a husband, father, boyfriend, male roommate, or son. I cleaned out the fridge today. I saw some takeout styros and thought to myself "who was the last person to eat the lamb biryani?" Though I won't pin it directly on S, I had to capture this. The sure sign that a man has been the last one to eat the takeout... the fork/spoon is still sitting in the box in the fridge.

Tomorrow = back on track. I'll try and figure out how I spiced up my red beans. Maybe I'll post about that, maybe I'll think over whether anyone really wants to know. Uh, the anticipation must be killing you. Sorry about that.

Hunker Down,

-RT

Why I Don't Drink Coffee....

 We were away this weekend with friends at the coast. In the morning the normal routines of most normal American people commenced. With the 21st century twist of the Keurig. Having considerate friends like I do, I hear this a lot: "Can I get you some coffee?" While my responses vary, on Saturday my chosen response was "No thanks, I don't drink coffee." The follow up response was as follows: "You don't drink coffee? You don't drink coffee, ever? You should blog about why you don't drink coffee." 

The last part was a little blogging rub, but I thought I would kick off this week's preview with that little nugget of information. For the record, I don't drink coffee because I don't like it. I think it smells amazing, but I think it tastes like awful in a cup. When I need an after dinner pick me up, I will sometimes order a double espresso and think of the fun to come while I force myself to drink it. 

What I do drink in the mornings and love is tea. I love a fragrant Earl Grey, a nice warm green tea, a decaf herbal tea in the evening, and my absolute favorite tea, the one I drink daily is Harney & Son's Paris tea. It is fragrant, delicious, and is a black tea, so it's just as strong as coffee. And much more enjoyable. So there's that. 

Tomorrow is Monday and the weather is cool. In traditional Monday fashion, I'll be soaking some red beans to make my Red Beans and Rice with a Texas twist. We're grilling a flank steak on Tuesday and having some leftover red beans on Halloween night when we sit outside and greet all the little ghosts and goblins. We'll also be talking about an important wish list item that I think could really help families get on track with nutrition. There might be some things you can do in your area to help make a change.

Here's to a great week! Kicked off with Once Upon a Time, Boardwalk Empire, and Revenge. Sunday night TV is my JAM. 

- RT

The Easy Bake Oven is Heating Up

I just had to search "vintage easy bake oven" to find the one I had. Effffff.

 L recently received a play kitchen and she is LOVING it. It reminds me about how much I loved my Easy Bake Oven and my most treasured play iron and ironing board. Yes, that's right... I used to pretend iron. I'm not sure what insights that provides into my psyche, but I loved it. A lot. So there you go. Apparently some babies like to cook and clean.

While ironing is cool, chess, apparently, is not.

RT's First Ironing Board. I don't own one now, so this would be my last one as well.

 Now I have a real life oven and I made a pledge to get to know my oven better this winter. Even though it's eighty something degrees today, I am prepping for having a warm oven making my kitchen nice and toasty in the cooler months. I stumbled upon a simple roasted chicken and vegetables recipe on a blog (Life as Ashlet) I found through the Writer's Workshop. On Saturday I was wandering through the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market and picked up a frozen whole chicken and some root veggies to take home. 

Our week got a little topsy turvey, and I forgot the take the chicken out of the freezer, but we already had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the fridge for L. So I got home yesterday, hung out with L, sent her to bed and got to chopping.

Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Onions, Celery, Garlic, Carrots, and EV Olive Oil. That's it.

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Take your chicken out to bring it to room temperature and clean your veggies and then chop them into uniform - "ish" pieces.

Combine all of your veggies and season with salt & pepper. You can also add in rosemary or parsley or whatever floats your boat. 

 I took out the thighs and placed them on top of the veggies, then sprinkled them with salt and fresh cracked pepper.

 

Then I popped it in the oven for 45 minutes. The magic of this is that the cooking juices from the chicken drip down into the vegetables and give it fabulous flavor and juicy chicken cooking goodness. That's a thing. Promise. Forty five minutes later, the chicken looks like this:

And then also like this:

Let it sit for ten minutes for all of the juicy juices to do their thang. The blog suggested the following veggies as options for roasting: pearl onions, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, fingerling potatoes, asparagus, green beans, or turnips.

So I know I throw around the word "easy" a lot. Because of this issue, and this recipe, I now need to find a word for something that is easier than easy. The Internet gave me some suggestions and I have chosen the word "effortless" to describe this. Seriously.... wash, chop, combine, sprinkle, top, sprinkle, place, bake, remove, set. Those are the steps you take and you not only have a complete dinner of chicken, starches, and veggies, you also have a world of leftovers. Landon loved this. It reminded me of chicken soup, but in a pan. This is definitely an effortless (see what I did there?) and tasty meal that you could do once a week and recreate in different ways. I'm already looking forward to trying this out again with a whole butchered chicken and some different vegetables. 

Increase the Ov Love in your life. Get after it!

-RT

Recipe Review: Roasted Butternut Squash and Shallot Soup

My finger is on the mend, but don't think S has heard his share of complaints on that subject yet. I almost lost a finger. Almost is a very vague word. 

Today I have a great Roasted Butternut Squash and Shallot Soup recipe from Cooking Light for you. This soup was quick (in a sense), cost effective, full of fresh flavor, and really easy. Secret best friends club promise. 

Once upon a time we had a butternut squash. I can't remember what it's original purpose was, but there it was on my counter. So S thought, "let's probably cook it before it goes bad." He is the CFO of the family. He took an inventory of the ingredients we had around the house and I got an email the next day that said "please buy four shallots and some ginger." Done. 

Cooking Light professional photo for your viewing pleasure.

 First things first. Preheat the oven to 375. Then we peeled, chopped, and deseeded the butternut squash. 

Slices

Chunks

 Next we peeled a section of the ginger and cut it into think slices.

Then we peeled the shallots and cut them in halves.

 Finally we combined everything in a baking dish with salt, pepper, and EV Olive Oil. Did I already say this was easy? It is. Put them in the oven for 45 minutes, then allow them to cool for ten minutes. Now this recipe seemed fast to me because the actual active cooking time is minimal. Baking in the oven time is more "watch Revenge on the DVR for the third time" time.

The final magical ingredients include: Chicken Stock, Sour Cream, & Pepper. The Sour Cream is a personal touch. We skipped the chives in the original recipe. Mainly because no one told me we needed chives... hmmmmm. That no one sure is funny about ingredients. If anyone ever asks you why you should buy an entire bundle of chives (or green onions, or saffron threads, etc) for just a few bowls of soup, just tell them: because it's a recipe and that's how you follow it. And also because I said so.

The roast pan came out of the oven looking full of deliciousness. 

Our blender kind of started creating chemical smoke last time I was trying to make a big vat of green jalapeno cilantro dip. I don't like things that make smoke and smell like chemicals. So instead of following the recipe's original technique, we simply put the broth and the veggies straight into a stock pot and mixed it with a hand blender. HAND BLENDER LOVERS UNITE. If I can find a way to use my hand blender, it is going to be used. 

Step 1 old friend

After blending the ingredients you put them on the stove over medium heat for 5 minutes to warm everything evenly. Then you are good to go. 

We were kind of concerned that this soup would be missing the creaminess that we were craving, but it was completely creamy and very velvety. See what I did there?

I felt like it would be a nice compliment to add a dolup of sour cream (or creme fraiche if you have that) on top with the cracked pepper. I was right. It was a wonderful compliment to the flavor of the soup. We ate it with some crusty whole grain baguettes.

While my photo is less impressive, it was more delicious. According to me.

This was a nice light soup that had all of the make ups of a soup laced with cream and fat and cream. The flavor of the ginger really comes through and give you a wonderful experience with the soft texture and the aromas. I'm getting serious about this. The bread helped to make it a little more hearty for dinner, but it would be a wonderful soup to have around for any meal, first or second course, or snack. It would also make a great early baby food or in our case a late one. Landon really loved it.

If anyone makes it with chives, let me know how that goes. For now I'll stick with the sour cream or greek yogurt. 

-RT

Roasted Butternut Squash and Shallot Soup
from Cooking Light Magazine


Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup soup and 1 teaspoon chives)

Ingredients:
4 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large shallots, peeled and halved
1 (1/2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons (1-inch) slices fresh chives
Cracked black pepper (optional)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a roasting pan or jelly-roll pan; toss well. Bake at 375° for 50 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Cool 10 minutes.

3. Place half of squash mixture and half of broth in a blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Pour into a large saucepan. Repeat procedure with remaining squash mixture and broth. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top with chives and pepper, if desired.

There Will Be Blood... and Chocolate

Confession: I was about to blog.... I just needed a little chocolate first.

Maybe you can't see my hand behind all of that spraypaint blood. This is why I label things.

 Thankfully, I had some chocolate s'mashing s'mores from Trader Joe's. They had a little hard plastic shrink seal on them. There was already a knife sitting out, so I went to slice it open. Confession: the knife was too big. My left pointer finger took the brunt of the slice on the right side near my nail bed. Confession: I am typing this with one hand. My left hand is in the air with a paper towel wrapped around it and pressure is being applied. 

S very kindly brought me some chocolate so I can make it through this whole "typing with one hand" experience. THEN I remembered the writing prompts I got from the Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop this week. The first one (that I thought impossible for me to undertake): "1.) Write a post in just 12 lines." The only way I could possibly reign myself in is by being forced to type one handed. Do captions count? I need more specific rules, but this is my attempt AND original artwork. You're welcome. If I regain use of my hand tomorrow, it's on.

-RT

Fit Fridays: These Flats are Made for Walking

*Side note: This post was meant for LAST Friday, but when I didn't have time to finish it, I saved it for this Friday. The first part was done last Thursday night (10/11/12) and the final part was done today Thursday (10/18/12). That might help some of it make sense. Enjoy!

Is this a blast from anyone else's past?

Hey guys. So sorry I have not been around this week (last week). It's been a busy one, only to get more busy the next couple of days. We've been eating chicken soup all week (the gift that keeps on giving) and L did not want to eat dinner . So now I'm just busy hoping she's a picky toddler and that I don't have a middle of the night wake up call from a sick baby (update: she was just teething. totally fine). Tonight is a quick, yet important, topic. And when have I really made anything quick? The correct answer: never. (It is. I didn't make this quick.) Since we've had a few Fattening Fridays already, I thought we'd try out a Fit Friday.

I'm going to level with you... I HATE to work out. I like the idea of loving it, and really enjoy the walk/runs that L and I go on, but if you were like "here is this free gym membership I bought for you." I would maybe go to some yoga classes and then give the gym card to Landon to add to her collection of play card sized things that she puts in the pretend wallet I gave her.

The thing I love about our little walks is that we are together and we are outside. We kept them up through 100 degree summer days (although any bit of running that was involved stopped) and now we are back at a quicker pace with more jogging and fall air making life more comfortable.

Race Walking... Daily training regiment to follow.

So somewhere at some time in life, someone decided that we should all take AT LEAST 10,000 steps per day. I looked for the history of this, it appears it originated in Japan and people think we should all be doing this as a minimum to not be a bunch of lazy, fat jerks. It also appears (from my google research) that inactive people only take about 3000 steps per day in their normal activities. Then I was all "How many steps a day is 10000?" and google said, "don't be a lazy jerk, it's 10000 steps." Not very conclusive. So get this, I did my own research. I strapped on the fat suit and I went for a walk to feel bad about not being obese, and then I cried.... or I just wore a pedometer.

WHAT a jerk

Side note: people who wear fat suits to show you how "real" it is to be overweight/obese are assholes. I wore a pedometer from wake up to getting into bed on three different kind of days. Pay attention kids, this is how you do a controlled study. It's not, but just go with it.

Day 1 - I was home with Landon and we did our 2 mile walk.
Day 2 - I was home with Landon and we didn't do our normal "workout."
Day 3 - I went to work.

BIG eye opener. I think before I had a child, I might have been around 3000 steps her day. Let's walk through these few days....

Day 1
I'm living the dream. I wake up and strap on my pedometer before taking one step. I am serious about this. I do my general morning things, make breakfast for L and myself, clean up breakfast, brush teeth, and get both of us dressed for our walk. It was REALLY hot this day, so it was only a walk.

At 9am we are heading out the door and I have taken 2,362 steps. I was all "this is easy" and "I am awesome." We did our two mile walk around the neighborhood and I think I had some side effect from wearing the pedometer. I decided when we got back that I should trim my rosebushes. So L and I stayed in the back yard while I trimmed and she played. Then I made her lunch and she went down for her nap.

Noon - 9,035 steps. I have roughly ten hours to do 1,000 more steps. In my head I am thinking something like: people are so lazy that they can't walk 10,000 steps a day. I am killing this. I think my confidence in my stepping ability was causing me to over achieve. I had some furniture I needed to move around so I decided to do it during nap time. Landon was up at 2:30 and I hit 12,106 steps.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. We played inside (it was getting REALLY hot) did dinner, bath time, bed, and sat back down at 7pm. 15,646 steps. Between 7pm and 9:30pm I was apparently very lazy. I got into bed early to read and my final log at 9:30pm was 16,648 steps. I went to bed thinking "I wonder if Arya stark will marry Gendry" and "if people don't take at least 10,000 steps per day, I feel bad for them."

Day 2
I'm ready to take the challenge again. And kill it, again. Same sort of morning, making breakfast, cleaning breakfast, etc. After Landy is dressed we play in the back yard for about 15 minutes. At 10am I hit 2,979 steps.

We walked to the park a few blocks away and did some swinging and general park things. When we got back I cleaned up some of the rose branches from the previous day, moved a bit more furniture, lunch, then nap. 12pm = 7,572 steps. I was down from the day before, but I didn't do a 2 mile walk, so I was fine with that. On this day during nap time, I did what I usually do... not a ton. Filling my energy stores for the afternoon. At 2:30 when Landy was up I was only at 8,856 steps.

We made a run to the store, had some play time, and I made dinner for L. 5:30 log = 11,768 steps. I was really happy about this. I met my minimum and was  moving on. L and I had a small dance party and she was in bed shortly after. I cooked dinner, read, blogged, and got ready for bed. Final step count was 14,117 steps. Once again, I get cocky. My head is all "people are LAAAAZZZZZYYYY." This is the easiest thing ever.

Day 3
On day three I went to work. My mornings look much the same as far as getting Landy fed, cleaning up her meal, getting us both ready and then I'm out the door about 8:30. When I saw I had already hit 2,437 steps, I was really confident that this day, much like the other two, would prove how physically fit and amazing I am. Right.

I get to the office and sit down at my desk to.. you know, do work and stuff. I walk back and forth to other offices and the printer and the kitchen. This is the extent of my physical activity. I check out the pedometer at noon expecting fireworks and there it is.... 3,530 steps. So I decided I might eat my own previous words for lunch. But instead I had a real lunch out. When I saw it was 2:30, I checked the pedometer again... 4,286 steps. This was not going well.

I had the goal originally of not letting me wearing the pedometer affect my behavior, but I took a few extra laps around the office. It really didn't help. By the time I got home at 5:30 I was only half way to my MINIMUM amount of steps. 5,000 steps. This wasn't going well.

L went down for bed at 7pm and I had only increased to 6,278 steps. After cooking dinner and doing normal night time things, I got into bed at 10:30pm completely defeated. After being such a jerk about how easy it was to do this, I had only walked 7,567 steps, AND I had been aware of the pedometer and active about it.

Results:
My super scientific pedometer study got me thinking... If I only walked 7,567 steps on a day when I went to work (and didn't "work out") but still had to take care of a toddler in the morning and evening, I must have walked 3,000 steps a day prior to having a baby. Holy steps. When I'm home with Landon I usually have no choice but to be active because she is on the move and I've got chores and things to do. I never realized how sedentary I was at work. Even when I tried to not be. Maybe I need a treadmill at my desk.

This is why everyone should try this out:
If you are aware of how much you are moving, you move more. Once you have a sense of your habits, you can change them for the better. Now, on days when I go to work, I get home and Landon and I go for a short walk around the block. It's bonus time to spend with her and it's active outside time. When I run errands during the day I try to park a little farther away. It has changed the way I act and move, for the better.

I wouldn't call myself a competitive person in sports, but wearing this dumb pedometer made me competitive against myself. I wanted to beat previous numbers. I wanted to hit high ones.

A pedometer costs $5 - $15. If anything, it's an entertaining way to spend a very small amount of money. It's time... GET IN SHAPE GIRL! Or just walk 10,000 steps a day. Because the Internet told me you should.

-RT

One more time for fun.

Popularity Challenged: A Recap

I have yet to figure out the key to what makes one blog post more popular than another. Sometimes I write a post I really like and it bombs. Then I'll try to crank something out when I'm tired and just want to sleep. I'll think it is awful but people will really like it. I have a lot of special powers behind the scenes thank to blogger. I can see the popularity of my posts based on specific clicks. So really this isn't an overall basis of who saw them, but who clicked on a direct link. Either way, let's recap my four least popular posts. I'm trying to learn something here. 

Least Popular Post 1: Chicken, Mango, and Avocado Summer Salad

I love this salad. I reread the post. It was from June and I think I was still working out some kinks. But really, cook this salad. It is so good. It might not be right for this time of year, but it was 90 degrees today in Houston, so there is a time and a place for everything. 

Case of the Mondays with Antihistamines. Not good.

Least Popular Post 2: Under the Influence of Antihistamines 

This one is just bad. So... sorry about that. It makes sense that it is least read. Don't even bother clicking above. It's three paragraphs of complaints. 

Heroic

Least Popular Post 3: Pretending to Be an Indian Olympian 101

I really liked this post, and BONUS we had this for dinner tonight. I LOVE Maya Kaimal's Indian Simmer sauces and talked about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and what a huge joke Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera were. I still think all of those things. This was probably one of the ones that I really liked that just didn't get a killer reaction.

This one. LOVE

Least Popular Post 4: I is for Independence: Two Days of Hard Fought Ladybug Meals

So here I'm pretty sure I know what happened. Everyone who didn't have a kid was like "why the eff would I read this." That's true. But I still like this post for parents. If you have a toddler you know what it's like to have a few stressful days when they start getting picky with food or start to assert their independence. Reading this was like a trip down memory lane. It's crazy how quickly things change. Landy had her first meal at the big table tonight not in her high chair. This post was just two months ago. 

So here is your chance if you want to give feedback. Not on what is above, but on the blog in general. Do you want more or less of anything? I've been trying to work on the length of my posts because I can go off and type and type and type and type and type and type and type and.... you see where this is going. I would love to have some more guest posts from friends (HINT HINT). 

We've been cooking a lot lately, and that is pretty easy blog material. I have also undertaken fitness regiments for this blog. Wait for that on Friday. It's been four months since this whole blog journey began. I'm having a great time so far. Hope you are too! 

-RT

Bean There, Done That

One of my most favorite things to cook is a pot of beans when the weather is cool. 1. It's easy. 2. You can make it healthy. 3. It's tasty. Please hold any 4th grade "magical fruit"/"good for your heart" jokes until the end of this blog post. 

Last week I put up a pot of black beans and they were fantastic. Someone asked me once what it means to "put up a pot" of something. I was kind of perplexed. I've always used that expression. I'm fairly certain it's southern if not Texan. I never really questioned its exact meaning and always use it to talk about cooking beans, peas, or other things you would cook for a long period of time in a pot on the stove. If someone has a proper history for this expression please fill me in... any linguist expert type people? No? Shocking.

The sorted life of black beans....

SO, I made black beans. I used dried beans, so they required some soaking. Step one in bean management involves sorting and picking through the dried beans to make sure there aren't any rocks or other non bean type items in there. Some people skip this step. I used to. Then I bit into a rock. Lesson learned. 

Bean Rinse aka Clean yo Bean

After you finish sorting, you want to give the beans a rinse in a colander. Then you have a few options.  All options start with you putting the beans in a pot (or large bowl) and covering them with LOTS of water. Specific amounts will likely be on your bean bag - mine said six cups. If you did the large bowl, make sure it is very large and cover it with a dishtowel to keep random mishmash from getting in there. Then leave the beans on the counter overnight or for at least 6-8 hours. You can do this same thing in a pot. I personally prefer the quick boil method. Mostly because I get tired at night and forget to soak the beans. For a quick soak, the beans need to be in a pot. Bring the water to a full, rolling boil, turn the heat of, cover them, and leave them to sit for 2-3 hours. 

 

Water Covered Beans

Boiling Beans

I did this first thing in the morning since I was making the beans for dinner that night. My plan was to have everything in the pot simmering by 4pm. When L went down for her nap I got to chopping. 

Back to the Grid Method.

Finished Product

I chopped one VERY large onion, sliced about six cloves of garlic (If you don't like garlic you should leave now before one of us gets hurt), and took the beans out of the pot to do one last rinse. I make this one a quick rinse so that I don't lose a lot of the goodness that is naturally in the beans. Next I got out my cast iron pot and turned the stove to medium to heat it up. Once it was nice and hot I added about a tablespoon of EV Olive Oil and tossed in the onions and garlic. 

My Garlic Friends

My lovely garlic press that has a slicing mechanism. Thanks wedding registry! 

Once in the pot, I stirred the onions and garlic until my house smelled amazing and the onions were soft and becoming "clear" in appearance. 

Clear Onions, Full Heart, Can't Lose...... it's late. shut up. 

I put a smoked ham hock in the pot and gave it a little browning on the sides before adding in about 4 cups of chicken stock. You can always add in water, but I prefer to use stock if I have it.  

Stock

Stock and Hock

 After bringing that up to a boil, I added the beans back in along with two more cups of water and two Goya Ham seasoning packets. It's like Ham bouillon. It's magical. 

Ham Flavah.

Full pot.

 I wanted the broth to cook off of the beans so they would be less like soup, so while I boiled them I left the top off and checked in on the broth level. I cooked them over a low boil for about 2.5 hours. You'll want to check the beans after two hours to check the consistency and see if they are getting to what you prefer. I like mine to still be firm, so 2.5 hour timing works well. 

Low boil, badly captured.

 After a couple of hours my beans looked like this. I took out a spoonful to sample.

Taste Test

 This is the point where I see if my beans need added salt. Because I am cooking with broth and a ham hock, and ham seasoning, I like to see how much natural flavor and saltiness I can get out before adding more in. I also (just to remind you again) don't really salt things that can be easily salted to taste after they are cooked. 

I love chopped tomatoes in my black beans. BUT tomatoes and cast iron are not friends. Also, if you put the tomatoes in too early, they wilt into nothing. I took about four roma tomatoes, gave them a rough chop, and put them in to cook for about 15 minutes with the beans. 

Tomato Party

Now  I want this again.

 The last thing I do, right before serving, is take an entire bushel of washed cilantro and tear it into pieces over the pot, dropping it all in but the stems. You have a couple of options with the ham hock. I usually leave it in and then add it to the leftovers, keeping it until all of the beans are gone. You can also pick all of the meat off of the hock and add it in with the beans and throw the non meat rest of the hock away. Do as you please. 

Up close and personal.

Finished product.

 We are usually a brown rice family. I like brown rice and if it's better for me, then bonus. I happened to have the brown and wild rice I used with the chicken soup that is fantastic, so I decided to try that out with the beans. WINNER. Here is a photo op in case any of you want to seek it out and try it. 

You know it's good because it says "Arroz"

Cooked to perfection, even though I need a new rice cooker. Suggestions appreciated. 

Things that are great to serve with this meal include: sliced avocado, Mexican cotija cheese, sour cream (or non fat plain greek yogurt), salsa, or pico de gallo. We did avocados and Cotija cheese. 

The final product. Perfection in a bowl! 

Because I was making this for us AND Landy, I didn't add jalapenos, which I usually do and love. If you want to do that, I like to add in one jalapeno (deseeded then chopped) with the onions and garlic, and then take a second jalapeno, chop the top off of it to expose the seeds and insides, and drop it into the water to boil with the beans. I remove the remaining whole jalapeno before serving. 

Cooking in pots is the best thing about cool weather. And if you happen to be home with the kids or on a Saturday or Sunday, you can work on it little by little throughout the day and still have plenty of time with your kiddos. This is also something you might be able to adapt to a slow cooker if you work during the day. I'm not great at slow cooking, but it's one of my goals to figure that out this cool weather season. Here's a quick recap of my ingredients:

1 16oz package of dried black beans

1 T EV Olive Oil

1 very large white or yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

1 smoked ham hock

4-6 cups of chicken broth or water

1-3 packets of goya ham seasoning (to taste)

4 large roma tomatoes

1 bunch of cilantro

rice

Optional:

Jalapeno

Avocado

Cotija Cheese

Sour Cream (not really optional)

pico de gallo

This is one of my absolute favorites. I think I make it twice a month during the fall and winter. It is another warm, filling dish that is actually pretty healthy and simple. It is also EXTREMELY cost effective. On the health front, just remember, you are in charge of your own sour cream intake. I love sour cream, so I try to sub it out for plain, non fat greek yogurt. Can't even tell. Share your beans with someone you love. They are magical, after all. 

-RT