Black Bean Quesadillas

So, technically this was supposed to be Kevin's recipe, but after a week of car shopping and eating a lot of carryout during said car shopping, this dinner kept getting pushed back in the rotation. It ended up being dinner on a snowy evening and I ended up cooking because there is nothing better to me than cooking all day on a snowy day.

Black Bean Quesadillas

1 tblsp olive oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 can black beans, drained

cumin (If you foolishly run out of cumin like I did, chili powder can fill in)

garlic powder

salt

olive oil

6 whole wheat tortillas

grated cheese (I highly recommend lightening jack from South Mountain Creamery if you can get it. If you can't, bummer for you!)

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Sweat onions and garlic. Add drained beans. Season with cumin, garlic powder, and salt to taste. Preheat a separate skillet and drizzle with olive oil. Put one tortilla on the skillet, spread black bean mixture on tortilla and top with cheese and another tortilla. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the tortilla is nicely browned. Flip and brown the other side. Top with plain yogurt, salsa, avocado, and whatever other toppings you like.

Mustardy Cabbagy Goodness

Farmer's market pickings are getting pretty slim right now, so I was pretty excited to find a lovely head of Napa cabbage. I decided to tweak one of Anne Burrell's recipes (Warm Savoy Cabbage Slaw) to accommodate my pantry. How cute is that woman? I'm fascinated with the amount of salt she uses. And her hair. And the fact that she says "earl" instead of "oil." Fascinating. Plus, she never puts a recipe on her show that doesn't look like something I would happily gobble up in two seconds if it showed up in front of me.


As a side note, when I was cooking this, I took a taste and I wasn't a fan at all. I was cooking in preparation for the next night's dinner and started thinking about alternative side dishes. I packed it up in the fridge and hoped my tastes would change for the next night. After a day of mellowing out in the fridge, the cabbage turned delicious. So delicious I found myself running back to the pan for seconds. 


Mustardy Cabbagy Goodness
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 yellow onion, sliced
1/2 head napa cabbage, sliced
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tblsp stoneground mustard
dash thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup apple cider
salt


Brown bacon in large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and sweat. Add cabbage, vineagar, mustard, thyme, and bay leaf and toss to coat. Channel your internal Anne Burrell and toss some salt on that pile of cabbage. Cover and let cook until cabbage wilts and starts to soften. Add apple cider and cook uncovered for about 10 more minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat and stick it in the fridge. The next day, pop that cabbage in a saute pan with a lovely little kielbasa and heat everything through. Chow down.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

I bought delicious goat cheese at the farm the other day and decided to try my hand at stuffed chicken. Let me tell you one thing right off the bat - make sure your chicken is thawed before you start this. I didn't. It made this much more of a pain than it needed to be. 


I thought spinach and sun dried tomatoes would be a good combination with the goat cheese, but I'm sure there are plenty of other delicious options. Change up the stuffing. The method remains the same.


Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken
2 chicken breasts
handful of goat cheese, cubed or crumbled depending on the consistency of your cheese
handful of spinach, chopped
5 sundried tomatoes (I used the kind that comes packed in oil), chopped


Marsala Sauce
1 tblsp olive oil
1 container chopped mushrooms
2 ounces chicken stock
1 cup marsala wine
1/2 tblsp butter
salt and pepper


Place chicken breasts in between two pieces of waxed paper and pound into thin slices. Salt and pepper chicken. Leaving space around the edges, top the chicken with goat cheese, spinach, and tomatoes. Roll and place seam side down on a baking sheet. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes or until chicken reaches 170 degrees.


While the chicken is cooking, prepare the marsala sauce. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and lightly brown the mushrooms. Add chicken stock and marsala wine. Simmer and reduce sauce by about half. Add butter. Taste and season.

Tortilla Soup

I am all about any dinners that I can make in advance and none is better than soup. Not only is it super convenient to make the day before, but I have yet to meet a soup that doesn't taste better on the second day. I threw some spinach into this one in an attempt to up our veggie intake.


Tortilla Soup
2 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 jalapeños, ribbed, seeded, and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chicken breast, chopped

cumin

chili powder
1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 quart chicken stock
1 generous handful spinach leaves, chopped
tortillas sliced in 1 inch strips
1 avocado chopped
grated cheddar cheese
plain yogurt
Heat olive oil in soup pot over medium heat. Sweat onions, jalapeños, and garlic.Add chicken breast and brown lightly. Add 1 tsp each of cumin and chili powder. Let cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and chicken stock. Bring to boil. Taste and adjust seasonings - if you're me, you're going to need a good bit of additional spices and salt. Add spinach. Reduce to simmer. About 5 minutes before you are ready to serve the soup, toast the tortillas until crispy. Serve soup topped with tortillas, avocado, cheddar cheese, yogurt and whatever else you think would be yummy up there.

Woodberry Kitchen

I have had the distinct pleasure of eating at Woodberry Kitchen two times in the last two weeks. The first time was a date with my husband. The second was a double date with good friends. We even brought the tot along for the second outing after being assured that they really were kid friendly. Really. They promised.

On to the many reasons why this place is a serious must go. 


First is their philosophy. “From farm to table.” Seasonal food, local farms, organic meats, sustainable agriculture. If you don’t know why this is awesome, I have some books you really should read. I had fun on my first trip going down the list of farms and suppliers and telling my husband which ones are at the farmer’s market we go to and how happy I was to see the farm where I buy my meat. It’s good to know where your food is from. 

And their commitment to sustainability doesn't stop at their food. They provide you with super cool biodegradable/compostable take away packaging. And the building is LEED certified. 

Second – service. The bartenders, the waiters, and the hostesses were all friendly and, better yet, very knowledgeable. Plus, they were all willing to answer all of our questions without seeming put out or rushing us along. Please note, my husband asks far more questions than the average bear, so a waiter taking a moment to talk to us really is something to note. Also, for those of you with tots, they really were nice to our kid and patient with us taking a long time to get settled in. Our waitress even asked if we wanted the kid’s meal first, which I would have totally forgotten to do.

Third reason to note is the décor. Beautiful exposed brick. Respectable sized bar. Open. Airy. Nice wooden tables. The coolest high chair I’ve ever used in a restaurant (I even threatened to steal it). And a wall of beautiful cut wood. Kevin was in love.

Hmm. Is that all? Heck no. Reason number four, and of course the most important reason, is the food. Oh, the food. I’m just going to go ahead list everything I ate (or was eaten by my dinner mates) over the course of my two visits. Kitchen pickles and olives, green salad, beet salad, heirloom pumpkin soup, marvesta shrimp tempura, baked cauliflower, pork buns, shrimp and scallops with grits, tile fish with beans, pork chop with butter beans, flatbread with andouille sausage and leeks, rockfish bites (children’s menu), CMP, carrot cake, flourless chocolate cake, kitchen cookies & sweets, and pecan pie ice cream sundae. Isn’t your mouth watering?

And the drinks are great too. I started with a Honey and Spice (rum, ginger beer, and some other stuff I can’t remember), which was a special the first night we were there. It was delicious and I ordered another one the next week even though it wasn’t on the menu. They were kind enough to make it for me. Kevin had a Plantation (bourbon, port, and smoked honey, which they smoke themselves. Daily. Seriously, these people like making good food!) and we split a glass of wine with dinner. On our second trip, we tried the Headless Horseman (bourbon and pumpkin syrup) and our friend tried one of the local beers.

It’s really a great place and worth checking out. I would suggest making reservations early if you have a particular time in mind since I had some difficulty making reservations for both of our dinners. 

Braised Short Ribs

So now that I go to the farm to buy my meat, I end up wandering around looking at meat that I've never eaten before in my life. Not because it's not available in the grocery store, but because in the grocery store, I just grabbed chicken and left. Anyway, while I was wondering around, I picked up a package of short ribs. They sat in my freezer for two months. I kept thinking about them, but didn't know what to do, so they stayed right there in the freezer. This weekend, I finally did a little research on how to cook them and went for it. The basic process is brown, deglaze, braise, chow. And, I'm happy to report that I do indeed like short ribs. A lot. Really. Awesome.


Braised Short Ribs
2 tblsp olive oil 
10 short ribs
flour for dredging
4 carrots
1 large onion
2 large potatoes
1 cup red wine 
1 tblsp tomato paste
1 quart beef stock
salt and pepper
Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Salt and pepper short ribs. Dredge in flour. Brown all sides for approximately three minutes. While meat is browning, cut carrots, onion, and potatoes into large chunks and place in slow cooker. Remove meat from pan and place on top of veggies. Deglaze pan with wine. Stir in tomato paste and season to taste. Pour red wine over meat and veggies. Add beef stock until meat is almost totally submerged (next time I will preheat the beef stock before adding it). Cook on high setting for three hours or until meat is tender (mine was falling off the bone at three hours - yummy!).

Wheat and Oatmeal Bread

I screwed up the recipe for the bread I wanted to make, so I guessed at the rest. It turned out quite good and a bit lighter than the breads I usually make.

Wheat and Oatmeal Bread

1 1/2 cup water

1 1/4 tblsp butter cut into small chunks

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 tblsp honey

3 cups and 6 tblsp whole wheat flour

2/3 cup oatmeal

5 tsp vital wheat gluten

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Add all ingredients in order listed. Set machine for whole wheat, light crust, two pound loaf.

Basic Chicken Vegetable Soup

I don't think I made the same chicken vegetable soup twice. What I add varies with what fresh and frozen veggies I have on hand and what I'm in the mood for that day. This is the soup I made for our Christmas Eve party. This one relied pretty heavily on frozen veggies since the farmer's market the Saturday before was closed because of the blizzard of 09! I made this one in the crock pot to make it a little easier. 


Chicken Vegetable Soup
4 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 bay leaves
4 cups homemade turkey stock
1/2 bag frozen carrots
1/2 bag frozen peas
1/2 bag frozen okra
1/2 bag frozen corn
1 28 oz can chopped tomatoes
Crushed red peppers, salt, and pepper
Heat 2 tblsp olive oil over medium heat and sweat onions. Place onions in crock pot. Heat remaining olive oil over medium high heat and brown chicken. It doesn't need to cook through, just get some color on it. Transfer to crock pot. Put all remaining ingredients in crock pot. Cook on high for about 1 hour (bring to simmer). Adjust seasoning. Cook on low until ready to serve.

Pasta Fagioli

This is one of my all time favorite soups. Delicious. Filling. Easy. What else can you ask for from a soup?


Pasta Fagioli
3 tablespoons olive oil

4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

6 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped fine

1/2 onion chopped

2 16-oz can Cannellini beans

1 16-oz can of chopped tomatoes 

1 16-oz can of chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

1 bay leaf

1/4 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil over medium heat and saute bacon, garlic, and onion. Add beans and saute for 10 minutes, stirring occassionally. Add rest of ingrediants, except macaroni and parmesan cheese, and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with parmesan cheese and macaroni on the side. 

For Christmas Eve, I made this in the crock pot. I sauteed the bacon, garlic, and onion in a skillet and then dumped it and the remaining ingredients in the crock pot. I cooked it on high for about an hour until it came to a little simmer and then put it on low let it boogie the rest of the day (about 2.5-3 hours). Very tasty and made the house smell awesome.