September 11, 2011 · 8:58 am

No-Fry Refried Beans AND Homemade Salsa

DOUBLE ISSUE! Sorry for my prolonged absence.  We’re back in business.

I have this tendency to try to make things no one in their right mind would ever try to make.

Ginger ale? Seriously? Normal people go buy the green can.

I THOUGHT I was doing another crazy thing the other day when I thought to myself, “Gee, I wonder if I could make myself some refried beans.”

Turns out-I was doing a really freaking cool thing that is going to happen on a regular basis from now on.

Daniel dearest LOVES LOVES LOVES Mexican food and bean burritos have become a regular thing thanks to their cheap, quick deliciousness and my recent discovery of homemade salsa which instantly brightens up a kind of mushy very brown meal into something spicy/sweet maybe a little crunchy and deliciously fresh.

This refried beans recipe involves a crock pot and no frying whatsoever.  If you don’t own a crock pot…work on that.

They’re great.  Basically you gather up some ingredients, throw them in a pot in the morning (often with very little chopping or preparation required), tell it to make you a delicious feast AND. IT. DOES!

Who doesn’t love coming home to the smell of dinner ready and waiting?  Like I said…work on that.

So here…let me show you.

Let’s just get everybody together first.

Those 3 guys are going to hang out for about 8 hours and end up a pile of mouth-watering mexi-feast.

The recipe calls for pinto beans and of course that’s delish.  Only have black beans?  Go for it!

Only white beans?  Cool! You can trick people into thinking they’re mashed potatoes!

All I’m saying is…don’t stress about the ingredients.

It’s super flexible.

Real life.

Don’t forget your spices!

Readers, meet cumin.  This part is not super flexible.  You need it.

Does that picture make it look a little like I’m in love with cumin?

That’s ok if it does..because I am.  Full disclosure.

Cumin is the stuff that makes things taste like Mexican food.  We love it.  You will too.

So beans, garlic, onion, salt, cumin and a jalapeno (if you want a kick) jump in a crock pot with some water and come out as burrito filler.  That, my friends, is what we like to call a win.

Keep it simple…tortilla+beans+cheese+salsa.

Or go crazy…get rice involved.  Throw in some chicken (just don’t forget the cumin).  Get creative!

Now put down that homework/screaming child/laundry/broken ice maker parts (ARGH I JUST WANT A BANANA SMOOTHIE!!) and enjoy.

Refried Beans

(Recipe adapted from http://www.allrecipes.com: Refried beans without the refry)

1 onion, peeled and halved

3 cups dry pinto beans, soaked and rinsed

(OR 2 cups pinto and 1/2 cup each of black and white beans…for variety)

1  fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 heaping tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

1 heaping teaspoon ground cumin

6 cups water (just fill your slow cooker)

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High (yes, high.  trust me) for 8 hours.  Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high (I have never had this problem but it’s good to know)
2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher (or a fork or a whisk actually works nicely I’ve discovered), adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.
P.S.  Keep that water.  You can add a little to leftovers, microwave them and you’re good to go.
This makes a TON of beans which is nice because you can fridge em or freeze em and one day when you don’t have a dinner plan and people are hungry…you have beans for an amazing insta-dinner.  BAM!  Coolest weird thing I ever did.

OH YEAH!

Wanna make some salsa?

I’m not really going to give you a recipe for this because I know some of you will insist on strictly adhering to the ingredients and proportions.

Don’t.

Use whatever you have.  Use the proportions you like.

The salsa I make usually involves some combo of these ingredients:

I like it to be mostly tomato.

Do you like corn better and hate tomato?  Then make it mostly corn and forget the tomato.

Yeah…salsa without tomato.  Stick it to the man.

Corn is EXCELLENT especially right now. I’ve been putting it on everything.

Choose the color of bell pepper that makes it look prettiest.

Not a big spicy fan?  Leave out the jalapeno seeds but keep that delicious and pretty green flesh.

If you’re feelin like a splurge..add avocado (only at the very very end right before you serve it or it’ll be gross!)

Plus: fruit!  I mostly use mango or pineapple.

I, personally, need to have the fruit in there.

The sweet juices mellow the onion’s sharpness and cool the heat from the jalapeno a bit.  It just balances everything out.

Chop everything up into little pieces, toss them together with some lime juice and some salt.

Call it salsa.

Throw it in a blender if you want to but that tends to make it like salsa soup and I like it chunky.  Especially with those burritos.   That fresh crunch is just…..YUM.  Try it.

I hope you like it.

I like you.

Please subscribe!  Painless I swear!

❤ Ellen

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August 21, 2011 · 6:15 pm

Ginger Ale FROM SCRATCH!

What?

You can make ginger ale?

As in…I am currently sipping ginger ale that didn’t come out of a green can on an airplane?

Yeah.  I did that. You can too.

SO EASY! (promise)

Really–this happened because I wanted an excuse to buy fresh ginger.

Have you seen that stuff?  It’s weird stuff.

Here I’ll show you:

He’s just a little guy.

Which is nice because how much ginger syrup do you really need in life honestly?

But a little bit is a good thing.  A refreshingly spicy/sweet bubbly thing.

You want some.

SO this involves 3 steps.  Ready?

sugar, ginger, water INTO THE POT!

to simmer for an hour…maybe an hour and a half…until it’s syrup

3 ingredients, 3 steps

and one of them is…

pour some sparkling water over ice and stir in as much of that yummy ginger syrup as your heart desires.

throw in a straw.

things taste better that way.

make it green and pretend it’s a lime because you wish you had one

but if you do….definitely put a lime wedge in there.

and if you have some bitters and are in a bitters kind of a mood…shoot…do that too.

wasn’t that fun?

and easy?

and delicious?

Ginger Ale

(recipe from http://www.joythebaker.com)

1 cup finely chopped ginger

1 cups granulated sugar

3 cups water

1 cup soda water

3 tablespoons ginger syrup (or to taste)

lime wedge (or a green straw if that’s your thing)

a little bit o’ bitters (if you’re into that kind of thing)

ice (necessary.)

1. chop the ginger as much as you can…a blender or food processor would make your life easier

2. place ginger, sugar, and water in a large stock pot.  bring the whole mess to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for an hour to an hour and a half, or until the liquid has reduced down by more than half.  when it looks like silky smooth syrup it’s finished

3. remove from heat and strain twice through a cheese cloth, or fine mesh strainer to separate the ginger chunks. let syrup cool completely before incorporating into drinks.

p.s. keep those bits of ginger! toss them with some more sugar, spread them out on wax paper and let them dry over night.  later we’ll make some delicious ginger cookies with them…get excited

4. combine everything in a glass, stir it up, throw in a straw, go crazy

you just made ginger ale from scratch.  high five.

p.s. I MOVED!

this is my view every morning

these are my friends in my kitchen.  they came to play even though I didn’t have a couch. or air conditioning. that’s love.

AND I see this handsome stud every day

I am very, very happy.

I hope you are too.

❤ Ellen

PRETTY PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!

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August 13, 2011 · 9:24 am

Erika’s Famous Banana Bread

Hi!

Let’s talk about bananas.

I LOVE bananas.

Also peanut butter but that’s a discussion for another day.

Banana bread is brilliant.  Eat it plain and pure, or studded with chocolate chips (or heck..any kind of chips), or raisins, or walnuts, or apples…ANYTHING!  The possibilities are endless.

Serve it buttered, warmed, chilled, first thing in the morning, as an after dinner treat…again…the possibilities are endless.

There are as many banana bread recipes as there are ways to eat it, but no one does banana bread like my friend Erika.

Are you ready for this?

Remember those eggs from the pull-apart bread?  Some friends are joining them to un-chill this time

Organize your life. (Or at least your banana bread ingredients….baby steps)

Let’s take a closer look at those bananas.

They should be beyond ripe.  We’re talking black/slimy/rotting.  Seriously.  That’s when they have the banana-iest possible flavor and it really makes a difference.

I guess banana bread theoretically happens when you bought too many bananas and they went bad before you got to them.  One of those “if life hands you rotten bananas….make banana bread” kind of a deals.

If you’re me, though, there’s no such thing as a banana you “couldn’t get to” so you’ll have to make a conscious effort to let them be til they’re in the properly rotten-delicious state.  Bag ’em up, stick them somewhere room temperature and try to forget about them.

You’ll be happy you did, I promise.

These guys are even a little less rotten than I usually like. That first guy for sure. You DEFINITELY need 3 bananas, though, so we’ll make an exception. Real life.

Cream that butter and sugar (aka stir it until it’s creamy. an impossible task unless your butter has un-chilled properly…just saying.)

I like to toss in some vanilla with the wet ingredients.  You can’t go wrong with vanilla.

Smash!

Literally just mix everything together. Win.

AND THEN! for the secret ingredient: Cinnamon.

It’s not in the original recipe and not at all necessary but I love the extra fragrant, comforting something it gives the bread.

If you’re allergic to cinnamon (this is for you grandma) try nutmeg (you need less nutmeg than cinnamon…that stuff is strong) or leave it out altogether.  The bread will survive and it will be as yummy as ever.

You should end up with something like a chunky cake batter.  I like chunks of banana..they get all gooey in the oven…but let’s not get carried away.

Unless that’s you’re thing.  Then by all means..carry away.

Pour it into your greased and floured bread pan.  I have another little thing I like to do….

Slice another banana, (one that’s not quite as ripe so you can actually cut it), into really thin slices and arrange them on top (note: I was low on banana supplies…usually I would put more on top than is pictured here) then sprinkle some sugar in the raw on top.

The bananas carmelize in the oven and….yum.  Just yum.


Pop that sucker into your 350 degree oven for like about an hour and BAM! It’s bananas. It really is.

Slice and enjoy =)

Banana Bread Recipe

Courtesy of my friend Erika, with a couple of Ellen twists

Note: I kept it simple this time.  Straight up, no-nonsense, perfectly, amazingly delicious and classic banana bread.  The beauty of this stuff, though, is the fact that anything goes.  Experiment with add-ins…let me know if you hit on a good one!

Ingredients:

**UPDATE: For super extra moist banana bread use one more tablespoon butter, substitute one cup of the flour for super finely ground oats (oat flour), and use all brown sugar!  I also always add some vanilla.  Delicious.  Happy baking =)

4 tablespoons SOFT butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 medium rotten (seriously) bananas, mashed
1/3 cup yogurt (plain, vanilla or lemon are really yummy but feel free to go crazy)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
OPTIONAL:
-cinnamon (I always put cinnamon in mine. to taste so however much you want. taste as you add)
-nuts
-chocolate chips
-dried fruit

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. cream the butter and sugar
3. add bananas and mix until well blended and mashed (depending on how lumpy you like your banana bread)
4. beat in egg and yogurt
5. mix flour through salt in a separate bowl and add them to the wet mixture until blended
5. pour into 9 in. loaf pan
6. bake about 1 hour (check at about 45 minutes…don’t overcook!!)
7. keep in pan for 10 min. before removing, then cool on cooling rack
*if you’re feeling fancy, top the bread with thinly sliced banana and sprinkle with raw sugar (or just granulated sugar) before you bake it….the bananas get all caramelized and delicious in the oven

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