Rice and Beans

My sister made a rice and beans dish the other night inspired by her friend Sneha's recipe, and because she wanted to attempt a tex-mex-ish dish. It was so delicious and, she claims, really easy to make! The good thing about this dish, and most other dishes that I make, is that you can put in whatever veggies you want (or meat if you swing that way, lol!)

Part A: THE RICE

Heat veggie oil in a pot at medium heat. Add 2 tbsps chopped garlic. Once the garlic has cooked, add veggies. My sister used 1/2 cup of chopped red bell peppers, 1/2 cup chopped green peppers, 1/2 cup chopped white onions, and 1 cup chopped plum tomatoes. After the veggies softened, she added 2 cups of uncooked basmati rice. Stir for a couple of minutes. Add 1 cup canned diced tomatoes (with juice), 2 tbsps Ortega taco seasoning, and salt to taste. Cover pot and lower heat. Allow the rice to cook in the juice, until it fluffs to your liking. It should take about 10 minutes. You can add water or veggie broth to the rice if you like the rice fluffier, which is what my sister did.

Part B: THE BEANS

Buy frijoles negros (black beans, I know, but I like to pretend I'm cultured and a polyglot), wash them. Serve with rice!

Serve with shredded Monterey Jack, salsa (we use Taco Bell sauce!!), and finely sliced scallions. We love Taco Bell sauce in our family, so I strongly suggest using it- buuuuuuuut, I suppose you could use another type of sauce or salsa! : )

Holiday Cookies!

My sister, our friend Saylea, and I decided to watch all three Lord of the Rings movies and bake holiday cookies today! My sister and I love the LOTR movies, and Saylea had never seen them, so we felt the need to share the joy with her (we are in the spirit of the holidays, of course!) We ended up making three types of cookies and rice krispie treats, cause that's how long it took us to watch the trilogy of movies....
: ) On the left, there's a picture of all three kinds of cookies we made, aren't they pretty??


Cookie 1: Russian tea cakes

My sister made these cookies, and they are super good and super pretty. We actually picked this recipe in honor of my parents, because they love nuts!

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
serving size: 3 dozen cookies

Heat oven to 325F. Grind the pecans in a food processor or mini prep grinder. Mix ground nuts with flour, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Make 1 inch diameter balls from the dough. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until they are golden colored. There isn't a huge color change between the cooked and uncooked cookies, but there is a slight change, if you look carefully. I definitely think it is easier to look for slight cracks in the balls. Also, the cookies feel drier to touch when they were done. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes and then roll the cookies in powdered sugar two times (while the cookies are still warm.)

Note: You can also make these cookies with walnuts.

Cookie 2: Turtle Thumbprints

I absolutely love these cookies, and they are pretty easy to make. I would say, on a scale of easy to hard, that these cookies are between easy and medium difficult to make. They kinda take a long time to make because the recipe requires a refrigeration step in the middle. Also, the ingredients are sticky and messy, so it requires some patience, but it's definitely worth it!

Cookie:
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Filling:
15 caramels, unwrapped
3 tbsp heavy cream
24 pecans halves

Topping:
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp heavy cream
serving size: 2 dozen cookies

The first step is making the dough. Mix all the cookie ingredients, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 1 hour. After refrigerating the cookie batter, mold the batter into 1 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 375F. When you remove the cookies from the oven, make a small indent in the center of the cookies with a spoon. I tried making an indent in the cookies before baking them, but the indent filled itself in while it baked. I made an indent afterwards, which worked well too!

While the cookies are baking, prepare the filling and topping. Microwave the caramel and heavy cream for 30 seconds, and microwave the chocolate and heavy cream for 30 seconds in a separate bowl. Stir each bowl until they are smooth.

Assemble the cookies by spooning 1/2 tsp caramel on to the top of the cookie, add a pecan half on top of the caramel, and then drizzle chocolate on top. I didn't put a pecan on top of the cookies because I ran out of pecans, but I added a layer of chopped pecans under the chocolate layer instead of the whole pecan.

Cookie 3: Chocolate Snowcaps

These are the last cookies I made, and the recipe is based on a Martha Stewart recipe. The Martha version is called Chocolate Espresso Snowcaps, but I realized that we didn't have espress powder in our kitchen halfway through making the recipe... sooooooo, I changed the recipe, lol.


3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp skim milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix all the ingredients, except the powdered sugar. The dough should stick together prettty easily. If it is too liquidy, add a little all purpose flour. Roll into a big ball. Wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze for 45 minutes.

After the dough has hardened, remove from freezer. Roll into 1 inch bowls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Roll each ball in powdered sugar 2 times and then bake for 13 minutes in an oven preheated to 350F. SO PRETTY!

IN CONCLUSION...
Ashu, Saylea, and I took a vote on the cookies to see which ones we liked best....
Saylea: tie between the Russian tea cakes and the turtles
Ashu: tie between turtles and chocolate snow caps
Me: Russian tea cakes (I was in the mood for nuts)

But, as Saylea said, the cookie preferences really depend on your mood at the moment, because at the end of the night, she decided to vote for a 3-way tie between the cookies. I love cookies!

The Breakfast Club Part II

The other breakfast club post described a lot of the sweet things my kids and I made in class. I ended up making more savory dishes as the semester progressed, because I thought it would be fun to introduce the kids to different veggies' tastes and flavors.

My two favorite classes were when we made mini-frittatas and breakfast quesadillas. For both recipes, I bought lots of different veggies, including green, red, orange and yellow bell peppers; and red and yellow onions. I always think it's really interesting that kids have certain ideas about foods that are really inflexible, but they actually like the tastes of those same foods once they try it. For example, one of my girls said she hated onions, and she refused to try them. I convinced her to put some onions in some of her frittatas, and she ended up loving them after they were cooked, because they were sweet and delicious after being cooked! Of course, three classes later, she refused to admit she likes onions, but hey, baby steps!

Here are the recipes:

Mini Frittatas (40 mini frittatas)

8 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped orange bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped white onion

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix eggs, milk, pepper, salt with a metal whisk or a fork. Add the parmesan cheese to the mixture. Spray mini-muffin tins with non-stick oil spray, or use oil if you prefer. Fill each tin with the egg mixture until they are 1/2 full. Fill the remaining space with veggies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the eggs puff up and turn slightly brown.

Note: The best thing about this recipe is that the kids can customize every frittata! They can have themes, or color code, or do whatever their little hearts desire!

Breakfast Quesadillas

So, these are the easiest things to make, EVER! Basically, it's the same recipe as above, except without eggs, and with flour tortilla shells! So, here's what we did: I cut 8 inch flour tortilla shells into half, which made it easier to deal with after filling them. On one half, we layered the veggies (bell peppers, onions, grated zucchini), Monterey Jack cheese, a pinch of salt and pepper, and fresh lime juice. The fresh lime is the secret ingredient that really makes the quesadilla taste special, so don't skip it! If adults are eating these, add jalapeno peppers or banana peppers! Then, cover with the other half of the tortilla shell, and bake at 375F for 5 minutes, until the top is brown and the insides have melted/cooked.

We also made sweet breakfast quesadillas, which I thought were really cool! We layered one half of the tortilla shell with a few tablespoons of chunky applesauce, 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp brown sugar, 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese. Cover with the other half of the tortilla shell and bake at 375F for 5 minutes. So tasty! It's kind of like a really easy apple pie!

Ode to Cupcakes!

I love cupcakes! They're cute, they're tasty, they're amazing. What's not to like? And, I think it is time for me to admit that I love cupcakes made from a box. The lovely, delightful cupcakes pictured above are made from a supermarket brand lemon cake mix. Yum! I can appreciate gourmet masterpieces, as the cupcakes from Washington DC-based CakeLove are. But, at the end of the day, these cupcakes, with a little bit of vanilla frosting and a shake of round sprinkles make me happier than anything else in the world! YUM! As my big sister likes to say, "Don't hate, appreciate."

: )

Saag and Onion Rice

My sister made this fantastic dish for dinner tonight, so I thought I would blog it for her! She made saag, which translates to spinach, and a simple rice stir-fry to accompany it. You will find this dish at every North Indian restaurant, and it will be super heavy, since they typically use a large amount of heavy cream. My sister made a lighter version of the dish that tastes just as good, and won't require you to buy new pants every time you eat it! The saag dish is typically made with paneer, which is a type of Indian cheese. We decided not to use paneer in our dish because we weren't in the mood, but paneer would definitely add to the flavor of the dish, and make it fancier or more appropriate to serve to company.

Saag (Spinach)
2 boxes frozen spinach, chopped
1 red or white onion, chopped
1/4 cup light cream
2 tsp vegetable oil (or corn oil)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tomato, chopped
2-3 green chilies, chopped finely
1/2 red chili, chopped finely
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp tumeric
salt to taste
1/4 cup coriander, chopped
1 tbsp fresh lime juice

Add oil to a large pan at medium heat. When the oil gets hot, add the cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds begin to sizzle and brown, add the onions, tomatoes, and garlic. Once the onions gets translucent and the tomatoes soften a bit, add the spinach. At this point, try to burn off some of the liquid, so the dish gets a little dry. This should take a few minutes at medium heat. Remove half the mixture from the pan and place in the food processor. Pulse 3 times, and then return it to the pan. The purpose of doing this is to create a smooth texture for the dish. Next, add the garam masala, tumeric, ground coriander, and salt. Mix. Turn the heat to low and add the cream. Mix. Add lime juice. Turn off heat. Add coriander leaves as the final ingredient.

Note: This recipe can also be made with fresh spinach. We used frozen spinach because my sister wanted to try her friend's recipe, but fresh spinach will obviously work wonderfully as well! To do so, chopped the spinach roughly, blanch in hot water, and then proceed with the recipe as you would with frozen spinach.

Also, if you want to use paneer, you can either buy paneer at an Indian grocery store, or make it from scratch, which requires more effort. I've never made it, so I won't attempt to explain how it is done!

Rice with onion
2 cups cooked Basmati rice
1 white onion, chopped
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add cumin seeds when oil gets hot. Add the white onion and cook until they soften and brown slightly. Add the rice and stir on medium low heat for a few minutes.

So, the good thing about rice is that you can stir-fry it with almost anything and it will taste fantastic. The trick to making this dish is to avoid using the rice until it has cooled. If you try to make this dish with rice that has just been made, it will crumble in your frying pan. BUT, by waiting until the rice cools or by using leftover rice from the refrigerator, the dish cooks perfectly. If you use refrigerated rice to cook this dish, which I did, add a few tbsp of water to the pan to soften the rice while it is cooking! You could also add carrots, peas, etc.