black bean salad

My daughter has been asking for this recipe and I finally found it.

BLACK BEAN SALAD
Inspired by a recipe in a diet book
1 cucumber peeled, seeded, salted and left to drain
3 cans (4 ½ cups) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
2 roma tomatoes, cut in half, squeeze the juice into a separate bowl, dice
½ cup green onion, sliced thin
Combine the above ingredients in (except leave the cucumber to the very last, so it has more time to drain) large bowl.

3 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and diced to almost a paste.
½ cup chopped cilantro
5 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 drops tobasco
Combine the above 4 ingredients, then pour over salad, rinse and add cucumber and stir, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, then allow to come to room temperature to serve.
Salt to taste

Note: zap garlic in microwave a few seconds, it makes it easier to peel and smash.

We love this salad; Liz wanted to serve it at her wedding...I didn't get to it.

a cooking day

I spent my day cooking. The older scouts came over for their planning meeting and although they cooked their lunch I mixed up ground turkey with some onion, garlic, breadcrumbs and egg that turned out really tasty. (although I only ate 1 Tablespoon cooked.) Two lbs of ground turkey only made 5 teenager sized hamburgers. Then I made the fabulous pear pastry that I've blogged about before for my parents. Made a coleslaw with a vinegar and oil dressing. Then put together 2 pans of torn enchiladas (instead of wrapping the tortilla's around the filling I tore a layer for the bottom and top then added the typical sauce on top with cheese). The enchilada had a can of green enchilada sauce, 1 1/2 onion, 3 cloves of garlic (needed more), 2 cans of green chilies, a can of creamed corn (would prefer frozen but the can worked), a box of spinach, and can of black beans, cilantro and some sour cream. GOOD stuff!

ALICE WATER’S COLESLAW
Source: New York Times Magazine Story: Jason Epstein Cook: Alice Waters
Best American Recipes 2005 -2006 (I love this book!)
1 medium green cabbage (about 3 pounds), outer leaves removed
½ small red onion, cut in half through the stem, and thinly sliced
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1 large jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
3-4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
¼ - 1/3 cup olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons Maidon or other sea salt, plus more to taste (start with 1 teaspoon)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
Large pinch of sugar, or more to taste
Quarter the cabbage through the core; cut out the core. Cut the quarters cross- wise in half and, using a sharp knife, finely shred. Place the shredded cabbage in a very large bowl or pot (you’ll have about 5 ½ quarts). Add the onion, cilantro, and jalapeno to the cabbage. Toss to mix. Sprinkle with the lime juice, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and sugar, and toss to coat.
Let the slaw sit for 1 hour, tossing occasionally. Drain. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Wait another hour before serving at room temperature.

new salad

I tried another salad today, from the same cookbook; The Best American Recipes. It was a watermelon salad! The dressing was made with 1 1/2 cups seeded watermelon, mashed, strained and then the 1 cup watermelon juice was combined with the white part of one green onion (gently fried) and 1/2 cup vinegar and simmered until it was reduced to 3 T. Took a while but it didn't tend to stick so I mostly left it alone until done, then cooled it and combined it with salt, pepper and 1/4 cup olive oil. Serve the dressing over a square of cold watermelon, with lettuce-the recipe called for arugula (a spicy leaf) but it was very good on lettuce too, add some almond slices. very good.
I'm getting another sinus infection just in time for my trip to CA in 2 days.

crazy mom

I just learned a new thing the kids can do to make mom crazy. Steal my chair, so that when I, very calmly mind you, NEED to sit in front of the computer the rug is pulled out from under me and I see that there is no, new just bought for in front of the computer, chair. And there is no chair in the room. Or in adjacent room. Whew! A. brought the chair back, he narrowly missed be maimed for taking my chair. (This is a new aspect of my personality that has hidden from me for 50 years-pain to the chair taker- who knew?) He took it into the family room so that he could spin in it and not hit another piece of furniture; he thought to avoid pain by doing so...
I was sitting down to tell y'all about my day spent in the kitchen yesterday. I had signed up to bring a side dish and a dessert to the H.P. Group social last night. I couldn't come up with a side dish so I went perusing through a couple cookbooks in the Stone library. I had a couple criteria, I wanted the dishes to be something R. would eat. I found my 'Best American Recipes 2005-2006' cookbook. I love that book, so far everything I've tried has been good. I made 2 salads; Greek Radish Salad and Alice Water's Coleslaw. I had thought I might include the recipe here, but then I worried about copyright ..so I won't. the radish salad was good even though I don't like radishes, pairing the spiciness of the radish with the mellowness of feta cheese and the sweetness of pickled red onions was pretty good. Those that love radishes loved the salad. The coleslaw had no mayo and had cilantro, lime juice, and even a jalapeno, I actually put in 1/4 the pepper, but when I got home I put in more. I loved the coleslaw! But I love cilantro.
So all of you are wondering what I did for dessert, right? I needed a light dessert, not chocolate; since one of the women is allergic to chocolate. Again I surprise myself at how good it turned out. A package of raspberries mashed; folded into a container of Cool Whip Lite. Then spooned or piped into a shell. I bought 3 packages of phyllo tiny cups, then in half of them I put about a 1/4 teaspoon of melted white chocolate (leftover from Liz's wedding) very, very good. I had seen this done somewhere, without the chocolate and done with blackberries; finished with a fresh blackberry on top. (that's good, too, since I made a batch with blackberries but didn't have enough shells and really more would have been too many for our small group.) Guess what I'm eating for breakfast?