Sign Up for the Weekly Catch-Up!

The best of the blog, in your inbox.

The Kitchen Recessionista

So, here we are, in a recession. Let's eat!

Pantry Cleanout: Stuffed Bell Peppers.

by

stuffed-bell-peps

OK, OK, so this isn’t as much of a pantry cleanout as it is a freezer cleanout, but for the sake of simplicity, I labeled it as the former. It’s the same principle, just another type of pantry!

A month or so ago, I made up a big batch of stuffed bell peppers – about 24, to be exact – for a dinner party. I didn’t expect our guests to eat them all – there were only about 14 people in total – but I wanted to be prepared for big appetites. And, of course, I wanted to be prepared to bring some home to stick in the freezer for nights just like this one! I love it when a plan comes together!

I’ve used the same bell pepper recipe for years, having found it on VegWeb a thousand centuries ago. The only thing I do differently is boil the peppers before stuffing them; my mother taught me this. Boiling them for just a few minutes gives the peppers a softer skin and a better texture in the end! With 24 peppers to plow through, I tripled the recipe, but no matter; it’s incredibly easy to add or subtract portion sizes with this lineup of ingredients! You really can’t hurt it.

Anyway, at the end of the dinner party, I sealed up several zip-top bags’ worth of peppers and stuck them in the freezer for later use. Tonight, with LeeLee away at a meeting, I pulled out two to heat up for my own personal version of a TV dinner!

If you’re in a pinch, you can microwave these peppers from frozen, but I’d recommend heating them the old-fashioned way in the oven if you have the time to do so. The final product turns out much better, and the textures are spot-on. (The microwaved version can be a little rubbery, truth be told, after a stint in the freezer.) Heat your oven to a high temperature – I was hungry tonight, so I bumped mine up to 450 degrees! – and place the peppers in an oven-safe dish. I used a regular 8-by-8 glass Pyrex pan tonight. Then heat them for 30-40 minutes, checking on them after half an hour.

Next, it was time to dig in! And what a treat – all the flavors and ingredients of a perfect stuffed pepper without any of the hard work! I could get used to this sort of pantry cleanout. Wonder what else is lounging around at the back of the freezer? ;)

:)

Old Faithful.

by

vegan-black-beans-rice

This week’s recipes have been quite the walk down memory lane! First ramen with Rotel last night and Old Faithful (aka black beans and rice) tonight – it’s been a wonderful week of catching up with old culinary friends!

Though this is a staple in our menu plan, it never gets old. Each time I make it, I try to put a little spin on the dish, adding a topping or substituting a mainstay for something more exciting. Tonight, I was out of sliced black olives, so I substituted a can of diced green chilies as a topping instead, and we both loved the result! With those chilies plus some leftover salsa, fresh Daiya pepperjack shreds, and half of a diced onion, we were living in high style, thank you very much.

The rice cooker did its job in the allotted 30 minutes, and the black beans heated up just perfectly (I added some adobo seasoning for good measure). The two leftover Morningstar Farms chik’n patties from last night were perfectly piping-hot by the time dinner was ready, and I’ve already discussed the toppings, which were plentiful and tasty. In short, we feasted! Even on a night when LeeLee was working late and I had some errands to run after my own workday was done, we were able to sit down to a healthy, hearty dinner without having to give in and visit the fast-food line. Another win in the book!

:)

Ramen With Rotel.

by

ramen-rotel

Now here’s a recipe that used to be a mainstay in our repertoire, but that we haven’t enjoyed in ages and ages! Ramen with Rotel – plus a chik’n patty – is always a filling, easy, tasty meal to make when one is short on time and, perhaps, patience in the kitchen. That makes it perfect for tonight!

I dropped by the animal shelter on the way home from work for an hourlong volunteer stint in the cat room, where I spent a good amount of time cuddling with and baby-talking to about a dozen of my favorite felines. One of my current besties is this fellow, Chester, who started out so shy and timid but has now blossomed into a little social butterfly:

chester

Hey, Handsome!

It amazes me how downright relaxing my time at the shelter can be. I know, I know – “relaxing” isn’t necessarily the first adjective that comes to mind when you think of an animal shelter. But this one really is (at least for much of the time). There’s just something about sitting on the floor in a kennel with a cat on your lap that sort of puts the rest of the world into perspective, you know? And then to come back a week later and see that your buddy’s been adopted and that there’s now a new buddy in his place, well – it does a heart good.

Anyway, by the time I arrived home post-shelter (and fed my own Wonder-Cat), I was very hungry and also ready to relax for a few minutes. Enter: Ramen with Rotel!

All this dish requires in order to achieve perfection is a two-minute stint in the microwave to heat up the chik’n patties, and then about five and a half minutes to heat up a microwaveable bowl of two ramen packets (minus the seasoning), one can of Rotel (to be honest, we used Harris Teeter brand tonight), and about half a can’s worth of water. Once everything is heated through, I stirred the ingredients thoroughly, added a pat of butter and a dose of nutritional yeast, and divided the servings between LeeLee’s plate and my own!

I’m pleased to say that I haven’t lost my touch, either. We both mowed down our helpings and found ourselves pining for more. There was no more to be had, but no matter; a helping of dessert trifle settled the score just beautifully.

:)

Daiya Margherita Pizza With Salad.

by

daiya-margherita-pizza

Well, friends, things are calming down again somewhat this week. Easter has been celebrated and the feast has been enjoyed. Our relatives have returned home after a joyful, bustling week in the D.C. area. Work is, well, maybe not settling down, but at least steadily plugging right along. And as of tonight, the curtain is closing on March Madness and all its excitement.

It’s enough to make a girl sleep in such that she’s forced to squeeze in an extra-speedy run before work, thereby missing the opportunity to cobble together something in the slow cooker for Crock-Pot Monday!

Thank goodness for frozen pizzas is all I have to say. We generally keep an emergency pizza in the freezer for just such an occasion, and tonight we called it into service. We hadn’t tried Daiya’s margherita pizza before, and I was super-excited to do so; their pizzas only seem to be getting better and better over time, and this one looked like one of their best yet. (Obligatory disclosure: I have not been compensated by Daiya in any way, nor do they know who I am.) So, in a rush as usual between work and tai chi class, I tossed the pizza into the oven and, while it baked, tossed a salad to go alongside.

Now, in fairness, I didn’t preheat the oven – who has the time? – so the bake time went about 20 minutes rather than the 10-15 minutes recommended on the box. But when it was ready, we sliced it into eight pieces, placed a couple each on our plates, and dug in!

Our judgment: Fantastic! We both loved the blend of cheese styles, from a mozzarella shred to some little provolone-like rounds that sat atop the crust. The sauce was flavorful, the crust was crunchy, and the diced tomatoes added a great texture. In the end, we both enjoyed three slices – and could’ve easily gone back for more. Paired with a simple salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and Daiya mozzarella, it was a filling meal that definitely left us wanting an encore.

And as for that Crock-Pot meal? We’ll enjoy that later on this week, when time is of the essence yet again!

:)

Happy Easter!

by

easter-2015

LeeLee and I feasted like royalty today on a table teeming with Quorn roast, Watergate salad, potato salad, green-bean casserole, crescent rolls, and apple rings — washed down with a glass of champagne for good measure and a hearty helping of fruit trifle for dessert. An excellent time was had by all!

:)

 

Crock-Pot Monday: Shortcut “Sausage”-Corn Chowder.

by

shortcut-chowder

Wait a second, I can hear you saying, index finger raised in the air to accentuate the point. Today isn’t Crock-Pot Monday. It’s not even Monday.

You’re right. And I offer only three words in response: Family is visiting.

We did in fact enjoy a Crock-Pot creation last night, and I am in fact blogging about it now, a full day after the blessed event occurred. Because after dinner (and my tai chi class) last night, we all had such a fun time touring the Alexandria waterfront and then catching up on the rest of the day’s at their hotel that by the time I came home at the ripe old time of 11 o’clock, I simply collapsed into bed.

So. Here we are. Shortcut vegetarian sausage-corn chowder!

I’ve made the regular recipe for this chowder a hundred times, and blogged about it fairly often, I know. But yesterday, time was certainly at a premium, and I had only a few minutes to throw something into the slow cooker before dashing off to work! Hence the shortcuts – which worked just perfectly, I’ve gotta say.

As usual, I added a batch of sliced breakfast soy-sausage links to the Crock-Pot along with two cans of corn (one kernel, one creamed) and a hearty dose of basil, salt, and pepper. But where I’d usually add hand-diced onion and potatoes, I went the shortcut route instead and replaced those ingredients with dried minced onion and two cans of sliced new potatoes. Then I topped the whole thing with two cups of water, as usual, and cooked the chowder for about nine hours.

Once I got home from work, I added a can of evaporated milk to the slow cooker, stirred it around, and waited for the chowder to heat through. Then LeeLee and I dug in – and we were thrilled by how the shortcut turned out!

The potatoes held up just perfectly – no mushiness at all, which I admit I was slightly nervous about. And though we missed the texture of the diced onion, the dried minced onion added a nice flavor in its place. The rest of the chowder was perfectly on par with previous renditions, so we had nothing at all to complain about there!

Will I always employ the shortcut method for my sausage-corn chowder from now on? No way. I love the process – and the end result – of dicing vegetables and taking the extra time to do it by hand. But when days are packed and time is short, this shortcut chowder fits the bill in a jiffy. I love when a kitchen experiment pans out in the end!

:)

Sunday Dessert: Pecan Pie.

by

pecan-pies

First of all, I recognize that this point in the week is typically a Sunday Cookout day, not a Dessert day. But our usual Sunday cookout was preempted this week by visiting family – and, I should add, visiting family who treated LeeLee and me to dinner – so I don’t have much to report on that front. What I do have to report on is the double dose of pecan pie that has given the house a wonderful aroma and has led me to show amazing self-restraint (if I do say so) by not digging in to one of them by the fistful as they cool on the counter.

I can’t believe I haven’t brought you this pecan pie recipe before. It comes from LeeLee’s grandmother Hazel, and it’s by far one of the best dessert recipes in my arsenal. And it’s so very easy to make – a bonus when you’re short on time but have promised to deliver two pies to church tomorrow!

The detailed recipe is below, but the crux of the matter is thusly: Put butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and then cream them together until they’re fluffy. Then add a bottle of Karo syrup, a pinch of salt, six eggs, and two cups of pecans – letting everything blend together nicely before adding the nuts – and then pour the wonderful results into two pie crusts. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so, and you’re golden!

Whenever I make this pecan pie recipe, I picture Grandma Hazel whipping up the same dessert in her kitchen. Now, I never knew Hazel – she passed away about two decades ago, long before LeeLee and I met – but through this recipe I have such a strong mental image of how she talked, moved, cooked. Though I’ve never heard her voice, I imagine it to be sturdy, authoritative, yet kind, with a North Carolina lilt to it. And her pecan pies? Well. I imagine them to be fantastic: silky smooth, teeming with flavor, just the right amount of sweet and salty.

Isn’t it funny how all it takes is a recipe to feel closer to someone you’ve never met? C’mon, we all do it, whether it’s an affinity for the Pioneer Woman or a kinship with a long-lost relative. Just reading recipes written in Hazel’s longhand makes me feel like I know her, like we would’ve been friends. Perhaps, through her pecan pie, we already are friends. Isn’t that a lovely thought?

What recipes bring out those sorts of feelings for you? Spill the beans in the comments.

Meantime, here’s the recipe!

GRANDMA HAZEL’S PECAN PIE
Makes two pies

What you’ll need:

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 bottle Karo or other dark corn syrup
1 pinch salt
6 eggs
2 cups pecan halves
2 pie shells

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer or large bowl until fluffy. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, add in the bottle of corn syrup and a pinch of salt until combined. Next, add the eggs, one a time, ensuring each one is fully integrated into the batter as you go.

Add the pecan halves and stir gently to combine. Then pour the batter evenly into two pie shells and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes (start watching the pies at 40 minutes and don’t let them go past about 50!). The pecan pie filling will usually rise pretty high and still be a little moist, but no matter. Take them out of the oven to cool and they’ll sink down and firm up in no time.

Slice into the pie and enjoy! And lift a fork to Hazel when you do.

:)