Spencer's Dominican Mexican Black Beans

• Heat Olive Oil in a pan
• Smash and sautee 3-4 garlic cloves
• Saute about 1/3 of large onion, chopped
• Saute fresh oregano, about 2 tablespoons
• Less than 1 half of a small jalepeno diced, no seeds
• Dash of salt
• 1 can of black beans, not drained
• About 1 teaspoon of hot sauce
• Cook on medium to medium high heat for a few minutes
• Reduce heat to low until the beans are a good texture.  
• Sprinkle chopped cilantro over the top, about 3 large sprigs

Serve over rice.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I saw this article on Slate and was very intrigued since we love spinach artichoke dip but never found "the one" recipe that was amazing.  This recipe is amazing, and I like that it's sort of scientific about why it's so good.

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1½ cups grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
Salt and black pepper
1 pound frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and roughly chopped (I used 2 cans)
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine all ingredients except artichoke hearts and spinach in food processor and pulse until well mixed.  Add spinach and pulse a few more times.  Add artichoke hearts and pulse until desired consistency is reached.  Bake in an 8x8 baking dish for 20 minutes, or until brown and bubbly.

Tomato Soup

Legend goes that my mom got this recipe from one of my dad's co-workers probably about 2 decades ago.  It is a bit "labor intensive" as my mom says and only worth doing when tomatoes are at their peak-usually around this time of year.  As such, my dad has always expressed his opinion that it "tastes like fall".  There is something about the combination of flavors that really does taste like fall-or maybe that's just the association.  It freezes very well, so you can taste fall well into winter-if it lasts that long.  I left my mom's very useful notes at the bottom.  Since she has made the soup for so many years I think she has it perfected.

Tomato Soup

3/4 Cup butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion thinly sliced

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

3 pounds ripe tomatoes seeded and cut in a rough dice*

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 cup flour

4 cups chicken broth (use 2 cans or (1)  1 quart container)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup heavy cream

Heat one half cup of the butter with the olive oil in a heavy kettle.  Add the onion and cook until onion is tender but not browned.

Add the thyme, basil, salt, pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste.  Simmer 10 minutes.

Mix flour with half of the broth and stir into the tomato mixture.  Cook to blend then add the rest of the broth and cook 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Pass the mixture through the finest blade of a food mill or through a fine sieve.  (you can certainly blend it or put it in a food processor)  Reheat and stir in the sugar and cream.  Do not boil.   Swirl in the remaining butter.

*If you cut the tomatoes crosswise in half you can squeeze out the seeds and just dice the remainder.  Very important to squeeze out the seeds if you are going to blend the soup.  You don’t have to get all of the seeds but most. 

Notes:

Since tomatoes vary so much in taste, I usually hold off on how much cream to add, typically only 1/2 cup is enough and I almost never add the extra 1/4 cup of butter.  Also if the tomatoes are not very acidic I might add 1-2 teaspoons of a good white wine vinegar to add complexity.  You just have to taste it to know.

Pizza

A few months ago I posted a picture of my favorite pizza on Facebook and my blog and received many comments from people wanting the recipe.  It has taken me a while to write this down because I improvised the topping from my mom's famous Panzanella.  I have carefully tried to figure out the proportions as I've made it again, but I still don't have exact measurements.  I still have to say taste as you go.  The pizza dough (which is based off Lydia Bastianich's recipe) is fantastic, but it requires a bit of advanced prep because it needs to rise over night in the fridge.  I would say it is worth every bit of work because it is as good if not better than any pizza crust I've tasted.

Pizza Dough:
6 cups bread flour (can substitute all-purpose)
2 tsp active dry yeast (not instant)
3 tsp kosher salt
2 cups warm water
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) for greasing bowl

Directions:

• Mix flour, salt, and yeast together in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.  While mixer is on medium speed, slowly add 2 cups of warm water and let mix for about 30 seconds until the dough just starts to come together in a ball.  Swap out the mixing paddle for dough hook and mix on medium speed for another 30 seconds or so. *Note, this part can be done by hand if you don't have a mixer.  In fact, the original recipe calls for mixing by hand but I found it to be a lot less work and the results are better with a mixer.  At the end of this point, sometimes there is a little bit of flour that still doesn't mix in, so I just kneed it in by hand in the next part. 
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and kneed for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and springy.
• Coat a bowl (I use my mixer bowl) with a bit of EVOO, put the dough in the bowl, cover with a slightly damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours-or until doubled in size.
• After the dough has risen, punch the dough down and divide into 6 even balls.  Place on a cookie sheet and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Put cookie sheet in the fridge and let rise for about 20-24 hours.  I make the dough usually about 9 or 10 and night and then serve it for dinner the next day about 5:30 or 6.  I have also made the dough at 9 or 10 am and then served it for dinner at 6 with success.
• After the second rise, you can either stretch and shape the dough or you can wrap tightly in plastic wrap, put in a freezer bag, and freeze.  Each ball yields about an 8-10 inch pizza.  Our family usually needs 3 pizzas to feed our voracious pizza appetites.  

   Topping and Baking:

• Place a pizza stone in cold oven and preheat to 475 degrees.  If your oven does convect, preheat to 450 convection (this is my favorite way to bake the pizza).
• On a pizza peel or cutting board, stretch the dough gently until it is about 8-10 inches in diameter, or until the thickness suites you.  The dough doesn't rise very much during the baking process, so if you make it very thin, it will stay very thin.  I've stretched the dough extremely thin and left it not so thin and it is fantastic all ways, so it's up to your taste.  
• If you have a pizza peel, top the pizza, if you don't have a pizza peel, wait to top the pizza until you put the dough on the pizza stone.  The dough is not very sturdy and you will lose the toppings otherwise.
• Return, pizza, toppings, and stone to the oven and bake for 8 minutes.

Pizza Toppings or My Favorite Pizza

• There are so many different ways I like this pizza: plain tomato sauce and cheese, white, Margherita (sliced tomatoes, garlic, mozzarella, and basil), meat, veggies, etc. but my very favorite is the following (if you are familiar with my mom's Panzanella, it's the inspiration for this topping)
• After forming the dough, brush with EVOO and layer with slices of good, fresh mozzarella.  Leave a little bit of bare dough between slices of the fresh mozzarella as it melts differently than shredded mozzarella.  You can also use shredded mozzarella if you wish.  Sprinkle with a little good Parmesan or Romano cheese, especially get the edges of the crust.
• Bake the pizza as directed above. 
• While the pizza is baking, make the following to top the pizza:
• 1 10 oz container of cherry or grape tomatoes cut into quarters OR equivalent diced tomatoes.  Salt tomatoes with about 1-1 1/2 tsp kosher salt.
• Pour about 1 to 2 TBS EVOO
• Press 2 medium to large garlic cloves through a garlic press into the EVOO.
• Mix together, taste, add more of any of the previous ingredients to taste.
• Add 1/2 to 1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar and 1 + tsp Balsamic Vinegar.  Mix, taste, adjust according to your preferences.
• Snip 5-10 fresh basil leaves into the mix.
• Slice and serve pizza, pass around the tomatoes for topping. 

So there you have it, if you have any other questions or it just isn't working our for you, please let me know. 

Quinoa-2 Variations

I love quinoa so much, I'm not sure how I lived life before I knew it existed 2 years ago.  My mom makes these two fantastic salads with quinoa and even though similar recipes exist on Pinterest, these predate Pinterest.  The Tabbouleh like quinoa is fantastic when served with hummus and bread.  I like to eat both with grilled chicken.

"Tabbouleh" Mediterranean Quinoa
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, uncooked
• 3 cups liquid to cook quinoa (I like to use low sodium chicken broth or half water)
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced-to taste
• 6 green onions, sliced thin-more or less to taste
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 whole, large cucumber, quartered and sliced thin
• 1/2-1 bunch Italian flatleaf parsley, chopped-to taste
• about 2-3 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

• Rinse quinoa and add to pot with liquid.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa looks fluffy.  Cool in the fridge
• Chop and prepare veggies.  Add to a large bowl with salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil.  Taste mix and adjust seasonings as desired.  There should be plenty of liquid to act as a dressing for the quinoa, if there isn't, add more lemon juice and/or olive oil.  Add cooled quinoa and mix to coat with dressing.  You can skip the parsley and it will still be delicious, just less like a real Tabbouleh. 

Mexican Quinoa

• 1 1/4 cups quinoa
• 2 1/2 cups liquid (1 can chicken broth + 1/2 cup water)
• Juice of 1 1/2 limes
• 4 green onions, sliced thin
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 -1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 1/2 avocados, diced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Rinse quinoa and combine with water in a pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy. Cool in the fridge or leave warm-both ways are good.
• Chop veggies and combine in a bowl.  Add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.  Taste the mix and adjust seasonings as needed.  Add more tomatoes, avocados, or whatever you like.  Mix with quinoa and serve.  Delicious with black beans and corn, over lettuce, with grilled chicken, on top of tortilla chips, etc.

Raspberry Cheesecake Oatmeal

I found this recipe on Pinterest a month or so ago and I've made it at least 3 times.  It is amazing.  I think it could be dessert, but it's breakfast.  It really doesn't have very much sugar either which is awesome.  So, even though I have it on Pinterest, I feel that I need to put it down on this blog, in case the web address ever goes away.  I would be very sorry to lose this recipe.  It's from Fitness magazine and the link is here

Raspberry Cheesecake Oatmeal

Ingredients
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup water, unsweetened almond milk, or skim milk
1/2 mashed medium banana
Splash of vanilla
2 tablespoons cream cheese (softened for 5 second in microwave)
1 teaspoon powdered sugar (more or less to taste)
Squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
1 tablespoon raspberry preserves
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine oats, water or milk, banana, and vanilla and pour into nonstick sprayed baking dish.
2. Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon juice. Put into plastic bag, snip off one end and squeeze into two horizontal lines on top of oatmeal. Put raspberry preserves in another plastic bag and squeeze two horizontal lines in between the cream cheese.
3. Drag knife up and down through lines to create a swirl. Bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Chicken Tacos and Refried Blackbeans

Since Spencer lived in Mexico, he is very particular about Mexican food.  He can tolerate a little bit of Tex-Mex (alla Cafe Rio), but mostly he wants it authentic.  My friend Anna made these refried black beans when we first moved to D.C. and Spencer talked about them for 2 years before I finally got the recipe and made them.  Anna got the recipe from a Latina friend, so they are indeed authentic, if not exact in the amounts and time.  The taco recipe I invented after a few recipes that didn't quite have what I wanted.  The brown sugar does not make the meat sweet, rather I added it to take off the bitter edge of the chili powder and lime juice  Serve with corn tortillas, salsa, avocado, cheese, chopped onions and cilantro, and you have a delicious taco dinner.  As an alternative, you can serve the chicken in tortas, or sandwiches.  Put the meat on sandwich rolls, spread with the black beans, add avocado, cheese, and red onion.

Chicken Tacos:

• 1 1/2 pounds chicken (about 6 medium chicken breasts)
• 3-4 medium garlic cloves roughly chopped
•  
• 1 Tbs chili powder
• 3 Tbs lime juice
• 1 Tbs brown sugar

• Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the crock pot.  Mix the lime juice, chili powder and brown sugar together.  Pour over the chicken.  Sprinkle with the garlic.  Cook until done (time varies by crock pot) and then shred.

Black Beans

• 1 can black beans, or 2 cups dried beans that have been soaked.
• Onion, chopped (I like about 1/2 an onion, and in fact I once made these with no onion and they were still delicious).
• Garlic, chopped (I like 2-3 medium cloves)
• Cumin, to taste (I like very little cumin, but I don't really love cumin to begin with so I use maybe 1/4 teaspoon)
• Chili powder, to taste (I use maybe 1/4 to a half teaspon)
• Something tomato-y (Anna says her friend used whatever she had that was open and aviable: tomato sauce, tomato paste, salsa, etc.  My favorite is to use a little Jack's Special Salsa from Costco).

Directions::

• With a little bit of oil in the bottom of a saute pan, heat to medium heat.  Add onion and saute for a few minutes, until soft.  Just before the onions are done, add the garlic and saute together.
• Meanwhile, puree the black beans in a blender or food processor, adding water, until they are very soupy.  Add the black beans to the pan.
• Add seasoning and stir together.
• Simmer on low to medium heat until the beans have thickened and all the flavors have melded.  Taste as you go and adjust seasoning as needed.

These black beans are so awesome I make them all the time to add to various dishes.  For a vegetarian option, I once made Onion Rice, substituting quinoa for the rice and adding in a little chili powder and tomato paste with the onions.  It made an excellent mock ground beef to serve over a taco salad.

Black Bean Hummus

I found this recipe on a website called Weelicious that has kid friendly but different recipes. I really like a lot of her recipes, but I often find that they are less flavorful than we like (maybe to appeal to kids?). I tend to add more of whatever seasoning she's using and even a little spice, like hot pepper. She also is way more conservative about sugar than I am. I note this so that if you happen to wander over to the website and think some of the food looks crazy, just note that I substitute sugar for agave and I'm not afraid to make things tastier. All in all, she provides a good base for starting. With all this said, this black bean hummus recipe is excellent-with a few additions.

1/3 Cup Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 Small Garlic Clove * I use 2 medium to large cloves
1 15 Oz Can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Water *As my other hummus recipe recommends, I use the liquid from the beans
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon * or more
1/2 Tsp Cumin
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Cilantro, chopped (you can use the stems — they have tons of flavor) *I use about 1/3 cup

*I also add 1/4 tsp of chili powder and a few sprinkles of hot red pepper flakes

1. Place the pepitas in a dry sauté pan and toast over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until the pepitas start to turn golden.
2. Place the pepitas and garlic clove in a food processor and pulse for 1 minute.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and puree until smooth.

Lentil Soup

This recipe is from my mom, who is the best cook I know. Even if lentil soup doesn't sound appealing to you, try this one because it will change your mind. It's easy, fast, flavorful and cheap. When my son was starting solids, it was one of the only foods he would eat! * My mom doesn't always measure exactly, so many of these ingredients and to taste. You just have to try it. However, this is what she gave me and this is how I make it and it's always really great.

Ingredients:

2 cups of lentils (one pound package) I like Goya Brand

be sure to wash them---swish them in a bowl of water and then drain in a sieve

1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (or a combination of shallots, and leeks and onions)

Onions are what I usually use. Leeks etc. are if I want to be creative or I want to use up some odds and ends of veggies.

3 or 4 chopped garlic cloves (can add some whole garlic cloves into boiling mix if you want, too)

2 medium carrots peeled and trimmed and sliced or diced

1 large or 2 medium celery stalks diced including leaves

1 or 2 bay leaves

8-10 cups of chicken broth

3 tbs. olive oil

Saute onions and celery and carrots in oil over medium to low heat until veggies are softened. Add garlic and saute one or two minutes more.

Add Chicken broth and lentils bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Add about 1/4 cup of chopped parsley.

Can add three or four sliced scallions including some of the green part

Salt and pepper to taste

I always add a splash of olive oil onto the finished soup for brightness and flavor.

To make this extra yummy do the following:

Mix two tablespoons of soft butter with two tablespoons of flour into a soft paste. Stir the mix into the boiling lentils in spoonfuls stirring to incorporate. (This is called a beurre manie’ meaning kneaded butter.) It can be incorporated into a boiling liquid very easily and serves as a thickener. Just be sure to simmer for another 3 or 4 minutes to take away the raw taste of the flour. It is what I did when I heated up the soup in your apt the first time.

Variations: You can add some canned chopped tomatoes as part of the liquid or add a tablespoon of tomato paste. You can cook some elbow macaroni or rice to add to the finished soup. Serve as is or stir some spinach leaves into the hot soup. Can add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice.

And I read one recipe that adds ground cumin and some chili powder.