Quesadillas

Healthy or unhealthy, depending on what sort of ingredients you use. I don't think these are anything special, but they're a lot better than what I had at a local kosher restaurant.  When I order a quesadilla (entree) for $6, I don't want to get a plain white tortilla with some greasy cheese melted on top, thanks.

Anyway, I used:
"whole wheat" (though I doubt they were 100% whole wheat) tortillas about the size of my hand (from tip of my pinkie to the tip of my thumb)
canned black beans
jarred salsa
mozzarella cheese

Mash the beans, adding enough salsa to make the mixture clump together a bit. Don't entirely smoosh the beans, just mush them a little to make a coherent glop of stuff.
Heat up an ungreased frying pan. I've had success with Teflon and aluminum, and will try it in a cast iron skillet when I have a big enough one handy.

Lay a tortilla on the hot frying pan. Spread a layer of bean stuff on it--maybe 1 cm thick? Leave a little room around the edges so the filling doesn't spill out.
Spread a thin layer of salsa over the beans.
Sprinkle cheese over the salsa.
Lay a second tortilla over the whole thing, press slightly with a spatula, and wait for the bottom to get crispy. Flip, cook on other side until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is crispy. If the tortilla isn't crisp, it won't taste very good.

Put on plate, cut in quarters or smaller wedges, and serve with sour cream.

*Whole wheat really doesn't seem to make a difference in terms of taste or function, here, so it seems like a good choice. Usually I don't use whole wheat tortillas since they don't seem as pliable.

brownies

Last time I made brownies, I used the Brownies Cockaigne recipe from the old Joy of Cooking, and they didn't come out--in a big way. The ingredients separated out while they were baking, yielding a tray of...something...with a yellowish bottom and a dark chocolate colored top. I think the sugar was all in one of the layers as well. I'm not sure why that happened, but it could have been a few things--I substituted cocoa powder + oil for unsweetened chocolate squares (which I'd done with success before, but who knows). I used butter that was a bit old. I may have let the butter-chocolate mixture cool for too long. (In fact, I think that itself separated a bit before I mixed it with everything else.) I may have overbeaten the eggs.

That was my first brownie failure, but I figured I'd chronicle my brownie-making for a bit to avoid future failures. I make brownies because I want to be happy and have brownies to eat, not because I want to experiment. Failure doesn't mesh well with this.

Anyhoo, this time I followed a combination of the Joy of Cooking recipe and the classic one-bowl recipe from Baker's chocolate, which I've made with success before. Basically, I used the Joy of Cooking ingredient proportions and the Baker's instructions. Joy of Cooking wants you to beat the eggs with an electric mixer until they're fluffy. Baker's doesn't. I figured I'd try the easier, simpler directions first. If these don't come out the way I'd like, I'll move on.

What I did this time:

Preheated the oven to 350 °
Cracked 4 extra-large eggs into a bowl and let them warm up to probably less than room temperature
Melted 4 oz Ghirardelli 100% Cacao unsweetened baking bar + 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (which was kind of old and had been in the freezer) over the stove on very low heat (no double boiler) until just melted. I used a 3 qt pot.
Stirred in 2 cups of sugar and 1 tsp (real) vanilla and 1/4 tsp salt. I just put them directly into the pot I'd melted the chocolate and butter in.
Added the 4 eggs and stirred really really well with a fork. Used a spatula to make sure nothing was sticking to the bottom or sides of the pot, natch.
Stirred in 1 cup of unbleached white flour. Mixed a bit.
Poured the whole shebang into a 9x13 greased Pyrex and threw it into the oven. Which is where it is now. We'll see how it turns out.

And after ~32 minutes in the oven:

Respectable brownies, though nothing to write home about. Next time I'd like to get more of that flaky stuff that happens on top sometimes. Mmm.

"Black and White Salad"

Taken/modified from a post in the LJ community VegRecipes.
I'm not giving any proportions because I think it's the sort of thing you can eyeball or do to taste. To me, the main new/exciting thing about this dish is the amazingly delicious and complex flavor these four ingredients create.

• Kale (I used curly kale but would use un-curly kale in a heartbeat if it weren't so %$#@ hard to find around here.)
• Cooked white cannellini or navy beans (I used a can of cannellini, drained and rinsed)
  
• cloves of garlic
• fresh tomatoes

Wash the kale. Chop into small pieces. Cook in oil in heavy-bottomed pot or big frying pan until slightly limp or however you'd like to eat it. Dump in beans. Crush garlic in garlic press and dump into pot. Stir. Mush the beans a little, add a little water if desired, heat through. Chop tomato into bite-sized pieces. Add to kale/bean mixture. Stir. Eat.

Chocolate Dump Cake/Wacky Cake

Some people mix this in the (ungreased) baking pan. I think it's a pretty fast, easy recipe even if you use a separate bowl, and I think the tiny additional effort is worthwhile.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 TBS vinegar
2 cups water

Combine dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredients, mix well, dump into greased 9x13 pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (or until done) at 350°F.

Black-eyed beans with mushrooms

From Madhur Jaffrey's terrific book Indian Cooking, with very very slight changes

8 oz dried black-eyed beans, washed and drained
2 pints water
8 oz fresh mushrooms, chopped through the stems (1/8" thick)
6 TBS veg oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 med-to-large onion peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
14 oz tomatoes peeled and chopped (I didn't peel them because I'm a lazy bastard)
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp salt try using less --1.5 was slightly too much
ground black pepper
3 TBS chopped fresh parsley

Place beans and water in pot. Bring to boil, cover, turn down heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, let sit for 1 hour. (I did this last night so I could prepare everything else while the beans were actually cooking the next day)

Bring beans to a boil again, cover and turn down heat, simmer for 20-30 minutes or til tender.

[meanwhile] Put oil in frying pan over med-high heat (I used a heavy-bottomed pot that can serve as one.) When hot, put in the cumin seeds and cinnamon stick. Let sizzle for 5-6 seconds, then add onions and garlic. Stir & fry until the onions turn brown at the edges. Add mushrooms, stir/fry til they wilt. Add tomatoes, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne pepper. Stir/cook for a minute, then cover and turn heat to low. Allow mixture to cook in its own juices for 10 minutes. Turn off frying pan.

Add mushroom mixture to bean mixture (or as I did, add the beans to the mushroom mixture - that's where the heavy-bottomed pot used in place of a frying pan comes in handy - so that you can sort of deglaze the pan and get any of the nice oils from the cooked onions/mushrooms/spices.) Add salt, black pepper, and parsley. Stir, bring to a simmer, and cook uncovered on med-low heat for 30 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

I felt like it could use something sharp/sour (like lemon juice) as a counterpoint, but haven't tried it.

Update: I made this for the second time, many years later, with the following modifications: maybe 1/4 tsp of cinnamon instead of the stick, and a bunch of cumin powder instead of the cumin seed. (I just added these after sauteeing the onion & garlic for a bit.) I also used fresh tomatoes this time, very overripe, probably closer to 1.5 lbs. It was really delicious this time.

Black Bean Wraps

Recipe from Giant Food's website/weekly circular, with modifications

They say to microwave each wrap on high for 1 minute, but we ate them cold. It's a nice -cold- summer dish that doesn't involve heating up an oven or standing over a stovetop.

9 oz. fresh baby spinach
8 (8-inch) tortillas
1 (19 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 avocados, pitted and sliced
1/2 cup salsa
Sour cream, grated cheddar cheese (optional)

Divide and layer spinach among tortillas. Combine black beans, tomatoes, avocados and salsa in a bowl. Divide the bean mixture among the tortillas. Fold in the ends and then roll to close. Serve with sour cream and cheddar cheese if desired.

They say to microwave each wrap on high for 1 minute, but we ate them cold.

Lentil Soup

My own variation of it. Nothing spectacular.

saute with salt:

3 carrots, sliced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped

add
1 cup frozen spinach
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb lentils (I use pardina/Spanish lentils when I can find them)
water
chopped parsley to taste

Cook gently for 40 minutes to an hour.