"Refried" beans and salsa

Canned beans have come a long way since I was a kid; they now have a much better flavor. I keep a few cans on hand in the pantry for meal emergencies, but for the most part I make my own beans.

Ask 10 people how they make their beans and you'll get 10 different answers. Here's what I do.

Put the cleaned, rinsed, and drained beans in a large pot; cover with water at least 1/2 inch past the beans. Cover the pot, put it over high heat on the stove and let it come to a boil. Then lower the heat and let the beans simmer, stirring every hour or so, till tender and done. I usually do a taste test about 3 hours into it and keep tasting every half hour or so till they're done. The more beans you make, the longer it takes. Add more water as needed to keep the level consistent (I learned that lesson the hard way...burned beans are not fun to clean off the pot!).

Refried beans usually means to fry up the cooked beans in a pan with a bit of oil on the bottom. It's time consuming and messy. Instead just use your blender or food processor and give the beans a whirl. You can do this right after the beans are cooked or let them cool to room temperature or even overnight in the fridge first. Whatever you have time for. Anyhow, add some of the bean liquid to loosen up the beans so they'll process to the desired thickness. If you let the beans cool overnight in the fridge you'll need even less of the bean juice. Season up with salt and voila!

You could cook up your beans in the crockpot, but I prefer stovetop beans. The water never really comes up to a boil in the slowcooker, and then the beans don't seem to "move around" as much as they do on the stove. They also seem to absorb more water in the slowcooker than they do on the stove, but they don't cook up as quickly. It's handy for days when you can't be at home to babysit the beans, though.

Beans freeze really well, whether they're boiled whole or whirled in the blender. You can also prolong mashed beans' fridge life if you cook them up in a pan every few days. It's an old trick my mom's aunt used to swear by. It works. Let them come up to a boil and stir them well. The beans are as fresh as they were when they were first cooked and supposedly any ill after-effects of beans are, uh, eliminated after this (having grown up eating beans all my life...I can't say for certain if it works or not).

I prefer a more soupy salsa over the pico de gallo styles. I never seem to have all the ingredients on hand to make this at home as much as I'd like to.

1 bunch cilantro, tough stems removed
1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts, roughly cut
1 peeled clove garlic
1 large can diced tomatoes, undrained
chile pepper...how much and what variety is entirely up to you. I've used the very mild small yellow chile peppers, serrano chiles, and jalapenos at some point or another. Depending on who I'm making the salsa for I sometimes take the seeds and membranes out. I generally use 1 whole chile pepper per batch
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in the blender and give a whirl till everything's comined and it's the consistency you'd like. You could probably use a food processor too, but my blender is much faster.

The only way I know how to tone down the heat factor is to make more salsa without the chile and then combine the 2. But it keeps in the fridge for a while.

Chicken Enchiladas with Rice and 'Calabacitas'

For my first dinner swap, I made Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce (recipe from my "Cover and Bake" cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, my cooking religion). I'm not going to type out the whole recipe, but it really is simple so if you want a copy, I'd be happy to pass it on. Rolling the enchiladas was a breeze; by lightly coating the tortillas with cooking spray and warming them in a 300 degree oven for 4 minutes, they were super easy to work with.

As for the rice, I sauteed some chopped onion (half an onion for the 3 cups of rice) in oil, and when soft, I added the rice, minced garlic (2-3 cloves per cup of rice), salt, and cumin and cooked that a bit together. When the rice starts to get a tiny bit darker, I added chicken broth (2 cups per cup of rice), and tomato sauce (a little more than a cup for the 3 cups of rice I made... it was what I had left after the enchiladas). And simmered for 20-25 minutes. I think I used too much salt, I'm going to blame that on tripling an ingredient that didn't need to be tripled.

And the zucchini was a brand new recipe, which I'm definitely making again! I wasn't sure what kind of veggie to make that went with Mexican food, so I did a little googling for southwestern/Mexican side dishes. That, and a trip to the farmer's market yielded "Calabacitas". I roasted barillo (?) chili peppers under the broiler (the recipe called for poblano or Anaheim peppers, but didn't find them at the market... the guy at one stand told me these peppers were similar). I set the roasted peppers aside to cool, peel, and chop. Meanwhile, I sauteed onion until soft, then added zucchini and yellow squash and a little salt, and covered and cooked until tender, stirring occasionally. In the future, I'll be more uniform with chopping the zucchini and squash... the thinner slices just fell apart. After it's done, I stirred in the chopped roasted peppers. Super easy! Roasting the peppers is optional... the original recipe sauteed the peppers along with the onions, which might be worth trying to save myself a step. I was just feeling adventurous. :) I forgot how much liquid squash lets go when cooked, so I used a slotted spoon when putting it in the containers... and I'm sure it was still pretty soupy for you.

Final note: Thank you so much for including me in the dinner swap! It gave me a reason to be a little more thoughtful about what I'm cooking, and we get two awesome dinners out of it that I don't have to think about at all! I'm looking forward to next time.

Pork loin with mashed potatoes and zucchini

This is really a method rather than a recipe. If you are lucky enough to have time to give cooking your undivided attention for about 45 minutes, this dish will come together easily. I've made this dinner for 3 families in about the same amount of time (the potatoes took a bit longer to boil) so it's ideal for swapping. Here's what I did:

I preheated the oven to 450. I prepped the veggies, started boiling the potatoes, and set aside the zucchini. I put the pork in a foil-lined roasting pan (cleanup was so much easier!), seasoned it with some pepper, threw it in the oven, and set the timer to bake for 25 minutes. I went back to the zucchini, seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a basil seasoning I had in the cabinet, and tossed them with a bit of olive oil...I didn't measure but drizzled it in till the veggies were lightly coated. I arranged them in a single layer on a baking sheet and into the oven they went. These only took about 15 minutes to cook. I cut the zucchini into half-moons; next time I won't cut them into such small pieces...they char easily. While all that was cooking up in the oven I made the sauce for the pork. I actually have a recipe for it, and it's supposed to be a chicken glaze. I have no idea where I got the recipe from.

1/3 c apricot preserves
1 Tbls. dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (I think I used even less)
2 Tbls. ketchup
2 tsp. chopped ginger (I didn't use this...I don't like ginger).

Heat and stir over medium heat till the preserves have "melted" and the sauce all comes together. If you want to use it as a glaze you don't need to heat it.

When the veggies and pork are done usually the potatoes are about done. Drain and make your mashed potatoes. I use sour cream, garlic powder, pepper and chicken granules to season my potatoes. I eyeball everything and have absolutely no clue how much of anything I add in. Sometimes I add too much, other times too little. It never tastes exactly the same each time I make them. I've also been using gold-fleshed potatoes...I just think there's something about the color, texture, and flavor of them. By then the pork will have rested and voila! Dinner.

Not crazy about zucchini? Want to mix it up? I've also done roasted broccoli with minced garlic, and roasted asparagus too. They take closer to 20 minutes to cook up. If I'm going to turn on my oven I'm going to get full use out of it!

The first post!

I took a cue from my "other" dinner swapping group and decided our group needed a blog too. Here we can post dinner recipes (whether or not they are used for swapping), leave feedback, recommend recipe websites, or whatever. It's very much a work in progress!