black beans and rice

This recipe is so good and super-easy to make. We eat this all the time, and we never get tired of it.

ingredients
1 can black beans, not drained
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 t ground cumin
1 t dried oregano
pinch salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 T red-wine vinegar

rice - I always use brown rice

tomatoes
cucumbers (preferably Persian)
fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
fresh coriander
fresh lemons (and limes if you like)
olive oil
ground cumin
ground coriander
ground pepper
sumac

plain yogurt

directions
Put the rice on to cook.

Heat the beans, spices, and vinegar in a saucepan, including the bean juice, over medium heat until the liquid reduces a little, about 7-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley and coriander in a bowl. Add the lemon (and lime) juice, olive oil, and spices to taste. It can be as juicy as you like.

When the rice and beans are done, serve the rice, beans, salad and yogurt as you like. I usually spoon them into a flat soup bowl separately but touching, and then mix each bite as I go along. I also like to drizzel olive oil and grind some pepper onto the top of the whole thing.

Mandarin Chicken & Rice

This is a really good recipe when you don't have a lick of groceries in the house, and you need dinner on the table in 25 minutes. Every single ingredient here can come from your food storage (if you choose) and it is really easy to make.

The ingredients are completely approximated, so you can dump in whatever you like or have on hand. I've made it dozens of times, and it's evolved over the years. I use it as a rough guideline, as opposed to an actual recipe.

Mandarin Chicken & Rice

Chicken - I throw some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the oven until cooked and then chop / tear them into bite sized pieces and set aside.  Alternately, you can use canned chicken (I've only tried the Costco brand) if you don't have fresh or frozen chicken.  Drain and set aside.

1-3 cans of mandarin oranges.  Drain and set aside but make sure to reserve all of the liquid to use in the sauce.

Mushrooms - I like to use smaller sized fresh mushrooms and there's no need to slice them.  If yours are a little larger then cut them in half.

Rice - Go ahead and get it cooking because dinner will be ready soon.  We've also tried this over egg noodles and that tastes good too.  I prefer  rice, but either will work.

To make the sauce, first you saute the mushrooms for a few minutes in your pan.

Next add 2-3 cans of cream of mushroom soup (depends how many people you are feeding).

Whisk in the mandarin juice and a good splash of soy sauce (about 1/3 cup).

Add some garlic & ginger.  I use the freshly chopped refrigerated kind.  I use about a tsp each or so. 

Add a good dash of pepper and a bit of salt to taste (the soy sauce is salty already).

Next you need to decide how thick you like your sauce.  I usually add a little more liquid in the form of milk or water.

When you're just about ready to eat, add in your chicken and stir while it gets nice and hot in the sauce.  You want to heat it through without cooking it any more. 

Last thing you do is gently stir in the mandarins, as they tend to break up if you add them earlier.

Serve over hot rice (or noodles).

Enjoy!

Celery Soup with Sourdogh Croutons and a Tarragon Swirl

This recipe sounds hard, but it's actually one of the most easy and delicious soups I've ever made! I found this on epicurious when I was searching for a recipe that would use up all of our leftover celery after Thanksgiving. I think it's my new post-Thanksgiving favourite, after leftover turkey, of course!

Bon Appétit recipe on epicurious

notes
The only change I made was that I used dried tarragon instead of fresh and it was still delicious. 1T fresh herbs = 1 t dry herbs, so use between 1/4 and 1/2 t of dried tarragon. This would be a great appetizer, but we ate more generous servings for dinner and it was quite filling.