No Meat?

If you follow my blog, you know my husband doesn't think it's a meal unless it includes meat. This morning I told him we were having Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas for dinner tonight. He of course, said "No meat?". These are a quick and filling summertime dinner.

Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas

Serves 6 - 8

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup fresh or frozen corn

1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup salsa

Kosher salt and black pepper

3/4 cup grated Monterey jack cheese

Salsa for serving

Light Sour Cream for serving

Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a medium sized saute pan over medium heat. Add corn, and black beans. Season with salsa, salt and pepper, cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Heat 1 teaspoon of olive in oil a skillet. Lay one tortilla in a hot skillet. Add 1/4 cup filling and then top with 2 tablespoon grated cheese. Top with another tortilla and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until slightly browned on the bottom tortilla. Flip and cook on the other side until slightly browned and the cheese has melted.

Cut each quesadilla into six triangles and serve warm with Salsa and light sour cream.

Backroads or Interstate?-Outdoor Wednesdays

While browsing blogs this morning, I came across A Southern Daydreamer and Susan's event Outdoor Wednesdays. What a perfect opporunity to spotlight our recent backroads adventure. Thank you Susan!

No matter if they are scenic or not, my husband loves to drive the backroads. I prefer the fastest route, how do we get from point A to point B the quickest? Usually that means the interstate. When we left Tim's moms , we weren't in a hurry and there was a lot of road construction on the interestate so we agreed to drive the scenic route home.

Our first stop was a backroad outside of Okoboji, Iowa. Tim found this road several years ago. We affectionatly named this road, "Rock Road". The farmers dump rocks in the fields on the sides of this road. Where do these rocks come from? Thousands of years ago the glaciers left these rocks in the soil and every spring the frost pushes these rocks to the surface. They make great landscaping rocks in our gardens. Today was an especially productive day, we collected four totes of rocks.

The next stop was Arnold's Park. We treated ourselves to an Arnold's Park mainstay, a nutty bar.

Back on the road, we drove through Sac County. I didn't really notice them but Tim pointed out all of the barns with quilts painted on them. Thank goodness for google and the IPhone. I googled and found what we were seeing was Barn Quilts of Sac County. I am looking foward to driving this way again and checking out more of the barns.

Our last stop was Small's Fruit Farm. We decided to buy Honey Crisp and McIntosh apples. Have you ever eaten a Honey Crisp? If not, you should. They are the best eating apple, so sweet and crisp. One of the orchard's weekend specials was Acorn Squash, so we purchased three. I also found ornamental gourds and small pumpkins for my outdoor fall display.

Thanks Tim! Your backroads adventure made for a wonderful, memorable day!

Signs of Fall

Fall has been in the air in Nebraska for several weeks. It's made for a wonderful August and early September. Unlike years past when this time of year is hot and humid. I noticed the trees up north at Tim's moms were starting to get a glimmer of the fall colors. Fall is my favorite season. I love the trees and their changing colors. Pumpkins, Halloween, Acorn Squash, Apple Orchards...what else reminds you of fall?




Acorn Squash
1 acorn squash, cut in half
(Microwave for 60 seconds and it will be a little easier to cut in half)
3 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and Pepper

Place the squash in a casserole dish. Use a casserole dish that is a size so they will stand up while baking. Place 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Mix together butter, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg. After 30 minutes, remove squash from the oven and brush with the butter mixutre. Cover with foil and return to the oven for 30 minutes.

TWD Chocolate Souffle

I am excited to be participating in a wonderful baking group, Tuesday's With Dorie (TWD). Each week TWD features a recipe from the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. This weeks recipe was chosen by Susan of She's Becoming Doughmesstic.

It is only fitting that my first TWD post would be a recipe with chocolate as the main ingredient. Chocolate is one of my major weaknesses! Chocolate Souffle is a dessert that, to me, says special occasion. The last time I remember ordering one was on the cruise we took to celebrate my 50th Birthday! Now that was truly a special occasion.

Since it's just the two us and a souffle needs to be eaten immediately, a recipe reduction was in order. Several members of TWD posted cutting the recipe in half or even one quarter. I decided to cut the recipe in half. I never have whole milk in the house, I took a chance and used skim milk. I was surprised the souffles didn't fall as quickly as I had anticipated, giving us plenty of time to take photos! Even though the souffle didn't raise as much as I would have liked, it was delicious!

Apple Claufouti

We've lived in this house three summers and every summer we talk about baking something using the apples from the tree in the backyard. They are a smaller, green apple. This year's crop is particularly plentiful. We don't own an apple picker but there are quite a few within arms reach.

My first exposure to a clafouti (kla-foo-TEE) was watching Ina Garten make a cherry one on Barefoot Contessa. A clafouti is a french batter cake. I just love the name, it's such a romantic sounding dessert. How fitting for my first clafouti to be the first dessert made with apples from our tree.



Apple Clafouti
Recipe from Saveur.com

FOR THE BATTER:
3 eggs
1 cup milk or heavy cream
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2⁄3 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄2 tsp. salt
FOR THE APPLES:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1⁄2 cup plus 2 tsp. sugar
2–3 tbsp. brandy
Ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine milk, eggs, 6 tbsp. of the butter, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt into a blender, blend until smooth, and set aside. Grease a 10" pie plate with remaining butter, then set in oven to heat.

For the apples: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and brandy and cook until apples are glazed and warm, about 5 minutes.

Remove pie plate from oven and immediately pour in half the batter. Arrange warm apple slices over batter, reserving juices, then pour remaining batter over apples. Sprinkle remaining sugar and a little cinnamon over batter.

Bake until clafouti is golden and set in the center, 25–30 minutes.

Drizzle with warmed reserved apple juices.

Eating With Your Eyes

So much of the pleasure of eating is also visual. How many times do we say "Oh that looks so good"? or "Just looking at that makes my mouth water"? The plating either adds or detracts from the overall dining experience.

Friday night on our way to Tim's moms house, we stopped at Olive Garden in Sioux City, IA. We don't eat at Olive Garden a lot but when we do, the experience has always been a good one. Tim ordered Short Ribs. I was concerned about the choice because Short Ribs didn't seem to me to be a very Italian dish. As they say, "When in Rome". Maybe he should have ordered pasta?

When our server brought our meals, I took one look at Tim's short ribs and said "That is the most unappealing meal I have ever seen". Tim was trying to make the most of it. He's not as particular as I am but in the end even he admitted it was really bad. To Olive Garden's credit, we told our server the meal was bad and they took the meal off the bill.

Baba Ghanoush

The eggplants were plentiful and very reasonable at the Farmer's Market. Wouldn't it be great to have a Farmer's Market year round? Reasonable prices and locally ground produce instead of expensive, commerically grown produce.

I roasted the eggplant, whole. Poke holes in the eggplant with a fork, coat the outside lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Place on a parchment covered cookie sheet and roast in a 450 degree oven until you can easily pierce with a fork, about 30 - 40 minutes.




Baba Ghanoush

1 large eggplant
1/8 cup tahini
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 pinch ground cumin
dash or two of hot sauce
salt

Allow the eggplant to cool, slightly. Split and scrape the flesh from the inside. Using a food processor mix all ingredients until smooth. Before serving drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with fresh parsley. Serve with pita bread or tortilla chips.

My notes on this recipe: I don't like a strong tahini taste, so I use less tahini. The tahini and lemon juice should be increased or decreased depending on your taste.