Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Salad

It's pasta salad, without the pasta.  You could call it Low Carb Pasta Salad, if  you were a carb-driven sort of person or you could call it All Vegetable Pasta Salad, if you were a vegetable-driven person, or you could stop lying to yourself about the pasta and just call it salad.  You're in charge here.

(Refrigerator) Pickled Jalapeños

There are a handful of store bought condiments that are always in my pantry.  No matter how easy it sounded when I read Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, I'm not making my own worcestershire sauce.  I'm probably not even making my own mustard.  There are always pickles, and sometimes they're things that I've just doused in vinegar and sugar and salt and other times they're store bought.  And there are always jalapeños, which are very easy to make yourself.  

We make a lot of tacos and burritos and nachos and such.  It's pretty easy to throw together whatever veg and protein you have on hand, cover it in cheese and call it dinner.  We typically add jalapeños to those meals.  We make banh mi.*  Jalapeños are important. 

Guest Post: Pineapple Salsa

So the other day, Rose had to go out to a meeting and she left me in charge of dinner. 98% of the time this means I should order us some takeout out from one of our favorite places. She leaves the bad-decision-making up to me when it comes to our food intake.

This night though, I wanted to impress her. I am Sous Chef Brian after all. All this time in the kitchen with her means I have to have learned something, right? So I formed a plan. Tacos! But I wanted something more than just tacos. I don’t mean to be insulting to anyone here, but anyone can make some decent tacos. To surprise my wife, I decided to take some of the pineapple in the fridge and make something she would never expect. A pineapple salsa.

Seitan and Collards Quesadilla

Do you know what goes inside a quesadilla?  Whatever you want.   That's the beauty of it.  Ok, so really, it's whatever you want, plus cheese, but you wanted cheese, right?


It's a grilled cheese sandwich on a tortilla.  With stuff inside.  And it's great for using up what needs to be used.  Last time I posted a quesadilla, it was a clean-out-the-fridge meal.  This time it was just the collards that needed to be used.   And of course, we bought five pounds of seitan a while back, so we're all set on proteins.

Salmon with Tequila and Cilantro and a Honey-Jalepeno Glaze

I think I've made it pretty clear that we're not big fish-eaters here at Saturday's Mouse HQ.   Neither of us grew up with it, and the few fish things each of us does enjoy, the other generally does not.  I could eat crab and shrimp every day.  I like lox.   Sous Chef Brian likes tuna salad, but hates what I like.  I hate tuna salad.  I could keep writing like this. Enough short sentences with overly dramatic statements about fish.


Both of us are pretty happy with a spicy tuna roll, but the good sushi place in my neighborhood is a bit pricey, so that's a special occasion thing.


Anyhow, I try to push fish.  Because it's good for us.  So we'll be staring at the fish counter and staring at each other and everyone's afraid to make a move because it all means were coming home with something scaly.   Several years ago we did a new vegetable a week, and it really changed how we eat.  The following year we tried a fish a week for a while, which resulted in a lot of evenings eating rice or quinoa.


I told you here that I wouldn't post a fish recipe until I made some fish and said it was incredible.  Here we are.

Black Bean Layer Dip

Everybody and their aunt/neighbor/colleague has some sort of a seven layer dip.  Really, how many different ways can you do salsa and canned refried beans?

"My secret is that I put the olives between the beans and the cheese."

"My secret is that I put the cheese between the olives and the beans."

I mean, really. 


And canned refried beans bug me.    I enjoy really good refried beans, the kind we get at the local taqueria, where you imagine someone's Abuela has been using the same recipe for decades, but in a can, that's a bit too cat-foody. 


Maybe it's the lard.  The idea that my canned veg are supplemented with lard doesn't work for me.   So I make layer dip with black beans.  I prefer them anyway, to pintos.  


This is sweeter, fresher, brighter, than what comes to mind when I think of seven layer dip. 


We're in one of those situations with terrible photographs of delicious foods.   We made this during the hurricane and everything felt rushed.  Food did not pose.  See the above, that's the "best" shot of it.  Yeah. 

Butternut Squash and Chard Tacos

Chard is the new spinach.  Didn't you hear?  Nutritionally they're very similar - actually, spinach has slight advantages.  Slight.  And chard is so easy.  I get it locally, six months out of the year, and it just goes with everything.   That said, you could totally use spinach here, or another leafy green.


I've been using chard more and more in "Mexican"-style foods.   A little chard in your black bean egg roll? Sure.  In your quesadilla, of course.  And in my Italian and Thai foods too.  Chard plays well with others.  


So we're thinking about dinner, and Sous Chef Brian says, "Mexican," and I say, "We don't have any beans ready, we don't have meat...."  So butternut squash and chard it is.  

Chipotle Chicken Enchilada Lasagna

Enchiladasagna?


I just hate the word "casserole."  Casserole sounds like a can of cream of something soup with crumbled potato chips on top. Or corn flakes. And I intended to make enchiladas, really I did, but my corn tortillas did not hold up in the freezer, so after I defrosted them, I started rolling, they started crumbling and this was plan B.  And it was delicious, and just like an enchilada, except for the shape.  


Step one: make enchilada sauce.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I had these poblanos, because I went to Headhouse for one poblano (and other things) and they were going for next to nothing by the pint.  This is how I ended up with all those jalepenos that one time.  But poblanos are nothing to worry about.  They're a notch or two above a bell pepper, in terms of heat.  But what to do with them?  Luckily it rained.


Why is that lucky?  Because poblanos do well roasted or baked.  They get slightly sweet and tender and they just want to be cooked in the oven.   And finally, we had a cool night.   I mean right now, it's 72 degrees out.  Quick, make a lasagna!  Put on a sweater!  We'll be back to the 90s tomorrow.   

Simple Pico De Gallo

Here's the thing with salsa: there is no recipe.  I don't mean that in the same way like there's no one recipe for barbecue sauce because everyone thinks theirs is the best. I mean that I could write down the recipe this year, and make the same thing next year, and unless I'm in charge of the exact variety and timing of the produce I'm using, it won't be the same. 

Some tomatoes are sweeter than others.  Some jalepenos are hotter.  Some onions sting more.  There's no knowing that it's going to be exactly the same.

Garlic Shrimp Fajitas

I know I've made fajitas before.  Chicken fajitas. Steak fajitas. But it's not like I just shake the same powdered spices over top of everything and call it a fajita.  So I'm posting the shrimp.


I'll let you in on a secret.  I've never cooked shrimp before.  Here's the thing: I'm pretty weird on meat*.  You've seen me freak out about chicken.  I attribute this to a few years of not eating it.  I'm still torn.  And Sous Chef Brian doesn't do shrimp.  So what am I going to do, buy weird gray shellfish and cook it for myself?  No.  Pass me the grilled cheese, thanks.  But our Mystery Sunday Night Dinner Guest (MSNDG from here on) is meat-oriented.  She doesn't cook much of it, but we go to a restaurant and she's all, "mmmm, pork." And I'm not.  And she's fish-oriented too.  Note the lack of fish recipes here.  I think she's getting tired of me suggesting grilled cheese for dinner.  And so we're talking about what to make for Sunday Dinner and she's all, "shrimp fajitas."  That sounds delicious, but who's going to deal with the shrimp?


Ok, I am.  We are.  It's ok.


I don't have any photos of raw shrimp here.  You don't need that.  But it was easy and you can totally do it yourself, and I'm a wimp and it was delicious.

Gazpacho

When I said soup season was over for me, I really meant it.  It's hot.  It's too hot for soup. Or pasta.  Too hot for any kind of a sauce.  It's salted radishes, hunk of cheese, piece of bread season.  


But then there's gazpacho.  Gazpacho is all the brightest and crispest flavors of Spanish and Latin American food with none of the heaviness.  It's not just cold, it's raw.  Like all soups, and most other things I cook, it's customizable.  Extra spicy? Sure thing. More of this flavor and less of that one?  Go for it.  

Steak Fajitas

Fajitas are a default/easy/go-to in our house.  Either veg or chicken, usually.  This was a first for steak. Pretty quick and easy, except for a bit of marinade time. 

Guest Post: Mexican Hot Dogs

When your wife hits 100 posts on her blog, she gets a night off from cooking. In case that first sentence didn't clue you in, this is Sous Chef Brian giving you the goods for a day. Nine times out of ten, when Rose isn’t cooking we order in or go out somewhere, but this is one of those one out of ten times where I end up making something.  There is a reason why I don’t cook much. I’m really not all that confident with it. It’s not that I can’t cook… really I can do a few things around the kitchen, but there is always the potential that I’ll add something or forget a key step that ruins a meal. So usually the best things I do are simple. So I had a simple plan to make one of my favorite things to get out, the Mexican hot dog.

Many of our favorite local spots have offered some version of it. For a while I was terrified of it, but after I tried one I was hooked on them, and if I see one on the menu someplace it’s really hard for me not to get one. For those of you who don’t know, a Mexican hot dog is a hot dog but with bacon wrapped around it and topped with the some combination of mayo, jalapeños, onions, tomato, salsa, and cheese (usually Cotija, but it could be cheddar). Sounds crazy right? CRAZY GOOD YO!

My version is as follows:

First, throw some hot dogs in the oven. We usually go with Hebrew National, because we at least know they hold themselves to some kind of standard.

While the dogs were a'cooking I spread a thin layer of Vegenaise on the buns. Note that since I used Vegenaise instead of mayonnaise this is completely healthy meal.

Next,  I made up some bacon. Since we like our bacon crispier than most, I didn’t wrap the bacon around the hot dog as per the traditional Mexican technique that was surely passed down from the Mayans.* I think I’ll try the wrapping technique next time, but with a slice of bacon in every bun there was always that wonderful bacon flavor in every bite.

With no tomato on hand, I was a little worried that the dogs might be a bit dry. With that in mind, I quickly threw together a sauce that was equal parts ketchup and brown mustard. Then I added as much hot sauce as I was comfortable with - and then I added some more.

Once the dogs were up, I threw them in the buns and topped them with the sauce, jalapeños, freshly diced yellow onion and cheddar cheese. All that's left is for you to snarf it down.

This got a rave review from Rose, which is good because she would never make these (or at least, she'd never tell y'all that she made them).

That's all I've got this time. See you all in some arbitrary amount of time...  

* I’m now convinced the whole 2012 Mayan Calendar end of the world thing is based on the Mayans foreseeing Americans finding out about the hot dog wrapped in bacon just a few years prior 2012 and bring about their own fatty demise, while dragging the rest of the world down with them. I mean, that makes sense right? **

** Did I just footnote a footnote? You're damn right I did. I’m drunk with power! Anyway, here’s a New York Times article on the Mexican hot dog. Apparently, it wasn’t passed down from the Mayans. Whatever.

 
There is still time left, but not much.  Enter now!

Chard and Zucchini Quesadilla, and BIG NEWS

I pick up my farmshare on Tuesdays, and go to the grocery store on Sundays and hit up the farm market on either Wednesdays or Sundays. So when we get to Saturday, most of whatever's in the fridge has been there a while.  It was time to clean house.

Cilantro-Jalepeno Bean Salad

I've been meaning to make a bean salad for a while, but I can never remember to soak my beans, and while I'll use canned beans when I'm cooking in a pinch, I don't want to eat cold canned beans.  So I finally got it together to soak some cannellinis and kidney beans and get to it.

Bean salad is easy, and like pizza, you can make it into anything.  I made it "Mexicanish" this time.  The bean ratio doesn't really matter, but I think all one bean would be boring.  You could add black beans here.  Whatever you have (maybe not lentils, they're different).

Black Bean and Chicken Egg Rolls

This is, apparently, the only pose I can imagine for the egg rolls -I used it last week too. 

A week ago I made Red Cabbage Egg Rolls, and I had about half* the wrappers left over, so here's what happened with that. These are much like some Southwestern Egg Rolls we've had in chain restaurants, but made of food and baked.

Tortilla Soup with Kale and Chicken

I don't really make soups.  I'm not good at viewing a soup as "dinner."  Put a grilled cheese sandwich next to it, and I'm all set, but just soup sounds like a beverage.   But this is different.  This is borderline stewlike.  This has stuff it it, and if you want to put different stuff in it, that's ok too.  Like pizza, pretty much, you can clean out your fridge into tortilla soup.

Chicken Fajitas

 I've been making this for years and years, and still whenever I eat it, I'm like, "Why don't I do this more often?"  It's quick, it doesn't take a lot of ingredients, and it's cheap* and healthy.  And you could totally make it vegetarian with either fake meat or no meat.  And you could totally add more vegetables (zucchini and eggplant would be rad).  

The requirements, as far as I'm concerned, are onions, peppers, and tortillas.  The rest is flexible.

Jalapeno Fail

I like spicy food.  I used feel like I was in a privileged class of people who could eat hotter food than most, but in recent years I've become aware of my limitations.  Maybe five years ago I burned my hand on a habanero and realized I needed to use gloves to cut some peppers. I guess that was the beginning of the end of me bragging about spicy food.

Then when we started eating banh mi, there were a few incidents.  There is one long slice of jalapeno on this sandwich, and maybe a tenth of the times I've eaten it, it's burned my face.  Burned my face, like caused me to mentally go through all those TV shows like Good Eats and Food Detectives (whoa, I can't find a clip of either, what's wrong with the internet?) that described scoville heat units and what to do to cool a burning mouth (milk, beer, sugar).  I finally settled on rubbing alcohol (not for inside the mouth, for outside the mouth) which I hear only works for some people.  So since then, I've typically taken the seeds out of the jalapeno, or torn the pepper into bits to distribute throughout the sandwich. 

So yesterday my shopping list included a single jalapeno, for a meal I was planning, but Trader Joes only had them in a box of ten (ten jalapenos for $1.59, compared to one jalapeno for $1.59 at Whole Foods) so I got the box.  Then I sat around thinking about what I could do with nine jalapenos.  I read a few canning articles, and scared myself again.  I thought about poppers but I don't really like them (but Brian does) and I don't have cream cheese, and how else do you get the cheese to stay in during breading?  And then remembered years ago some chain restaurant we went to had deep fried breaded jalapeno disks that we used to love.  So I went for it. Panko, egg, salt, jalapeno slices, and I was going to do it in the oven.