Back to our regularly scheduled blog.

 So fast food.....wait, good food quickly is over and I need real food. Comfort food. Warming food.

If you don't know me, I am perpetually cold. It can be 75 degrees outside and I am cold. So warm food, both in flavor and temperature make me happy.

I decided to try another version of the veggie burger in the book. There are approxiamately 29 different veggie burgers in this book, so whatever my fancy is - it's got me covered. Today was black bean and broccoli burgers. Can of black beans, frozen broccoli, rolled thick-cut oats, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, done.

It's super easy to make a veggie burger, but a challenge to get it to hold together. Since I don't use eggs anymore, you need a binder. Eggs serve a wonderful purpose that way. They hold flour onto chicken, breadcrumbs onto anything, hold cookies and things like that together. So I was stuck.....what to use?

I didn't use anything. I did chill the burger patties before cooking them, and gave them a really long time in the frig to let the oats, well, whatever oats do. They suck up moisture.

I have learned that anything that doesn't make it's own grease (note, anything vegetarian then....) needs A LOT of oil in a pan. I cook in cast iron pans, so they need a lot of priming anyways. So after oiling the pan, I oiled the pan. Over a medium hot skillet I nestled my patties down and let them sizzle. If you don't add egg, you can remove them whenever you want. They won't be raw, cause there's no meat in them.

I like to let mine cook until slightly charred, it gives some more depth of flavor - like you were grilling them.

I topped mine with Daiya Pepperjack cheese, avocado mayo (thanks Pinterest!), BBQ sauce and punkin seeds. No bread needed. My daughter used bread and declared it so delicious she ate 3 more. So much for leftovers.

But.......when I do have leftover burgers, I chopped them up and added them as "meat" to my Chili Non Carne. Lovely.

Like I mentioned, I need warming food. I am sure our acupuncturist has a good explanation of why this is.

Enchiladas have been calling me lately and leaving voicemails.

Eventually I had to return their numerous calls.

The book has enchilada recipes that look so good. But they also have a stacked enchilada recipe that sounded very accessible. But I can't eat the canned enchilada sauce that I love so much. Stupid gluten.

So, I embarked on making my own sauce. I was so nervous that this was not going to live up to that smokey-flavored red elixir in a can. I was nervous that I would make it too spicy. Not spicy enough. Would it be thick enough? Enter the book.

One verrrrrrry easy enchilada sauce recipe coming up. Doubled. One very messy kitchen. But I digress.

The hardest part was soaking the chiles overnight. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Finally! They were softened! Into a pot to be cooked with diced canned tomatos, tomato paste, spices and onion. Stir and puree. Smelled divine. After I tasted it for what must have been twenty times, I just couldn't put my finger on what was missing. Something.

Yeast. It was yeast. Yeast is in the canned stuff. Why, I don't know.

So in went a large amount of nutritional yeast.

Nutritional yeast is what they put on Doritos and stuff to give them a cheesy taste. It's in cereals, chips, drinks, almost everything. I think it stretches the product additives further. But it also has a ton of , well, nutritional value. In our house, it is strictly for liberally covering celery chunks in. And now enchilada sauce. Bingo.

So, I decided to layer the corn tortillas and recreate the Enchilada Pie in the book. I used fresh tortillas, because there really is nothing like them. They aren't dry like the ones at the end of the Hispanic aisle. They are soft, moist and pliable. So, down went some sauce then a tortilla, then black beans, then corn, then sauce, then a tortilla, then black beans...well, 8 layers and two pies later they looked like a hot mess. I doused them with the remainder of the sauce, filling in all the nooks and crannies. Into the oven it went.

Patience. I am not good at waiting.

Out came that delicious smokey smell that I love! Presto!

Cutting them like a pie was easy. Topping them with cheese, kefir, leftover avocado mayo and pumpkin seeds made them just divine. I ate these for breakfast. I ate these for lunch. I ate them before bed.

I need to go to the store........

More food quickly.

Vegees.

Frozen. Sauteed. Salt. Pepper.Garlic.Done.

So easy.

So good.

I see no problem eating frozen vegees. It's better than eating no vegees. And it certainly is easy. And yes, I did eat the entire plate. It was my lunch. To me, a dream lunch.

I don't worry about calories for myself. I don't count to see if I have enough at every meal. I don't worry if there are days when I eat too many and other days when I eat too few. I eat fat. I eat what my body wants. And it is happy.

So when I needed to fix something easy, this was it.

                                                               Vegetarian chili nachos.

If you are from California. you are used to beans, meat and tomatos in your chili. Period. Or just beans and tomatos. And it's good. Heavily spiced. Heavily flavored.

My son has been on a beef chili kick for months now. Goes through it like it's water. 3 pounds of chili lasts 48 hours. And I always find myself tasting it to make sure the seasonings are correct. Then regret that bite later. But I do love the taste.

Enter canned beans and tomato paste. And generous splooshes of chili powder, garlic and salt.

Exit chili 15 minutes later. No waiting for the meat to cook or worrying that it didn't. Just luscious simmering and melding of flavors. I suppose it would have been easier to open a can of chili, if I had one. But I like flavoring it myself, and adding things. Or not. And the smell and the act of cooking is therapeutic.

Add chips, cheese and seeds. Perfect. Easy, quick and all in my pantry.

Except the cheese. That was in my frig.

                                                                         Just a plate.

                                                                           Leftovers.
                                                                            Canned.
                                                                             Frozen.

It was quick. And whole. And a mess of goodness.

Quinoa with lemon juice, broccoli and Swiss cheese. Lemon pepper and salt. It tasted so very clean!

Canned pinto beans with BBQ sauce, seeds and cheese. Flavor, and lots of it. Earthy.

So.....what do all these quick and easy things have to do with the book? Simple, they were all from there, I just short-cutted them even more than the recipe calls for. And the great thing about this book, it gives you options. If you can cook, you can improvise with the help of this book. Wait.....well, you get it.

It makes you look at your pantry and think.

Love to think. Do it all the time. My husband says the meter is always running in my head, and he's right.

And when I have food done right, quickly, it gives me more time to think. About my next meal.

Fast food. There I said it.

OK, so for my two followers, it's been a while. But this blog is back in business. Has to be. I keep cooking and have no one to share it with - and what is the use of cooking if you can't share your food with someone?

For those of you that know me, the last month has been all about convenience eating for me. Fast food quickly. And it had better be easy to fix because I have no brain cells left. So into the pantry and freezer I dove. You didn't think I was going to actually eat fast food, did you?

First up was vegan menudo.

If you have never heard of menudo, don't worry - you will never want it after reading this. It's basically tripe (cow's stomach lining) cut up and simmered in a chili pepper broth for about 12 hours. Makes your house smell extra good. Then throw in some hominy and onion and oregano and you have yourself one tasty breakfast. Hungry yet? OK, maybe not. But I grew up eating this stuff. And it was goooood. A true testament to the Old School Mexican ways that nothing should go to waste. Nothing. You should see the meat case at a Mexican grocery store. There's a homeschool lesson for you.....

But it was good. Not because of the tripe. I threw that out every time. But the flavor, the textures and the comfort of broth were very nice together. It was by accident that I stumbled on a way to make menudo vegetarian, and immediately I recognized the taste as something I have been missing. I had veg broth in the pantry, canned garbanzo beans, pumpkin seeds, purple cabbage and onion, and dried oregano. Well, 3 minutes later, there you have it. Fast food. Real food from real ingredients. Quickly. I lived on this for several days. Very clean eating, very earthy taste.

Comfort in a bowl. For me anyways. I told my mom to tell me dad, who was in the hospital, that I was eating veg menudo in his honor. He passed away about a day later. He had made some menudo in December, and I hope my mom got to enjoy it for the last time. Some traditions I will carry on, just in a different way.

Sometimes it's not the main ingredients that we miss, but all the sides and condiments that make a dish. Or the memories that make us eat something, crave something. And when we find it again, it tastes all the better.

Thanks for the smells dad.

Beans, Broth, Cauliflower and Caramel

No, not altogether. That would be gross. Maybe.

I'm finally back in the kitchen and I need to cook. Cooking gives me a welcome break from life. And life is coming at me, also it's time to cook. And write. For all of my many followers. I know you all couldn't live with out my opinions.................

The garbanzo bean. The beige object in the standard Italian salad bar. That's where I first tried mine, many years ago. Drenched in dressing, it tasted, well, like nothing. That's good if you are a kid.

So after the kids and I went gluten-free, I noticed that garbanzo bean flour was in a lot of things. I bought a bag and set out to cook my own cookies, bread etc., based on seeing this flour everywhere. Boy was I ever disgusted. How could a little bean that tasted like nothing turn into a flour that tasted like, ugh. This year though, I changed my mind about that little flour after trying some comfort food called farinata from Italy. It was fabulous. But that's for another post........

Back to beans. My daughter loves hummus, and eats garbanzo beans out of a bowl like they were candy. I started her eating them at about 1 year old. As long as the hulls were off, she ate them up. So, tired of buying canned beans, I decided to brave a recipe in this book and make my own. I have read that there are many ways to soak beans, and I use the boil-for-two-minutes-and-soak-for-2-hours-method. So, after washing and sorting I stuck in my biggest stock pot and boiled them for two minutes. Soaked them for 2 plus hours, and changed the water before cooking. Turned the stove on and let them cook.

I LOVE these recipes.

So, 5 short hours later (they are notoriously hard to get tender) I added a little salt and finished them. OK, time to try them. I reached into the pot and tried a few beans. But wait, there was something else........a golden elixir just waiting for me, simmering gently.

OK, seriously?

Really.

I had never tasted a bean broth before that I liked. Until now. I just sat there and kept slurping. Too much information? Maybe. But I used up every bit of that wonderful broth in soup for the next 4 days. I even fashioned meatless menudo from it. Never had or heard of menudo? Well, that's another post. Even my daughter got on board and enjoyed the broth. It was fantastic. It had a slight taste, but not as strong as garbanzo beans themselves, or as strong as vegetable broth. What a wonderful base. There were beans too, and they tasted 100% better than any canned beans I had ever had. Fresh, fresh, fresh.

Oh yeah, and I baked a cauliflower too.........and made caramel. Wait, you don't want me to go on about the broth?

Fine, I baked a cauliflower. I know, it goes against all the cauliflower I have ever eaten that was thoughtlessly tossed in soup, or haphazardly put on a relish tray. Baked? Yes, a whole head of cauliflower, drizzled with olive oil and salt and pepper, baked. that's it. So very simple. So very tasty. It had a different texture than boiled cauliflower (duh Susi!) but it was nice to actually TASTE the vegetable instead of it soaking up whatever flavors were in the dish you put it into. It was more tough, and that's a good thing, than other methods of cooking. Drizzled with balsamic vinegar after cooking, it was divine to eat. It didn't last long. Hmmm.... if I put in the bean broth...............

And of course, I had to try making the carmel/caramel recipe. Which way is the correct spelling? Who cares, it's candy. This recipe was made without a candy thermometer, and with only 5 ingrediants. Butter, honey, sugar, 1/2 and 1/2, and whole milk. Put them in a pan and boil them until thick and golden brown. Drop a bit in some ice water, and if it makes a caramel consistency ball, then it's done.Pour into a pan and cool. Cool? No. I don't think so. I ate it off the spoon from the pan. Then I sprinkled chocolate chips on half the pan, and cooled it. The half with the chips formed the most amazing sugar crust on top. Like a creme brulee, but without the torch. I know, food dork. But I ate caramel for breakfast every morning, and even threw some of it in my hot coffee. Happy food dork. Very happy.

Next up, Garlic Carrots and a BBQ Farinata Tower.

Burgers are merely a canvas for toppings.....

Burgers were never my thing. Really. They tasted, bleh.

I remember my granny putting green bell peppers and onions in burgers. That did nothing for me. One of my friend's dad put that awful onion soup mix in them. And green bell peppers. That did something for me. It taught me never to eat at their house on burger night.

I ate plenty in high school, of course, because, well, it was high school. And Carl's Jr. was outstanding. Never had Carl's Jr? Think Hardees, only better.

But as I got older, burgers became more about all the great stuff I could pile on them than the meat itself. Fresh toppings, complicated condiments, slice after slice of gourmet cheese.....mmmm.....cheese.

So when meat didn't agree with me anymore, I thought - oh well. Until I craved BBQ sauce, and crispy lettuce, and all variety of mustard, and tomatos, and pickles, and onions. It was too much, I had to have some sort of meat product.

Now, I've tried veggie burgers before. They are not good. I can't even pronounce half of the ingredients in them most of the time. That doesn't make for a tasty burger. Or they have soy in them, which I can't stand. So, when my book offered about 10 different veggie burger options, I became slightly more interested. Soy, tofu, and gelatinous masses can all be left out, thank you very much.

I started with the BBQ sauce. Because after all, that is really the most important part. What you put on your burger sets the whole tone for eating. Tone, really?

Food geek, I know.

But seriously, when you look at a chopped steak burger topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms - you are getting a different experience than when you have sit down with a great BBQ'd chuck burger topped with yellow mustard and crunchy iceberg lettuce. Both are outstanding, but different.

I wanted to start easy, and simply. So I chose the first variation - a bean burger. Sounds yummy, right???? My favorite Le Puy lentils were in my pantry, so off we went. Why a special bean? Because they have this outstanding ability to hold their shape and not get mushy. This is really important when making a veggie burger. You want texture, not mush. So after cooking them, I realized I had enough for many burgers, or I could split my focus and have lentil salad too! I love to split my focus.

The recipe seemed simple enough, add cooked beans, egg, rolled oats, onion, BBQ sauce and seasonings. A little too easy. I know I say that about all the recipes in this book - but they are super easy, It's that simple.

My daughter was skeptical that anything that looked like that could be good.

It's funny, hamburgers most often turn out gray, and black. It's all about what you are used to eating - another gray food could be just as yummy, but you may not try it because you havn't thought about the colors of the foods you currently eat, you are just so used to eating them you don't think about it. That was a mouthful.

After a little chill in the frig to firm up, I made them into patties and fried them up in a little, ok a lot, of bacon grease. ( Hey, I don't eat meat, but bacon grease is outstanding to cook just about anything in!) They cooked quickly and smelled so good. Just a little crisp on the outside. Even my husband asked what smelled so good!

(Note: he didn't actually try one, no matter how good they smelled.)

No sooner were they plated then my daughter ambled over and asked if she could take a bite. This coming from the girl who just 30 minutes ago said they couldn't possible be good, and that she "passed".

She took a bite. Then she took the plate. Sigh. How do you take food from a child who is gleefully saying 'I got my hamburgers back!"

From what I remember, they were good. Very good. All kinds of toppings can go on these. And maybe when I get to eat one, they will.

More garbanzo fun!

See, doesn't that title just shout out "read me, read me" to you?

No, huh.

Well, toasted chickpeas shouted out at me this week.

And they could not be any easier to make.

Can of garbanzo beans, drained. Check.
Olive oil, garlic, salt and any seasoning I wanted. Check.
Ovenproof skillet. Check.

Done.

Seriously.

I had a few doubts that this could be tasty, but my daughter loves these beans and I wanted to make all her bean dreams come true.

I love my daughter, so I prepared myself for massive amounts of prep work. Anything for her. Heating the pan, putting in the oil, tossing the garlic in and seasonings and the drained beans. I was tired after, but soldiered on. After 5 whole minutes of sauteing, I lifted the enormously heavy pan into the preheated oven and let them cook for 20 minutes. I forced myself to shake them every 5 minutes or so, and finally, after what seemed like hours - they were done.

Warm and right out of the oven, we shook liberal amounts of salt and pepper on them and dug in. Oh man, were they good. And the kitchen smelled wonderful.

(Now, I have had toasted walnuts, pine nuts, etc. I have seen crispy green beans in Whole Foods. Wasabi peas - never tried them, but I hear they are good. Goji berries, acai, etc - seem to be very popular. But crunchy garbanzo beans? Surely you jest!)

Nope. They were delicious. And they were all gone. But for $1.29, I can make more. And more.....

They have a wonderfully crunchy seasoned shell on the outside, and are still slightly chewy on the outside. I drizzled mine with extra lemon juice, and they were phenomenal. Like the taste of hummus, but with texture. And filling - wow! Very filling snack. I can see these with chili powder, dill, sage, rosemary - oh, the places we'll go!!!! Prolly Disney.

(This picture is of the fried oatmeal from a few weeks ago - I knew my mom would want to see it. Fried oatmeal, sauteed bananas, pecans, coconut, raw sugar and chocolate chips with a drizzle of cream. Yum.)

Help! I can't stop eating this!

Doesn't that sound like a new reality show?

Some people who are addicted to food would be on the show as participants, with psychiatrists telling them why they are eating so much of "blank" and then get them to stop eating it and they all go on to lead fulfilled lives.

I never want to be on that show.

My friends, my daughter and I have discovered a food so good, so comforting, so magnificent - that we cannot stop eating it. Seriously.

What is this great food?

Farinata. Cinque e Cinque. Chickpea frittata. Whatever you want to call it, it is amazing.

I guess I'll call it Farinata here. I was strolling the aisles of Whole Foods looking for new gluten-free items. (Honestly, I stroll WFoods like someone strolls Rodeo Drive. Never been to Rodeo Drive? O.K., how about like a teenager shops at the mall - going into every store looking at everything. Just looking for that one item that will make their life compete. Maybe I do need that reality show...............) I went up the aisle that has all the rice and beans , and there was a new item tag with a sale tag under a Tuscan looking bag- I honestly started humming "....these are a few of my favorite things...."

There it was.

On sale.

New.

Gluten free.

With a coupon.

Well, that was it for me. I didn't even know if I would like it, but for $2.50, I was going to find out. Now, how to convince my daughter to try it? I'd figure on that later. I figured any food from Italy had to be good.

And it was.............

So how does this package of sunshine from Whole Foods have anything to do with cooking thru the book? Well, there is a recipe in the book for Farinata. I wanted to have a base concept for what I was going to try to make, with a foolproof model first.

So what is Farinata? Simply put, it is garbanzo bean flour and water. Sound delish yet? If you are like me, the only time I had garbanzo beans growing up was at pizza buffets in the antipasto salad. They were drenched in Italian dressing, and I really didn't pay much attention to them. I just ate them. When my daughter was ready to tackle toddler foods, I read that garbanzo beans were a good way to get kids started eating legumes. And since my doc had ok'd me limiting meat for her, I thought they were a good substitute. So did she. She has been known to eat many, many, many garbanzo beans. Then we discovered hummus. Yum! OK, so garbanzo beans were good. Not beany tasting, still firm and not mushy, and they took on seasoning well. And this is how we enjoyed them until we went gluten free.

When we had to change how we ate, I tried a million combinations of different flours to try to make the baked goods a reality for my kids. I read that garbanzo and fava bean flour was a great substitute, and indeed, it was a common ingredient on many premade gf baked goods. I bought a bag. Couldn't even smell it. It was terrible. Tasted worse. The reason GF food has so much sugar and spice in it is to disguise the taste (and smell) of all of these flours! I ws assured by all the gf cookbooks that the taste and smell would cook out. It did not. I guess if you are desperate for something to eat when you are GF, you will eat anything. I know. I have done it.

So, learily, I bought this mix. My daughter looked at the label, shrugged her shoulders and siad it looked interesting. The ingredients sounded benign enough. Garbanzo bean flour and rosemary. Rosemary is a pungent spice, that should cover up the smell. I couldn't believe the instructions - add water and olive oil and salt. That's it. This was a little too easy to be tasty.

So, I blasted the oven and put my cast iron skillet in. After the pan was preheated, I mixed up the ingredients. No smell so far. I was suspicious, so I added an egg. Why? Well, I just felt it should have something to bind it together. And garlic. It needed garlic. Doesn't everything? Obviously, I know more about cooking than the Italians.......anyhoo, I carefully opened the oven door and poured a little olive oil in the pan, then poured the batter in. It sizzled like a pancake should. Good. Now to let it bake.

In the meantime, I went on wikipedia, and did some research. Seems this delicacy is a pretty popular comfort food that started in Genoa, and has spread all over Italy. It is traditionally served plain, with no toppings, but in different regions it can be sliced and used as filling between slices of focaccia. Hmmm, a meat substutue that did not involve tofu of any kind. You have my interest. Millions of Italians can't be wrong. They are serious about their comfort food.

14 minutes later, I vented the oven door to let the steam out and smelled something wonderful! Not stinky like that old flour. But something good and warm-smelling. Comfort. Out it came, golden brown on top, crispy on the bottom. Looking like a cross between a pancake and a frittata.

Waiting for it to rest was agonizing! It smelled divine. Holding my daughter off with one hand while slicing it using a pizza cutter in the other, we served it up. Slowly, we each tried a bite. Then another. Then another. No big surprise here, we ate and ate. How to explain the taste. Mild, creamy, but with substance. Not doughy/bready like a pancake, because it was made from bean flour and baked with no leavening. Taking a bite was a little like the texture of a mozzarella, or soft gouda. But not like cheese. We decided to use it as a pizza crust in the future, because it really can hold the weight, but is light enough not to weigh you down. I really am at a loss for words to describe it.

I ate it cold in the moning. Then hot topped with fresh tomatos and swiss cheese on top. All of a sudden, toppings started swirling around in my head. Tomatos and onions, sage, parmesan, broccoli, asparagus - you could throw anything on top of it and bake it in.

So, something that I thought could not be anything but smelly and gooey turned out to be something we have been craving all week. We bought the plain garbanzo bean flour yesterday, and there was no unplesant smell. So, prepared to tackle this at home, we are going to dive in this weekend. I am thinking about adding sage, rosemary, onion and garlic. I miss sausage, I really do. So I'm thinking about all the spices that make sausage taste so good. The nose is more powerful than the mouth, and it can outsmart the brain - so I'm thinking I will float it past my tastebuds and my brain will think I am enjoying sausage.

Oh yeah, being on a garbanzo bean kick, we roasted them whole in the oven with spices. But that's for another post.