Burritos: Rainy Day Comfort Food

Potato & pepper & onion burritos are my idea of a rainy-day comfort food. A tropical storm is wending its way into Southern New England and I stared at the rain whilst clicking my little City of Wonder buildings, I thought of tortillas and cheese.

Perfect for lunch or dinner.

This is precisely how I made it because I used what I had on-hand, but you can modify it however you need: just eyeball the food you have and do what you can!

Ingredients:
- 1 16oz bag of sliced green, yellow and red peppers (still frozen)
- 1 12oz bag of diced onions (still frozen)
- 10 fingerling potatoes
- tortillas
- cheddar cheese, shredded
- olive oil
- 2 tbsp chipotle spice powder from Tupperware
- sour cream

1) I turned the burner to somewhat high heat (7 of 10) and put some olive oil in the pan, just enough to coat.
2) I poured the frozen veggies in, broke them up a bit with a spoon and left them to cook.
3) I washed and poked the potatoes and put them into the microwave to cook.
4) I stirred the peppers & onions, added the chipotle spice powder and played City of Wonder, because I'm completely addicted to this latest Disney Facebook game.
5) After about ten minutes the peppers & onions were starting to caramelize and were hitting the edge of what I'd call burnt-on-the-bottom. Love it, because that reminds me of what it's like when you get fajitas at a restaurant.
6) I cut up the cooked potatoes into bite-size pieces and stirred them into the pepper mixture.
7) I put a cast iron pan onto another burner, turned the heat to 5 (of 10) and when it was warm, I laid a tortilla in it.
8) When the tortilla was warm, I turned it over and liberally spread the cheese over it.
9) I waited until the cheese was mostly melted and took the tortilla out of the pan and put it into a plate.
10) I then spooned the pepper & potato mixture into the center of the tortilla and spooned sour cream over the top. I folded the tortilla simply (both sides up over each other into a roll) and it was done.

And it was SOOO good.

Dinner: Glazed Carrots, Braised Lentils & Olive Oil Dumplings

For tonight's dinner I selected:

Balsamic-Garlic Glazed Carrots
Braised Lentils with Parsnips
Griddled Olive Oil Salt Rolls (which I turned into dumplings)

Ingredients

Balsamic-Garlic Carrots - balsamic vinegar, carrots, minced garlic

Braised Lentils - my dish included red lentils, olive oil, chopped sweet onion, chopped fresh mushrooms, diced celery, diced parsnips, sherry, water, bay leaf, salt & pepper

Griddled Olive Oil Salt Rolls - flour, olive oil, baking powder, salt + water


Good stuff. I didn't see the "cup of water" in the olive oil rolls recipe and I thought it was dry so I added more olive oil. Turns out I was missing the water part of the recipe, which was not in the ingredient list but instead in the instructions. I totally missed it. I shaped the dough as best I could into patties and put them to grill in a pan of hot olive oil, but I could quickly see that wasn't ever going to happen. So, I gingerly picked them up and put them into the lentil mixture as dumplings. Quite good - the olive oil flavor. Love it.

Beginning Bittman

Decided that 2010 is the Year o' Bittman. I am going to cook as many recipes as I can in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Yes, I just saw the movie Julie/Julia for the first time.

Why vegetarian? Well, it's cheaper. And generally, healthier. And I need both...

Mini-Meatball Soup

Years ago I lifted the basic recipe for Italian Wedding Soup and made it my own. The soup becomes a luscious, silky concoction of vegetables, meatballs and pasta. Absolutely delicious on a cold spring day, light enough for hot summer days.

I put a soup pot on the burner at sauté heat and drizzled in a round of extra virgin olive oil.

Got out the chopping board and my knife. I diced up:
- one large red onion
- two stalks of celery

Earthbound Farm Organic sells snack packs of really small carrots, so I threw in three packs of those.

I then put in two bay leaves and stirred the pot.

I went to the fridge and pulled out the jar of pureed fresh ginger. I put a scant spoonful of that in there. (A regular spoon, not a soup spoon.)

I stirred.

I turned the heat up to high and put three 16 oz cans of chicken broth into the pot. I then added two cups of water.

Pulled 1 lb of hamburger and the jar of minced garlic out of the fridge and put it into a bowl.

I then put two handfuls of parmesan cheese into the bowl.

I poured two cups of breadcrumbs in there.

I put an egg in there and a 1/2 cup of water.

I put a heaping spoonful of minced garlic in there too.

I waited for the pot to bowl and walked over to the stove with my meat bowl.

I made miniature meatballs with my hands and dropped them into the boiling soup.

When I was done, I put a cup of alphabet pasta into the soup.

Then I put a cup of tubettini pasta into the soup.

I then let it boil away until the pasta was done...

In the meantime, I grabbed the bag of fresh spinach that we had in the fridge and chopped it up. All I did was run my knife through the spinach about 10 times.

Then, when the pasta was nearly done, I started dropping handfuls of the spinach into the soup pot. I let the spinach wilt in and I would drop the next handful. I'd stir it periodically with the soup still boiling away.

When the spinach was all in, the soup was done!

I don't serve it with anything because we find it's a full meat, but crusty bread or grilled cheese sandwiches are a fantastic accompaniment.

Beware: the soup is really hot! You may want to wait for it to cool a bit.

How to fix up Near East's Creamy Parmesan with White Rice & Pearled Wheat

Near East makes a box mix called "Creative Grains: Creamy Parmesan with White Rice and Pearled Wheat". Normally I love it on its own, but tonight I wanted to kick it up a notch.

I took my Le Creuset 2 quart pot out of the frozen undercabinet and put it on low to warm up to room temp. Then I turned it up to high. (This is a thirty year old stove: high will be too high for your modern stove - use medium.) I drizzled extra virgin olive oil in it and let that heat up...

I took a big sweet onion (one more of the Walla Wallas) and chopped that roughly and tossed it into the oil.

I took a red pepper out of the fridge, seeded and chopped it and tossed that in.

I put a tablespoon of minced fridge-garlic in.

I put a teaspoon of minced fridge-ginger in. (Note, that was a LOT of ginger flavor. I would put a 1/2 teaspoon in next time.)

I let it sauté a bit and then raised my eyebrows a few times and reached for the toasted sesame oil. I drizzled that lightly over the sauteeing veggies.

I then squinted at the bright orange pot and scooped a couple of tablespoons of Hoisin sauce into the mix.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

I pulled out a can of chicken broth and put that in, and brought it up to a simmer.

I opened the box and poured in the rice and wheat. I mixed it all together.

Then I thought to toss in a small snack-size package of mini-baby carrots. Yes, they have preemie baby carrots.

I then pulled out a crossword puzzle and waited for the mixture to boil. I then turned it down to medium and let it simmer steadily. A Strong Simmer.

And it cooked. And I filled out my puzzle. And it cooked. I stirred it a few times, despite dire warnings on ze box. And I filled out my puzzle. And it cooked.

Twenty minutes later, I stirred in the parmesan seasonings packet and a healthy helping of grated parmagiano reggiano.

OH YEAH!! Perfect for this freezing winter evening.

Really strong on the ginger, but luckily I like ginger. I'll hold back a bit next time.