Green Bean and Shallot Salad

Well, it’s been quite a while since my last post. Not to worry, I’ve still been cooking-just not posting as much (or really at all). However, my little brother is going back to college this year, and he occasionally reads these, so I might start using it as a way to share recipes with him (that’s the goal at least).

I recently bought the Williams Sonoma “Salad of the Day” cookbook, and today I made my first one out of it! The idea with the cookbook is that there’s a salad for each day of the year (365 total!!). They sometimes use seasonal ingredients, and the summer months are a little “lighter”. I absolutely love it, and I can’t wait to try them all!

Instead of trying to pick “one that looked cool to try” from the entire book, I decided to just make the salad for the day (August 18th), no matter how I felt about it. Trying to get the ingredients was a little interesting. I was 100% ready to pay the millions of dollars for fresh fava beans, fresh wax beans, and fresh romano beans, but I couldn’t find them in the store! So, instead I substituted green beans and canned butter beans, and it actually turned out really well! I would definitely make it again.

 

Notes for future renditions of this recipe:

1. Frozen green beans would probably work just fine (the steamable kind)
2. If you’re not big on onions, 1 shallot is probably enough. Mine had 4 total bulbs.
3. I think I could get away with using less olive oil (maybe 1/2 c?) 

My first time using actual lemon zest

The dressing

Beans 🙂

 

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans (or 2 12 oz bags), cut into 2 in. pieces

2 cans butter beans (2 normal 15 oz cans), drained

2 shallots, minced (if you’re sensitive to the taste of onions, use 1)

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4 c lemon juice

zest of 1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

3/4 c olive oil

 

Recipe:

1. Fill a pot with enough water to immerse all of the green beans. Bring to a boil, and then dump the green beans in. Boil for 3 minutes, and then dump the green beans into ice water to cool them.
2. Use a dry pan to toast the coriander for 20 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour into a small bowl.
3. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, vinegar, and shallots to the coriander and whisk to combine.
4. Add in the olive oil gradually, and continue whisking until the dressing is smooth.
5. Combine the green beans and butter beans in a large mixing bowl. Add in the dressing and mix well.
6. Refrigerate for 1 hr, and serve chilled.

 

 

 

 

Fettucine with Cranberry Beans and Pesto

It’s been a while since I posted. And by a while…I mean a very very long while. What can I say? Life happens. Boyfriends cook food for you. Spring Break. Finals. Etc.

The important thing is that I’m back in business, at least for now.

So, a brief summary:

1. I moved into a new house. Not an apartment, a house. With new roommates, a jungle yard, and everything else that having an actual house brings.
2. My mother has graciously let me have some of her Williams Sonoma cookbooks, so I’ll be trying recipes out and posting about them.
3. I’ve been on an internship for a month, but I’m now back home and slowly settling into a routine again. This is the very first meal I’ve cooked in my new house!

On to the recipe.

This recipe came out of the Williams Sonoma Rice and Beans cookbook. I, of course, modified the recipe according to my laziness and ingredients on hand, and that’s the version I’ll provide here.

This was my very first time using an actual garlic clove. I had no idea that when you bought garlic, it came as a head with lots of cloves on it…I always thought the whole thing was one clove. I had to look up how to mince it…

In hindsight, I’m not sure how much the cheese really added to this. I might leave it out if I were to make this again (which I probably will, because it was good!)

Ingredients:

2 cans of white beans

1 tsp chicken broth powder (mixed with 1 c water to make 1 c broth)

1 garlic clove

1 onion

1 c rice, uncooked

1 jar of classico pesto

2 T oil

1/2 c parmesan cheese

 

1. Cook the rice
2. Chop the onion and mince the garlic clove.
3. Put the onion, garlic, and 2 T oil in a pot and cook on high, stirring every minute or so, until the onions are soft
4. Add the beans and chicken broth and boil for 10 minutes to reduce the liquid
5. Add the bean mixture to the rice, pesto, and cheese, and stir.
6. Enjoy!

Super easy lentil/bean soup!

This weekend, I made some absolutely amazing food (which, of course, I’m not going to post because I didn’t take pictures..) The problem with that is that my food that was supposed to last a week was eaten over the course of the 3-day weekend, and Monday evening rolled around with only one meal of food left.

Can you think of a better time for a super simple clean out the pantry recipe?

This soup ended up being a lot better than I thought it would be, but it also has a TON of sodium (from the bouillon)…so beware 🙂

 

This is the part where it starts to smell good

Still smells good…

Andddd all done!

1 can black beans

1 c red lentils (uncooked)

1 onion (chopped)

3 T minced garlic

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp chili powder

3 carrots (chopped)

1 handful spinach

1 T olive oil

1/4 cube vegetable bouillon

2 c water

1. Put the onion, garlic, paprika, chili powder, and olive oil in a pot and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes.
2. Add the carrots and spinach and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
3. Add the beans, lentils, tomatoes, bouillon, and water and bring to a boil
4. Simmer for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. And that’s it. Poof! You’re done!

 

“Fried Couscous” aka couscous with cabbage

This recipe originated from a need to get rid of a giant head of cabbage (really, aren’t all cabbage heads seemingly never-ending?) without making anything too complicated.

I looked around a bit and found several recipes resembling fried rice. Now, I did have rice in my cupboard….but I didn’t particularly want to take the time to cook it. (It was around nine pm, and I didn’t want to start anything too extravagant right before bed.) So, I looked around a little longer hoping to find a different idea. Finally I gave up on finding something different, and accepted that I was going to be cooking rice. As I was getting out the rice, I saw some old couscous! In case you’re not familar with couscous, it literally takes ten minutes to make. My problem was solved!

Unfortunately, I didn’t quite manage to use up the entire head of cabbage (I still have 1/4 left…), but I definitely made some progress, and it turned out well! If I hadn’t been making this just to get rid of stuff in the cupboards, I would’ve added some more veggies like carrots, onions,  and celery, but like I said, it turned out good the way I made it!

3/4 head cabbage

3 eggs

1 c uncooked pearl couscous

3 T ginger

2 T minced garlic

3 T dried onion

1 T olive oil

1. Cook the couscous. Boil 1/12 cups of water and then put the couscous in, remove from heat, and let sit for 10 minutes (Seriously, it’s that easy!)
2. Chop the cabbage into small pieces.
3. Put the cabbage, garlic, and spices into a large pot with 1/2 c water and cook over medium heat until the cabbage is soft.
4. Put the cabbage mixture, cooked couscous, and oil into a very large pan (or wok, if you happen to have one-I don’t) and cook over medium heat until the couscous starts to brown.
5. Add the eggs and stir them into the mixture. Cook until the eggs are cooked through, and remove from heat.
6. Eat as is or with soy sauce.
7. Congratulate yourself on using up your cabbage

   

   The finished product

 

 

The Easiest Mac ‘n Cheese Ever!

Today, I chatted with my friend who is studying abroad in Florence, Italy. As you might expect, she raved about all the pizza, pasta, and gelato she’s been eating. Sometime in the middle of our conversation, I found myself thinking about dinner, and how nice it would be to have a big bowl of warm, cheesy pasta. I can’t imagine what might have inspired that thought…

Not even ten minutes after I got off the phone (or rather, the snapchat video chat) with her, I was already on my way to the store to pick up some pasta. At this point, I feel like I should note that I don’t really eat pasta very often. I eat things like rice, couscous, and quinoa reasonably often, and usually have them on hand, but actual pasta is definitely not a pantry staple for me.

After I returned from the store, it took me maybe another whole ten minutes to whip up some delicious pasta. This is, without a doubt, the easiest, simplest, most foolproof mac ‘n cheese recipe in the world.

It made just enough for a single (large) serving.

1 c pasta (any kind is fine, but I wouldn’t suggest spaghetti-style noodles)

1 T butter

1 c shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 milk

1 1/2 T flour

a dash of seasoning, if desired (I used garlic and herb, Mrs. Dash brand)

1. Cook the pasta according to the package’s directions and set aside.
2. Mix the butter, cheese, milk, flour, and seasonings (optional) in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the cheese and butter melt and the mixture thickens. Feel free to add milk or flour to adjust the consistency.
3. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce mixture and mix together.
4. Eat!

This is the spice blend I used, for anyone interested.