Crock Pot Tepary Beans

My mother-in-law first introduced me to tepary beans, a small bean native to Arizona and last year, I got a few 1 lb bags of them at a gardening demonstration. I kept meaning to cook them, but I never remember to soak my beans overnight and tend to rely on canned beans because of this.

One night, I remembered and decided to try them. For some reason, I thought they were sweet--maybe I was thinking of mesquite beans. They're not. They taste a lot like pinto beans, but because they're so small, they cook really well in a crock pot (whenever I try to cook pinto beans in the crock pot, they still taste raw to me).

These were delicious with a little rice mixed in to make them look more "refried." I get mine at the Town and Country Farmers' Market.

Crock Pot Tepary Beans
I modified the recipe I got from the gardening fair and added the cumin, chili powder and salt.

1 lb tepary benas
1/2 lb bacon, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1 t salt

Clean, sort, and soak beans overnight.

Place soaked beans in a crock pot along with bacon, onion, cumin, chili powder, and salt. Add enough water to cover the beans by about 1 inch. Cook on high for about 8 hours. I removed as much liquid as I could and then, added 1/2 cup of leftover cooked rice about an hour before serving to absorb the excess liquid. This helped the beans to look more like the refried beans my kids prefer.

Delicious with some homemade corn taco shells.

Cook's Illustrated Classic Brownies

Since Emmeline has been born, I've had some extra calories to spare, so I've been looking for a favorite brownie recipe. I think I've found one, but I ruined a whole batch trying to use egg replacer so Asher could eat them. Sigh, eggs are necessary.

Chocolately with just the right consistency and that delicious crunchy, chewy edge of the pan. I'm not quite sure if this is my THE brownie recipe. I'm afraid more recipes will have to be attempted to know for sure.

Classic Brownies
Cook's Illustrated

1 c (4 oz) pecans or walnuts, chopped I didn't use these
1 1/4 c (5 oz) cake flour
1/2 t salt
3/4 t baking powder
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 6 1-inch pieces
2 1/4 c (15 3/4 oz) sugar
4 large eggs
1 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Line 9x13 pan with tin foil (make sure there's extra over the lip of the pan) and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Toast nuts if using.

Whisk to combine flour, salt, and baking powder in medium bowl; set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter in large heatproof bowl set over saucepan of almost-simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. When chocolate mixtureis completely smooth, remove bowl from saucepan and gradually whisk in sugar. Add eggs one at time, whisking after each addition until thoroughly combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three additions, folding with rubber spatula until batter is completely smooth and homogeneous.

Transfer batter to prepared pan; using spatula, spread batter into corners of pan and smooth surface. Sprinkle nuts evenly over better and bake until toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan by lifting foil.

Keeps in airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, but I've never had them around for 3 days to know if this is true.

Shakshuka (Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

I've had a pile of recipes that I've been wanting to post, but whew! 3 kids is a little tricky.

This is delicious and vegetarian (and low in Weight Watcher points--around 5 points per serving). I keep the heat pretty low around here, so I substituted 3 of the Anahaim chiles with sweet red and yellow bell peppers. If Asher wasn't allergic to eggs, we'd have this almost every week.

Smitten Kitchen's Shakshuka

Savory Compound Butters

I was watching Food Network the other day and watched a woman whip up a Cobb Salad butter, which sounds gross. I think Savory Compound Butter sounds better. I've always loved orange butter and honey butter, but never thought to do this. Best of all, I just watched her whip it up, and then, made my own with approximations. This is delicious on baked potatoes! I think it would also be good on French bread.
4 strips of bacon, fried, cooled and chopped
handful of chives (I probably ended up with about 1/4 c once these were minced)
4 oz crumbled blue cheese
1 stick of softened butter

Mash all ingredients together with a fork.

Southwest Pasta Salad

Um... I'm in love with a salad. This one comes from Our Best Bites: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/01/southwest-pasta-salad/ If your trying to lose some extra weight and need calorie count here it is: I halved the dressing because it was more than enough. 8 servings. 1 serving=246. And that is why I had 2 servings at dinner tonight:)

Sour Cream Enchiladas

With refried beans on the side, this is a delicious and easy vegetarian meal.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/sour-cream-enchiladas/

My only additions were to add 1 t of cumin and 1 t of chili powder instead of the 1/4 t's that PW recommends.

Classic Bread Pudding

This recipe was torn out of a Martha Stewart magazine before I had children, but for some reason, I never made it before. It's delicious and made in individual ramekins, looks like a far fancier dessert than it is.

Classic Bread Pudding
Serves 8

2 T unsalted butter, softened for baking dish
12 ounces brioche or challah, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups milk trust me, whole milk
3 cups heavy cream
4 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 c sugar I think this dish could benefit from an additional flavor, so I'm thinking of trying maple syrup in place of the sugar next time--what say ye, natural sweet expert, Kendahl? Would that work?
1/2 t salt
1 T pure vanilla extract
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/2 c raisins um, I used chocolate chips because I don't like raisins, but I'm thinking maybe next time craisins with some orange zest
1 c boiling water

Butter a 9 by 12 inch baking dish or 8 individual ramekins and set asid. Put bread in a large bowl; set aside. Heat milk and cream in a medium saucepan over med-high heat until just about to simmer; remove from heat.

Whisk eggs, yok, sugar, salt, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg in a med bowl. Whisking constantly, pour cream mixture in a slow steady stream into egg mixture. Pour over bread; fold to combine. Let stand 30 minutes, tossing and pressing occasionally to submerge bread.

Meanwhile, soak raisins in 1 c boiling water for 30 minutes. I skipped this.

Drain; stire raisins into bread mixture. Preheat oven to 350. With a slotted spoon, transfer bread to buttered dish; pour liquid in bowl over top. Using spoon, turn top layer of bread crust side up.

Set dish in a roasting pan; transfer to oven. Pour boiling water into pan to reach about halfway up sides of dish. Bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes. Let dish cool on a rack 10 to 20 minutes.