Chickpeas in disguise

This is another family favourite. It is a very simple dish to make (at least when you use a food processor) and pretty open to modification. If I make a big enough batch then there will be enough left for dinner another night as well.

Chickpea Cannelloni

Put one onion through food processor and pulse til fine. Add one can of chickpeas (or about 2 cups worth of soaked and cooked chickpeas) and pulse til smooth. Add 1 container of ricotta cheese, 1 egg, lots of fresh chopped parsley, salt, pepper, garlic and some Romano or Parmesan cheese. Process 'til smooth. If I have it I like to add some steamed spinach or some grated zucchini at this point and fold that in. This batch has spinach.

I put this mixture into a plastic bag with a small hole snipped into the corner of it and then squeeze it into no-bake (oven-ready) cannelloni shells and place them into a baking pan. Over this I pour my spiced tomato sauce (you could use your favourite tomato-based pasta sauce) which has been thinned out with water. (There are instructions on the package of cannelloni shell for how much water to add to the sauce. The sauce must be watery enough that it helps cook the shells.). Sprinkle some grated cheese on top. Cover and bake following package directions. I like to take the lid off for the last few minutes to brown up the cheese a bit. Enjoy.

Tomato beans

This is a pretty plain way to eat beans...it isn't a recipe that I would use to introduce someone to beans but it is one that I enjoy. The flavours of the tomatoes, garlic and thyme with the olive oil on top...delicious.I soak large white beans in plenty of water the night before. In the morning I drain them and add fresh water then put them on the stove to cook. This takes about an hour. When they are tender then I drain them again. I saute some onion and celery in the cast iron pot and then add the drained beans, a large container of stewed tomatoes and a jar of tomato sauce. I also like to add a few sticks of dried Kombu crunched up really small. Let simmer while the beans absorb the tomato sauce. Add Herbamare, pepper and lots of thyme. (my stewed tomatoes already have basil, garlic and onion in them or I would have added this too). Simmer until the beans are nice and soft. Sometimes I will add a bit of broth to keep them saucy. Serve with a good drizzle of olive oil on top and some nice crusty bread. My boys like to make cheese buns (buns put under the broiler with some grated cheese and garlic on them) to go with.

Lentil casserole, felted pot holder and pumpkin buns

Last night we had this lentil casserole. It is a favourite with all of us.I saute onions (and celery if we have it) in a cast iron pan and then add 1 cup of washed lentils and 4 cups of broth. I simmer until the lentils are soft (this takes 35-40 minutes). Then I add about 2 cups of my stewed tomatoes (or a jar of my tomato sauce), a spoonful of tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, herbamare (and any other spices you like). I cook this for 5 more minutes and then put grated cheese on top and pop it in the oven for 10-15 minutes. We serve it with crunched nacho chips on top (and avocado, sour cream and Frank's red hot sauce if you like). This also can make a delicious taco filling if you have any leftovers.

We use our cast iron pans for almost everything we cook and so we realized that handle holders would be a good thing. I made some up before Christmas and now we can't imagine how we got on without them. I decided to make a special one for my dad; he loves hot rods. ;-) I had fun needle felting a flame "paint job" onto this one.

On the other side I needle-felted this warning. :-)

I was getting rid of some of my cookbooks when I came across an old bread-making one. Flipping through it I saw a photo of clover leaf rolls and it brought back memories. My mom used to always make clover leaf rolls and I loved them. I loved pulling them apart into their three equal bits and putting a dot of butter on each third before eating. I decided that I needed to make some. I made ours with pumpkin and they were delicious.

But, they must be eaten this way - pulled apart in thirds. My poor husband was going to just slice his in half and put butter on. Lucky for him I was there to guide him. ;-)

Easy bean recipes

Bean there, done that...

We eat a lot of legumes in our house. We all enjoy them and we have several favourite recipes that we use often. I thought it might be fun to do a "week of beans" and post a week's worth of our favourite bean recipes here.

Last night we had black bean tortillas - W asked for them when we were making up our week's menu. This month we have been trying to use up food from our freezers so the menu is really reflecting that. When the boys are deciding what they will make on their night to cook we have this little conversation.

Me - Does it use something from the freezer, the cold room and the pantry?

Them - Well, it uses something from the pantry.

Me - Not good enough!! ;-) Think of something that uses an ingredient from each. Bonus points for several ingredients from the freezer. ;-)

So now it has become almost like a challenge for us - how many ingredients can YOU use from the freezer in your dinner?? We're thinking that whoever uses the most freezer ingredients in one dinner should get the freezer award - an ice cream sundae. (except we have no ice cream in our freezer) :-(

Anyway here is last night's dinner and I did pretty well. When I cook beans I soak and cook them in big batches and then freeze them on cookie sheets. When they are frozen then I store them in freezer bags. This way I always have beans cooked and on hand.

In our cast iron fry pan I cooked up:

1 bag of previously cooked and frozen black beans

1 container of stewed tomatoes (mine have onions, garlic, peppers and zucchini in them)

1 cob of corn (frozen last summer on the cob with husk left on. I just cut of the kernels and threw them in)

Simmer and add some cumin, chili powder (made from our hot peppers), herbamare and a splash of Bragg's.

At the same time I cooked up some rice (also stored in glass jars in the freezer because I buy it in bulk. It is a rice mix and has brown rice in so needs to be stored in cool spot). I cooked enough rice for two meals because I wanted some extra to use in a lentil casserole the next night.

Put rice on tortillas (also in freezer because we stock up when they are on sale) add black bean mixture and then top as you like. We use some grated cheese and sometimes avocado. My boys like to mix Frank's red hot sauce in with some sour cream and put that on as well. When we have lettuce we put that on as well. Yum! We all love these. We served them with leftover squash (from the cold room) that I had cooked the night before when we were using the oven for lasagna.

So...

beans, rice, stewed tomatoes, corn, tortillas. That's 5 things from the freezer and 1 thing (squash) from the cold room. Beat that guys. I'm on my way to the ice cream sundae award.

:-)

Wait, I forgot...I used a cube of parsley from the freezer too. That makes 6 freezer things and 1 coldroom thing. ;-)

Almost done....

We've been working on re-doing our kitchen on and off for...well, an embarrassingly long time, really. We did get most of it done right off the bat but it is the finishing touches that we have left sitting. These past two weeks I've been really pushing through the whole house - cleaning, purging and finishing bits and pieces. This weekend my husband got on the bandwagon too, and when he gets going he really, really gets going. Among lots of other jobs we finally finished grouting the last half of our rock back splash in the kitchen and S put this lovely finishing touch up behind our stove. I love the way the kitchen is looking and just have to do some touch-ups to the grout as it is drying and then I want to put another coat of the finish on our wooden counter tops. I'd like to post a picture of the whole thing when it is completely done - maybe a before and after if I can find a before pic.

I picked up two more sweaters to felt at the thrift store so I will post asap about how to do that for those who were asking me.

This morning E was thinking about Cheerios because we found a box leftover from camping when we were cleaning out the trailer. He said that he could make a cereal and call it Happy-Es. Then he thought for a minute and told me that I could make a cereal and call it Pretty-Ms (M for mom). :-) Don't you just love the sweet things that come out of our children's mouths and minds? What fun.

Felting wool sweaters (or even more things that are making me happy)

Last week I was cleaning out my laundry/sewing/crafty/clothes-drying/mess room downstairs and came across my bag of thrifted wool sweaters. I've been saving them up to make a quilt. I decided that as soon as I got that room organized that I would treat myself for all my hard work by felting the sweaters and getting going on the quilt. In amongst my cleaning I found all sorts of fun things to make with felted sweaters (try googling felted sweaters and prepare to be overwhelmed inspired. Here they are before felting.
Here they are after felting.

So, naturally (!!), I needed to get more sweaters. We were on our way to visit a friend when we spied a $5 a bag sign at a thrift store. My lovely hubby pulled in and I picked out every wool sweater I saw. Seven of them. We found a few shirts for W and went to pay thinking that we would have two bags full and get all that lovely goodness for only $10. Needless to say that I was tickled pink when the woman at the counter took a look and said that we would need to roll them all up tightly to be able to fit them into a bag. She proceed to roll all those big wool sweaters up into tiny rolls and cram them all into a grocery bag. I love her. ;-)

This top one is already ear-marked for a project. I want to cut the front open so that it is a cardigan and then do some needle felted embellishments on it. I found inspiration here.

And I'll need to turn one of them into one of these bags. But I still need enough for my quilt so maybe I actually need more sweaters. ;-)

Things that are making me happy....

Dark chocolate. Almonds and local cherries. Right from my own town. Given by a lovely friend (and sister in choco-love).

Very happy!!!