Pumpkin Muffins

I saw someone mention on their blog an article they saw in Whole Living magazine about mise en place and preparing some components for the week, to be used to make complete meals quickly and easily.  I headed over to the site and, unable to find the article, got extremely distracted by the recipes.  They're a Martha Stewart magazine, so they've got their site set up the same way as hers - slideshows with pretty pictures group together recipes by a theme.  I believe I found the Pumpkin Muffins in a "fall recipes" grouping.  Either way, I knew I had some canned pumpkin in the freezer, left over from a delicious protein bar recipe from Georgie's book, so I decided these would make a nice weekend breakfast.

I should note that while this recipe claims to make 12 muffins, it does not mention until the instructions that it makes 12 JUMBO muffins, so I ended up with 24 muffins.  I gave away several to my mom and sister, and to my coworkers.  I ended up freezing a surprisingly small number of them.  But they're definitely worth making again.  They're delicious and cakey, a fantastic fall treat.  Instead of the whole wheat flour, I used spelt, and a bit more than called for (2 cups to 1 of all-purpose).  I might toast the walnuts next time (or not, I'm lazy).  My older muffin tin produced much more rounded and aesthetically pleasing muffins - I believe my newer one has a bit smaller capacity.  Anyway, these are a great way to welcome fall.

Deborah Madison's Black Bean Chili

This month, the 101 Cookbooks Library is trying something a little different - a featured author instead of a featured book.  October's featured author is Deborah Madison.  I didn't participate in September (I didn't have much interest in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook) but I'm all set for October.  I already own Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and my mom got me a few of her other books from the library: the Greens Cookbook, Vegetable Soups, and Local Flavors.

This Black Bean Chili from the Greens Cookbook was recommended to me when I posted a question on the 101 Cookbooks Library asking for favorite chili recipes.  (I found it on this blog page when I was searching online.)  Since I got the book from the library just for October, I decided to kick it off right by making this chili on October 1st.

In addition to the fact that, well, it's chili! I was attracted to this recipe when I read in the headnotes that it's used in a few other recipes in the book, Black Bean Enchiladas and Black Bean Chilaquiles.  I'm not sure about the chilaquiles yet as I don't exactly know what they are, but the Black Bean Enchiladas sound great!  I've always wanted to make enchiladas and now seems like a great time.  I took a look at the recipe, and besides making the chili, it seems like it can be done fairly easily.  The enchiladas use 3 cups of the Black Bean Chili, so I'm freezing 3 cups just for that.  It will be a good one to try a little later this month when I'm more pressed for time.

The Black Bean Chili itself is a leisurely weekend recipe that took me about 4 hours.  I soaked 2 cups of my Rancho Gordo midnight black beans overnight in the refrigerator.  (I have about 1/2 cup left... what will I do with them?! should have just used the whole pound...)  I drained them and put them on to simmer while I did the rest of the prep for the recipe, as the instructions suggest.  Basically, the rest of the ingredients go into a large skillet to simmer for 15 minutes, before being added to the pot with the beans.  Then it all cooks for another hour at least, until the beans are done.  I used half regular paprika, half smoked paprika.  In hindsight, I should have used all smoked paprika, since the smokiness was not that strong, and this is a chili after all!  (The real reason is because my regular paprika expired in 2009.  Oops.)  I left out the 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper that the recipe called for, because I think it's gross.  Why use that when you can use a delicious and flavorful chile instead?  (I tasted a piece of yellow pepper before adding the mixture to the beans, and it kicked me in the face for just a second, so I definitely won't be missing the heat of the cayenne.)  I also used ancho and chipotle chili powders in place of grinding my own dried chili - just over 2 tbsp total, which is exactly what I had left in each plastic bag.  I added a diced yellow bell pepper, because I like peppers in my chili and I wanted to add a vegetable to this dish.  I used up the last of my fresh tomatoes, including an orangey-yellow heirloom tomato, and some leftover fire-roasted plum tomatoes that didn't fill a jar when I canned them earlier this week. 

This was a lot of work, but the few bites I tasted of the results seemed to be worth it.  With more preparation it could certainly be an easier recipe to make, just needing one eye kept on it as it simmers.  I'm sure I'll try this one again, and I especially look forward to the enchiladas.

CSA 2011: Week 21

It's been a busy week in the kitchen, though my lack of posts might look like I haven't cooked anything.  I have some new things to share when I get a minute to sit down and upload my pictures.  A few classics made an appearance as well.  When I bought corn last week at the market, the guy threw in an extra two ears, so I found I had five left instead of the three that I thought were there.  Ken immediately asked for the corn pesto, so we had that again, probably the last time for the season - not only because of corn but the basil on our porch is starting to look a bit sad, which I attribute to the cold.  While I canned some more fire-roasted plum tomatoes, the power went out.  Luckily it came back on right away, but it would have been interesting to finish that process in the dark!  Later in the week we split a turkey couscous meatloaf from the freezer and I made a side of green beans to go with it, drizzled with a mustardy dressing.  My mom has been freezing the tender new-crop beans we've been getting, labeling them specifically for Thanksgiving.  Over the weekend, we made a honey mustard salmon and a side salad of arugula and cherry tomatoes with a champagne vinaigrette (I'll have to write that one down... so good!).  The weekend project, besides apple picking, was Deborah Madison's Black Bean Chili, which used garlic and some slicing tomatoes, including a straggler heirloom, from our CSA.  I threw in some of the fire roasted plum tomatoes too, which were left over from canning, plus a yellow bell pepper to add a little color and a vegetable, and because I like peppers in my chili.  Ken had the last of the edamame as a snack when I was too tired to cook a proper dinner.  Today I roasted last week's cherry tomatoes down to tiny bits and popped them in a jar in the freezer to spice up soups and pastas and whatever later in the winter, when we need a bit of sunshine.  Then I made a roasted tomato soup and a stuffed eggplant dish, both of which I'll detail more in their own posts.  These two ventures used up slicing and plum tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, and yellow bell pepper and yielded plenty of proper food for the next few days.

Now on to this week...

This week we got some excellent string beans, almost a full quart of cherry tomatoes (sungold something, and the black cherry ones I like), a quart of tomatillos, 16 hot peppers (jalapenos and poblanos), 4 quarts of sauce tomatoes, and herbs (thyme, sage, and parsley).  We skipped anything else that is listed.

I took two of these tomatoes, plus one my mom still had from last week.  I like tomatoes, but since I end up taking a lot of other things, and she will actually eat tomatoes, I let her have them :)

Hot peppers - a good example of something my mom won't use!

Hmm... maybe these are ALL examples of something my mom won't use. :)
I love arugula's strong peppery flavor, though, so I'm happy to have it.  I just have to remember to use it earlier on in the week.

There were a bunch of red bell peppers today - tiny, but red!  Yay!  My mom kept one of the 4.

I got two of the most normal looking and biggest eggplants I could dig up (but they're still small).

My mom chose 2 bunches of turnips.  This reminds me, I need to send her some recipes for the greens.

Now for the most exciting event... big choice group!  Pick 4 of the 5 available items...

The choices were kale, collards, cilantro, radicchio, and boc choy.  The boc choy was tiny, and radicchio is not something we really want, so we ended up taking 3 bunches of kale and 1 of cilantro.  I took home the cilantro and 2 of the kale.  I am pretty excited about this - I feel like I have been waiting for kale for weeks now.  Of course, now I can't remember what I wanted to do with it...

That's all for now!  I'll do my best to get a few things posted this week before I forget about them entirely.