NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #18: #RECIPE - pita bread

What's hummus without pita???

The pita situation in my local grocery stores is seriously sad -- not just the kitchen test thing, it doesn't even taste good.  So I've been searching for the perfect pita recipe for a long time, and I am very happy with what I now use as my go-to recipe.  It's even quick enough to be made in between work and dinner! One less thing to make ahead on the weekend, phew!

Quick pita
From here and here

Combine in a large bowl:
 2 cups warm water
2 T yeast
3 T white sugar

Stir in:
2 cups white flour

Cover bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add in: 
1 cup white flour
2 cups wheat flour
1/4 cup oil
2 t salt

Mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

After you're done kneading you're ready to cook!  Set your oven to 500F and stick a heavy baking pan (or pizza stone) inside. Divide the dough into about a dozen pieces. Roll flat and place on baking pan (in batches, whatever fits).  Bake for 2-4 minutes until the pita is puffed and just starting to slightly brown (the timing is actually very forgiving).  Remove from oven and keep under a towel until ready to serve.

YUM!

 

 
 

NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #17: Making vs. buying #RECIPE - hummus

When it comes to what to make from scratch vs. what to buy pre-made,  I have three main considerations:

-Consideration 1: Time. Making something is rarely (if ever?) quicker than just buying it, but is it at least quick enough to make in between work and dinner?  If not, can it be made on weekends and stored?  And if it takes a long time to make, is it at least fun?  ...If not, does it rank sufficiently high in the next two considerations to be worth the effort?

-Consideration 2: Price. Homemade is sometimes cheaper than storebought, but not always. I'm OK with it costing more as long as it ranks highly in the third consideration...

-Consideration 3: Taste. Does the homemade version taste better than the storebought version?  ...I am not too proud to say that's not always a given. 

Which brings me to...hummus!  Hummus is quick to make from scratch, way cheaper than pre-made, and also tastes better.  Win!Win!Win! (That said, on days when I just can't be bothered, I have no qualms buying store-bought hummus that passes the kitchen test...which, unfortunately, is pretty hard to find around here. Unprocessed availability is apparently another consideration).

Onwards to the recipe!

Hummus

Combine in a food processor or blender:

1 lb cooked chickpeas

2 T chopped garlic

1/4 c water

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup tahini

1 1/2 t kosher salt

1/2 t parsley

4 T lemon juice

1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t onion powder

Blend, adding more water to get desired consistancy.

OMG SO EASY.  Adding a generous drizzle of olive oil on top is optional:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pita recipe tomorrow!

 

*I cook large batches of chickpeas and then freeze in 1-lb aliquots, because we REALLY love hummus.  I cook them in my pressure cooker, but since most people don't have one of those, here's a slow cooker recipe for cooking up one lb dried, which will give you a bit over 2 lbs cooked.

NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #16: Food blogs I follow

I follow a lot of food blogs in search of that perfect new-recipe-worth-tweaking-and-adding-to-the-rotation. And, I have to say that I have a newfound respect for the biz.  I'm going as quick and dirty and "yeah it's a crappy picture but whatevs" as possible and I can still see how blogging is a pretty big time commitment, much less if I were expected to develop completely new and original recipes all year long, and respond to comments, and take pretty staged photos, and maybe moderate a facebook page, and arrange corporate sponsorships to pay for it all.  Speaking of corporate sponsorships, I hereby vow not to roll my eyes out of my head when I see that a blogger has, for example, a new Dole banana bread recipe that you should totally use Dole-brand bananas to make, because if they didn't do stuff like that they would probably stop posting. ...Even if it does come across rather grating at times.

Anyways! To share the love, here is the list of food blogs I follow via facebook as of today (I frequently add and occasionally take away).  Some are better than others, some I use recipes from all the time, some I just ogle the food pictures, etc. I'm always open to suggestions for new stuff to follow, too.

HipPressureCooking
Two Peas and Their Pod
My Little Expat Kitchen
Eating Rules (creator of the October Unprocessed challenge)
Just Bento
Sally's Baking Addiction
[No Recipes]
Table for Two
Macheesmo
Simply Scratch
smitten kitchen 
Feast for the Eyes
1oo Days of Real Food
Budget Bytes
Love & Olive Oil
Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Skinnytaste
The Little Kitchen
Brown Eyed Baker
Sugarcrafter
Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day

NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #15: Taco tuesday part Tres (Subtitled: tortilla recipe HALP?)

Well, so far in this unintentionally taco-themed week I've posted taco meat, fixins, and refried beans, but one key element is missing...tortillas!

Yeah, I don't have a flour tortilla recipe.  I've tried multiple ones and my tortillas always turn out too thick and not bendy enough.  Sort of more like a pita, or maybe a gordita.  (I've never tried my hand at corn tortillas, although honestly I don't like them as much).

Most store-bought flour tortillas don't pass the kitchen test, and maybe more importantly, my husband hates the way store-bought tortillas taste.




I discovered the Tortilla Land uncooked tortillas at Safeway and they actually do pass the kitchen test, plus they are husband's-tastebuds-approved, but I'd really prefer to be making them from scratch.

 Someone with an awesome flour tortilla recipe and/or tortilla-making tips. heeelp!  (Uh, important note, I refuse to bake/cook with lard or shortening....butter or oil only.  So that might be the source of my problems, but I'm not sure).

NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #14: Taco Tuesday part Dos #RECIPE - slow-cooker refried beans

Refried beans!  So delicious.  So unphotogenic.  You guys, just trust me, these are DELICIOUS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are also cheaper than store-bought, tastier (in my opinion), and pretty simple to  make.  The only potentially tricky thing is that thanks to the overnight soak and the fact that they are slow-cooked, you can't get home and decide you want tacos and just make these impromptu.  So, I do keep a can of refried beans (our cheapo store brand passes the kitchen test which is nifty) in my cupboard for tacomergencies, but for the most part we eat these. 

 

Slow cooker refried beans

Adapted from an amalgam of Budget Bytes and Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients:

Add before slow-cooking

1 lb dry pinto beans, soaked overnight

1  onion, roughly chopped

1 T chopped garlic, or however much you want to chop

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

1 t cumin

1 t chili powder

Ground black pepper (as much as you want)

Add after slow-cooking

Salt - about 1 to 2 t, or to taste.

Instructions

Add the drained pinto beans, onion, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper to the slow cooker.

Cover with water by an inch or two.

Cook on low for at least 8 hours, or all day -- you can't really overcook beans you are going to mash :)

After slow-cooking, set a colander above a bowl.

Drain entire mixture from slow-cooker, reserving the bean-water in the bowl.

In a food processor or blender, blend entire bean mixture (I have to do this in 2 batches in my fairly-large food processor).

Return blended beans to the slow cooker (I set mine on Warm) and stir in bean-water until you reach your desired consistency.  For me, this is about half a cup.

Stir in salt.

VOILA, you are done.  You can leave the refried beans warming in the slow cooker until you're ready to eat.

This recipe makes enough beans to freeze for future meals, which solves the whole "need to know ahead of time" dilemma.  I've contemplated doubling it so I can freeze even MORE but haven't ever tried it.  I'm only about 90% sure that my slow cooker is big enough...

Huzzah for Taco Tuesday!  And subsequent leftover Taco Thursdays! Never not awesome.

NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #13: What I Ate Wednesday

Breakfast:
 Apple blueberry granola.  Seriously, obsessed with the bulk granola thing.

 Lunch: Avocado/tomato/lettuce/ranch sandwich on toast and a mandarin orange.  Mmmmm...

 Dinner: Leftover swedish meatballs that my husband made from scratch on Sunday, corn.  Random mix of egg noodles and penne because that's what we had. Almost all store-bought pasta passes the kitchen test, very handy.

I LOVE leftovers.  Have I said "cook once eat twice" yet on this blog? Because if I don't get at least two meals out of something I've cooked, I'm pretty sad. Cooking is kind of fun, but kind of a lot of work.  And the dirty dishes, ugh.  Definitely cook once and eat twice.


Full disclosure: I don't bring my camera to work or I'd just show it, but I totally also ate two donuts at work.  NO REGRETS.  I don't turn down food other people are offering me: that's just rude, guys.  (I mean, I technically could have stopped at one donut but...)

NaBloPoMoNoProFoNo #12: Happy Taco Tuesday! #RECIPE - slow cooker pork carnitas

It's Taco Tuesday!  We don't make tacos EVERY Tuesday for fear of getting sick of them (and man do I love tacos, so that would be sad).  We do make them a lot though, a couple of times a month. There is a ton of flexibility in both the taco base -- beef, fish, beans, pork, whatever -- and also in the fixins platter (more on that later).  But today I'm posting a recipe for slow-cooked pork carnitas tacos because they are one of my favorite things, and boneless ribs are frequently the cheapest meat at my grocery store at 1.99/lb (huzzah!).  I consider my pork carnitas tacos company-worthy, so if I ever serve this to any of you, pretend you don't know how easy they were, please.

TACO MEAT:

Slow-cooker pork carnitas
Recipe adapted from Cook with Sara, who adapted it from somewhere else.

Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless pork country style ribs
 1 large onion
 3 tsp. salt
A bunch of fresh ground black pepper (I never measure, I just grind pepper til I'm bored of it)
6 tsp. oregano
4 tsp. cumin
Chopped garlic: at least a few cloves worth, or more

Instructions:

Chop boneless ribs into chunks -- maybe about 2" wide, or so.  It's not super-critical since you shred them later.  Toss in the slow cooker.

Chop onion roughly into chunks. Toss in the slow cooker.

Add the salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, and garlic to the slow cooker and mix it around with your hands so it's coating the meat evenly-ish.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  (Note: you do not add liquid.)

We serve the meat in chunks and just shred-as-we-go into our own tacos (and also add the cooked onions, which are tasty).  Since ribs aren't the kind of meat you can trim before cooking, there will be little bits of fat and such that we just pick out.   

FIXINS PLATTER:

You heard it here first: every meal that can have a fixins platter, should have a fixins platter. For tacos, there are a million possibilities.  I always include avocado and lettuce, and then depending on what's in the fridge I also add shredded cheese, chopped green onion, red cabbage, tomato, red onion, cilantro, or whatever else seems awesome. 

TORTILLAS AND REFRIED BEANS:  Also requried for a successful Taco Tuesday. But this entry is getting long and already contains a recipe, so I'll discuss these on Thursday (tomorrow being what-I-ate-Wenesday, of course, DUH).