Bean Burritos

I never get sick of beans, I actually crave them sometimes.  Even if I over do it, after a few weeks have passed, I'm wanting beans again.  It's been a while since I made burritos, so I soaked some black beans over night, and had a tasty dinner last night.  When using dry beans, soaking over night cuts down the cooking time a lot.  I used black beans, because I had some in my pantry.  Pinto beans would also be tasty in a burrito.  You could use canned beans, but it's so easy not to, and significantly cuts down on the sodium.  Anything out of a can is loaded with salt, even if you buy the low sodium versions.  You can also make beans and ground beef or pork or chicken, or sausage, whatever you like.  I made mine just with beans and rice.

First decide how much you want to make, you can always freeze some for later.  You want to use about 3x as much water as beans, and just let that stand over night.  In the morning, add your spices.  I use s&p, cayenne pepper, garlic, onion, cumin - it adds a nice flavour.  Set your stove to low, and let it simmer for a few hours.  If you have a slow cooker, that could be very handy, and you could even skip the soak.  Just put on your slow cooker in the morning, and 8 hours later or so, your beans are ready.  make sure your heat isn't too high, because you don't want to be losing too much water too fast.  Once they are soft, you can try eating one to test, take a potato masher and mash your beans.  That's it, they're ready.

Make some rice, I use brown rice and add some spices, like paprika, hot pepper flakes, a bit of salt, or if you have a pre-blended spice which would go with a burrito, try that.  Then get your toppings ready, I usually have cheddar (old and white for me, mild and orange or marble for James).  BTW, cheddar cheese is naturally white, the orange is food colouring, nothing more.  Gross, right?  I usually have salsa, again, mild for James, sometimes I'll have that, but I like the Chipotle, some diced tomatoes, avocado or guacamole, green onions, cilantro, and sour cream or plain yogurt.  After assembling, I use my grill, and the burritos get warmed up and stick closed together.  I usually put the sour cream or yogurt on top, after it's grilled, or use it as a dip.  Super tasty and healthy.  Not every market has corn tortillas, and even the ones that do, when you read the ingredients, they list corn and what flour.  Corn flour tortillas are very brittle and messy, so my guess is that it's why they don't sell 100% corn flour tortillas here.  If you do use the corn/ wheat blend, those do break apart quicker than the wheat alone, but if you warm them up first, it prevents breakage a bit.

Very tasty, filling, good for you, and great for parties or any day of the week.  You can put left overs in the fridge for the next day or freeze and have in a few days or few weeks.  I used 2.5 cups of dry beans, we had 4 burritos last night, and there is still enough for today's dinner and probably more.  I won't be freezing my leftovers, I'll just use them as a topping for nachos and have a snack for tomorrow night, because I'm not sick of the beans yet :)

Be Aware of Certain Foods

I buy as little processed food as possible, and I don't eat out much, mainly because I want to know what's in my food.  Plus my taste buds tend to get angry if I eat something not good enough.  I'm not kidding.  This makes it tricky when we're on road trips, because trying to find decent food in the middle of nowhere poses a problem most of the time.  We bring lots of snacks with us, but those are for in between meals.  I don't mind stopping in at a random diner and having a burger and fries, but they better taste good, not like some frozen dinner.  I also won't eat at any of the main stream fast food burger places.  I like Pita Pit, they have loads of tasty toppings, and I can get a hummus or falafel pita, I don't order the meat ones, cause even if it's not processed, it comes in individual plastic wrap packages and does not look appetizing.  Their toppings include all the basics, but they also have spinach and romaine lettuce, not just iceberg, real cheeses, like feta, cheddar, and possibly another one.  They even have Tzatziki and raw mushrooms, sprouts, etc.  I almost always get the hummus pita with loads of veg, spinach instead of lettuce, feta, and tzatziki.  Pita Pit does not have enough locations, especially outside of a few urban centres.

Anyway, back to gross ingredients in food.  I came across these 2 articles, definitely worth a read, especially if you do eat pre-made or processed food.  Here they are:
15 Food Companies That Serve You 'Wood'
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/15-food-companies-that-serve-you-wood/
and
Top 6 Freaky Foods to Avoid
http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/11/6-freaky-foods/

Locally raised organic ground beef

Last week we had someone come to the door asking if we would be interested in a locally raised meat sample.  I said yes; we picked a day and time.  A few days later I get a call an hour before my sample was to arrive, and I am told there will be a short presentation, and Derek will need a table for it.  I forgot about the sample, and I was still in bed when I answered that call.  So I had an hour to get up, shower, get ready, clean up the place and my table, which was covered with pots of herbs I had brought in from outside, because I didn't want to to get frost bitten.  It was a mess.  We managed to clean it up, and i had a quick bite to eat.  A man came by trying to sell us a package.  I wish sales people were more up front about their agendas.  The package seemed like an awful idea, at least for us.  It included a year's worth of frozen meat and frozen veg, as well as pantry items.  None of the pantry items on the list were things I use.  It was a bunch of over processed items, which completely counteracts the "healthiness" of the locally grown organic meats.  I may as well take that meat, microwave it, and serve it up.  I don't own a microwave, because I think it destroys nutritional value on a molecular level.  I'm not snooty, I'm just very particular with what I put in my body.  Having said that, I'm not a calorie counter and I don't eat organic only.  I love good pastries, and full fats, as you'll see in my posts.  I believe in eating like my grandparents ate, even how I ate before moving to Canada in '87.  Aside from store bought cookies, ice cream, sugar, flour, and some rice, I had very little exposure to processed food, certainly no fast food.  I believe in whole foods, which include full fats.  I do love to bake, so I use unbleached flour for most pastries.
Anyway, I decided to use that beef sample today, and I made a meatloaf.  It was small, perfect for the two of us. 
I used fresh rosemary, thyme, marjoram, s&p, an egg, some bread crumbs, and fresh Canadian garlic, which is hard to find and about 3 or 4 x the cost of the stuff from China, but you don't need as much, because it does have a more potent flavour.  Mixed it all in and pressed it into a small baking dish:

I usually cover the dish with aluminum foil for most of the time it's baking, so it doesn't dry out and bakes quicker.  The last 10 minutes I remove the foil and increase the temperature.  For a meatloaf I'd use 375, and 400 to brown the top.  Time depends on how big and thick your portion is.  If you aren't comfortable not knowing exact times for baking meat, I suggest getting a meat thermometer for the first while.
The meatloaf turned out well, and it was tasty, though James covered his with ketchup, and it made me cringe.  Our taste buds are very different, though over time I've managed to adjust them a bit :)  He grew up without seasoning.
The meatloaf shrunk a bit, oddly enough mostly on one side, the meat was lean and teh dish was small enough to fit in my toaster oven.  I use my toaster oven whenever I'm making something small enough to fit in there, to conserve energy.

I also made white button mushrooms, sauteed in salted butter with a very small amount of fresh lemon thyme.  These are all the herbs I was growing outside all summer, in pots, that were spread out on my table, I had to clean up.  I have loads of dry herbs as well.  I feel that in most cases, people who don't like certain foods, just haven't had them properly seasoned.

These mushrooms were from the supermarket, but locally grown as well.  I try to use produce which is in season, so that I can get it locally grown, as much as I can.  I make most of my meals around that notion.

Lastly I made mashed potatoes with skins.  I scrub, cut, and rinse, then boil.  Once they are cooked, I drain, and stick the pot under my stove fan, to evaporate excess moisture.  It's a thing I'd see my mom do.  I used to watch her and my grandma when they were cooking - not necessarily at the same time.  In fact I think the only time they'd both be cooking at the same time was at Christmas, Easter, and other major family events.  My grandma lived with us, when we were growing up, it was awesome.  She was an amazing cook, my mom's awesome as well, she's told me that great grandma was even better.
So these potatoes, I boil them without salt, and when they are drained, but before I mash, I add a pinch of salt and some pork fat with bits of bacon.  I guess they're called lardons here.  When I was in Newfoundland, that's Eastern Canada, they called them scruncheons and they were available at the sparse supermarkets we popped into to refill on snacks, mainly fruit, I miss it when I'm on road trips.  You can make your own lardons out of good quality bacon; I buy mine at a Polish deli.  It's quite an amazing product, I will write about it another time.  You'll notice I tend to go off on tangents, sometimes they are relevant.  I mash the potatoes with skins, salt, and lardons.  It gives the potatoes a nice slightly salty bacony taste.

In the end I noticed that my dinner was very beige.  It may not look as amazing as some other dishes I've made and will post in the future, but it was sure tasty:

November 28th

Good Day Fellow Bloggers,
Today is just another day, except I have finally created this blog.  It's long overdue.  I started a written notepad of my tried and passed recipes a few years ago, with the suggestion of some friends.  I've been meaning to share the recipes on a larger scale than my handwritten notepad can reach, so finally here is my attempt.  I'm not big on measuring or following others' recipes to the dot.  The funnest part of cooking, aside from eating, is the experimentation process, and the amazing feeling when something turns out delicious enough to share.  Even when I remake something I have written down, it hardly ever tastes the same twice.  I'm also big on using what I've got in the fridge or pantry, before buying more.  This assures me that I waste very minimal amounts of food.  Another thing that helps with limiting waste is buying less, but shopping more frequently, though that's not always convenient, it does ensure freshness and less need for the compost bin.  Welcome, I hope you enjoy reading my bits, and maybe even try out some of my recipes.  Tootles for now.