Red beans, rice, and sausage

1 lb. fresh Andouille sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 green bell pepper chopped
4 - 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 t. dried thyme
2 t. chili powder
1/4 t. cayenne
2 T. sweet rice flour

1 1/2 t. Penzey's Pork Soup Base
2 c. water
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (with celery and onions, if you can get it)
3 c. brown Minute Rice
Two 14.5 oz cans red kidney beans (preferably low sodium), drained and rinsed


Place the sausage links into a non-stick 5 quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. (Use a couple tablespoons of oil if you don't have a non-stick pan.) Add 1/2 c. of water to the pan.

Boil the water, and stir in the soup base with a small whisk or a fork.  Keep the water near the stove, and stir it occasionally to make sure that soup base is dissolved.
When the sausage links are browned on both sides, remove it to a cutting board and slice, returning the slices to the Dutch oven as you work. (By this point the water should have boiled off.) Cook until the sausage is browned, and then add the chopped vegetables.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to brown.
Stir in the garlic, thyme, chili powder, and cayenne and cook until fragrant.  Stir in the sweet rice flour until it's evenly distributed, with no dry white patches. Stir in about 1/2 c. of the broth, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.  Add the rest of the broth and the tomatoes.  When the liquid is boiling, stir in the Minute Rice and beans and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.  Stir, cover, and cook an additional 5 - 10 minutes, until the rice is tender.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I make chocolate chip cookies pretty frequently, experimenting with nuts and whole grain flours.  Tonight I just wanted something sweet, so I quickly threw together a batch - and produced the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made.  They're light and crisp but still chewy.

I think it was the coconut flour....or maybe the butter and coconut oil were warmer and softer than the last time I tried this combination.  In any case, I'll be trying another batch soon, to make sure I can recreate it.

4 oz. salted butter, softened4 oz. virgin coconut oil, room temperature

3/4 c. dark brown sugar

3/4 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp double-strength vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

25 grams golden flaxseed meal

50 grams coconut flour

50 grams sorghum flour

50 grams teff flour

150 grams 40/60 All Purpose Flour Blend

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. walnuts, toasted (optional)

Cream together butter, coconut oil, and sugars.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Scrape down bowl.  Add the dry ingredients and stir on low speed until combined.  Scrape down the bowl, and stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop onto parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 11 minutes at 350F, using the convection setting if you have it.

Spicy Goetta

On Easter, Nick's cousin treated us to a breakfast of goetta and scrambled eggs.  We had never heard of goetta and were immediately smitten.  Tastes like sausage with the creamy mouth feel of oatmeal? And it can be made at home?!

After reviewing various online recipes, I approached the kitchen with the following thoughts:

1.  Despite the whole grain oats, goetta is not health food.  The whole point is using the oats to soak up the fat from the meat.

2. I'm going to start with a "half" batch.  Even if it freezes well, 1 lb of meat and 1 1/4 c. of steel cut oats is a *lot* of food for 2 people to eat, and first attempts are not always tasty.

3.  More spices!  When we have sausage with breakfast, it's Hot Italian Sausage, and so we wanted more spices in our homemade goetta.  Penzey's Italian sausage seasoning is salty, so I reduced the amount of salt I added to the oatmeal.

4.  I'm curious to find out how finely the meat will break up if I just stir it into the cooked oatmeal, but Nick lobbied for the extra flavor of browning the meat separately.

4.  Use a mix of ground beef and ground pork, mainly because that's how goetta was described to us.   Lots of the recipes call for only ground pork, or chunks of pork shoulder and a meat grinder.

So I assembled

8 oz. of ground pork

8 oz. of ground sirloin

1 1/4 c. steel cut oats

4 cups water

1 tsp salt

black pepper - 5 cranks of the mill

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1 t dried savory

3/4 t Penzey's Italian sausage seasoning
3 shakes of red pepper flakes (optional)
Cooking spray

Season the water with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Stir in the oats, cover the pot, and reduce the temperature to low.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and tender (40-50 minutes).

After about 25 minutes, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the pork and sirloin.  Break the meat up with spatula.  Then break it up some more.  Keep on chopping... you want the meat in the teensy, tiny crumbles you see in a cheap taco.  I used a Pampered Chef Mix 'N Chop, and pretty much chopped continuously until the meat was cooked through.  Keep cooking the meat, stirring occasionally, until it's a lovely shade of brown.  Stir in the chopped onion, bay leaves, savory, and Italian sausage seasoning, and cook until the onions are tender (4-5 minutes).  Turn off the burner under the skillet.

When your oatmeal is fully cooked, stir in the seasoned meat.  Continue to cook the mixture over low heat until it can be pulled away from the side of the pan when you stir.  Spray one or two loaf pans with cooking spray.  Spread the goetta in the loaf and and smooth it out with a butter knife or spatula.   Allow to cool on the counter for 30 minutes, and refrigerate overnight.

Loosen the goetta with a spatula, and turn it out onto a clean cutting board.  Cut ins slices a little more than 1/2 an inch thick.  Heat about 1 Tbsp of oil or butter (or some of both) in a frying pan, and fry the slices until crispy and brown on both sides.  Brownier and crispier than the picture below....the goetta looked so tasty that my camera "ate" the pictures I took before plating it.

I divided the goetta between two 8 inch x 4 inch loaf pans, and cut eat 8 inch loaf into 12 slices.

Our conclusion was that the recipe could still use a little more seasoning.  The next time I make it, I plan to add a clove or two of minced garlic and double the amounts of savory, Italian sausage seasoning, and black pepper.

Almost Crustless Kale Quiche

I bought a 4 pound bag of frozen kale at Costco, so I was excited to find  this recipe on Serious Eats.  Since all the rinsing and chopping was done for me, I figured it would be a snap.  I'd read the recipe a couple of times, and planned to substitute the cheese that I had on hand.  However, I'd also read a lot of other kale recipes this week and consulted a friend who subscribes to a CSA that buries her in greens for half the year. Apparently the sauteed onion, garlic and red pepper flakes from another recipe migrated into my image of kale quiche.

The breadcrumb "crust" provided a nice clean release from the pie plate, but there's no pastry to "ruin" when I reheat slices in the microwave.  I rather liked the caraway flavor of the Hearty Whole Grain bread along with the eggs and kale, but any sort of bread crumb would do the job.


1 slice  Bob's Red Mill GF Hearty Whole Grain Bread, frozen
softened butter

3 ~ 4 cups frozen chopped kale
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 ~ 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
~ 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
~ 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
~ 1/4 tsp turmeric

6 eggs
1/4 c. half and half
3/4 c. milk (I used 2%)
3 pinches coarse sea salt
4-5 cranks of freshly ground white pepper
~ 1/4 c. crumbled feta
~ 2 oz. of Wensleydale, crumbled


Preheat oven to 350 F.  Thaw the kale in the microwave.

Break the bread slice up and pulse it in the food processor until the bread crumbs are quite fine.  I had to open the lid and stir mine a couple times to get the bigger chunks to break up.  Generously butter a glass pie plate, and dump the bread crumbs in.  Carefully spread the bread crumbs over the butter and pat them down.

Saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat until tender.  Add the garlic and spices, and saute until fragrant. Stir in the thawed kale, and set the pan aside to cool.

In a medium sized bowl, beat the eggs.  Add the half and half, milk, salt, and pepper, and beat until thoroughly combined.  Stir in the kale mixture and crumbled cheeses and pour into the prepare pie plate.

Bake 40 - 45 minutes, until the edges are brown, and the center is set.

Triple Corn Cakes

I wanted to make cornbread waffles this morning, but I can't remember where the waffle iron went when we moved....so they turned into pancakes instead.  The flavor and texture of these were wonderful - corny, crisp on the outside, tender and light.

These browned beautfully without any added sugar, and tasted wonderful with butter and maple syrup.  They're also pretty sturdy -- I've frozen the leftovers to make breakfast sandwiches.


2 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. water
8.5 oz can creamed corn
2 T olive oil
12 grams (2 Tbsp) psyllium husk
100 grams medium grind cornmeal
100 grams Bob's Red mill corn flour**
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 T sugar (optional)
1/2 t salt


**This is whole corn, ground into a golden yellow flour.  In some countries, the pure white starch made from corn ("corn starch") is called "corn flour"


In a medium sized bowl, stir together the wet ingredients.  Weigh and measure the dry ingredients and add them to the bowl, and stir until completely combined.  Allow the batter to sit for 15 minutes so the cornmeal can soften a little.

Heat a non-stick griddle over medium heat, and lightly grease the surface with oil or bacon fat.
Pour 1/4 c. ladles of batter on to the griddle, leaving room for them to spread.  The bubbles breaking in the center weren't really noticeable with this batter, so I turned them when the edges looked dry.  They cooked more slowly than most pancake batters, so I kept the heat at medium.

Chick Peas in the Slow Cooker

If you like chickpeas but have always used canned, you absolutely must find some fresh dried chickpeas and cook them at home.  The texture of beans is always better if you cook them slowly from dry, but in the case of chickpeas it's like an entirely differently food.  Home cooked chickpeas are creamy in the center -- a bit like the fluffy center of a perfectly cooked steak fry.

When you're cooking dried beans, the freshness is important.  Dried beans will keep indefinitely, and will cook up into a digestible and nutritious product, but once they've been around for more than a year, they tend to remain a bit dry and gritty, no matter how long you soak them or cook them.  Look for brands that date their beans (e.g. "2012 Harvest") or find a store whose customers buy a lot of beans.  Hippie-dippie co-ops are good.  I usually stock up on beans when I visit the Indian grocery -- while most of their customers are buying 20 lb bags of various beans and lentils, they do carry 2 and 4 pound bags, and I've never run into old, gritty legumes there.

You can cook dried beans without soaking them, it just takes longer.  America's Test Kitchen recommends soaking dried beans in brine overnight to reduce the number of split skins, and it has worked when I've tried it.  I usually start chick peas on a weekend morning, when I can wander by the crock pot and check on them occasionally.  I always cook up 2 lbs, and freeze 2 cup containers, for creamy slow-cooked chick peas in quick week-night meals.

Today I decided to try flavoring the chick peas with smoked turkey wings.   I haven't entirely figured out whether tonight's braise (Swiss chard and tomatoes) or tomorrow's soup will get the meat from the wings.

2 lbs of dried chickpeas
2 smoked turkey wings (1 1/2 to 1 13/4 lbs)
4 bay leaves
3 quarts of water
Salt to taste

Working in good light, pour about 1 cup of the chickpeas at a time onto a clean plate.  Pick out any broken or discolored beans, and transfer the keepers into the colander.  When all the beans are in the colander, rinse them well with cold water.  (The beans I buy in American supermarkets appear to be pre-washed, and I never get any starch off of them, but the lentils and beans from the Indian grocery often need rinsing.)

Place the chickpeas in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.  Place the bay leaves and turkey wings on top.  Add the water, cover, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours.  If the lid of your slow cooker is loose, you may need to add water.  After the minimum time has passed, stir the chickpeas and taste one.  Keep cooking until the chick peas are tender with no grittiness  when you chew.

Remove the turkey wings to a plate to cool for shredding.
Scoop the chickpeas into freezer containers or bags with a slotted spoon, cool, and then freeze.

Bean cooking liquid is often discarded because it's full of the starches that cause flatulence....but this is so nicely flavored with the smoked turkey that I'm saving it to make a soup.

Fast and dirty chicken chili

My usual chili recipe is one I got from Penzey's Spices.  After the onions and garlic are tender, you stir in the chili powder, cumin, and other spices so that they get to bloom in the oil before you add the liquid and tomatoes.  The chili should simmer for 3 hours to develop the best flavor.  I use that technique for both beef and vegetarian chilis.

Years ago I developed a chicken chili recipe that's made thick and rich with a can of refried beans.

Last night I opened a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and started dicing them to make a sort of fried rice dish.  Since I had cooked 4 servings of rice, I wanted about a pound of chicken, and there were 2 lbs in the package.

I decided I might as well cook all the chicken, and freezer or refrigerate the leftovers.  As I finshed the chicken fried rice I had planned for dinner, I threw the extra chicken and onion into a saucepan and made what I thought was a sort of half-assed chili.  Not enough spices.  Needed more veggies.  Maybe I'll pick some stuff up at the grocery store and make it into a sort of tortilla soup...

But the roads were awful tonight, and we ended up having the half-assed chili all by itself.  It was pretty good.  This makes 4 rather small, but filling, servings.

1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 small onion, diced
1 T olive oil
10 oz. can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 oz. tomato paste
2 tsp Penzey's medium-hot chili powder
~ 1/2 tsp ground cumin
White pepper to taste

Trim the chicken thighs of any large blobs of fat and cut into 1/2 inch or smaller pieces, removing any stringy tendons or membranes as you work.  Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat and cook the onion until translucent.  Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally until the surface is browned in patches, and opaque everywhere else.  The chicken will cook through in the next step.

Meanwhile, pour the Rotel into a 3 quart saucepan with a lid, and heat over medium until it begins to simmer.  Add the chicken, chili powder, cumin, beans, and tomato paste.  Stir until the tomato paste dissolves.  (Don't taste right now -- the chicken might still be raw in the center.)  Bring the chili to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot, and allow it to simmer for approximately 20 minutes.  Add pepper and taste -- you probably won't need any salt.

Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheese.