Food goodness

This is possible! And easy and good! If you're just doing straight beans, no recipe: Preheat the oven to 325.  Put the beans in a large, ovenproof pot. Cover with water and heat on the stove until the water is hot. Take the pot and pop it in the oven for an hour. After an hour, add a little salt and stir. Back into the oven for 20-30 minutes. And the first recipe in this LA Times story has good suggestions for seasoning and other recipes.

This apparently comes from Gwyneth Paltrow, by way of the Wednesday Chef ... it has all my favorite ingredients in it and sounds totally delicious, so I wanted to save it. Makes 1 1/2 cups 2/3 cup sheep's milk yogurt ¼ cup cilantro 2 scallions, roughly chopped ¼ cup lime juice (2-3 limes) ½ jalapeno, roughly chopped, or a drizzle of hot sauce ½ cup extra virgin olive oil ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt 1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar Combine all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until completely smooth. The dressing can be kept in a jar in the fridge for up to a week. Can use it on a salad consisting of chopped romaine, avocado, tomatoes, canned black beans, corn (fresh if you've got it, and canned if you don't), more scallions and more cilantro.

For me, the search is over. I have been using this recipe consistently for the past year. It's adapted from Mark Bittman's great food processor APF dough recipe in How to Ck Ev'rything. He also just did a little demo video and a chat on for the NYT, both of which are hilarious. I love how his instructions in the video are so throw-away. "Just put some olive oil in there. Just, you know, like, some. Glug, glug, glug. And then, whatever. It's pizza. Eat it." 2 t instant or rapid rise yeast 1 1/2 C APF 1 1/2 C whole wheat, spelt or rye flour 2 t kosher or sea salt, plus more for sprinkling 1 to 1 1/4 C water 2 T olive oil, plus a 1 t to brush crust if desired 1) Combine the yeast, flour, and 2 t salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 C water and 2 T of oil through the feed tube. 2) Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticy to the touch. ...

Can't believe this recipe isn't already on here -- I'm going to a not-watching-the-Superbowl party on Sunday, and it will prominently feature DIP, and taco dip is my own heart's one and only true dip. A and A collaborated on the directions: In a bowl, combine 5 to 8 oz. sour cream and an 8 oz brick of cream cheese, slightly softened. Spread in a glass pie plate. Drain off the extra liquid from some mild salsa (don't forget this step: draining is important). Spread a 1/4-inch-thick layer on top of the sour cream/cream cheese mixture. Finely chop a white onion and a green pepper and spread on top of the salsa. (You can also add olives or jalapenos in this step.) Cover the whole thing with shredded cheddar cheese. Get tortilla chips and eat it all in your friend's basement. (Younger A adds: "In theory, you can make all this less bad for you by using low or reduced fat products and using celery instead of tortilla chips to get it to your mouth, b...

I made this tonight to have with chili, as an alternative to our usual cornbread. So, so tasty. And super simple. We all broke ours into pieces, and then stuffed the air pockets with the chili and ate sort of like a pita. Certainly not something you can eat all the time -- because it is fried dough -- but a totally good treat. I'm not even going to bother to transcribe the recipe, because I want you to go read all about fry bread at the Smithsonian . And then I want you to make some. We had a nice discussion at dinner tonight about how the Native Americans eat this, and then we got sort of serious about why they first made this -- reservations and how the government used to give them crappy food and how this is really food borne out of necessity. Gaby probably internally rolls her eyes and thinks "can't I just eat the tasty bread in peace?" Too bad she's stuck with us.

J and I went to Blue Hill Farm for our anniversary, the foodie-est thing we've ever done and the best meal I've ever had. And now I want to figure out how to make wheatberry pudding and half-dehydrated peaches and egg yolk carbonara and lots of other things. We posted about it on our wedding website ; go forth and read if you so desire!

From: The Commissary Cookbook So, once upon a time in Philadelphia, there was a restaurant called The Commissary. Their carrot cake was famous. People still talk about it, even though the restaurant is long gone. If you search the interwebs for the best carrot cake recipe out there, you will probably find at least a few people talking about the Commissary carrot cake. Two years ago a friend mentioned to me that he really likes carrot cake, and asked if I had carrot cake on my agenda any time soon. I didn't, but I remembered the request, and when that person's 40th birthday came around a few weeks ago I made this cake for him. It's not SO different from any other carrot cake recipe, but it is very tasty and delicious. The cake itself is very moist and flavorful, and the pecan filling and cream cheese frosting are the perfect complements. Of course, my supervisor Karen (who gives me all the best baking recipes) directed me to this recipe, and she makes it ...

Friends, I have discovered the secret to truly awesome homemade applesauce, and I'm here to share it with you. Take a bunch of frozen cherries (or other fruit) that weirdly have too much ice all over them and put them in a big pot over medium heat. When the cherries defrost, there will be about a quarter inch of melted cherry-ish water. Here is the secret... add APPLE CIDER, not water, until there's about half an inch of liquid in the pot. Throw in a cinnamon stick or two and bring to a boil. Add as many apples (peeled, cored, sliced thinly) as you'd like. I added six medium-sized apples and there were probably 1.5 cups of cherries in my frozen bag, but it doesn't matter -- if you wind up with too much liquid, it will cook down. Cook on medium for 30 minutes or more, periodically adding more cider if it starts to stick to the bottom. When the apples have mostly fallen apart, remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender to your desired smoothness level. Eat allll...

Yum! Nom nom nom. Uh, from: Smitten Kitchen Mmm... you should go make this right now. I'd let you try some of mine, except that a) it's almost gone already, and b) I don't want to share this one. I want it all to myself. Because it's.... nom nom nom... so...nom nom...delicious. Yum. Oh, sorry... the recipe: 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups bread from a French boule, in a 1/2-inch dice, crusts removed (I used baguette and left the crust on and it was totally fine) 2 1/2 pounds whatever good tomatoes you’ve got, cut into 1/2-inch dice (I used a combination of heirloom, regular old CSA toms, and a few plum toms from my garden) 3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon) 2 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons Kosher salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup thinly slivered basil leaves, lightly packed 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high. Add the bread cubes and stir so that they are even...

Um...is that title long enough, you think? I really changed very little from Joy's original recipe save this: *use peanut butter in lieu of the yogurt (I used natural) *use half peanut butter chips and half chocolate chips for the cookie dough It's peanut butter-y and chocolate-y and so delicious. OMG, yum. Anyway, a great "no bake" treat for the hot days of summer. Also, I'm hoping to score a few brownie points at my new job. Note: I made smaller balls and did them more like truffles instead of sticking forks in them and dipping them only halfway into the chocolate. I used a small cookie scoop to help me portion them out into about 24 tablespoon-sized truffles. I say "about" because I conducted a couple of quality assurance tests along the way to ensure the integrity of the final product.

From: "The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz 3/4 C. heavy cream 1/4 C. packed dark brown sugar 1/4 C. unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder 1/2 C. light corn syrup 6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 1 Tbsp. salted butter 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract Mix the cream, brown sugar, cocoa powder and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and add the chocolate and butter, stirring until melted and smooth. Stir in vanilla. Serve warm. Sauce can be store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Rewarm it gently in a microwave or by stirring in a saucepan over very low heat. Makes 2 cups.

When I saw this rhubarb-raspberry betty recipe, I decided I needed it immediately and I would buy rhubarb at the grocery store that afternoon (and hooray for Wegman's for selling locally grown rhubarb!). But by the time I was ready to make it the next day, J. had eaten the stale-ish leftover bread and I was out of luck... ... so I made Kate's rhubarb crumble instead, and it was probably even better. I loved that it had no measurements -- that always makes me feel like a "real" cook -- and it was insanely delicious. This further proves my theory that I never need to find new recipes again because Food Goodness has reached critical mass and everything I need is here. The end!