Easy Black Bean Soup

I've been eating this black bean soup since Saturday & I'm happily having it for lunch again, today. Granted I made enough to feed a small country but it was too easy not too & I'll confess when I cook with dried beans I always forget that those 1lb bags make A LOT.

As I just hinted at I used dried beans for this recipe, so while it is easy it is time consumptive as in the beans take about 2 hours to cook. If you have a free afternoon or some time on the weekend I recommend making this & then eating it for lunch for two weeks. You can also easily freeze it after it has cooled down.

One thing that I ask you to do to fully enjoy this soup is to top it with this cream sauce. The tanginess of the yogurt & acidity of the lime take this to another level. Do it!

PS: you can totally make this recipe gluten-free if you don't eat it with tortilla chips that have flour & you can make it vegan by using veggie stock & skipping the cream sauce.

PPS: if you don't wan to make 2lbs of beans cut the recipe in half!

Green Harissa

When we were upstate we bought a (now-I-realize-huge) bag of fresh chili peppers. I’ve used one or two for different things but wasn't sure what to do with all the others. Then I remembered I could make harissa - a spicy paste that I love to eat on falafel (this is my favorite falafel place EVER!). I’ve never made it before so I took to the inner webs & combined a bunch of recipes I found & then tossed in some greens & herbs like I do when I make pesto.

You can use this super spicy green harissa paste like you would hot sauce. You can use it on chicken, veggies, seafood, anything really. It’s super hot so just a little dab will do ya!

Spicy Crab Cakes with Horseradish-Sriracha Remoulade

By now you're probably sick of eating turkey. One thing we never get sick of in our house is seafood - we could probably eat it everyday and not have so much as a peep of a complaint spoken. It's almost the weekend so I hope you have a little bit more down time & more time to cook! Skip the take out or the your usual chicken routine & try this spicy crab cake recipe (or if spice isn't for you, try these). It's got a little bit of spice & the remoulade (aka fancy word for saucy tartar-esque mayo) I adapted from this recipe I found that actually reminded me of these crab cakes I made a while back.  It's a great recipe to prep earlier in the day & then stick in the fridge & cook when you're ready because the cooking part only takes a matter of minutes.

You can serve it as an appetizer or load up an entree plate with two cakes & some veggies & call it dinner like we did. We had left overs so I packed up the ingredients  (crab cake - wrapped in foil; 2 slices of bread; a small container of remoulade; mixed baby field greens) for a crab cake sandwich that both Chris & I constructed for lunch at our respective offices.

Corn on the Cob with Spicy Cajun Butter

It is officially corn on the cob season. You can grill it or boil it. If it's sweet & crunchy who cares how you get there. It' great without anything but even better with a spicy Cajun butter that you can use on your grilled veggies, chicken, steak or potatoes!

Savory & Spicy French Toast

Around 5:30/6:00pm everyday I am reminded that I'm now an adult.  This revelation comes from the fact that I (not my mom) have to answer the question, "what's for dinner?" Last night I perused the web for an idea of what to make. I like to try new things as much as make things I've made a million times. This recipe for savory french toast seemed like a good mix of the two.

Chris loves breakfast for dinner so I thought I'd give it a try.  Note to self: when making french toast of any sort, make sure you have bread in the house. I'd like to give a special thanks to Chris for running out to get said bread last night to make this post possible. Thanks Chris!

I used the recipe I found on Food52.com (worth checking out if you haven't yet) as inspiration while improvising with the things I had on hand.  I served it with a salad for dinner. I think this is definitely a brunch worthy dish for the weekend as well so you have Saturday & Sunday coming at you why not give it a try? Check out my recipe after the jump.

Cajun Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

After a sub-par day, whether it's the weather or just life happenings, the only thing to do is to put on soft pants & warm your belly with some yummy caloric food.  I usually steer clear of the cream based sauces (& stick with cheesy ones like this one) but after I saw Guy Fieri make this cajun chicken alfredo the other day, I knew I had to make it for my hubby who has a soft spot for cajun food & my pasta.

I tried to veg it up with the fresh spinach & basil that tossed in at the end, otherwise I just followed the man's recipe here, Guy knows his stuff.

What's your fave comfort food?

PS: If we didn't have bad days when would we get to justify eating comfort food?  When would we know when we had a great day?  Cheers to perspective.

Sweet & Spicy Party Nuts

The great thing about these nuts besides being addictively sweet, spicy & crunchy all at once, is that they are uber easy to whip up, clean up an & keep on hand.  Yep these only require FIVE ingredients.  If you bake them on parchment paper it makes cleanup almost non-existent.  Make large batches & freeze them for later.

During the holidays I jar these nuts as little gifts.  In the summer I chop them up & add them to salads. Most often I serve them in small bowls for a little nosh at cocktail parties.