Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Red Beans, Rice, and Sausage

Easy and delicious

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sausage-red-beans-n-rice/detail.aspx

That link doesnt seem right, trying this tonight:

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil pure
  • 2 links chicken sausage all natural, cut into 1/2 inch slices
  • 1/2 medium onion(s) diced
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 large carrot(s) chopped
  • 1 can beans red, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup chicken stock or bone broth low-sodium
  • 1/2 cup tomato(s) jarred, diced
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
  • 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning no-salt
  • 1 cup quinoa raw

Directions

Heat the olive oil on medium high heat and sear the sausage for 2-3 minutes on each side or until dark brown and crispy. Remove the sausage and turn the heat down to medium.

Saute the onions, garlic, and carrot for 5 minutes.

Puree 1/2 cup of beans, 1/2 cup of chicken stock and the tomatoes in a blender until smooth. Add the tomato-bean puree, spices, remaining stock, remaining beans and sausage and cook for 20-25 minutes or until thick.

Rinse the quinoa and drain. Add two cups of water, bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed.

Serve the red beans and sausage over the quinoa.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Polenta with balsamic kale

Recipe here. I've never fried polenta before. Which is a shame, because it's delicious and fries up surprisingly well for something that seems like mostly water. This recipe is super simple, and pretty damn good. I want to give it another go, soon, when I have the time to reduce the vinegar as suggested in the notes. Yum!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Pumpkin Pie

As someone who obsesses about pumpkin pretty much year-round, I have no idea why it's taken me this long to make pumpkin pie from scratch. But it has. Nick bought me a couple of pie pumpkins on a whim last week (isn't he sweet??) so I decided that was the kick in the butt I needed. I followed the directions on this site (baked the pumpkins), and even made my own crust (used a mix of butter and shortening). It was a good way to spend the afternoon, between bouts of data analysis and reading papers, but that's another story... :)