So Easy It Doesn't Require a Recipe Warm Tomato and Bean Salad

This is single person food. You want to eat, you don't feel like cooking just for you, and you don't do frozen crap (at least not today).

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes (or two medium tomatoes, diced)...hell you can used diced canned if it is winter time and the tomatoes suck!)
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
a handful of whatever fresh herb you like...oregano, basil, or parsley

Heat the oil over med-low heat. Add the garlic and stir for a few minutes until you can REALLY smell it softening. Add the tomatoes and turn up the heat to med-high, cook another 3 or 4 minutes. Add the drained beans and throw in whatever herbs you like. As soon as it's heated through, take it off the heat.

Toss a little sea salt on top and eat standing up or watching a late night movie. This is enough for four people as a side dish, but only enough for one if you eat it standing up out of the pot.

Enjoy!

Three Bean Turkey Chili

It's 12 degrees, its snowing, you're hungry and you don't feel like bundling up, shoveling, and dragging your butt to the grocery store. This is stuff you should absolutely have to make a quick yummy bite. (And I always have it in the pantry that my friends call the "bunker", cause I swear we could live off the stuff down there for a month). What can I say, I buy a ton of crap when it's on sale.

Here's what you do......

1 to 1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 T chili powder
2 T cumin
1 can small red beans
1 can small white beans
1 can black beans
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, or crushed if you have them
salt to taste

romaine lettuce (optional)
avocados (optional)
shredded jack or cheddar cheese (optional)

Brown the turkey in a large lidded pot, stirring frequently. If you stir it, and do it over med-low heat, you don't need to add any oil or other fat. Add the chili and cumin, along with the onions and peppers and sweat them with the meat over low heat for 5 minutes. Quarter the tomatoes if using whole and add them along with the juice to pot. Drain the beans and toss them in. Cover the pot and let it sit over med low heat for 3o to 45 minutes. Salt to taste.

Now, if you are extra lucky, or if you planned ahead, you have a couple of avocados hanging out in your produce drawer, slice them up and allow 1/2 an avocado per person.

To serve, line individual soup or pasta dishes with bite-sized pieces of romaine, spoon the chili onto the lettuce and top with 1/2 sliced avocado and 2 T shredded jack. If you don't care about your waistline--put a heap of cheese instead and throw some sour cream on for good measure.

Eat!

Sweet Root Soup over Squash

olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic,diced
1 lb. carrots, sliced
1 lb. parsnips, sliced
2 small butternut or 4 delicata squash
butter
salt to taste
shredded parmesan cheese

Coat bottom of the pan with olive oil. Add onion and garlic and sweat until translucent. Then turn the heat up a little and add carrots and parsnips. When they start to brown just a little bit, add about 1 quart of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Salt to taste.

In the meantime, prick the squash all over with a fork and microwave them. Time will vary--about 10 minutes each for butternut squash, about 4 for one delicata squash. Cut the squash in half and remove the peel. Put half a butternut squash in the bottom of a bowl, or two halves of a delicata squash. Ladle the soup over and top with a generous sprinkle of shredded parmesan cheese.

Black Bean Soup with Turnip and Lemon

1 lb. dried black beans
1 quart brother (I used chicken stock I had in the freezer--use what you like)
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 turnip, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
about 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
Salt
2 sliced lemons

Soak the beans overnight. Drain but reserve the water and add more water to make 2 quarts liquid. Put the beans and water back in the pot and bring to a boil. Cook about an hour.
Heat the broth separately to a boil and add it into the beans, along with all the diced veggies, sseasoning, tomatoes, but not the salt or lemon. Simmer for about another 2 hours. Taste and salt accordingly. You may need more salt if using homemade stock, less if using canned stock.
Cool just enough to puree half the soup. Then add back in and reheat. If you don't have time to cool it, just attack it with a potato masher to thicken it up.
To serve, put a slice or two of lemon in each bowl and ladle the soup over it.
Eat.

Ok..so this is my first entry. So many crazy things go on my kitchen, between failed experiments, both scientific, social and culinary. And many people ask me to share recipes....so here they are.

Every three weeks, I get a delivery of organic winter vegetables from Wolf Pine Farm in Maine. It has been a joy and a challenge to cook all of those little buggers before the next drop. Here's the latest endeavor: Black Bean Soup with Kohlrabi and lemon, except I decided to save the Kohlrabi, so It's actually Black Bean Soup with Turnip and Lemon. Hey! It's my recipe! I can change it midstream if I want to.

(Note: I have issues with recipes. They make great bathroom reading and they make great jumping off points. I never met a recipe I couldn't change just a little.)