Kid-approved black bean soup

I have three kids. One of them eats lots of things. One of them eats some things. And one of them would waste away without cheese and bread in all their many forms. But 2/3 of the children requested leftover black bean soup for lunch, and the other one claimed to like the tortilla chips soaked in black bean soup last night. And although that did not translate into her actually eating any of them beyond the small taste that was so delicious, I'm counting it as a win.

It is also a win because it's super easy and fast to make. So here you go:

Dr. Maureen's Black Bean Soup

Active time: 20 or so minutes depending on how fast you can chop vegetables
Total time: 40-60 minutes
Serves 6

Notes: The "Basic" ingredients are what I think are minimally required for the soup. You can add whatever fresh vegetables you have on hand as you like. My variations are in the "Variations" section. Also, I am just guessing at the amounts of the non-canned ingredients. For what it's worth, I used cilantro and leftover crockpot-salsa-chicken for the first time last night and was met with rave reviews as its being the best version ever.

Ingredients

Basic:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion
2 medium carrots, diced or rounds or however you like them
2 medium stalks celery, diced
32-48 oz. chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1-2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper, cumin, to taste
shredded cheese
tortilla chips

Variations:
Chopped fresh spinach
Diced fresh tomatoes
Fresh or frozen corn kernels
Cooked chicken if you have any on hand
1-2 Tbsp fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. Saute the diced onion in olive oil in a medium-large pot until soft, about 5 minutes. Add carrots and celery, cook until all veggies are soft, about 5-8 minutes more.
2. Add the rinsed beans, diced tomatoes, and any other vegetables you are using. Add the broth. You need at least 32 ounces, but you might want to add more if you have a lot of vegetables. Make sure the broth covers all the vegetables.
3. Add fresh cilantro, several shakes of cumin, some salt and pepper to taste. Reserve the cooked chicken.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer about 20-30 minutes.
5. Blend with an immersion blender; if you don't have one transfer the soup to a blender in small batches and blend. 
6. Add cooked chicken pieces, simmer till heated through.
7. Serve with tortilla chips, passing shredded cheese as a topping.

Seven in Seven 2: Cheesecake

A couple of years ago I bought a Better Homes & Gardens special interest magazine about holiday baking, primarily because the cover claimed to have a spread on cheesecakes. $5.99 well spent, my friends. After trying out several recipes, I adapted one of their recipes and created this one, which I shall now share with you, you lucky people.

Dr. Maureen’s Chocolate Raspberry Kahlua Cheesecake
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking, 2004, Chocolate Irish-Cream Cheesecake

Active time: 45 min Baking time: 1 hr Total time: 7-24 hr Oven: 325F

Notes
The original recipe called for 24 oz of cream cheese, 8 oz of sour cream, 1 cup of sugar, 8 oz of chocolate, and 3 eggs, but I thought the cheesecake was too tall, so I reduced everything by 1/3. The original recipe also used ½ cup Irish cream instead of Kahlua, but ½ cup was just a bit too much.
To soften the cream cheese, I microwave it for about 30 seconds. In my experience it makes a smoother cheesecake. I also microwave the jelly just to warm it up enough to get it to the right viscosity for swirling; that is your preference.

Ingredients

Crust
1.5 cups crushed chocolate wafer cookies, about 18 cookies
6 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp cinnamon

Filling
2 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened (see note)
6 oz sour cream
2/3 cup sugar
6 oz semisweet chocolate melted and cooled
2 eggs
1/3 c Kahlua
½ Tbsp whipping cream or milk
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup seedless raspberry jelly, warmed (see note)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Crust: Combine crushed cookies, butter, and cinnamon in a bowl. Toss to mix then press gently into a 9- or 10- inch springform pan. You can use a cup with a crisp edge to get the crust to press into the edges of the pan.
3. Filling: Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and melted chocolate. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until smooth. Gently stir in eggs until just combined – overbeating here will introduce air which will lead to cracks in the finished cake. If you ever get a cheesecake that doesn’t crack, let me know. I never have. Stir in Kahlua, cream or milk, and vanilla.
4. Pour filling into pan. Swirl the raspberry jelly into the filling. Put the pan on a cookie sheet in case it leaks and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the center appears nearly set when gently shaken.
5. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then loosen the crust from the side of the pan. Cool 30 minutes more and remove the sides of the pan. Cool for one hour, then cover and chill for 6-24 hours.

Magic bread

Do you know about Catherine Newman's Five-Minute Bread? I discovered this recipe several months ago and it is magic. Magic, I tell you. And this is coming from a long-time fan and proponent of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. But Newman's recipe is even easier. And is also magical.

"Oh, come on," I can hear you saying. "I'm sure it's easy, but 'magical'? Really?"

Well to you I say, "REALLY." Because I can't think of a better word to describe a recipe that you cannot screw up. No matter what you do. Today, for example, I baked up a loaf from dough that I mixed up two nights ago, and then forgot to put in the refrigerator after the "maximum" rising time of 5 hours. I saw it when I was up with the baby and put it in at 4:30 am or so, which was approximately 8.5 hours of rising time. And for this (and the last three) loaves, I've been using old rye flour and the dough comes out extra extra wet. So wet that when I took it out this morning to let it rest, I had to put the cutting board it was on onto a pizza peel because it was oozing so much.

Witness:



But since this combination of flours (2c water, 2c rye, 2c all purpose, 1/6c flaxseed, 1/6c wheat germ, 1T cider vinegar, 1T kosher salt, 1 scant T yeast) has been making really wet doughs all week, I went ahead and scraped it into the pot. SCRAPED. I use a long knife and it sort of gloops off the cutting board. There's a very small step between what I'm doing and pouring this dough.

Here's the result:



Isn't that gorgeous? I didn't even slash the top, since it would have been like trying to slash quicksand. It just did that by itself. I haven't tasted it yet, but experience tells me it will be delicious. So make this bread. Trust me.

Look, I made up a recipe

One of my real-life friends who’s a member of my shared meal-planning Google calendar group (comment if you want in on this) asked me for my butternut squash lasagna recipe a while ago. I never gave it to her. I was going to type it up for her right now, but I thought it’s possible that there may be other interested parties. I’m pretty pleased with this recipe; it’s my own, if it’s fair to call an adaptation of some other lasagna recipe “my own.” But I added the butternut squash, and that’s a fairly key ingredient in butternut squash lasagna, don’t you think? And I think the squash and cheese complement each other surprisingly well.

So here it is, in all its glory:

Dr. Maureen’s Butternut Squash Lasagna

hands on: ~30 min (plus roasting time);
bake ~45 min;
total time: 1hr, 15min (plus roasting time)
oven: 375F

Notes:
I pretty much always use Smart Ground tofu crumbles because I like my lasagnas to be meatless but I think the Smart Ground gives it a nice texture, but the last time I made this I checked the sodium content on Smart Ground, and yikes. So I’m probably going to try it without anything next time. Incidentally, sausage is excellent in this lasagna, if you like sausage.

I usually roast my squash a day or two ahead of time so that I don’t feel like I’ve been making lasagna for the entire day. To roast a squash, slice it in half the long way, scoop out the seeds, and place face down on a lined cookie sheet. Roast at 350F for about 35-40 minutes, or whenever it’s easily pierced by a fork. To puree it, let it cool and then scoop the roasted flesh out of the skin with a spoon. Toss it in a food processor and blend till smooth. I’m sure you could also just mash it up by hand, but I’m lazy.

I use cottage cheese instead of ricotta because I hate ricotta, and cottage cheese gives the same texture, which is necessary for lasagna. But if YOU like ricotta, by all means use it. Same explanation holds true for my using Romano instead of parmesan.

This recipe is easily adapted to stuffed shells; just stuff the shells with the squash mixture, arrange them in a pan, top with sauce and cheese.

Ingredients:
ground meat or tofu crumbles (optional) (see note)
chopped onion, minced garlic, amount to taste (if using meat)
1 roasted and pureed butternut squash (see note)
1 lb container cottage cheese (see note)
1 cup mozzarella plus a few handfuls
½ cup Romano (see note)
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 beaten egg
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 package lasagna noodles


1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. If using, brown the ground meat or tofu with onion and garlic.
3. Boil and drain the noodles according to package directions
4. Mix meat, squash, cottage cheese, 1 cup mozzarella, Romano, parsley and beaten egg together
5. Spread some of the sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 roasting pan. Arrange a layer of lasagna noodles. Top with stuffing, sauce, and more noodles. Alternate until you have at least three layers or else run out of noodles, making sure to end with noodles. (see note)
6. Top with lots of sauce and sprinkle with a few handfuls of mozzarella.
7. Bake at 375F for ~45 min.
8. Enjoy!