Fudgy Black Bean Brownies

For me, putting chocolate and black beans together doesn't seem strange at all. I've been putting dark chocolate into my black beans recipe for years so when I saw this recipe I knew I'd have to give it a shot. I made these fudgy black bean brownies last night to take into the office as a holiday treat. The recipe came together pretty easily. I love putting veggies into sweet things to make them a bit healthier and - in this case - add some protein. I followed the recipe for the most part, but substituted pecans for walnuts and cacao powder for the coffee since I'm not a coffee-drinker and didn't have any in the house. Since I don't have a food processor, I used the blender and had to use most of the chocolate mixture to get enough liquid for the blender to work. That didn't seem to make a difference, though. They turned out pretty well - they were tasty and I'll definitely make them again. I couldn't taste the black beans at all. These came out pretty thin (maybe 1/2 an inch thick), so they definitely aren't your standard brownies. Since there's no flour and they're so thin, they're almost like fudge which I love since I don't like cakey brownies that much - I prefer fudgier brownies.

Spanish Dinner and Naranja Agria

We had a Spanish dinner at our house last night - hopefully the first of many we'll have. It was good fun - everyone brought some food to share and we spoke Spanish all night. It had been awhile since I'd spoken Spanish so it was wonderful to practice.

We made chicken enchiladas with salsa verde, black bean dip, guacamole, and a naranja agria (sour orange) pie. Some friends brought over a Spanish tortilla, tostones con queso fresco, and Nica-style guacamole (with hard-boiled eggs). I made and canned the salsa verde this fall with some green tomatoes from my grandparents' garden. It was the first time I'd used any of what I canned and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I'll have to make some more next year - it's a great way to use tomatoes that don't ripen up before it freezes. It had kind of a smoky flavor from being cooked in a cast iron skillet.

Salsa Verde
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 gallon of green tomatoes
4-6 jalapenos, diced, seeds taken out
1 white onion
2-3 limes, juiced
4-5 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro to taste

Cook tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, and garlic in a few tablespoons olive oil cast iron skillet on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until blackened on all sides. Peel off tomato skins and put everything in blender (in batches, if needed), add lime juice and spices and blend until roughly chopped. Will keep for a few weeks in refrigerator. Can or freeze to keep longer.

The enchiladas were pretty easy to make since the salsa was already done - I just boiled and shredded chicken and then added the salsa verde and mixed in rice and cheese. I stuffed that mixture into tortillas, topped with some more salsa and cheese, and baked at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

My parents brought up the sour orange juice from Miami when they last visited and I had been looking for an excuse to use some of it - the Spanish dinner seemed like the perfect occasion. Some of their friends found a sour orange tree on a hike in a hammock and picked a bunch of oranges and then gave my parents some juice. I love finding and gathering fruit and edible plants along hikes so I was really excited when I heard where the juice came from. The naranja agria pie was pretty simple to make. I followed a recipe for key lime pie and just substituted in the sour orange juice.

Naranja Agria (Sour Orange) Pie

Crust
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp. melted butter
1 tbsp. sugar
Mix ingredients together and press into 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Filling
1/2 cup sour orange juice
1 can (15 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
Zest of orange to taste (I used zest of 1/2 of orange)
4 egg yolks
Juice of 1/2 lime (optional - I used this because the pie wasn't quite as tart as I wanted it to be)

Pour filling into partially-baked crust and bake for 15 minutes at 350. Remove from oven and chill before serving.

You can use the egg whites to make a meringue topping or just top with slightly-sweetened whipped cream. I was running short on time so I just opted to make whipped cream.

True to form, I neglected to take a single photo. If there is still any pie left when I get home, I'll snap a photo of that. It basically came out looking like key lime pie, though. Topped with a little slightly-sweetened whipped cream, it was delicious! After tasting the pie, I called my parents to try and get them to bring more juice or sour oranges up the next time they come. Naranja agria is also used as a marinade for meat, so I'm looking forward to using it that way next.

Musings from a first-time (uncertain) blogger....

I didn't used to like blogs - I thought they were kind of silly and I didn't really get the point. Then I discovered my love of food and cooking and realized how valuable food blogs are to discover and try new recipes. In the past few months, I've become an avid reader of food blogs and am constantly searching for new recipes (particularly desserts) to try. So, I've decided to give blogging a try to share some of my experiments with other people and also document them for myself. I often throw a bunch of things together for dinner and then forget to write the recipe down. So, I'm hoping my blog will help me organize all the recipes in my head a bit better. I also love seeing photos of how recipes will (or can) turn out. I'm also hoping this blog will help me get better about taking photos of the yummy food I make.

This year, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family - 11 people in total. It was my first Thanksgiving dinner and first turkey (well, not the first I'd eaten, but the first I had cooked myself). I had my camera sitting out in the kitchen the whole time and neglected to take a single picture of a completed dish. The only photos I took were of the raw turkey before I put it in the salt brine. The turkey was a heritage breed turkey - a Bourbon Red - that I got from a local farm. As I walked around the farmer's market with my turkey, I got several comments about my "mean-looking, fierce bird". With bright red white meat and purple dark meat, the turkey was quite spectacular. I'll have to post some photos soon.