Wacky Cake

What's wacky? You mix it in the baking pan itself, and it's missing some typical ingredients (eggs, butter, milk). Rumor is it started being popular during war rationing, though others refute that. It's found on dozens of sites - I first found it here when looking for a cake to fit in a 9x9 pan (didn't want to make a bigger cake).

This was very popular with my friends and fantastic with vanilla ice cream. Very moist (don't decrease sugar or it'll be dry) and good chocolate flavor. I will definitely make this again!

WACKY CAKE

Mix together in a 9 x 9" pan:
1 1/2 cups flour
3-4 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Make three wells; into well #1:
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Well #2:
1 tablespoon vanilla

Well #3:
4 tablespoons melted butter or veg. oil

Pour over the top and mix until combined.
1 cup cold water

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean).

I didn't frost it because eating it with ice cream!

okra & sausage from Ms. Virginia

I gave a basket of okra to my neighbor and she exclaimed, "Oh, good! I have some smoked sausage that I'll cook this with and it'll be so good."

Oh, how do you do that Ms. Virginia? (and actually the smoked sausage is from yesterday - I was there for that conversation when a young woman on her lunch break from work dropped off the smoked sausage for her uncle who had just turned the corner - literally - so told Virginia she could have it. I love my neighborhood!)

Clean the okra , dry it, chop it with a sharp knife ["How thin do you slice it? I heard it gets too slimy if it's too thin"; "The slimy doesn't bother me, and if it's too slimy you can add just a tiny bit of vinegar - and the sharp knife sure helps")

Fry it with some onion and garlic, maybe some bell pepper [I'm thinking of the trinity, but she didn't mention celery]

Cook that sausage in with it [I didn't ask, but probably over rice] [I just transcribed an interview with the author of Gumbo Tales who said: "I find this to be an amazing sausage town. It’s one of my favorite things about it. Poor vegetarians"]

Add some chicken breasts in to make a meal of it all.

***
So simple, so flavorful, so New Orleans. Sometimes I look at okra and think, "Oh golly, this will be a process" - a roux, a stew, or pickling. (None of which is really a terrible process at all but sometimes I'm just tired when I see 20 pods of okra.) But cooking it down and "smothering" with it is always fantastic.

Virginia is the one who told me about blueberry dumplings which I will try for sure next year. She describes things really well, is a fantastic source of knowledge, and generous with said knowledge.

lentils with greens and preserved lemons

This name needs a snazzy title, but I'm better at cooking than title-making.

From here. (An adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation of Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Cooking, this is one of my staples until the preserved lemons run out.)

1 turkey kielbasa (or any kind of sausage - it's phenomenal with lamb mergeza)
1 cup brown, black, or French green lentils (washed and picked over)
1 cup sliced onion
oil for frying
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsley (or other herbs)
greens: spinach, kale, chard, etc. About 10 oz frozen or a pound or so fresh.
1-2 medium Yukon Gold or red-skinned potatoes, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped rind of preserved lemons (2 quarters)* (see below)

In a frying pan, brown the sausage (use oil if necessary). Add the onion and saute, then the garlic and cilantro, and the lentils. Saute them a bit. Add the potatoes and enough liquid to cover (water or stock or potlikker). Bring to a boil again. Add the chopped greens now or later, depending on how cooked you want them.

Bring to the boil, lower the heat, and cook at the simmer for about 45 minutes hour. Stir in the chopped preserved lemons and season.

***
Like most things I cook, the proportions are highly variable - depending on how much green, lentils, etc. you want. Everything can be adjusted to taste, how many servings you want, how soupy, etc.

I really like the taste of food itself and that's why despite being a major herb/spice connoisseur, I don't like masking tastes with sauces and other flavors. The preserved lemons here are a special taste all their own, and the sausage adds a nice depth, and the greens just a hint of bitter and the lentils add great texture and flavor too.

***

Preserved lemons: When life gives you lemons, make preserved lemons! I basically followed these directions and these. I made a quart last December and have really been enjoying them. I guess their refrigerator life is more like six months, but I'll finish them up rather than tossing them, and I look forward to a fresh batch of local lemons this fall/winter!

curried chicken salad

Originally I took Gail's recipe.

Dice the following:
-2 stalks of green onions
-2 stalks of celery
-1 Red Anjou Pear or apple
-1/4th of an onion
-half of a chicken breast, cooked (approximately)

Mix in Mayonnaise until the consistency is as you like. I think I used about 3 flat tablespoons.

Add in:
-2 handfuls of chopped nuts (candied walnuts, pecans, almond slivers, etc.)
-Madras Curry Powder to your liking (I put in maybe 1 tsp - less than I expected to - definitely didn't want a strong curry flavor, just a nice little kick)
-Salt and Black Pepper to taste
-lemon juice

Mix them all thoroughly well, and serve on top of toast, inside sandwiches, on top of crackers or a bed of lettuce. Also good after it sits a few hours, to let tastes blend.

(Today I'll be making it without most of the ingredients - no celery, no fruit, no onion ... but lots of chicken to eat up!)

black beans

I'm a bit loathe to post my black bean "recipe" here because after 23 years of making them fairly regularly, I don't pay attention to what I do.

But, black beans are a POWERHOUSE - they're super good for us, a cheap form of protein (even when organic), and just super darned yummy.

****
soak dry beans overnight in a crockpot with clean water (after washing them). Cover at least a couple inches above the beans level. Know that they will approximately double or triple in size, so don't overflow the crockpot or make too many (though, I frequently freeze leftovers and that works well too).

Add:
onions (dried are fine)
garlic, chopped up, or powder
cumin
oregano
epazote if you can find it
cayenne
cilantro
peppers: chili, bell, etc.
celery
tomatoes (fresh or canned, or sauce/paste)
black pepper
Anything else your heart desires! (I think most important are the onions, cumin, and oregano.)

For two cups of dried beans I put in (everything approximate) 2-3 T dried onions (I don't buy them, but inherited from a friend moving away), four cloves garlic, 1 T cumin, 1+ tsp oregano, three pinches epazote, dash of cayenne, few grinds of fresh black pepper, five chopped of peppers that were sweet instead of hot); the point is that whatever you do will be yummy! I also freeze the last bits of salsa that's left when the beans run out, and I thaw & toss that into cook with the new pot of beans.

Note that I didn't include salt. When they're all ready, taste to see if salt is necessary (I find it never is) and add then. If you add during cooking, I'm told it makes the beans tougher.

Cook in the crockpot on high about 4 hours - but it really varies a lot depending on crockpot but also how old the beans are. Sometimes it can take more like 7 hours, sometimes less. I'm not picky about how firm they still are - it's fine if they start to disintegrate to me, but if it really matters to you you'll want to check. Before cooking check the water level - make sure the beans still have at least an inch of water. I think it's better to have too much than too little water because I can drain them if they're runny, but burning them is a bummer.

The crockpot is amazing for bean cooking because you never have to check or stir - making it perfect for days away at work or even overnight (soak all day, cook all night - it's a wonderful aroma and breakfast to wake up to!)

To serve: I just ate on rice, with salsa, yogurt, and cilantro. Super yum! Also very good on tortillas.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Megan is now gluten-free.

I've become much more sensitive to this issue through reading two of my favorite blogs (blog roll on the left): Crockpot 365 and Gluten-Free Girl. It's tough to be on the look-out for a very common ingredient.

But it's definitely do-able and will make her feel much better! Yay!

So, as we think about it we can label recipes gluten-free (when we think they are), give gluten-free variations when possible, and post even more recipes that are gluten-free (I make a lot that's gluten-free, I realize).

raita

Cucumbers
Yogurt
fresh mint
(Cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne, or other herbs/spices as desired)

****

Yes, it's that simple! I had some lovely Persian cucumbers I picked up last week. Those, or English style cucumber, or baby pickling cukes are all good for this. Or the regular kind (especially if home grown!), but I would peel that unless it's really young and the peel is soft.

Chop up the cucumbers (if not Persian, you might want to scrape out the seeds & soft stuff around the seeds which can be bitter) - with Persians I just slice; with regular cukes I do half moons.

Mix with a good amount of yogurt.

Chop up some fresh mint (not too much - just a light taste; I really like the mint that Ahmed brought from Jordan; much American mint is too strong), stir and enjoy!

I don't put in any other spices because I like the simplicity of the tastes with just cucumber, yogurt, and mint.

It's great alone as a light meal/snack, or as a side to a spicy meal (especially Indian food).