Simple Foods

This week has been long and hectic what with cleaning our old apartment and finishing up all those last chores. Although looking at the sink and shower in our new apartment, I have to say we were far kinder to the next tenants than the people who lived here before us .... Also, I decided it must be true that I am a bit of a foodie given that as I have been practicing counting daily gratitudes for the past week that usually 9 out of 10 of my gratitudes for the day seem to revolve around food: ie. the smell of mint chocolate tea, the golden orange yolk of a free range brown egg, the tingle of chipotle burn on your lips, a perfectly moist cupcake... and so on :)

Regardless, it has been a week of simple foods, and yet for some reason, likely the quality of ingredients, the flavors have more than compensated for the lack of finesse.

Monday Night: Cheese toast with homemade salsa verde and perfectly fried eggs.

Tuesday Night: Toast with sauteed kale (from the garden) and less perfectly fried eggs....  and I started a crockpot full of black beans!

Wednesday Night: Black beans, rice, sautéed kale (from the garden), and shredded cheese. Magnificently easy and delicious.

And I learned a new trick -- once the black beans are done, sauté the kale in a cup or so of the bean broth and simmer until almost all the liquid is gone to really pull more flavor into the kale. You could easily top this bowl of goodness with chopped tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, etc, but this was just right for us.

Thursday Night: BBQ Tofu, Southern Greens, and Cornbread. A cornbread recipe that is "the one" as in you will never need another one and never desire another one. It comes from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads -- a whole section on cornbreads, but this recipe is the one with a giant star next to it and the scribbled phrase, "This is it!"

BBQ Tofu is my new go-to-protein that I can put onto roast any time of the day or week that I have 40 minutes and store for up to a week in the fridge. Slice up a block of firm or extra firm tofu into 1/4" pieces. Pour BBQ sauce into the bottom of a 9x9" baking dish (or something relatively that size) and lay out all the tofu strips, covering with more BBQ sauce. Roast at about 375 degrees F for 40 minutes, checking to make sure the sauce doesn't evaporate to the point of burning. This recipe is especially good for overly thin BBQ sauce as it will concentrate into a nice thickened coating on the tofu.  You can then use the tofu  as sandwich filling or as an entree that just needs to be reheated to go along with southern greens and cornbread.

Southern Greens (Adapted from Rachel Ray)
2 Tbs butter
1/4 - 1/2 medium onion, chopped
A skillet full of greens: I had a mix of kale, chard, and beet greens. If you do use kale in your mix, I recommend cooking it for twice as long as something like chard as it takes much longer to soften. (Can also use collard greens)
3 Tbs white vinegar
2 1/2 c. water
2-3 tsp sugar
1- 3 tsp Hot sauce (Tabasco)

1. Melt butter in the skillet, add onion and saute until golden.
2. Add in the greens (kale first if you have a mix), vinegar, water, sugar and hot sauce (start small and work your way up).
3. Cover and let simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add beet greens and chard as appropriate for the cooking time. You can remove the lid and let some of the liquid simmer off or save the liquid for broth.
4. Taste and add more vinegar/sugar/hot sauce as needed. Note, the kale tasted much spicier than the broth so be careful about adding tabasco liberally and only tasting the broth :)

Cornbread (the best cornbread ever IMHO)
1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs room temperature
1/4 c. butter, melted
1 c. frozen corn kernels (optional - but I always put it in!)
1/2 - 1 c. shredded cheese and/or diced jalapenos (optional)

1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Beat eggs together, then beat in milk and then butter.
3. Stir wet into dry ingredients, adding in corn/cheese/jalapenos at the end - stirring the batter just until moistened all the way through.
4. Pour into a greased 9x9" baking pan or a greased cast iron skillet and bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. The top should be a bit browned and test for done-ness with a knife/cake tester.