For the Love of Food

Through some quite successful trial and error I have found that the best tasting refried black beans are vegan. So, how do you achieve nice thick refried beans without all that lard?? Tomato paste! And, if you prefer yours on the spicy side, there are now some tomato pastes that have chili paste mixed into them for a nice kick.

So, next time you want to make some refried beans and are looking for something vegan, or just plain healthy, this is a great and easy recipe to come back to!

Ingredients:
1 Cup of dried Black Beans
Water
1 teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Tomato Paste
1 teaspoon (or to taste) Salt
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder

Directions:
“Quick soak” the beans by placing them in very hot water (2 inches above beans) in a pot and bringing them to boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour.

Drain the old water and give them a good rinse with hot water, and cover with more hot water until at least 2 inches above the beans (the water should not pass the half way mark of the pressure cooker), add 1 teaspoon salt, cover with lid, tighten all the appropriate areas to seal the pressure in, and cook on high heat. Once the pressure has built up to high pressure, cook for 25 minutes.

Remove from heat, and let stand until the pressure has released on its own. Once pressure has dissipated, carefully remove the lid of the pressure cooker.

To “puré” the beans, stomp with a potato masher or use a blender wand to puré, but make sure not to burn yourself with hot liquid.

Re-heat puréed black beans, tomato paste, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder over medium-high heat. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the beans have reduced to a loose refried beans state (not too soupy and not too thick).

Remove from heat, set aside, cover, and keep warm while everything else is cooking.

Makes about 2 cups worth.

Way way back in the beginning of the summer, when sour cherries were in season, I canned 2 batches of maraschino cherries. It was actually pretty simple. The “hardest” part was waiting until the sour cherries were in season because it only happens for 3-4 weeks a year!

To pit them, I took a paper clip, stuck it through the top and scooped out the pit. There are plenty of examples on how to do this online.

The 2 batches of cherries I made were different. One was just preserved in maraschino liquor and the other had some fructose added to it for sweetness. They were both canned in a water bath.

After waiting a few weeks, I opened them up and did a taste test. And, they are nothing like their store-bought counter parts, but are a much more gourmet version to impress your friends with. I had a lot of fun with this and hope that you can too next year when sour cherries are back in season.

Ingredients:
pitted sour cherries
enough Maraschino Liquor to cover them in a canning jar
2 teaspoons of Sugar or Fructose per 1/2 cup of cherries to be canned
jars of canning in

Directions:
place cherries, maraschino liquor, and fructose in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes and pour into canning jar(s). Sea the jars and can in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from water carefully, set aside and leave undisturbed for 24 hours. Open after at least 1 week so flavors have time to set.

Enjoy in cakes, over ice cream, or in your favorite cocktails!

Oh Summer, how I miss you!

Today is one of the few sunny Autumn days that we get here in Germany. Usually, the sky is the same shade of gray-white until late March. But, it’s a small price to pay for those long summer days that I love so very much!

In the mean time, enjoy this salad that I made back in August. Continue Reading »

A nice brownie recipe for a cold Autumn day.

I found this recipe via The Food Librarian and immediately ran to the kitchen to make sure I had all ingredients. And, I did..so I started baking. While along my merry way…the brownie batter in the oven..my hopes high…I blew the fuse in the kitchen that had both the oven and toaster oven on it…. And, didn’t realize it until the timer went off. So, my brownies were cooked through, but a sad resemblance of The Food Librarian’s delicious brownies. I will have to have a do-over once I’m in my new kitchen in January (more on that later!).

So, bake, enjoy..and don’t blow a fuse!

Here is my tweaked version: Continue Reading »

Welcome to Taste&Create hosted by me from For the Love of Food.

I would like to welcome any of you who are knew to the event and am happy to see all of you who return each month for more!

Just a reminder:
-the rules can be found here.
-please do not email me your submission, go to the Taste&Create website, register/sign-in and submit your entry there by the 24th of November.

Sign-ups for December/January’s Taste&Create will end, as usual, on December 8th. Every year I combine December and January because of the holidays, so the next sign-up after December 8th will be February 8th.

Here is this month’s partner list:

Yael’s Yummies & NO REASON NEEDED
Seduce your tastebuds & hungrywoolf
Cupcake Project & The Creative Pot
A Bolder Table & Love Big, Bake Often
Piccante Dolce & Bombay Foodie
One Little Corner of the World & Sweet and Savory Says it All
The Bad Girl’s Kitchen & Knick Nosh
What’s for Supper? &  vanillastrawberryspringfields

This is a remake of a classic. This time I tried baking it and it tastes even better than with the fresh ingredients, but doesn’t photograph as nicely. Continue Reading »

I am always on the look-out for a good fettuccine alfredo recipe that doesn’t require me to open a canned or a bottled ingredient. Recently I came across a recipe from The Pioneer Woman and it not only looked delicious, but simple – four ingredients plus salt and pepper – so there’s not too much to mess up.

I do have to say that it was tasty, but I also have to say that I had such terrible indigestion after eating it….

It is rich, and creamy, and thick, and heavy..and good. But, if you’re like me and have a sensitive stomach to high fat/oil foods, then I recommend you stay away…because just one bite will not be enough.

The Pioneer Woman has a great pictoral depiction on how to make this recipe. For those of you who want the short version (minus step-by-step photos)…here it is: Continue Reading »

This is great for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. Heck, it’s even great for in between. Quiche is just yummy at any time of the day.

And, instead of using the traditional pie crust, I used the pat-in-the-pan pie crust I blogged about the other day (minus the fructose, cinnamon, and vanilla extract). Continue Reading »

This is a German recipe, that I modified, from the Internet chefkoch.de . I have posted it on various occasions.

I found this cute little container while I was on vacation in DC last summer. My son doesn’t like to eat soup, but if you serve it in a cute tiny bowl with an even tinier spoon, he will eat it all. Continue Reading »

So, after 4 weeks of not being able to eat anything sweet, I had a nice pile of these cookies. I found the original recipe on MyRecipes.com, made some substitutes, and didn’t end up with Thick, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, but rather thin buttery ones. They were so delicious that we couldn’t stop eating them. Continue Reading »