Pasta with Swiss chard and breadcrumbs

I promise this will be the last post with Swiss chard.*


I admit my standards are high - I do like to be amazed with my meals, even an ordinary weeknight dinner, and I can get disappointed when it satiates just my hunger, not my appetite. But when I was preparing this meal, I had fairly low expectations - I just wanted a way to use up some of the Swiss chard that I keep buying.

I could have gone with the red pepper, sausage, chard saute that I made a few weeks ago which did amaze me, but I wanted to try something a little different.

Actually, I just didn't want to go to the store and buy any sausage. There, I said it.

The Bean Chronicles: Cannellini

The bean: Cannellini
Amount: 1-pound bag
Method: Soaked for about 12 hours (on counter), drained and rinsed, then on stove with maybe too much water, salted towards the end
Cooking time: About 2 hours
Storing? Half in the freezer; the other half in fridge

Swiss chard gratin

"Did you ever think of the number of things that had to happen for me to get to know you?"


Don Draper says this in Mad Men. That is how I feel about this Swiss chard gratin.

FreshDirect had to have a free delivery promotion
Every once in a while, FreshDirect has a free delivery promotion and those are the only times I order from them. [Shh, don't tell. I don't want them to stop these promos! Otherwise I may never use them. Ok, that's not true - whenever I need cases of water, bags of flour, sugar, or rice, or cans of tomatoes, I will order from them. Sorry in advance to the delivery guys. But I tip well!]

Technically speaking...

Despite the fact that I've managed to put up a blog, I am rather technologically-challenged when it comes to doing anything fancy with it. Or even basic - like putting up a recipe index (which I know plenty of cooking blogs have).

But ladies and gentlemen, I've finally figured it out. I never noticed a little "Edit Pages" link on Blogger until today! I mean seriously, Blogger makes it stupid easy to have a blog - it's like what happened when Microsoft introduced PowerPoint and suddenly everyone thought they were a designer.

Well now I have a recipe index! I can't really call it "recipes" because really it's just everything I've made and posted here, and there are some, I've just realized, where I didn't even add the actual recipe. Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.

I'll be messing with the categories for a while I think, and I haven't posted everything yet but hope to soon, before another work tornado hits.

Yesterday's lunch

This title is a bit of a misnomer since I had intended to post this two weeks ago. Then suddenly the wheels fell off the wagon and I experienced work stress like I've never felt before. I always thought I was one of those emotional eaters but apparently when I really feel stress, I lose my appetite.

I got through the most stressful part and am hungry again, but lately, because of the nature of my job, the bulk of my work will be in the evenings and on the weekends, which totally sucks for me as it gets into my farmer's market and cooking time - bah!

[I mean honestly, if I really only have work at night and on the weekends for the next month, can't I just stay at home during the day? Instead I have to sit here with too much time on my hands to think about all the cooking I could be doing - I think I bookmarked about five more recipes I want to try that I probably never will. Getting depressed...]

Anyways, back to the food...

The Bean Chronicles: Black Beans II

The bean: Black beans
Amount: Half a 1-pound bag
Method: Soaked for about 10 hours (put in fridge in the morning before work), drained and rinsed, then on stove with water to cover, salted towards the end
Cooking time: About 2 hours
Storing? Half in the freezer (eventually used for black bean salads); the other half in fridge, used within a few days, also for black bean salads (more?? yes more, I like eating the same thing for weeks on end, so sue me)


Result: I honestly did not notice a difference between soaking and not soaking. The cooking time was virtually equal. The results were the same, mostly good but a little uneven. Cooking liquid was nice and dark too, I didn't notice much of a loss of color. The aroma while cooking was not as strong as the no-soak method though.

So, my thought is perhaps the cooking vessel does make a difference and I do need to use a wider pot for more even cooking. (Time to go shopping!) Or the oven is the way to go. Clearly I have more experiments left to do with black beans.

Salmon and Swiss chard

I am really loving the Swiss... chard.

Here, some steamed (in foil) salmon on top of some sauteed Swiss chard with onions, garlic, dried oregano and paprika.

Banana chocolate chip walnut muffins

Um, I do make dishes other than soups and beans. Really.

I'm very far behind on posting some things I've made recently. Most of the time I don't care - I'll post when I post! But I wanted to get this one up right now because I don't want it to seem like all I've been making lately are soups and beans. Even though that is pretty much all I've been making.

Spinach miso soup

This is my kind of comfort food.


I based this on a soup that my aunt makes, with assistance from this recipe I found online, since I was just going by memory.

Black bean soup

The first time I saw black bean soup was in college. I had never heard of it before, and all I saw in the big soup tureen in the cafeteria was this steaming, black, well, sludge. I'd never seen anything like it and I saw my peers eagerly scooping it into takeout containers, dunking crackers right into the dark mess as if it were dip.

In order to disguise my hickville roots, I never admitted (until now) that I had no idea what it was (thank goodness for the little label) or that I'd never had it before. Everyone seemed to love it so I took a leap... and it was amazing. Who would have guessed I would be exposed to such a diverse culinary experience at Vassar?? (Well, they did also have amazing pickles.)

The Bean Chronicles: Black Beans

Continuing on with my bean experiments...

The aroma from these beans as they were cooking was just divine. I'd heard rumors such a thing would happen and didn't believe it until now.


The bean: Black beans
Amount: Half a 1-pound bag
Method: No soak, on stove with water to cover, salted part way through; some difficulty simmering, water added occasionally
Cooking time: About 2 hours
Storing? Half used for black bean soup; the other half in fridge, used within a few days for black bean salads
Result: Pretty good, although I found the beans uneven (some softer than others, none were disintegrating though, so that's a plus). Gorgeous, inky black cooking liquid.

Yet another variable in the bean cooking arena, I think, is your own stove. You have to know how your stove works - how big of a flame do you need for barely a simmer, or a rolling simmer? I'm still getting used to my stove in my new place, and I struggled with getting the right simmer. When I put it all the way to low, it didn't look like anything was happening so I would raise it a little... and suddenly it was boiling. The water absorbed too quickly and I had to add more. In the end, I just left it at the lowest possible.


Because I didn't soak the beans, I thought they would take at least 3 hours, but to my surprise, they were done in 2 (although, as I later discovered while eating the black bean salad I made with these beans, some were less done than others - ouch).

So, I need to work on getting the beans to cook more evenly. Let's see if a pre-soak will help...

Korean-style broth

Growing up, one chore that I sometimes helped my mom with was beheading dried anchovies - a common ingredient in many things Korean. (Among my other tasks, I also helped de-tail kongnamul - worst chore ever. I'm pretty sure that is the reason that kongnamul soup is my least favorite.)

Growing up, I ate tons of Korean soups and stews. But it wasn't until I was researching Korean cooking online that I put two and two together to realize that these little anchovies were being used for broth for these soups and stews. The way chicken stock is a staple in Western pantries, this basic fish/seafood broth is a staple in Korean pantries.