chili casserole

Hello!

Man have we been busy. DJ and I had our first Christmas together as husband and wife. We also have been keeping up on keeping things homemade and simple. One of our new years resolutions as a couple is to eat more at home. So far we have been doing really well, keeping our restaurant visits down to once a week. This also gives us more opportunity to come up with new recipes!

One our new favorites is Chili Casserole. We take DJ's chili/rice and beans and layer it with cheese in a casserole or lasagna pan. We spread Jiffy cornbread batter (with extra cheese and garlic) on top and bake it until the cornbread is golden brown. The result is a beautiful dish that we eat all week!

golden brown goodness

layer detail

ukulele case

DJ has been rocking out on the ukulele. He also has to carry it back and forth from home to pm on a regular basis. I decided to make him a case out of cardboard, tape, staples, sewing materials, and buckles.

don't play with knives, kids

first I traced the uke and cut it out using a utility knife and cutting mat.

then I taped the sides together using masking tape

finished skeleton.

then I sewed on some fabric, a handle, and buckles for closures.

I left a bit of the lionshead box showing for DJ.

The support inside the case is made of a plastic bottle.

All in all a successful and useful project.

Black Bean Burger

DJ and I love burgers. I think it may be the one thing that keeps him eating meat. Vices aside, I have been wanting to make a healthy alternative to our not-so-healthy favorite. I looked online for the how-to and compiled my own recipe according to what we already had. This is how it turned out.

1 can of black beans rinsed

1 slice of bread toasted

1/2 tomato diced

2 small carrots diced

1 egg

1/3 onion diced

cumin, pepper, garlic

oil for cooking

I first put the toasted bread in the food processor to make bread crumbs. Then I processed the veggies with a couple of pulses to get

them into small pieces. Next, I poured in the beans, egg, and spices. Again, I processed the mixture until it was together, but not a paste. You want to have some texture, so you could even mix in some whole beans after you have finished processing. I formed 6 small patties and fried them in our skillet. I would suggest refrigerating them before you cook them because mine kinda fell apart. However, they were so tasty. I ate mine with cheese and a spicy pepper mayo on a potato roll.

We kept the leftovers in the fridge and ate them all week. I am sure you could freeze them as an alternative to store-bought veggie burgers. These are cheaper and in most cases tastier.

here is the newest incarnation with bell peppers!

Happy eating.

A Happy Accident

A few years ago I worked at a coffee shop in Bloomsburg that shall remain nameless. It was a really strange business, the owner lived outside of Washington DC but ran a small time coffee/Birkenstock/Burt's bees shop in Central PA (basically this store should be in Vermont). One of the nice parts about the job was I got to bake a lot, one of the worst was getting paychecks and being told not to cash them or having the check dated for the next week, also running out of coffee for a day or two was not unheard of. I stopped working there for some of the obvious reasons listed, and an injury. However, I really enjoyed baking.

Since quitting that job I hadn't really baked anything in several years. I didn't really have a reason to, and I really just bake to play with the Kitchen Aide anyway. That mixer is fun, and we got one for our wedding. So I decided to make some Oatmeal Cookies with craisns, flax seeds, and chocolate chips the other day. The cookies are pretty great.

One problem, when making the dough I accidentally doubled the baking powder. I thought "Shit, there I've ruined a whole batch of delicious cookies!" Oh no, it just made them into bigger delicious cookies. The baking powder spread the cookie dough to make some huge cookies, about the size of the Alternative Baking Co. cookies. So if you want to making some huge oatmeal cookies put in some extra baking powder. I don't think it would work with a standard chocolate chip recipe, as it might get a little cakey. But, who knows? Give it a try, and see for yourself.

DJ

A Sustainable Weekend.

Despite working this weekend, I have not had a weekend off in quite some time, Jill and I were able to do some great things together. Friday evening the Circle of Hope Urban Farm Team presented a screening of King Corn. The team brought produce to sell for a donation. We scored some great peppers and eggplants.

King Corn is a good starting place if you are at all interested in why buying local and cooking at home is a good idea. King Corn is a documentary made by some young college grads trying to see where their food comes from. They discover that it all starts in Iowa, and decide to give agri-business a try. The movie is a good place to start, but there are a few books I'd read instead; Michael Pollan's Omnivores Dilemma and Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America.

Saturday after work I finally was able to use the eggplant that I picked up the week before. One of my favorite meals has always been Eggplant Parmesan, but I had never made it. Saturday I decided to take a stab at this dish. It turned out well. I used a modified recipe from the Betty Crocker Cook Book. The breading was made from organic farm fresh eggs, home made bread crumbs, and hormone/anti-biotic free milk. Jill always freezes the heals of bread, or those last few old pieces of bread you can't really make a sandwich out of to make croutons or bread crumbs. This is a good idea.

The weekend together ended on Sunday as Jill and I made it to the Headhouse Market.

Home Made

Hello,
Mrs। Jill Robinson here…

My husband and I like making things on our own, whether it be salvaged window frames turned into art or old National Geographic magazines into post cards। Recently we decided to take two items and make them ourselves. It not only saved us money, but also gave us the satisfaction of using something we made.

A couple of months ago, we noticed that the price of granola was to steep for us to buy every week. After consulting with friends and the internet, we compiled ingredients and started to make our own. We use old fashioned oats, flax seeds, walnuts (or whatever nuts we have), chunky peanut butter, vanilla, cinnamon, pure sugar, simple or maple syrup, and oil. We mix the wet and dry ingredients separately and then mix them together in a lasagna pan until coated. We put the mixture in the oven at 350° F for an hour or so and stir it every 15 min. We let it cool and store it in a glass container. We love that the process is so easy and that we know what is going into it.

I have been wanting to try making home made laundry detergent for a while now. I have heard that the powdered variety is really simple to make and lasts for a long time. I took on the challenge. The recipe that I found online called for Borax, washing soda, and a bar of soap. I found all the ingredients in the grocery store for under $6. Each batch calls for a mixture of 1 cup of Borax, 1 cup of washing soda, and one bar of soap grated. I stored it in a Tupperware container. I use 1 to 2 tablespoons of the detergent per load depending on the size and soiling. This detergent is also great for all those soap slivers that get too small to use in the shower. Just break them into small pieces and mix them in. The detergent works really well for us.

We both love DIY projects and can’t wait until the next one.