Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. I wrote a more detailed post last year. This year, I’ll just say that it all remains true. Tim is my favorite person to be around. If I could go anywhere with anyone, it would be him. He’s the person I’m most excited to tell good news to, and the shoulder I want to cry on when it’s bad. He’s my best friend and the one whom my soul loves. I’m so glad that we’re on this journey together.
Time for an easy dinner, a simple snack, a quick lunch.
Let’s do this.
I did.
All it takes is a tortilla, some beans, and a sprinkle of cheese. Get some oil nice and hot. Fry ’em up. Eat ’em all. You’re gonna want to. Trust me.
Grab a handful of corn chips. Spoon out some salsa and Greek yogurt. Get ready to dip dip dip.
This was the first episode of the new show that I’m doing for ifood.tv. I hope you enjoy it. More episodes to come soon!
Happy Eating!
Bean and Cheese Taquitos
Recipe Type: Main, Appetizer, Quick and Easy, Side, Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine: Mexican
Author: Rachel Oberg – De Ma Cuisine
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
1 1/2 C cranberry or pinto beans
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t smoked paprika
1/2 t sweet paprika
pinch cayenne
pinch ginger
pinch cumin
to taste, salt
to taste, pepper
1 t honey
1 T white vinegar
2 T lemon juice
3 large flour tortillas, cut into quarters
1 C cheddar cheese, grated
2-3 T olive oil
Greek yogurt, for serving
salsa, for serving
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 175F.
Combine beans, seasonings, honey, vinegar, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Mash to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 3-5 minutes, or until beans are heated through.
Top each quarter tortilla with a dollop of beans and a sprinkle of cheese, leaving a bit of space along one long edge. Roll, starting with the shortest edge.
Heat skillet. Add 1 T oil. When hot, add 4-5 taquitos. Cook until browned and crispy, flipping once or twice, about 2-3 min per side.
Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet in the oven. Transfer cooked taquitos to oven to keep warm.
Add another 1 T olive oil to skillet and cook the next batch, repeating until all have been cooked.
You may have noticed that things look a little bit different around here. My wonderful, lovely, dear friend, Joanna, of Waterfall Creative, has taken the old look and turned it into something wonderful, fresh, and new. I’m thrilled with the results. I knew I would be. Jo designed my logo and my business cards and even if she hadn’t, I’ve seen her work, this lady is seriously talented.
I’m glad you’re here. Have a look around.
But wait, there’s more.
It has been a busy few months for me. Not only have I been helping with the blog re-design (and by helping I mean giving Joanna artistic freedom and just passing on the info that needs to stay), I’ve started doing a new show. This Week’s Feast ended at the beginning of August. It was kinda sad, but also a good thing. It opened up new opportunities to work with Abundant Harvest Organics as a content provider, and freed up time to work on a show with a company called ifood.tv.
The new show, In the Kitchen with Rachel O, is the same general format as This Week’s Feast: quick, fun, teaching you to make something yummy. It’s in the same tiny apartment kitchen, same little Ikea island serving as the stage, same Rachel O. They will air on ifood.tv, but I will post the episodes on here too, along with a little post. I have the first one scheduled for this Friday. Until then, there are plenty of past episodes to catch up on on the Cooking Show page.
Is that all? It feels like there’s more… Oh ya, I’ve planned to start a new series on my blog called Farm to Dinner Party Table. So far it’s a series of one (and that post will be up in a few weeks). Hopefully that will change, but it might not be until the new year. Because we’re outta here pretty soon… finally finally finally we are going to Paris!!
So, there it is (said with a breath, a small sigh, and a prayer that I don’t drop from exhaustion as soon as we sit down on the plane).
I really love to menu plan. But that doesn’t mean that things always go the way I have intended. Sometimes it means grilled cheese or some sort of re-heated leftovers from the freezer. But, occasionally inspiration hits and a new meal is concocted.
This is such a meal.
We tried this Argentine sausage a while ago. I absolutely love it. It may be my new favorite. I don’t know why I had never tried it before. I didn’t know what I was missing. Now I do. We had a lot of zucchini in the fridge. It needed to be eaten. Perfect, because I wanted to eat it. And then we had bulgur wheat in the pantry. I bought it aaaaaages ago, thinking I would do something with it and never did. I was going to use rice in this meal, but why not switch it up?!
It comes together in a snap. Yeah, the bulgur wheat takes a while to cook, just like rice. But it’s not really that long. Pop it on the stove and then work on the rest. They’ll probably be done closer to the same time than you may have expected.
If you have other veggies that you want to use, I think that’s a good idea. If you have Italian sausage instead of Argentine, please use it! The basics of this dish are that it’s a grain, with some veggies, nuts, a bit of cheese, some fresh herbs, and some excellent olive oil.
If you don’t have something in this recipe on hand – here are some other ideas that could work well:
Italian sausage, red pepper flakes, chopped rosemary, lemon zest, broccoli, and bulgur wheat or rice.
German sausage, onions, dijon mustard, parsley, dill, and bulgur wheat or rice.
Italian sausage, kale, onions, bell peppers, red pepper flakes, thyme, bulgur wheat or rice, with a drizzle of cream when you serve.
So many ways you could transform this simple dish.
Argentine Sausage with Zucchini and Bulgur Wheat
Recipe Type: Main, Easy, Dinner, Meat, Vegetables
Author: Rachel Oberg – De Ma Cuisine
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
1 C bulgur wheat
2 C vegetable stock (water or chicken stock are fine too)
2 T olive oil
2 Argentine sausages, cut into rounds
1 medium zucchini, cut into chunks
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 t red pepper flakes
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 T lemon juice
1 T fresh parsley, chopped
1 T fresh basil, chopped
1 tomato, chopped, for topping
parmesan cheese, grated, for topping
1/4 C walnuts, chopped, for topping
olive oil, for drizzling
Instructions
Cook wheat (similar to cooking rice): Add stock and wheat to a medium pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30-45 minutes.
Heat skillet, add oil. When oil is hot, add sausage and zucchini (if using fully cooked sausage – if not, cook sausage until it’s almost done and then add zucchini). Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add seasonings, lemon juice, and garlic to skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add wheat and herbs. Stir and cook 1-2 minutes.
Serve topped with tomato, walnuts, parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of excellent olive oil.
I wish she could see what I do, taste the food I cook, give me another lesson in zwieback making. I wonder how she would react in circumstances I find myself in, what she would do, what she would say.
And I wish for another hug, to walk into her home one more time, to hear her say my name.
I’m thankful for the memories, for the photos that crowd my desk and walls, for the recipes written in her hand. They aren’t enough, but they’re all that I have.
I really love to menu plan. But that doesn’t mean that things always go the way I have intended. Sometimes it means grilled cheese or some sort of re-heated leftovers from the freezer. But, occasionally inspiration hits and a new meal is concocted.
