 |
| Red Beans & Rice with Warm Corn Salad. |
We had purchased an ear of fresh sweet corn and I just started emptying out the veggie drawer and grabbed a few south western flavors to got along. I started with heating a pot and pouring in some olive oil to saute a couple of minced pickled garlic cloves with some whole cumin seeds and a half of a green bell pepper. When that was smelling nicely, I added in the corn I had cut off the cob along with a coarsely chopped gala apple that was just starting to get to the point of soft and not an ideal hand fruit. I soon added a chipotle with a little adobo sauce. They come a few to a can and we usually only use one so, like I do with tomato paste, I wrap them in single use portions in plastic wrap and freeze them. It didn't take too long for the corn to start to cook a little and the apples just started to get softer when I cut off the heat and added about a dozen halved cherry tomatoes and 1/4C chopped cilantro.
I reheated the plates heaped with leftovers and the Warm Corn Salad for 30 seconds in the microwave just before serving. It turned out really well, very tasty!
 |
| Cookies with blooming hyacinths. |
I would have thought that would be enough to hold me for the afternoon but anytime I have a lot of garlic, pickled or otherwise, I start to crave chocolate. I saw a link on my FaceBook page that showed a photo of vegan chocolate chip cookies and I could not get them out of my mind. They were haunting my subconscious and I told Amy about my craving. She enhanced it with her own desire for chocolate chip ice cream! I got images in my head of perfect little ice cream sandwhiches and them went on a mission to figure out what started my craving all together.
When I came back across the photo, I linked out to the article and to my surprise it was a QuarryGirl post dedicated to Natalie Portman so she would stop waffling as a vegan because she could find any cookies! The cookie post link to a Vegansaurus rant about her and how she is constantly announcing her vegan diet status changes. HA!!
The cookies were in my brain so I walked to Nature's Panties to get a cookie and maybe heat it in the microwave. They had many different single cookies; peanut butter, snickerdoodle, gingersnap, but no chocolate chip. I wandered around and a woman asked if she could help me find anything. I assured her I was just looking for a snack.
I saw something that gave me an idea and the woman who had asked to help me said I had made a good snack choice as I bagged up some bulk dark chocolate covered ginger. I told her I had decided to use them to make cookies instead of chocolate chips and her eyes widened and she affirmed that she thought that was a great idea.
I only got a small portion because I intended on only making a 1/2 batch. I also bought some eggs and walked home to dig out the old Toll House recipe. All I did was substitute the chocolate ginger pieces for the chips (and forgot the vanilla) and made a half batch. They are wonderful and I had 2 while they are warm. Now what to do with the rest...
