I like my kitchen a lot.  Seriously.  And I’ll admit that even though I end up with SAD every winter like most other women out there, I really do enjoy drawing the curtains against the dark and cold, flipping on the low lighting and cooking away at something warm and spicy.  With that as my excuse, I am going to apologize in advance for the poor quality of these photos.  Just enjoy the food and imagine being in my warm kitchen with the smell of warm butter and that amazing sound of popping, sizzling food.  Imagine me wrapped up in an apron and bent over a stovetop lit only by a surface light and with about sixteen wooden spoons and pans scattered everywhere making delicious food just for you.

Here we go.  One of the best benefits to my new kitchen is that I actually have room for stocking up on pantry items.  I have this cabinet that is even bigger that it looks that I can dedicate entirely to canned goods and a few overflowing boxed goods from my other even bigger (yes!) large cabinet devoted to dry goods.  Oh and Mrs. J, if you read this, that red rice cooker you gave me at my bridal shower has been the single most used appliance in my kitchen from Day One.

This plethora of ready ingredients plus a well-stocked freezer (thanks Dad and Brother F for the venison) means that I can decide day-of what I feel like cooking for dinner.  This is simply awesome because it means I can actually produce side dishes, that I absolutely never remember to plan or buy for.

So I’m going to share with you some awesome, pathetically easy side dishes from last night – beans and zucchini.

These mexican beans may be something that everybody makes and I just don’t know it, but I did mostly invent them in my own kitchen after being able to only ever order the enchilada plate at the Cheesecake Factory because they had these incredible black beans alongside it.  I cannot tell you the bliss of realizing that I don’t have to pay $16 plus tax plus tip for this anymore and I can have them oh, about once a week.

Start by draining (not rinsing) a can of black beans and plopping them into a heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Then plop in a 10-oz can of Rotel diced tomatoes and chiles (a regular can of diced tomatoes would be way too much, trust me).

Take the following spices, which just happen to be my most favorite spices in the entire world, and sprinkle them in to taste (I go pretty heavy, especially on the oregano which simply makes the beans).

Then, all you have to do is stir ‘em, boil ‘em, and once they’re good and hot, grab a big spoon or potato masher and mash most of ‘em to pulp, then turn them onto low and let ‘em cook while you make the rest of your meal.  They’ll get deliciously thick.  Easy, right?  They’re going to look like this horrible picture while they’re cooking (remember, picture the smells and heat emanating from this pan!):

Then grab yourself one zucchini and slice it into half moons:

Goodness, zucchini is probably the most awesome vegetable out there.

This here, this is the best part of cooking.  Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 tablespoon olive oil together in a heavy pan (cast iron would be best but I just don’t have one yet – Christmas, Mom???):

Yes.  This is why Andy loves coming home from work every day.  Warm kitchen, warm wife, warm butter and oil in a pan.

Let that zucchini sizzle for a good long time:

Until it starts to look like this:

Blacken it, baby, and it won’t need any spices.

Then whip yourself up some huevos rancheros using corn tortillas.  I had every intention of photographing this for you but two things happened – Andy tried to flip one and ended up getting egg all over the stovetop so I had to take over, and two, my camera battery died after two photos so you will just have to wait until next time for this my absolute favorite egg dish.  And this is what you will, finally, end up with, in your cozy low-lit dining room:

I love making these beans alongside eggs because one really can only eat so many eggs and I, personally, still need some heartiness after I’m egged out.  Honestly, Andy and I eat the entire pot of black beans between the two of us with veggies and a couple of eggs to supplement.  That might seem like a lot for you all and I’ll bet that if you serve them with meat or something else they could easily serve 4-6 people.

Mexican Black Beans:

Pinch of garlic salt
Pinch of pepper
Pinch of oregano
Pinch of cumin
Pinch of chipotle powder (chipotle is key – you want that smoky flava!)
10-oz can of Rotel tomatoes with diced green chiles
1 can black beans, drained but not rinsed

Put everything together in a pot and bring to a good boil.  Mash most of the beans to form a pulpy mass and turn to low to cook until it is thick like mashed potatoes.  Enjoy.

Zucchini:
This is so shamefully easy I can’t even post a recipe.  Just blacken it, honey.

It’s fall, and time for baking and squashes and scent-heavy amazing things.  And so, I want to share with you the best muffin recipe I have ever made, and probably ever had.  And I am a self-professed muffin connoisseur, if you want to know.  I’m a sucker for moist and heavy muffins, and these muffins with both apple and pumpkin are perfect.

I modified these only a little – most notably omitting the streusel topping (absolutely NO need for this), cutting the sugar way back, and upping the pumpkin.  The muffins will be thick – so thick that it will be hard to stir them – but they will be so moist and delectable that they probably will be preferable to your favorite cupcakes!

Some recommendations:

I used white whole wheat flour to add fiber and nutrition.  I also always use natural sugar (this time, Sugar in the Raw) which has a slightly more brown sugary flavor.  To replicate that with regular sugar, try adding 1/4 cup brown sugar to your sugar.

Depending on how full you fill your muffin cups, you could have anywhere from 1 to 2 dozen muffins.  I would recommend making them on the smaller side since they are very hearty.  Because of their moistness, I would recommend spraying paper liners with cooking spray if you plan on using them.

The cooking time will be quite variable, depending on your oven.  I checked them at 25 minutes and put them back in for just another 3 minutes or so, and they were perfect.  Since they’re already orange, don’t wait for them to turn golden brown.  Just test with a toothpick or a fork.

Apple Pumpkin Muffins
adapted from here

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 to 1 1/4 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of your apples)
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 13 oz can pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
3 medium apples, peeled, cut and finely chopped

Combine dry ingredients.  Mix eggs, pumpkin, and oil until incorporated; stir into dry ingredients until fully moist (will be thick!).  Fold in apples.  Fill muffin tins, and bake at 350 for 25 – 35 minutes.  Do not overbake.

I am in love with Costco.  Traditionally, my family has been devoted to Sam’s Club and I still have a soft spot for the big blue sign.  But I’ll admit it – I think I’ll do most of my shopping at Costco.

While I am able to get great deals in terms of my everyday grocery shopping – canned goods, etc. – some things at Costco just blow me away.  Periodically, I’ll be sharing those extra-special finds with you, and I’m starting this today, in honor of Archives of Our Lives‘ Saturday Steals.

Andy’s and my favorite fall-back meal in Philadelphia was Pacific Farms organic tomato soup.  This stuff is hearty, natural, fresh, and delicious.  Far superior to the Campbell soup variety.  We used it as a main meal with grilled cheddar cheese sandwiches; as a lunch with crackers; as a side dish if we didn’t have any fresh veggies; as another main meal with cheese tortellini and cooked Italian sausage added to it to make a hearty soup.  We could get four dinner size portions out of it, and more if we had it for a side or for lunch.

And so we justified the hefty price tag, buying it anywhere from once a week to once every two weeks.  We always had a box of this in the cupboard.  But when we moved to Cincinnati and I saw the even heftier price tag (to the tune of $4.29 a box) I was resigned to giving up this simple pleasure.

Enter Costco.  I found a package of six boxes of this soup for $10.  Yes, that means a saving of over $15.  And for less than $2 a box, it was definitely worth it.

The second steal I discovered in my last trip to Costco was Tazo Tea Chai Latte concentrate.

I am a sucker for Starbucks chai tea lattes.  And you know what?  This is the stuff they use.  I have watched them take the box off the shelf and mix it up.  Which, since I generally pay $3 – $4 for one latte, and I bought three boxes of concentrate (which contain 8 servings each) for about $8… yeah, I just saved myself a bunch of money.  And I can have a latte nearly every day!!!

So there you go – my steals.  And my argument for shopping at Costco.  Hope you go, and find something fabulous!

My college roommate’s younger sister, a sweet, dear, wonderful girl, made these for me when I got married.  They’re just one more thing that makes home home.

And while I was a little rushed and hurried and harried and trying to juggle fifty things in the kitchen at once, it was nice to take a second to enjoy my pretty fresh muffins and my pretty fresh linens.  Maybe I’m a dork.

I realize that my idea of junk food may not be the same as everyone else’s.  I do do some of the normal things, like steal my husband’s large bag of oversize m&m’s and eat them until I feel as though I might pass out from chocolate overdose.  (He tries to hide them, but I have good ears and I can hear where he put them.  And even when I can’t, it doesn’t take much to sucker that fellow into sharing his chocolate with me.  Because he loves me.  Can’t you tell?)

Those last three sentences were a completely hypothetical situation, in case you were wondering.  An example.  To make me more like the rest of the world.  Because the rest of the world does stuff like that.  Wait, did I use the word “normal” up there?  Sigh.  Let’s just start over.

I have some weird junk food issues.  And my favorite, shamefully, is pimiento cheese spread.

I discovered pimiento cheese spread on a family/friend vacation to South Carolina about ten years ago.  We were in deep, deep Southern country, where there were rows and rows absolute vats of the stuff in every grocery store.  My Mom made me a pimiento cheese sandwich one day as something different, and I was in love ever after.

In the North, however, pimiento cheese is some kind of specialty food.  My Mom would occasionally find a teeny tiny box of it at a gourmet deli and bring it home, for an exorbitant price, with a loaf of tiny rye bread slices and we would portion it out as tiny appetizers.

But I found bliss my first day of grocery shopping here in Cincinnati.  Apparently this part of the Midwest is just close enough to Southern country that what did they have at the local Aldi’s but containers of your standard, every day, non-gourmet pimiento cheese for cheap.

Please don’t lecture me on what is in this stuff.  I know.  This stuff is not Northern deli gourmet food made from only the finest cheeses.  This stuff is for real.  Preservatives, processed cheese, and all.  I might just be selling my soul to eat it.

But it is good.  When Andy is at work and I need something comforting and cozy, I find myself whipping out this container of garishly orange junk and shoveling it in with crackers.

Delicious.  Please don’t judge me.  And please tell me I’m not crazy for loving pimiento cheese spread?