Fiesta Tamale Pie

Today's recipe:

Fiesta Tamale Pie

This recipe is from John's Uncle Brent Taylor. Originally a 'meaty' recipe I have changed it to be veggie friendly. I do this with lots of recipes as most recipes are easy to change if you know what to sub.

What you'll need:

*2TB cooking oil

*1 medium sized onion, chopped

*1 clove garlic, minced or pressed (or garlic seasoning to taste)

*1 12 oz can black beans (also you can add tofu crumbels as an additional protein)

*1 cup cheese (of any kind that you like)

*1 can (28 oz) tomatoes

*1 can (1 lb) whole kernal corn, drained

*1 TB chili powder

*½ teaspoon oregano

*½ teaspoon ground cumin

*2 eggs, lightly beaten

*1 cup milk (regular or soy)

*1 cup corn meal

*1 ½ cups (6 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

1. Heat oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat.
   
2. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
   
3. Add in beans
   
4. Stir in tomatoes (break up with a spoon) and their liquid, corn, chili powder, oregano, cumin.
   
   
   
5. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cheese.
   
6. Spread mixture in a shallow 3 pt. casserole or 9x13 baking dish.
   
7. In a bowl, combine eggs and milk. Stir in corn meal.
   
8. Sprinkle top with cheese.
9. Spoon evenly over bean mixture, making sure corn meal is well distributed.
   
10. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until top is set and lightly browned.
    

Makes six servings

Notes:
*this makes great lunch leftovers

Lily Allen quits

I am a huge Lily Allen fan. I was very sad to hear this week she is quitting the music business for what I see as strange reason. Then John shared this video with me and now I'm a bit amused by the whole thing. Enjoy!

My vegetarian story

I became a vegetarian at age 7. At such a young age most kids do not understand were their food comes from. I was unique in this as I grew up on a farm and was constantly reminded were my food came from, my "pets". At age 7 I had a pet lamb, named LaVar, that I had raised from a baby. One day my parents told me that he was going on a ride. When he came back from the ride my parents showed me the box of meat and said this is your lamb. This was shocking and to much and I then began to understood any time I was eating meat I was eating something that had been alive and been a "pet" to me. From that point on I no longer wanted to have anything to do with meat.



At that time vegetarians were few and far between. My parents didn't know how to deal with my new diet and forced me to eat meat for a while until they no longer could deal with my stubbornness. From then on till I graduated from high school and "left the nest" I was relegated to eating side dishes such as corn, potatoes. My parents were of this generation were super was meat, vegetable, and bread. It made for a pretty boring diet and when I left for college I was excited to finally begin to learn to cook meals. Because while my mom let me cook she only allowed me to bake- cookies, cakes, etc.



In those years since I left the nest I have continue to broaden my horizons about food. I experiment constantly and love to try new foods. I feel that my knowledge needs to be shared with the world as most vegetarian cooking is quite in accessible with "strange ingredients" and complicated directions. Its not hard to be vegetarian, its not a boring diet, and it is so tasty!



I decided to start this blog because I am always being asked well what do you eat? Tofu?

Sometimes yes, I do eat tofu but I eat so much more then that. You don't have to be vegetarian to enjoy my recipes you just have to like good food. I hope you enjoy what a vegetarian eats!

dough!

I'm on a roll with this bread this recently since I've been reunited with my machine. Today I am attempting to make sandwich bread. I have gotten a good flavor for it before but did not have a good long pan to bake it in. After doing some research online I discovered the pan size/shape I needed was called a pullman pan. So today John and I headed to a local cooking store and as I am typing my loaf is baking away in the oven. I am a big fan of more home made natural food and as John and I eat a lot of bread I am hoping this works for a great sandwich size, shape, and taste.
Opp, oven timer is going off. I'll take a few pics and be back...
Here are some snapshots of my loaf:



Update on my basil bread...it was pretty great. I think it would make great grilled cheese as it have a nice herbie but not over powering flavor. Is there anyone out there who wants me to post bread recipes? Also if you are interested I can also share info about my wonderful amazing bread machine. Leave a comment and let me know.

Back in the bread

Sorry that I am very bad at doing lots of post then not for a while I will work on trying to be a little more consistent in my entries!

Last spring, around April, my bread machine paddle went missing. Now for our family the bread machine isn't one of those things we use every now and again. I pretty much use it 3-4 times a week. I use it for pizza, to do the kneading of breads I take out and shape, for regular sandwich bread, etc. I think I have more bread cookbooks then any other type of cookbook. So my missing paddle was seriously bad news!
John and I searched high and low for it. Then we decided well when we move we'll be able to find it for sure. We moved the paddle never showed up. I looked online and they are very scarce and hard to find. I have been pondering what to do and the only solution to my problem was to buy a new machine and use my current one for parts. I put it off a long time because I didn't want to spend the money. In the meantime I searched for paddle at goodwill, online, kitchen stores, etc. Finially Saturday night I gave in, or at least I thought I did, and was about to start ordering one when John said....did you look on ebay? Well yes I had but I hadn't checked it that night so I though ok I'll look then get on with it.
Behold, what did my eyes find but a paddle a brand new paddle for my machine. I lept at it instantly. It arrived today. Everyday this week I've been marking new recipes I want to try.

Today's is Fresh Basil Bread. I'll let you know how its goes. I may have to start a bread feature.

doggie paddle

Earlier this week I went to the doggie paddle night at city park pool with two friends, John and Jeanna, and their dog Evie.

Evie wondering why should I get into the water?


Evie playing (maybe she does like water :) ) with John and Jeanna



The meeting of the great danes

sniff sniff


I had such a fun time watching all the dogs and people. Love it!

Seedsavers

On Saturday John, Ellen (John's grandmother), and I took a rode trip to Decorah, IA to visit the seedsaver farm for their labor day event. It was basically a big open house to get to check out their farm and what they do. Seedsavers is keeping heirloom variaties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers alive and in circulation.
Ellen and me in front of the neat morning glory 'tower'


Checking out the types of plants in the display garden.


treking through the sun and twisty sunflower maze

Loved all the bees and flowers I got to take pictures of


John and his grandma with the flower "kiss me over the garden gate". One of the neat flowers none of us had seen before.

PS happy 09-09-09 at 9:09 pm

potato harvest

Its that time of year, time to dig up the potatos. Here are some pictures from our recent harvest.

before

digging
john eyes his produce

the end result

Compost it!

John and I recently created a compost bin out of a regular garbage can. All we did was cut a 'flap' at the bottom of the can so we can get the compost out about ever 2-4 weeks.

(John filling the can for the first time)

This will hopefully help cut down on the amount of garbage we produce (good for the enviroment) and make our gardens nicer with the rich compost (good for eating!)

Lanesboro

Well it only took me two months to post about our trip to Laneboro, sorry! I got sick with the flu right after and well you know.

We took a trip to Lanesboro, MN July 24th. My aunt and uncle reccommed it as a very nice town to camp with lots of things to do. We loved it! We cut the trip short to only one day due to the bad weather but are planning on going back this fall. Here our our pictures from our trip:

Stormy weather followed us the whole trip long

This was the 2nd, yes 2nd tree we ran across driving to MN. We later determined that we had three bad omens (when we woke up Montgomery was on his back, plus 2 down trees- what was Montgomery trying to tell us??) and maybe should have stayed home. Although we did have fun.



The town sign





After a long day of bad weather (we were both drenched at one point) and not being able to find a campground we stopped at the local 50's dinner for salad and coffee.



This was an amazing salad and inspired me create a similar version.




Main street Lanesboro



We ran across this great flower garden and grabbed a few shots before it started to pour again.


Great clouds on the way home!

This is corn, yes corn. They had sever hail damage so much that the fully grown corn was then about 3 ft tall- just nubbins.

More state fair 2009

OK I will admit that I have been slacking a bit getting photos up latley (yes I do still have a post from the end of July I need to make- maybe someday!). But I'm trying to catch backup and still stay up to date with my current posts.

On that note here are more pics from the state fair:

From State fair 09

From State fair 09

From State fair 09

big boar

From State fair 09

Veggie corn dog!

From State fair 09

From State fair 09

To see more photos from state fair ok click here.

Montgomery's new digs

If I have never mentioned how awsome craiglist is I am going to now. It rocks hard core. I've not only sold things but boughten things I really need. For example Montgomery has needed a bigger tank for a while and we've been shopping around. I've also kept my eye on craiglist for a tank. A few days later a great deal shows up. Awsome!

Montgomery now has a rockin' new tank.
Before:

25 gallons with custom tanning ledge

After:

65 gallons with newly designed custom tanning ledge

Montgomery takes a dip....

and sunk all the way to the bottom. He is loving his new tank!