And peace on earth.

And good will towards everyone.

Including penguins.

And radioactive monster children.

But especially penguins.

Merry Christmas, my little monsters and penguins.

When I told Mom I was thinking of making gingerbread cake, she told me she wasn’t a fan. Which didn’t surprise me a bit. She’s very spice-averse, particularly the warm spices: cloves, nutmeg, ginger. (However, she doesn’t realize that in the past several years she’s become much more tolerant of them. Don’t tell her I told you!)

Then Mom said something that set off happy little bells in my head.

“My mom used to make gingerbread and it was the best thing ever with canned peaches and whipped cream on top.”

Speak of the fruit-devil! I had just opened up a jar of peaches the other day and they had me hooked. They have me hooked. We’d just canned peaches again last summer and I vowed to actually eat them this winter. Damn, nothing better than home-canned peaches in February.

Now, toss those luscious, home-canned peaches atop moist, whole-grain gingerbread? Spray some fun canned whip cream on top?

Where do I sign up? Oh, that’s right. Here!

Maui interlude

Scroll down to the bottom if you want to get right to the recipe, because I’m going to yammer about my trip to Maui, courtesy Mom and Dad, while I show you a bit about how to make the cake.

Okay, you grease and flour the pan. Now Maui!

This is the fam posing under the banyan tree in the city square in Lahaina. My awesome cousin Roxanne took this picture. She lives in Honolulu studying zoology. How cool is that? She came to visit for her own mini vacation for three days. It was so amazing to see her and hang out with her again! Plus, she was a mini tour guide. Kick ass.

Crystallized ginger is so strong-tasting alone, but it is really good in baked things. I hate to be a brand snob, but Sis (I think) got me this Harry & David crystallized ginger for my birthday last year and I gotta say, it’s really the best I’ve ever tried. Probably the only ginger that I would eat out of hand as well as bake with. Oh hey — don’t use a food chopper on this. I tried. The ginger just gums up the works.

This is just one of the spectacular views, this one at Wai’anapanapa State Park, we got to enjoy in Maui. It’s just gorgeous, everywhere.

Putting the batter together! Brown sugar corn syrup is easier to find nowadays, but if you prefer, just use regular.

You ain’t kidding when you say “a room with a view.” This doesn’t even show all of the spectacular view. There was also a plate glass window to the right and a lanai (patio) to the left. The hotel, built in the early 1970s, was right on the beach. Today, you can’t develop that close to the water — it’s ecologically damaging. So this is like the only hotel on Ka’anapali Beach with such immediate beach/ocean access.

Adding the ginger to the cake batter. No need for a mixer here at all. Just the two bowls. And hell, the one with the dry stuff doesn’t even need to be washed. Go ahead, put it back up in the cupboard. I promise I won’t tell anyone.

Watch for falling coconuts!

The money shot

O’heo Gulch, aka the Seven Sacred Pools. Past Hana, on your way to the fun road with cliffside dropoffs 6 inches from the one lane road and lots and lots of cattle.

I’d just like to give a shoutout to Mom and Dad, who took us to Hawaii and showed us such a jaw-droppingly good time. Can’t thank ‘em enough.

Best.

Vacation.

Ever.

And go make some gingerbread cake and beg, borrow, or steal some home-canned peaches to eat with it.

Aloha!

Fairytale Gingerbread Cake

The crystallized ginger adds a bit of extra gingery zing. You can leave the crystallized ginger out if you want a completely smooth texture. Adapted with permission from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

Yield: 16 servings
Oven: 350°F
Time: 45 minutes to bake
Equipment: 9 x 9 pan

2-¼ cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour, or 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1-½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup molasses
¼ cup water
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup diced crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch-square pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Stir together the melted butter, sugar, corn syrup, egg, molasses and buttermilk in a large mixing bowl.

Stir in the flour mixture until the batter is evenly moistened.

Stir in the crystallized ginger.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the center is set, 45 to 50 minutes. Mine was done in 45 minutes.

Serve warm, with peaches and whipped cream, if desired.

“Naw, I don’t need anything,” I said.

Linda and I were in Panini’s Deli, a sandwich shop right in the middle of the Discount Health Foods store. I’d link you but, you know, they’re too cool to have a website. We were eating the best sandwiches you can find in this godforsaken restaurant desert of a town, but that doesn’t do them justice. These sandwiches are the bomb, made with fresh, semi-trendy ingredients like red pepper alioli or basil pesto mayo, with several vegetarian sandwiches that — surprise! — aren’t all variations of “avocado, tomato and bean sprouts.”

Surrounding it is one of the two best health food stores in the region, complete with an awesome bulk foods and bulk spice section. Linda was asking if I wanted to do any shopping.

There had to be something. There is always something I want/need from the health food store. I get all my spices there now. They’re cheaper —less than half the cost usually — and even fresher than you find in the supermarket. But for the life of me, nothing sprung to mind. We finished noshing our awesomewiches and took off, emptyhanded.

That was yesterday.

Today, I go to make some Old Bay seasoning (don’t ask; it’ll bore you to death and I have to get to my point here sometime). It has cardamom in it.

Cardamom.

Oh, yeah, that spice I love. That spice I ran out of a few weeks ago. That spice I made a mental note to buy when I next went to the health food store.

KHAAAAANNNNNN!

muskrat love

They sure look ugly coming out of the oven!

I didn’t even tell you that story in order to tell you this one. I just told it to remind everyone to keep your shopping lists handy. :p

And this story is just about a yummy veggie burger that I love. I like that, even though it has bread crumbs, which I consider filler, it doesn’t go nuts with them and it still is full of wholesome stuff like green pepper, hot sauce, onions, and of course, black beans. I also love that it stays the heck together. Lots of homemade burgers don’t. It’s like, the nearly-unattainable goal of all veggie burgers: stay together. Like muskrats. Muskrats in love.

Yummy Black Bean Burgers

In my search for good veggie burger recipes, the hardest part is finding burgers that actually stick together! This recipe for black bean veggie burgers stays together very well and has a great Mexican kick to it too. Just be sure to make the ingredients as dry as you can before mixing: pat dry the beans, and strain or pat the green pepper and onion. If you don’t have a food processor, mash the beans with a fork or potato masher, and cut up the green pepper, onion and garlic very finely. I actually haven’t tried this without a food processor so if you do, report back, soldier! Adapted from allrecipes.com

Yield: 4 large patties or 6 to 8 smaller patties
Oven: 375°F
Special equipment: A food processor makes it much easier!

1 (15 ounce) can (1½ cups) black beans, drained, rinsed and patted dry.
½ green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
½ onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 egg
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce (can also use any hot sauce)
½ cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375°F and oil a baking sheet or line with parchment or a silicone baking mat (like a Silpat).

Add beans, green pepper, onion, and garlic to your food processor. Pulse until veggies are finely chopped and beans are pasty, but not quite puréed. In a large bowl, whisk together egg, chili powder, cumin, and Thai chili sauce. Add bean and veggie mixture and mix well. Finally, stir in bread crumbs. If mixture is not thick enough to form patties (it should be), add more bread crumbs.

Take a look at your buns and make your patties about the same size. Big, round, luscious buns require bigger patties, of course. Small, firm buns need small patties. There are zero sexual innuendos in this paragraph.

Put the patties on your prepared baking sheet, and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes total: 10 minutes on one side, flip, 10 minutes on the other side.

Things are a bit out of sorts here at Casa Shiny Cooking. There’s been computer disaster, a late, somewhat lackluster garden, repetitive cooking, and a heat wave.

Through it all I’ve been documenting dishes with my trusty little Canon A75:

Cook’s Illustrated’s homemade super-premium vanilla ice cream
Strawberry pie parfaits
Adorably curly garlic scapes
Roasted red pepper and potato soup
Three-egg omelet with spinach and grape tomatoes
Spinach and red potato quiche

These may turn into posts someday. Like magic.

I’m over it

May’s photos were lost when the idiots at the computer place decided reformatting my hard drive without backing it up was a sensible solution to an obvious hardware problem.

But you know what? That’s okay. It really is. I learned a valuable lesson. Do you want to know what that is?

When the computer repair place calls you and says they need your keyboard and mouse in order to work on your computer, run. Run to the shop and get your machine back, because those guys? They know nothing.

Just like Jon Snow.

But seriously, I’m over it. I’m not going to mention that they’re called “Compu-Tek Computers.” Heh. That actually should have been my first clue.

Really, totally over it

But I’m totally over it. I’m going to make a rum and coke when I finish posting this, but first I’m going to tell you about the sweet ginger iced tea I made. Well, after I shout out to my peeps at the #linode IRC channel, who helped me a bunch tonight. Thanks, guys.

I don’t normally like sweet tea. I like this one, however, maybe because ginger needs something to balance its pungency. If you don’t like ginger, don’t make this. There’s no “tea” involved, simply essence of fresh ginger root, water, and sugar. If you can bear to turn on the stove in the next heat wave, make this tea. It’s incredibly refreshing.

Sweet Ginger Iced Tea

Adapted from Vegetarian Classics by Jeanne Lemlin. I love this book. I really do. I can’t think of anything I’ve not liked from it.

Yield: 3½ cups, enough for 2 large glasses’ worth or up to 4 small glasses.

2½ cups water
3 tablespoons ginger, finely chopped (leave the skin on)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup cold water

Heat the 2½ cups of water and the chopped ginger in a small saucepan until boiling. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain into a pitcher of your choice (large enough to hold up to 4 cups). Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Now you can add the 1 cup of cold water to begin cooling it down a bit. Refrigerate until well-chilled, and serve over ice.

Greetings and hello from the lovely planet Venus, where it’s cloudy and rains all the time. For our purposes, Venus is also known as Michigan.

For this month’s Foodbuzz 24×24 event, I hosted a Game Night — that’s with a capital G and N — and made oodles of easy-on-the-expensive-games snacks. I’m here to show you just how easy it is to have people over and serve amazing finger foods like tropical trail mix (above), asparagus frittata bites, blueberry-vanilla goat cheese on polenta dolce, cantonese roasted vegetables, and much, much more!

Err…just try not to make these foods all at once. These dishes dirtied themselves for your benefit in testing all the recipes out. I wouldn’t recommending doing this all at once!

At the end of this post you’re also getting the easiest recipe of them all: tropical trail mix.

planning board game night snacks

1. First of all, people aren’t picky. If you put out grub, they’re going to be happy. Chips and thick dips work for game night, as long as your guests aren’t clumsy Neanderthals. So do trail mixes of all kinds. Right here with step number one you’ve got savory and sweet already covered. But that’s just too easy. Keep reading if you want to get all fancy like.

2. Serve real food in bite size portions that can be skewered with a toothpick. You don’t want grubby hands mucking up your copy of Settlers of Catan hexes, do you? Well, I would, but then, I hate Settlers.

See that asparagus frittata there? It’s nice and dry and in little pieces.

3. Someone, let’s just call him He Who Shall Not Be Named, thought chocolate covered strawberries would be a good idea. After making them, Zach — er, He Who Shall Not Be Named — pointed out they were a bad idea, due to juiciness and instant garbage made by not eating the leaves. We ate the strawberries anyway, of course (duh!), but they weren’t allowed near the Dominion table.

4. All parties need an ice bucket and drink station. We can’t have the host sneaking drinks, now, can we?

“let” your guests bring food

5. Make sure your guests know you’re doing them a big favor by letting them slave away for you. They’ll be happy to bring things like really yummy seven layer dip with avocados on top instead of guacamole. Resist the urge to cackle evilly at your brilliance until you’ve ushered them out the door later.

6. Soft cookies > crunchy cookies when it comes to game night. Crunchy cookies will splatter crumbs all over your precious pieces and cards! Soft cookies hold their shape.

I was this close to making bite size cookies. But I didn’t. Instead I “let” Debi bring these cookies (as well as the dip above).

7. You can still be seasonal! This asparagus tart Linda brought, as well as the frittata bites above, have asparagus from my patch in them. Awesome!

8. Cut vegetables a bit bigger than bite size, and roast in flavory stuff. They’ll shrink to bite size and people can eat with toothpicks. See, these began bite size, so they got a bit small to be eating like that, but you know what? We soldiered on and still did!

9. Use timesavers, aka pre-made foods like hummus or polenta. Look at this. Blueberry-vanilla goat cheese. Sam’s had it in one-pound packages marked down to $4.81. I bought some prepared polenta — well, it was called something like “Billy Bob’s Corn Mush” — and cut it about one-quarter inch thick and fried it, then sprinkled some sugar on it.

OH. MY. GODS. These polenta slices were like fair food. Fair food, I tell you. And the goat cheese was just creamy, slightly sweet and slightly tangy and loads of blueberry-infused flavor smeared on top.

10. “Let” guests style your food for you. Debi arranged these strawberries, cheeses and wine. And did a great job! I might even “let” her do it as much as she wants in the future!

this is why we can’t have nice things

Bad Fang! Bad!

break out the skeezy cheeses and spicy mixes

I lied. Only one of these cheeses was skeezy. But I’m not the most adventurous cheeseophile. Linda picked them up at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor. That speckled one? That has mustard seeds in it. If you can imagine a mustard cheese, that is it. *Homer Simpson drooling noises*

There are also two goudas, a manchego, and one or two others I can’t recall.

Debi and Andy also brought this wasabi trail mix. More spiciness!

get down to business and play games

Armed with plates of relatively clean finger food and drinks of our choice, we settled in for some Serious Gaming. The cards in this game, Dominion, go through constant use and lots of shuffling, so we’ve already sleeved them in protective clear plastic.

No, I am not crazy. Every Dominion owner does this. Really. Trust me.

We got two games in, with a break in between for even more snacks, and I didn’t win either time! Take that, all you people who gang up on me saying I win all the time. I didn’t win.

list of the finger foods

Here are the finger foods I served at game night. I went overboard for purposes of this post, and recommend making one, maybe two max of the cooked items so you can spend more time relaxing instead of working and cleaning up!

• tropical trail mix
• roasted vegetables – cooked
• asparagus frittata bites – cooked
• roasted tofu cubes – cooked
• hummus and pita chips
• polenta crostini with blueberry-vanilla goat cheese — polenta was store bought but still cooked (fried)
• chocolate-covered strawberries – not a clean finger food after all!
• bread and cheese

Mini anything works too. I debated making mini pizzas, mini cookies, even quesadilla bites.

tropical trail mix recipe

Make this with unsalted nuts to keep guests’ hands clean. I’m a salt fiend and didn’t miss it. You can find unsweetened coconut flakes at natural/health food stores.

2 cups unsalted dry roasted peanuts
1 cup M&Ms
½ cup unsweetened coconut
½ cup banana chips
¼ cup Craisins^®

Crumble banana chips in hand to approximately bite-sized pieces. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Cover and store until serving.

Holidays aren’t big on this blog. You won’t see me doing a week of Easter recipes, mainly because I can’t be arsed to make dishes beforehand. However, I’d like to put in a word for today’s secular holiday, Earth Day.

Nearly 20 years ago, I took a biology class. It was an introductory course, so we looked at everything from cellular reproduction to continent-wide habitats. One topic that loomed large was climate change. We saw the papers and the data. Even back then, it was undeniable that since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere has been rising exponentially.

For Earth Day, we split into groups to do a presentation project of our own choosing on the environment. No matter what topic the group chose, climate change affected it in some way — one group looked into rainforest destruction, another into the impact of melting polar ice on arctic flora and fauna. Our group looked at the unique lemurs of Madagascar; one part of that was their changing habitat.

That’s why it saddens and frustrates me to see the willful ignorance and often outright lying on the part of climate change deniers. Even 20 years ago, it was clear that something was going on. Scientists are apolitical by training. They’re simply reporting the numbers they see.

stand up for scientists

I’m here today to stand up for the scientists. They’re what’s primarily in my thoughts this Earth Day. Attacks on science and reason wound my faith in the goodness of humanity — I have difficulty fathoming why anyone would oppose facts, data or logic. I’m Spock-like in that way: failure to comprehend logic is utterly unfathomable to me.

This Earth Day, Stand up for science. Stand up for scientists. Argue about policy and solutions, but accept facts — or disprove them using the scientific method.

From National Geographic:

• Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century’s last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.

• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

you can do little things

Most of us can’t devote our lives to changing the world, but we can make it a better place to live in. Try doing some of the following this year:

• patronize farmer’s markets
• buy locally when you can
• purchase humanely-raised and slaughtered meats
• put food scraps into a compost pile or straight to the garden
• grow something you can eat — herbs or even cherry tomatoes or peppers can be grown in containers if you have no room (you still need light, though!)
• eat seasonal items

We don’t have to be perfect, and our little changes probably won’t change the planet. But being mindful of our food and where it comes from can make a household, neighborhood, or city a happier, more environmentally-friendly place.

Be mindful of food, and stand up for the scientists!

Sugar beets are a communal crop. It’s rare for one farmer to have both the specialized harvesting equipment and the manpower required to harvest all of his sugar beets by himself. It’s also a busy crop: as the beets are pulled from the ground by the mechanical harvester they are dumped into a truck driven alongside it in the field, and they need to be driven to the sugar plant ASAP. As a result, several farmers work together in the fall to get everyone’s sugar beet crop in on time.

Every fall, Grandma made doughnuts for the guys working sugar beets. I helped her more than once, probably getting in the way more than I actually helped. She made cake doughnuts in traditional ring shapes. Then she set an iron rod across the kitchen sink and strung the doughnuts on there like Christmas lights. She must have glazed them like that, because I remember the doughnuts hanging on the rod, dripping fresh glaze into the sink.

Doughnut Oppression

Making sweets for menfolk is so quaint. So old-fashoined. So not me.

Last spring I made these yeast-raised beignets for men who were working on the house’s foundation. I enjoyed baking for them.

But I wondered if I should feel oppressed.

I was having too much fun to feel oppressed, though. I wondered if I should stop having fun.

That was impossible once I began dropping simple rectangles of simple dough into hot oil. The dough bubbled up with bellies puffed full of air.

Birthday Beignets

A few weeks ago was Linda’s birthday. She helped me make the beignets last spring. She hasn’t forgotten them. She mentions them from time to time.

They were yummy.

As a surprise, I made beignets for her birthday.

People said I should fill them. I disagree. But I suppose you could.

Make them for your favorite doughnut lover. Extra points if that doughnut lover is you.

Check out Yeastspotting for more yeasty goodies.

Yeast-raised Beignets

I include a light glaze for these beignets, but you may dust them with powdered sugar instead. I like the sweet glaze. The recipe includes instructions for using a mixer with a dough hook or a bread machine. I like using my mixer, but then again, I haven’t tried it with the bread machine. The bread machine method is probably even easier! Adapted with permission from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

beignets

¾ cup (6 ounces) water
2 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour
½ cup (4 ounces) half-and-half
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter, melted
¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 cups (8½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

5 to 6 cups (about 2 pounds) vegetable oil for frying

beignet glaze

2 cups (8 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup (2 ounces) water, coffee or milk
1 teaspoon vanilla (I do this, boring huh?) or other extract of your choice

To make the dough:
Pour the water into a mixing bowl or the bucket of your bread machine. Add the whole wheat flour and let the mixture soak for 30 minutes, to soften the bran in the flour.

Beat the half-and-half, egg, butter, sugar and salt in a small bowl. Stir this into the flour mixture. Add the yeast and all-purpose flour, program your bread machine for the dough cycle, and press Start. Whether you’re mixing by hand or machine, once a soft dough forms, knead for 6 to 8 minutes. Cover the dough with greased plastic wrap, and let rise until it has doubled in bulk, 1½ to 2 hours.

After the dough has risen, deflate it and turn it out onto a floured work surface. Knead out any stray bubbles and let rest for about 5 minutes to relax the gluten. While you roll out and shape the beignets, start heating the oil to 365°F. You should have at least 2 inches of oil in the pan.

To cut the beignets:

Roll the dough out to a rectangle roughly 12 x 20 inches and ¼-inch thick. Use a flour-sprinkled bench knife or bowl scraper to keep the dough from sticking. Note: this is a very wet dough!You may need to throw a bit of flour underneath from time to time to keep the dough from sticking. With a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 4 long strips, 3 inches wide. Cut each of the strips into 8 pieces. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let them relax while the oil heats.

To fry:
Once the oil is hot, slip in 4 or 5 beignets at a time and cook for about 1 minute before you flip them over. Let them cook another 1½ to 2 minutes, flipping them back and forth so they brown evenly. Every once in a while you’ll have one that doesn’t want to turn over because its “tummy” is so fat. Use your spoon to turn it and gently hold it in place until the underside is brown enough. When the beignets are done, remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Continue with the remaining dough.

After the beignets have cooled, toss them in a paper or plastic bag with ⅓ to ½ cup of confectioner’s sugar, or brush with glaze (below).

To make the glaze:
Mix the confectioners’ sugar and your choice of liquid and flavoring in a small bowl. You can dip one or both sides of your beignets or brush some glaze over the tops. I use the dip method. It’s less mess and more fun!

Morning tea in a retro mug. My grandfather sold Funk’s seed and I’d guess the mug’s about 40 years old. Filled with Earl Grey from a health food store in Frankenmuth that disconcertingly advertises “ear candles” quite loudly on its sign.

The tea is good, though.

Ever run into a recipe that is so easy and so tasty that you are dazed under its spell, obeying its command to make it again, and again, and again, until two weeks later you blink and say to yourself, “Damn, that was good.”

This recipe is why I bought the big honkin’ bottle of sesame oil.

Perfect for chlily nights when you have some time to cook, but not a lot of time, this sesame-peanut stir fry puts together pantry and freezer ingredients in about half an hour to create a comforting sweet-and-spicy assortment of veggies and rice. I love it for its…well, its heft. Vegetables and rice are so very light that they threaten to float away without something to anchor them down, and in winter that something is chunky peanut butter and luscious, dark sesame oil, anchored by onion, ginger, garlic, and lots of black pepper.

For a truly comforting experience, mix the rice right into the finished stir fry. We’re all at home here. If it’s late, we’re going to scoop some of this into a bowl and curl up on the couch with it, furtively, because we know we’re not supposed to.

And if we’re lucky, we have Babylon 5 in the DVD player, and it’s a Londo episode, with lots of Vir, because who knew Flounder could act?

Sesame Peanut Stir Fry

Recipe inspired by “Szechuan-style lo mein stir fry with broccoli slaw and peanuts” from The PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) Vegetarian Cookbook: 240 Healthy and Easy No-Prep Recipes for Busy Cooks. I’ll often make this with a bag of mixed frozen vegetables — broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. It’s great with basmati rice and the great part is, you can start the rice when you start cooking the stir fry, and they’ll both be done around the same time. P.S. Sesame peanut stir fry doubles easily to feed a crowd or have extra leftovers.

1 tablespoon canola oil
½ cup chopped onion
1-2 minced garlic cloves
¼ tsp black pepper
16-ounce frozen broccoli, thawed
⅓ cup water
⅓ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
½ teaspoon ground ginger or 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
½ tablespoon sugar
1 package (approximately 14 ounces) firm or extra-firm tofu, drained and cubed
2 tablespoon chunky peanut butter
1 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame seed oil
¼ cup unsalted chopped peanuts
cooked rice (I like basmati)

In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook until softened, 3 minutes. Add garlic and black pepper and cook 1 minute.

Increase heat to medium-high and add broccoli. Cook, stirring occasionally, until warmed, 1 to 3 minutes.

Stir in water, soy sauce, ginger and sugar. Add cubed tofu, if using. Bring to a simmer.

Reduce heat to low and add peanut butter and sesame seed oil, stirring to incorporate; cook until heated through.

Serve on basmati rice. Sprinkle chopped peanuts on top.

Do you ever read something, get entirely the wrong impression, and walk around carrying that impression, like a treasured memento or a nursed wound, for ages before realizing you were mistaken?

For some reason I got Fritos in my head when I first read the recipe for Jeanne Lemlin’s 10 Minute Chilaquiles, from her surprisingly excellent Vegetarian Classics : 300 Essential and Easy Recipes for Every Meal.

Cooking with Junk Food

Neat! I thought. I get to cook with junk food! And I joyfully bought a big bag of Fritos on my next shopping trip. I proudly plopped it onto the conveyor belt at checkout, smug in the knowledge that, HA! I wasn’t going to chomp on them sitting on some hundred-dollar secondhand couch, oh no, not I.

I was going to cook with them. I was going to cook with Fritos.

And I did, and lo, the people ate of it and it was good.

But something always nagged at the back of my mind. I had a dim memory of chilaquiles being a use for stale or broken tortilla chips, not delicious monstrosities like Fritos. The omnipresent and omniscient Elise Bauer confirmed my suspicions.

And I found that my beloved 10 Minute Chilaquiles were actually…

Drum roll please…

Frito pie.

Step 1: Open a Bag of Fritos

I embraced it, the Frito pie. I mean, shit, it tastes good. It’s fairly nutritious, with protein, calcium, and a good deal of veggies from the salsa and tomato sauce. Each of six gigantic servings runs 500 calories. Serve this with salad and you can easily get by with half or two-thirds of a serving.

You really can’t go wrong with a recipe that begins with “open a bag of Fritos,” can you?

Vegetarian Frito Pie

This will be pretty salty if you use regular Fritos, so cut back on the salt where you can in this — a lower-sodium corn chip, perhaps, or no-salt-added tomato sauce. Feel free to mix up the beans or cheese or salsa, or use low-fat sour cream. I’ve made this with black beans as well as pinto and kidney, and with pepper jack and mozzarella instead of plain jack cheese. (I liked the larger beans more than the small black beans in this.)

Sauce:

1 (14– or 15–ounce) can pinto or kidney beans, rinsed, or 1½ cups homemade pinto or kidney beans
1 cup salsa, your choice of hotness
1 (14– or 15– ounce) can tomato sauce, no salt added preferable (the corn chips add quite enough salt, thank you very much)
½ cup water
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, undrained
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon ground cumin

The rest:

11 ounces of Fritos or other corn chips (a 9-ounce bag is fine, too)
1 cup sour cream
2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F.

You’re going to be layering the sauce, chips, sour cream, and cheese in a 7 x 12 or 9 x 13 pan. First spread half the bean sauce in the bottom of the pan/dish. Then add half of the corn chips. Dollop half the sour cream on the chips in small spoonfuls. Sprinkle half the cheese over that.

There! Half done. Now spread the rest of the chips atop all of that, pour the rest of the sauce over everything, dollop the rest of the sour cream on top, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of everything.

Bake for 35 minutes in a 350-degree oven, until hot. Make happy noises while nomming.