Rachel's preferred hummus

I'm posting this because Rachel's copy of the recipe is getting so filthy that I can hardly read it.

2 19 ounce cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed
1/2 cup tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
Three cloves garlic
Juice from 2 to 3 lemons
3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Place chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, and garlic in food processor, then process until smooth. Next add lemon juice, then add water until desired consistency is reached. Then add remaining ingredients. Process again until smooth, scraping sides occasionally. 

Instant Apple Pie

I like pie a la mode. Here's my instant recipe:

Cut up an apple
put a couple spoonfuls of sugar on it
and some cinnamon.
Microwave it for one minute
top with a scoop of ice cream
and Golden Grahams for the crust.

No, it's not a real pie. But is a pie really what you wanted? What you really wanted was to spend time reading about Aztec philosophy, while eating baked apples and ice cream and Golden Grahams.

Pineapple upside-down cake

Pineapple upside-down cake was invented in the U.S. sometime in the 1920s, I think. Basically it was just skillet cake that used the new invention of canned sliced pineapple for a pretty, easy pattern. I kind of associate it with the whole 1950s fascination with Hawaii (not that it is authentic Hawaiian anything, but then, 1950s cooking wasn't really about authenticity anyway. Picture women's home magazines, ward dinners, etc...) Mom used to cook it, and I'm pretty sure La Fawn and Helen did, too, so you can call it an old family recipe.
It's pretty easy to make. Get a glass or aluminum pan, and cover the bottom with a mixture of melted butter and brown sugar. Maybe half a cup? It should be about a quarter inch thick on the bottom of the pan. Lay canned pineapple slices in a symmetric arrangement over the brown sugar. If you have maraschino cherries you can put those in the middle of each ring.
Then make up a yellow cake mix from a box (the kind where you add eggs, oil, and water. Betty Crocker or something like that.) But instead of using water, use the liquid from the pineapple can. Pour the batter over the pineapples and sugar. Then bake it how it says on the cake box. I'm guessing 350 degrees for 25 minutes? I guess it depends whether you made a short fat cake or used the biggest glass pan you have and made it really flat.
It tastes best when you eat it hot, maybe with a little vanilla ice cream or a glass of milk.
The key to the flavor is that the brown sugar becomes caramel in the cooking process, and the flavors of the pineapple, sugar, and butter all kind of soak into the cake.
If you cut half of it off and put it inverted on the other half, you can have pineapple inside-out cake. But this is messy and is really done just so you can say that silly phrase.

Cajun rice and sausage

I made rice and sausage the other day with kielbasa instead of ground sausage. I chopped up a bell pepper with the celery. I added some thyme and cayenne pepper (maybe 1/4 tsp) and a bay leaf to make it more cajun-y. We liked it a lot.

summer tomato soup with shrimp, zucchini, and corn

I found this in a magazine last summer and I loved it. I've decided poblanos are my favorite pepper. They're not too hot, but because of them and the onions/garlic you only need to add salt and pepper for seasoning.

Here's a link to the original recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1. 2tablespoons olive oil
2. 2poblano peppers, seeded and chopped
3. 1large onion, chopped
4. 3cloves garlic, sliced
5. Kosher salt and black pepper
6. 2small zucchini, chopped
7. 128-ounce can diced tomatoes
8. 1pound raw medium peeled and deveined shrimp
9. 2cups fresh (from 4 ears) or frozen corn kernels, thawed

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
   Add the poblanos, onion, garlic, and ½ teaspoon each salt and black pepper.
   Cook, stirring, until softened, 10 to 12 minutes.
   Add the zucchini and tomatoes (and their juices).
   Cook, stirring, until the zucchini is crisp-tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
   Add the shrimp, corn, and 3 cups water. Bring to a simmer.
   Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are white throughout
   and the corn is tender, 5 to 6 minutes.
   Sprinkle with black pepper and serve.

Dill Mushroom Rice

I took all the about-to-go-bad ingredients from our fridge this week and put them in a pot with a few other ingredients. Lo and behold, it turned out tasting pretty great! (This is according to Rachel, not just me, so yes you can trust that assessment.)

Ingredients:

One bunch of fresh dill, chopped fine

One bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped rough
One medium brown onion, halved, then sliced the other direction to make a bunch of c-shaped onion pieces
6-8 oz of fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1 medium tomato, smashed
Two cups of white rice
1T butter
2 t vegetable oil
1 bouillon cube, vegetable or chicken (I actually used some leftover packets of flavoring from two kinds of ramen noodles, but I think the boullion cube would approximate it pretty well)
In a separate sauce pan, melt the tablespoon of butter on medium heat
Add the dill, cilantro, and bouillon, then sautee the onions and mushrooms for three minutes.
Add the cooked rice and vegetable oil, and mix well.

Directions:

-Cook the rice

-In a separate sauce pan, melt the tablespoon of butter on medium heat
-Add the dill, cilantro, tomato, and bouillon to the butter, then sautee the onions and mushrooms in it for three minutes.
-Add the cooked rice and vegetable oil to the sauce pan, and mix well.

Salmon and root Vegetables in Creme sauce

So sorry I didn't get a photo of this: it was delicious.

We have church from 2 to 5.  We usually get home about 6 or 6:30.  It is so nice to have dinner ready and hot.  But today's dinner was going to be salmon and I didn't want the fish overcooked.  

So, I cut up potatoes, peeled carrots and peeled sweet potatoes. I put them all in a bread pan and added 2 T olive oil, and some broth made with Knorr Delikatess Bruhe, a soup base made from all veggies and herbs.  I baked those covered with foil for one hour at 170 degrees C. 

Then I cut the salmon in half, laid it on the veggies, put some onion slices on top and replaced the foil.  This I put in the warm oven, but TURNED OFF THE HEAT.  And we went to church.
Upon arriving home, we found the salmon was perfectly cooked all the way through, not raw but flaky.  And really nice and moist.  I thickened the soup/sauce with  Saucenbinder (für Helle Saucen)  Gravy (for Light sauces), which is similar to cornstarch, but I don't think it is corn.  After it thickened, I removed it from the heat and stirred in 2 heaping T of Creme Fraiche.  Oh, my goodness. 

We are definitely having this again.