Baskets of Bounty at Zero and Below

Grabbing my share at the Bountiful Baskets pick-up site this morning.

I have blogged quite frequently of my passion for farmer’s markets and fresh, local produce. During the summer before last, I was a shareholder in a CSA Farm (Community-Supported Agriculture, or sometimes Community-Shared Agriculture).

For those of you who don’t know how this works, a local organic farm decided to sell shares to the community.  At the beginning of the growing season (let’s say summer), you buy a share of the harvest.  “Buying in” is not only a payment of monies but an agreement to volunteer a few hours one Saturday during the harvest time to go work on the farm.  Then, throughout the harvest season you pick up your share every week.  In this share box is a sizeable surprise of fruits and vegetable hand-picked earlier that day or yesterday.

One of my first share pick-ups from my old CSA in the summer of 2010.

I loved the entire venture.  Not only did I get an amazingly large portion of the harvest every week, but I was able to go put my hands in the dirt.  Every week I would receive fresh peppers, tomatoes, and greens, but I would also receive something I’d never seen before – or something I’d never bothered to try.  I would have to look up these strange items and figure out ways to eat them.

But I live in the high desert, and in the snowy months there is not much in the way of local produce nearby.  So every fall, I slowly return to the grocery store to buy less exciting produce shipped in from destinations unknown.

A few months back, my friends Danielle and Justin had me over for dinner.  Over the course of the wonderful meal, they mentioned that all the vegetables had been received from an organization called Bountiful Baskets and was quite inexpensive.

Bountiful Baskets is “a grassroots, all volunteer, no contracts, no catch co-operative”.  I started contributing as a member the next week, and I was astonished by all I received for $15!  I received so much produce that I didn’t contribute again until two weeks later.  Nowadays, I contribute every two weeks, and there is more than enough fruits and vegetables to last me.

And we’ve made a community of it!  Danielle, Justin, and I woke up early this morning to drive out together to the pick-up spot.  I have other friends who are jumping on-board, and this is why:

Today’s conventional basket from BOUNTIFUL BASKETS included all this produce for $15.00!

Today’s “Conventional Basket” from Bountiful Baskets cost only $15.00 and included all this:  4 grapefruits, 5 bananas, 6 oranges, 6 apples, 1 lb. strawberries, 7 carrots (rainbowed!), 1 bunch of celery, 1 pint of grape tomatoes, 2 avocados, 2 lbs. of Brussels sprouts, and a 1/2 lb. baby peppers.

Now, I don’t remember the exact prices of these items at the grocery store, but here is what I do know (based on Grand Junction prices):  A pound of strawberries are $2.50-$3.00; a pint of grape tomatoes would cost me $3.00-$4.00; 2 avocados would cost me $3.00-$5.00; 6 oranges would cost around $3.00 – and that already has us at $15.00 if I had bought all of this at my neighborhood City Market.

Bountiful Baskets also offers regular and seasonal add-on packages.  These add-ons could be anything from 20 lbs. of apples to assorted nuts.  This week, I added on the “Lunch Box Pack” which the weekly e-mail said was “hoping for apples, citrus, pear, and asian pear”.  Here was the outcome:

The “Lunch Box Pack” for this week’s add-on only cost $10.50!

The “Lunch Box Pack” only cost $10.50 and included:  2 pomegranates, 4 red pears, 3 asian pears, 5 fuji apples, 2 granny smith apples, and 7 oranges!  Can you imagine this cost at the store?  2 pomegranates would cost you $5.00 on its own!

Bountiful Baskets regularly has add-ons for bread.  Occasionally they have sourdough and baguettes, but they always have their “Organic Original Sweet 9-Grain Bread”:

Bountiful Baskets original ORGANIC Sweet 9-Grain Bread comes in bundles of 5 loaves for $12.00!

I purchased a bundle of this amazing bread when I first started with Bountiful Baskets in early November.  I froze four of the loaves, and gradually finished them off this past week!  Can you imagine paying less than $2.50 for a loaf of Organic 9-Grain bread at Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage?

So I pass this information on to you.  Bountiful Baskets is a great way to cut out the middle man and pay less to fill your life with healthy and fresh foods.

Sounds like a great way to start 2013 to me.  Enjoy 🙂

Winter Break and Food

I love Winter Break; it is the second most wonderful thing about my job (the first being Summer Break).  Don’t get me wrong; there is plenty of work to do for a college professor at this time of year.  There are new courses to be prepped, scores to study, rehearsals to plan, and a whole new summer season to schedule; but there is something wonderful about being able to do all this work from the comfort of my own home.

I mentioned before that I recently moved into my dream apartment, a sweet studio with windows facing south onto Main Street.  South facing windows is such a necessity for me – I simply must have the sun, or I become completely crazy during the winter.  Fortunately, today I can sit in the window and enjoy the sun in full force and pretend that it isn’t 10-degrees on the other side of those panes.  Here’s my view this afternoon:

Winter is for regrouping for the next two months of classes, rehearsals, and cold; and regrouping means getting back into the habit of cooking.  Fortunately, I love cooking warm, wintery foods, so its a fairly easy habit to form.  This month’s Bon Appétit has an awesome section giving lessons on specific cooking basics; a section on braising included this recipe.  I realized I was only missing a few items from the recipe and decided to make it happen.

Every afternoon, I take a walk for tea or a chat with a friend.  I also take a jaunt down to the grocery three blocks away for fresh ingredients.  The recipe called for 6 whole chicken legs (drumsticks with legs), ginger root, cilantro, and spinach.

I’ve hit a tipping point with meat and intend to buy locally and organic as best I can during 2013 to foster the idea of local farmers raising meat untouched by hormones and keeping fossil fuel usage to a minimum.  Unfortunately, the only colorado chicken they had was in drumsticks and thighs separately.  But when I looked at the only whole chicken legs, they were as big as pigs legs and $3.97 for four – these must be beefed up on some chemicals, right?

I bought the smaller, Colorado-raised chicken (5 drumsticks and 4 thighs), and it worked beautifully and made all the difference.  This is a great dish – easy to construct and warm and spicy (more fragrant than hot) for the cold winter months.  I’m finishing off the leftovers again today for lunch.  I’ll make this recipe again; I hope you enjoy! 🙂

Indian-Spiced Chicken over Brown, Long-grain Rice

Indian-Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Spinach

This recipe is from Bon Appétit, January 2013, p.81.  It is basically appears as it did in the magazine, which was very clean from the beginning.  I made a few adjustments based on what I had on hand and keeping the dish non-dairy. Enjoy 🙂

1 Tbsp. safflower oil (I used safflower oil because I had it on hand; it called for vegetable oil)

5 chicken drumsticks and 4 chicken thighs, skin removed

Salt

1Tbsp. coconut butter spread (it originally called for unsalted butter)

2 large onions, thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp. grated peeled ginger

2 tsp. ground coriander

2 tsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. ground turmeric

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I used a bit more)

1 15-oz. can of chickpeas, rinced

2 cups (or more) low-sodium chicken broth

5-oz. baby spinach

1/4 cup soy yogurt (originally called for greek yogurt)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Browning the chicken

1. Place a rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 350.  Heat oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Season chicken with salt.  Working in batches, cook chicken until golden brown on all sides (careful of over-browning) – about 8-10 minutes per piece.  Transfer to a plate.

2. Add butter and onions to drippings in pot; season with salt.  Cook, stirring often, until golden and soft – 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic, ginger, and ground spices.  Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant – 1 minute.  Stir in chickpeas and broth; add chicken and any drippings.  Add more broth if necessary to cover chicken 3/4.

3. Bring to a simmer, cover pot, and place in stove for 45-55 minutes until chicken is fork-tender.

4. Transfer chicken to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm.  Place spinach to pot, cover, and remove from heat allowing to wilt – 5-7 minutes.  Stir in yogurt and season all with salt.  Warm up over low heat and add chicken back.  Serve over basmati rice (I used brown long-grain); top with cilantro.

Indian-Spiced Chicken and Rice

 

 

 

A Full Year in The Alchemist’s Kitchen! – Pear/Cranberry Tart

I started a year ago with an intention of writing every day about my cooking experiences.  The Alchemist’s Kitchen quickly grew to be a place where I discussed my life and creative experiences as well.

A year later, I am still proud of this site.  True, I started the year off much more strongly than I am ending it, but I am still committed to this endeavor – primarily because it keeps me sane!

This past year, I set out to make good, clean food and to share it with everyone – I hope that 2013 will be a time of new commitment for this endeavor!  Happy New Year everyone; and Happy Anniversary to my favorite kitchen! 🙂

Mom and I on the footbridge in Redstone, CO overlooking the Crystal Creek.

 

This past week, I was so lucky to have my mom here to celebrate the holidays.  We spent the days before Christmas in beautiful, snowy Redstone, CO at The Historic Redstone Inn.  It was a magnificent way to spend the holiday with sleigh rides and lots of game playing and great food!  We spent Christmas back in Grand Junction with my dear friends Beth and Kelly’s family for an amazing dinner.

Christmas Dinner with my friends Beth and Kelly’s family!

The next morning, I invited Beth and Kelly over for brunch and some game-playing with me and Mom.  As I started to prepare my Huevos Rancheros (consequently, the most visited recipe this year!), I noticed that some of the pears I had received in my Bountiful Baskets share this week were starting to turn.  I quickly did a search on my phone for gluten-free pear recipes and came across a Pear-Cranberry Tart recipe at this website.  I made a few adjustments to keep it gluten-free, and it was a great success.

Of course, I sat there discussing changes I would make the next time as we gobbled down the deliciously sweet and tart breakfast treat.  So last night, I finished off the rest of the pears and cranberries with my version of the recipe.  I hope you enjoy!

Playing NERTS and waiting for the Pear/Cranberry Tart to finish baking!

Pear/Cranberry Tart with Nut Crust

The version below is NOT gluten-free.  To make it gluten-free, simply substitute all spelt flour with a gluten-free flour mix like this one.

CRUST

1 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup spelt flour

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 tsp salt

FILLING

3-4 pears, cored and sliced

1/2-3/4 cup cranberries

2 Tbsp. sucanat (you could use brown sugar)

2 Tbsp. maple syrup

1 Tbsp. arrowroot powder

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. cinnamon

TOPPING

1 cup almond meal

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/3 cup sucanat (you could use brown sugar)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

5 Tbsp. coconut butter spread, melted (you could use butter or coconut oil as well)

Leftover pears and cranberries from my Bountiful Baskets share this week.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.  Mix crust ingredients in food processor until lightly chopped and mixed.  Press into bottom and sides of a tart pan (I used a spring-form pan the first time; you could also use a pie plate).  Place crust in freezer while you prepare filling and topping.

2. Lightly combine all ingredients for filling; I then separate the cranberries from the mix.  Combine topping ingredients until crumbly.

3. Place pears in crust and then place the cranberries on top of the pears for an even mix of tart and sweet.  Pour remaining liquid on top of the fruit.

Filling in tart crust waiting for the topping.

4. Place topping on fruit and bake for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool before serving.  Enjoy! 🙂

The finished product!

There’s Only Us; There’s Only This…

I’ve been away from the kitchen (both cyber and literal) for a month now working on a show.  I’m happy to say it was a great success; and that there will be a host of new posts from the “NEW” Alchemist’s Kitchen within the week.  In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in seeing what I’ve been working on.  Enjoy! 🙂

Our beautiful poster for RENT at Colorado Mesa University! Poster design by Laura Bradley. Pictured from left to right: Ben Carlson (Roger), Samantha Wittig (Mimi), Ethan Knowles (Mark), Lane Heinz (Angel), Tony Klava (Collins), Gabbie Cahill (Joann), and Shannon Foley (Maureen).

Bastille Day – Cherry Clafouti

David holding up the finished product – Cherry Clafouti on Bastille Day!

Last Saturday, David and I made a brunch to celebrate French Independence.  Okay, actually we just used Bastille Day as an excuse to make the most perfect of French recipes – a Cherry Clafouti.  One website listed the definition for clafouti as a rustic French baked dessert made by baking cherries in a custard-like batter similar to pancake batter.  Typically, the clafoutis is made from unpinned cherries which when cooked create a much more intense flavor, but this recipe calls for pitted cherries.  It is quite simply the easiest dessert to make on a whim because it takes very little prep time (everything goes in the blender) or cook time.

David pitting cherries with an opened paper clip.

Cherry Clafouti

From Clean Eating Magazine’s July 2011 issue.  I added the almonds on top, and I think they make the recipe perfect.  Enjoy! 🙂

The finished product puffed up right out of the oven – it will deflate!

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1/4 cup sucanat, divided

3/4 cup almond milk

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp salt

olive oil cooking spray

30 cherries, pitted

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Mix batter ingredients in blender, …

Preheat oven to 425.  Place eggs, egg whites, all but 1 Tbsp of sucanat, flour, milk, almond extract, and salt in blender and combine.  Heat cast iron skillet on medium high.  Spray skillet with cooking spray and throw in cherries and remaining Tbsp of sucanat; when sucanat begins to melt (45 seconds), pour batter over cherries.  Top with almonds and place skillet on middle rack in oven.  Bake for 20 minutes until center is set.  Serve warm.

…cook cherries until sucanat begins to melt,…

…pour the batter over the cherries and bake in oven…

The finished product – post deflation!

Overnight in Charlotte – Plum Crumble

Me as “Bustopher Jones” (the foodie cat) during dress rehearsal last week for CATS (pre-makeup).

It’s been a busy summer full of theatre.  First it was directing and music directing The Fantasticks for the Mesa Repertory Theatre; and most recently it has been music directing and performing in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats for Broadway at the Avalon.  As the summer break rushes to its all-too-soon ending marking the imminent return to school, I finally have some free time to do some much needed traveling.

So today, I hopped on a plane for a three-week trip to visit my dear friend Terril in Rome and Calcatta, Italy. I had hoped that I would wake up tomorrow morning having just landed in Rome and beginning my Italian adventure of food, friends, and great fun.  Instead, due to “an hour-long deluge” that caused my plane and many others to circle for nearly an hour before re-routing to Greenboro for a refuel, I am sitting in an EconoLodge in Charlotte waiting for another 24-hours of  travel beginning tomorrow morning at 9am.

As I was eating my dinner at the nearby Cracker Barrel (my selections were limited to either that or the Waffle House next door), I flashed back to last night.  After we successfully closed and struck the set for Cats, my friend Gene came over to hang out while I packed and to help me empty out the fridge.

Gene cutting up plums for this Crumble recipe.

We quickly set to work to making this beautiful, colorful, and tasty Plum Crumble.  I remember it fondly after my mostly brown and fried meal of chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, biscuits, and sweet tea.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Me mixing up Plum Crumble crust.

Plum Cobbler

This recipe is another wonderful recipe from Clean Eating Magazine.  I have made it a few times this summer and have frequently decided to use the juice of the whole lemon rather than the half that is called for in the recipe – this is a mistake making the dish entirely too tart.  Enjoy! 🙂

Fresh out of the oven!

4 large plums, pitted and sliced (I used 6 because I had 6 – there were 3 red and 3 white/yellow)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp raw honey

1/2 cup spelt flour, divided

1/2 cup oats

3 Tbsp sucanat

2 Tbsp coconut butter spread

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

 

Preheat oven to 375.  Place plums in an 8×8 baking dish and drizzle with lemon juice, vanilla, honey, and 1 Tbsp flour.  Toss to coat.  In a medium bowl, combine remaining flour, oats, sucanat, butter spread, and cinnamon.  Blend together with pastry blender until crumbly.  Spread mixture evenly over plums.  Bake on middle rack in oven until golden – 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly; I like to serve it topped with coconut milk ice cream.

Topped with a scoop of coconut milk ice cream!

Independent Day of Independence; or A Clean Eating 4th of July

Everyone has there own 4th of July traditions; so do I.  My tradition is to stay at home and exert my independence.  Some years this means that I take a hike; other years I walk over to campus to watch the city fireworks display.  Today, I just stayed home and cooked.

And what a wonderful feast it was!  I made a series of recipes from the July issue of Clean Eating Magazine.  First, I made Baked Corn Dogs – a cleaned up version of the traditional recipe with hand-rolled cornmeal batter and no deep-frier.  They were incredibly tasty (the recipe calls for a dash of cayenne pepper and a dose of onion powder) but were a bit involved, and in the end, I dried them out by over-cooking.  I don’t have an on-going craving for corn dogs, but every year or so, I would happily make this recipe.

Baked Corn Dogs
I cooked them a touch to long, and they ended up looking a bit “turd-ish” – but oh, so tasty! 🙂

Second, I made a Fresh Dill & Cucumber Salad.  This was a simple recipe – a couple of cucumbers tossed together with a 1/3 cup of roughly chopped dill fronds and a simple dressing (1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 1 tsp raw honey, 1 tsp safflower oil, 1 minced clove of garlic, and 1/4 tsp salt) and chilled for an hour.  Very fresh, very simple, very good – especially if you love fresh dill!

Fresh Dill & Cucumber Salad with Baked Corn Dogs
…again, not my best food photo for this blog; the corn dogs are a bit turdish, as is the odd squirt of mustard. My apologies; I know I’ll make up with the picture below! 😉

To top off the meal, I made this perfect Clean Eating dessert recipe – Peach Cobbler with Almond Biscuits!  It is every bit as good as my favorite sweet and sticky southern versions of the summer treat, but so much simpler and cleaner with far less butter and sugar.  This one is going to get made again, and again, and again this summer before peach season ends; I hope you enjoy! 🙂

Peach Cobbler with Almond Biscuits
Mine is actually a tad bit prettier than the picture in the magazine!

Peach Cobbler with Almond Biscuits

6 firm peaches (about 2 lb), peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges

5 Tbsp sucanat

2 tsp potato starch

1/4 tsp pure almond extract

3/4 cup white whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter (I used coconut butter), cold and cut in 1/4 inch cubes

1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp 2% milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

1/2 Tbsp sliced raw unsalted almonds

 

Preheat oven to 425.  Mix peaches, 3 Tbsp sucanat, potato starch, and almond extract in a large bowl.  Pour into 8-inch baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

Prepare biscuits by combining flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tbsp sucanat with a whisk.  Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mix is the consistency of sand.  Add 1/4 cup milk and stir just until moist and formed into a ball.  Knead dough on a lightly floured surface – don’t overwork it!  Divide into balls (the recipe said 6; I made 9) and flatten out into disks (2 to 2 1/2-inches diameter) and place on top of peaches.  Lightly brush 1 Tbsp milk onto top of biscuits and then divide almonds evenly onto the top of each biscuit.  Bake for 17 to 20 minutes and let cool for 10 minutes.

I served mine with vanilla-flavored coconut ice cream!  Enjoy! 🙂

Peach Cobbler with Almond Biscuits
…I had to take a bite out of the corner the second after it had cooled!

 

Creative in the Kitchen – A Cake for Ben

The Cast of Mesa Rep’s THE FANTASTICKS with Ben center holding the cake.

A few weeks back, while we were in the middle of rehearsals for Mesa Repertory Theatre’s The Fantasticks, my friend, student, and cast member Ben Carlson celebrated his 21st birthday.  Rather than buy him a shot, I decided to make a clean cake to celebrate with the cast after rehearsal.

I decided to make a yellow cake from scratch and to top it with a simple strawberry topping of strawberries, lemon juice, and sucanat.

Prepared the yellow cake…

Truly inventing the recipe as I went, I decided the strawberry topping was not exciting enough.  I found a jar of the Strawberry Jam recipe I discussed in yesterday’s blog and decided to use the jam as a filling between the two layers.

…then topped the first layer with strawberry jam…

…then put the second layer on top…

Deciding that this was still not interesting enough, I whipped up a vegan buttercream frosting.

…then topped it with a vegan buttercream frosting (see it melted a bit!) and a fresh strawberry topping!

Ridiculously good!  There was not a crumb left, which is good because I most definitely would have finished off any leftovers before I had even made it back to my apartment!

“You will learn to enjoy the process of being a creative channel and to surrender your need to control the result.  You will discover the joy of practicing your creativity.  The process, not the product, will become your focus.” – The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

Here’s to being adventurously creative in the kitchen!

Simple Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Jam and Wheat Biscuits

The longer I live, the more I find little agreements I have made with myself that I didn’t even realize existed.  For example, I spent all of my life having made the agreement that “Making jam is a very difficult and nearly impossible feat to accomplish.  And canning?  Well, just forget about it…nearly impossible.”  I don’t know where I picked up these ideas along the way – little snippets of parts of conversations between women in my life, maybe?

I had started rewriting this agreement with myself this past Holiday when Bon Appetit Magazine gave a simple recipe for Cranberry/Pepper Jelly.  I made it; it was incredibly simple to make and was so tasty that I made another batch a few weeks later.  This past March or April, I noticed another remarkably simple and clean recipe for Strawberry Jam.  I made it a few times using up the pounds of strawberries I froze last summer.  The recipe was so easy and a smash hit amongst the brunch crowd.  I even tried it with the blueberries I had frozen – took them longer to cook down, but very tasty.

Despite the fact that I had made several batches of jellies and jams over the last six months, I had yet to actually can a batch for preservation…until yesterday.  I had spent several weeks reading up on canning techniques in The Joy of Cooking and had purchased everything necessary for the process – pressure-cooker, jars, lids, and accessories.  And in about two hours, I had sealed cans of red beauty!  I love strawberries; and these jars will go a long way to carrying this beautiful summer and its bounty into the coming dark winter months.

My recipe journal entry for Strawberry Jam.

This is a recipe from either the March or April 2012 edition of Bon Appetit Magazine; they explained that the sour granny smith is so high in pectin that it naturally jells the jam.  Consequently, I used a honeycrisp apple once, and it did not set nearly as well.  I changed this recipe to use sucanat (evaporated cane juice) instead of refined white sugar.  For canning, I used half sucanat and have pure cane sugar.  For canning, I also used bottled lemon juice rather than fresh.  I doubled the recipe today and canned about 32 ounces, so this recipe as written should yield around 16 ounces.  My best calculations leave a serving of this jam at 1.5 Tbsp for 1 Weight Watchers point.  This is one healthy, clean, and simple recipe; Enjoy! 🙂

1 lb. fresh strawberries (you can also used frozen, thawed) hulled, quartered

2/3 cup sugar (see note above about substitutions)

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, and coarsely grated

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Combine strawberries and sugar in a large heavy skillet.  Stir in apples and cook on medium-high, stirring to help sugar dissolve and strawberries to break down.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes until jam thickens.  Stir in lemon juice and transfer to jars.  Allow to cool, then cover and chill until set (about 2 hours).  Keep chilled; serve within 2 weeks.

If you decide to can this jam, please refer to canning guides for safety and use substitutions mentioned above.

All the ingredients coming to a simmer…

…and getting ready to go in the jar!

Black Bean Salad

For Memorial Day today, I had The Best Clean Burger with Non-Dairy Ranch Sauce, Quinoa ad Vegetable Salad with Tahini Dressing, and Black Bean Salad. I tried out a few recipes today – I’ll be sharing them with you later this week.

So, here’s the first part of the recipe breakdown from Monday’s Memorial Day Feast:

A little over a week ago, I went to have dinner at my friends Melonie and Steve’s house.  We had such a great time sitting on their lovely refinished patio sipping homemade mojitos (yum!) and munching on this Black Bean Salad (“Why are there no pictures?” you may ask.  Unfortunately, the answer is, “My camera is missing.”:( )

Before I left, I asked Melonie for the recipe for the black bean salad.  She walked me through her process, but was quick to explain that it is different every time depending on what is in the fridge.  I didn’t hesitate in trying it out on Monday.  Although there are a few slight differences, I think this is pretty close to Mel’s version.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mel!  I hope Texas isn’t too humid. 🙂

I threw all the ingredients in, put the lid on, and shook it up. Or I guess you could just stir it.

My friend Mel served this as a dip with tortilla chips, and I prefer it that way.  However, this is such a fresh and tasty summer dish that you could easily use it as a side dish if you like.  Although there are a few slight differences, I think this is pretty close to Mel’s version.  Feel free to experiment, though – I certainly did! Enjoy! 🙂

1 15oz. can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 15oz. can of whole kernel corn (drained)

1 avocado (peeled, pitted, and cubed)

1 cup of pico de gallo

1 jalapeno pepper (seeded and diced small)

1 onion (I used a half of a leftover red onion and a green onion – chopped)

1 handful of cilantro (chopped)

Combine. Serve. Enjoy. 🙂