clueless cooking, easy spanish rice

I made rice and bean burritos and green beans the other night, with Spanish rice. To make the Spanish rice, I just cooked the rice in the ricecooker, and then added 1 cup of salsa and about a tsp of cumin. Just enough spicy to make it interesting.

Tonight we had Tilapia fillets (cooked in butter with seasoned salt on them) and Spud said, "Mom, your fish is as good as dad's!" And Noodle said that the "skin" was the perfect amount of crispiness. So, hooray! We had leftover Spanish rice and cucumber salad. I can't remember if I gave the recipe for the cucumber salad before, but you just peel a cucumber (or two or three), slice it up, make a dressing of equal parts vinegar (red wine or white), water & sugar, mix it up, and put the cucumbers in. Adjust sourness to taste. Noodle LOOOOVES this salad. She is a sour fiend.

Another recent meal is what the kids named "krabby patties" from SpongeBob. I make whole wheat rolls with the help of my breadmaker, and we put tunafish and cheese on them. They make very cute little sandwiches that the kids love to eat.

clueless cooking, continued

There is no way I'm going to be able to come up consistently with alliterative post titles, so I guess I'll have to go with something boringly sequential. Any ideas?

So, we had a whole bunch of green beans and bell peppers. The bell peppers were left over from my sister-in-law Jenn's farewell party last week and were supposed to be grilled by Kent, but her forgot. It's a six pack of red, yellow and orange, so I knew I had to think of a way to use them. I ended up sauteeing them in olive oil and we had them on our burritos, so they were a little fajita-ized. REALLY good. Noodle even ate her whole burrito, and she doesn't care much for beans. I think the peppers took away some of the beaniness for her. I also cooked the green beans: pour olive oil into the pan (I used our large cast iron griddle) and add green beans, turn heat up to 5.5. Add onions and garlic if desired. Cook for 5-6 minutes, then add 1/2 cup of water, cover, and cook for 5-8 more minutes. The lid I thought would cover the pan didn't, so I had to use a large plate instead. Salt & pepper to taste. This is a great way to prepare fresh green beans--they don't get soggy or mushy like they would if you just steamed them.

confessions of a clueless cook

So, those of you who don't know me well (or in person) might not know my terrible little secret: I can't cook. Maybe it's because I was the youngest child of a working mom, maybe it's because I was quite happy living on baked potatoes, spaghetti, salad, and the occasional dish I'd make from a cookbook, but I never got the knack of looking in the fridge, seeing what was available and figuring out how to make A Food out of that. I don't suppose I'm all that different in that way from a lot of girls of my generation. Then we get married, and it's like, "Aw crap. Now we're supposed to eat food that is actually in meal form." And generally, the wife (still) does most of the cooking. But I got lucky. I married an Oldest who actually LIKES to cook and, more importantly, is really good at it. So, I kind of forgot some of the skills I used to have as I let him do 99.99% of the dinner prep over the past 9 years.

Due to his new working situation/schedule, it's become obvious to me that the kids and I can't eat my "quick meals" all the time. So, I need to learn to cook. A couple weeks ago, I made my first ever stir fry! It was really yummy. Last night and tonight again, I made what we call "Cucumber Salad," which is super easy. Peel a cucumber (or more, depending on how many people you have), mix about equal parts vinegar (white or red wine), water, and sugar (maybe a smidge less sugar) and add some salt. Mix with cucumbers. Eat. Noodle ABSOLUTELY loves this salad, and will eat bowlsful if given the chance. Spud told me at dinner tonight that he hates this salad, but after taking a bite of the one cucumber slice I forced on him, he said, "Mmmmm...can I have one more?"

I also did a rice stir fry and cooked FISH (my first time doing that, too). It was easier than I expected. Melt butter in the frying pan at 4.5 on the burner. Add fish and up the temp to 5.5. Wait and watch. The fish was really thick, so it took about 10-12 minutes total to cook, I think. I flipped it after about 6 minutes. Salt & pepper to taste. It was yummy. I think the fish was salmon, but it wasn't labeled and it wasn't pink. Is there non-pink salmon?

I'm writing these things more for me than for you, as I'm guessing most of you know how to cook this stuff. I need to be able to find my "notes" again for future reference (my culinary memory stinks), so I figure blogging about it will be motivation to actually sit down and type it up. Maybe I'll even try and plate the food nicely and practice my food photography. ;o)