This weeks meals were a bit odd, pieced together from random bouts of inspiration, with nothing tying them together other than their going into my mouth, and me enjoying them.

My ‘weekend in the kitchen’ was pushed back a few days to mid-week, as I was eagerly looking forward to spending time with some very good friends of mine who were in town visiting. While I would have loved to cook for them, schedules didn’t allow it, so I planned to hit the kitchen early. Their departure on Sunday left me some time to recuperate from too many (not enough?) late nights out in a row, and to kick back with a painting project (you’ll see! I’m so excited to show you!), some good tunes, a Netflix DVD, my laptop, and of course, messing up my kitchen.

As I posted earlier, I’m all about savory for breakfast. This week was no exception, and I find myself getting more wacky with my choices each week. It’s been months since I’ve had anything remotely sweet in the morning, and I wake up craving not fruit or oatmeal, but stir frys, hearty soups, and stews. Who knew?!

I’m a huge fan of cooking my own dried beans instead of using canned, but sometimes I just don’t feel like it, dammit. I want my beans now! Thankfully, I usually keep some cans on standby, which made throwing together my little black bean salad a 5-7 minute thang. This is such a fast and loose recipe, that I’m not going to even list amounts for anything. Don’t be afraid… wing it! This black bean salad WAS a little weird so early in the AM, so I did pair it with something more familiar… hearty toast! (from the bread I made last week)

Black Bean Salad

black beans, cooked or canned
corn (fresh or if frozen, defrosted)
cherry tomatoes, quartered
avocado, diced
cilantro, chopped
olive oil
lime juice
cumin
salt

Like I said, this was a little weird for breakfast, but I think that was mostly because it was cold. Had this been warmed and folded inside a tortilla with a little rice, it would have been perfect. Next time.

Having defrosted some homemade seitan early in the week, as well as some homemade chunky tomato sauce, I was wondering what would be next on the breakfast menu. This dish could have been executed far better, but I was so damn hungry, that I skimped on any sort of marinade or flavoring for the seitan. (Seitan if you don’t know, is a meat substitute, often called “wheat meat”, made from white and whole wheat flours. Although it’s texture is more “meaty” than tofu, it’s similar in that it soaks up the flavors of what it’s cooked with.) I cooked some super delicious quinoa, sauteed some garlic and threw my seitan in the pan to brown (again, I got impatient and didn’t even let it brown. SO HUNGRY.) Once the smells were becoming too much for my empty tummy to bear, I tossed a big heap of my chunky tomato sauce in the pan, covered her up to heat through and piled the whole thing atop my nicely salted quinoa. For an improptu meal, with little to no planning, and far less attention than it deserved, it was damn tasty!

And lastly, but most certainly not least… RHUBARB CRISP! While to sweet for breakfast, it’s perfect for, uh, just about any other time during the day. I could not pass up the gorgeous looking rhubarb stalks at the market previously in the week. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with it, and was flip flopping between a rhubarb cake, a pie, or a crisp. I also debated if the rhubarb should go solo, or paired with best friend strawberry. Cost was my deciding factor… the rhubarb was $5, and strawberries would have doubled the cost of my dessert, making it sinful, but in a whole other way!

My brother hooked me up with this foodie website called TasteSpotting, which is basically a food porn site. Page after page of the most yummy food pictures, which link to recipes, is a great way to get your stomach rumbling. Word of caution… don’t paruse this website late at night… you may find yourself REALLY HUNGRY and raiding the fridge! You can even search… which I did… for Rhubarb. And after checking out the goods I settled on a crisp. Way less work that a pie, and more intense than a cake, I could not go wrong.

This take mere minutes to throw together, and is so unbelievably delicious..sweet, tart, soft, crunchy… pure heaven. You could totally throw some strawberries in here if you want to jazz it up even more, but it doesn’t need it.

This is certainly not for those with sugar sensitivities (ha! that’s me!), or diabetics, as it’s loaded with sugar. Rhubarb is very very tart, and needs all that sugar to mellow out. yum!

Rhubarb Crisp

4 cups chopped rhubarb
3 tablespoons orange juice mixed with 1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoons cold butter, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
dash salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup quick cooking rolled oats

1. Heat oven to 375°. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish, or 9 inch pie pan. Arrange diced rhubarb in the prepared baking dish. Toss rhubarb with the orange juice and cornstarch mixture, then sprinkle with the 1 cup sugar and the cinnamon; dot with the 1 tablespoon of cut up butter.

2. Combine melted butter with brown sugar. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda; mix with oats. Combine the flour oat mixture with the brown sugar and melted butter mixture until well blended. With hands, spread the crumb mixture over rhubarb. Bake for 40 minutes.

Serve warm, with ice cream.

All in all a random assortment of food, but still delicious, and that’s what matters. This coming weekend will be a good cooking weekend…I can feel it in me bones! Stay tuned