The Recipe

I mentioned in my earlier entry today (with a link to my fourth photowalk, if you're interested), that I was going to post a recipe for a new mexican casserole I made. Here it is.



Black Bean Chilaquile

1 cup chopped onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 cups fres or frozen corn kernels
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (15-ounce can, drained)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I didn't use fresh)
1 teaspoon salt)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups rinsed, stemmed and chopped Swish chard or spinach
2 cups crushed baked tortilla chips
8 ounces grated fat-free sharp Cheddar cheese
2 cups prepared Mexican-style red salsa

Preheat the oven to 350. Saute the onions in the oil for about 8 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the tomatoes, corn, black beans, lime juice, salt and pepper and continue to saute for another 5 to 10 minutes, until just heated through.

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, blanch the greens in boiling water to cover for 1 to 3 minutes, until just wilted but still bright green. Drain immediately and set aside.

Prepare an 8 x 8 inch casserole dish or baking pan with a very light coating of oil or cooking spray. Spread half of the crushed tortilla chips on the bottom. Spoon the sauteed vegetables over the tortilla chips and sprinkle on about two-thirds of the grated Cheddar. Arrange the greens evenly over the cheese and spoon on half of the salsa. Finish with the rest of the tortilla chips and top with the remaining salsa and Cheddar. Bake for about 35 for 40 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown.

Fourth Photowalk

This week's photowalk happened at another Metro Park. This time it was the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm (that name should sound familiar to mom & dad - that's the Stan Hywet guy). What I didn't know is that this is apparently a very popular bird watching site, so I had to answer "Oh, I'm not here for the birds" a number of times to other people. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, as if there was no point in taking pictures if they weren't of birds. Anyway, the slide show is here. I took a number of pictures this time that I didn't like at all, and even these few that I posted I'm kinda "meh" about. I'm hoping I'll be happier with my pictures once all this darn snow is gone and things start to turn green again!

Here's something else to look forward to: I made another new recipe last night and I'm drooling just thinking about it. I'll post the recipe as soon as I get around to uploading the pictures, because I recipe just isn't a recipe without a picture to go with it.

Third Photowalk.

My third of my 52 photowalks this year was at work. You might think this is cheating, but my only rules of this was that I bring the camera somewhere outside of my house and take a series of pictures. And so I thought bringing my camera to work fit. I didn't get as many pictures that I wanted, or even some of the ones I had in mind to take when I brought the camera in, but I was trying to be a bit covert as I wasn't sure if people would frown upon me taking pictures.

So... enjoy! (Oh, btw, those last two pictures are pages from my moleskine that I happened to have at work, so they got lumped in with the other pictures, though they're not really "photowalk" pictures)

Recipe

E complained recently that I didn't post enough recipes anymore. Not sure how interested you guys are in the vegetarian recipes, but I bet you could replace the Chick Peas in this with shredded chicken (and/or use chicken broth instead of veggie broth) and it'd be really good.

 

Chick Pea and Artichoke Heart Stew

4 cups water of vegetable stock (I bought a can of veggie broth, which is bit less than 2 cups and added enough water to make 4 cups total)
2 medium onions, chopped (about 1.5 cups)
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sweet paprika (don't know/couldn't find sweet paprika, so I left this out)
4 medium red or white potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 4 cups)
1 sprig rosemary (1 teaspoon dried)
5 leaves fresh sage, minced (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 cup pureed winter squash or sweet potatoes*
3 cups drained cooked chick peas (two 15-ounce cans)
1.5 cups drained quartered artichoke hearts (14-ounce can)
salt and ground black pepper to taste

lemon wedges (optional)
grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese (optional)

*We have found that a 4.5-ounce jar of pureed squash baby food works very well in this recipe and is just the right size.

In a saucepan, bring the water or vegetable stock to a simmer. Whle the water heats, saute the onions and garlic in the oil for about 8 minutes, until soft. Stir the turmeric and paprika into the onions and saute for a minute. Add the potatoes, rosemary, sage, and the simmering water or stock. Cook for about 12 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the pureed squash or sweet potatoes, and add the drained chick peas and artichoke hearts. Remove the rosemary sprig (Note from me: remove the sprig before adding the chick peas nad artichoke hearts, because once they're in there it takes a LONG TIME to find the sprig), add salt and pepper to taste, return to a simmer.
Serve with lemon wedges and top with grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese, if you wish.

FYI - this recipe is from the Moosewood Restaurant cooks at Home cookbook.

A few more with the new lens...

I went on another of my 52 photowalks today. I went to a part of Sand Run Metro Parks that I haven't been to before (I'll eventually make it to some other locations, but Sand Run is so close, which is a benefit when it's not-so-nice out. I'll save the parks farther away for when it's nice out and I'll want to spend more time out, make the drive worth it, ya know?). What I didn't know was that I picked the part of the park that has the huge sledding hill! It was very loud with lots of screaming kids, but I bet you can't tell that from the pictures :) Like what you see? here's a slideshow of all 10 pictures I deemed worthy of an upload :)

 

 

 

For those into the technical side of things (so... Randy and possibly E), This was the first time I shot in RAW. I actually shot in RAW + jpg and then downloaded a plug-in for GIMP that allowed me to open and manipulation the RAW files. My first impression: a lot of power. You can really tell a difference with the RAW files and there's so much more you can do with them to correct them without damaging the image quality (specifically I found adjusting the exposure and white balance the most useful). This is both an upside and a downside. Only ONE of my photos did I actually do the editing of the RAW file with, because it took SO LONG for me try and get everything to look good, and even then I wasn't sure if it was PERFECT. I didn't wantto invest all my time into ALL my photos like that, so I just opened up the jpgs and did quick fixes for the rest. But I still have all the files so I could always go back and play around with them if I want. The files are HUGE (between 10-20 MB as compared to the 3-6MB of the jpgs), so I won't do this all the time, though I do think I'll shoot in RAW + jpg for the rest of my photowalks, and any other time I think I'll want to have good, high quality images (like when shooting your kids. Shooting PHOTOS, that is.)

Oh, also: a nice surprise to see that Picasa can recognize the RAW files, too. Doesn't offer the same manipulation that the plug-in did (I used UFRAW, btw), but I was at least able to browse through the files to easily see the difference between the raw & jpgs. It's ... a lot.

Just a little snow

Got a little snow here in Akron today. Not much, but I went outside to get some pics of it anyway.

 

 

 

Sand Run

Mom asked if I'd gotten a chance to use the new lens some more. I sure have! I thought you might enjoy some of these pics from a park near my house: