Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Spicy Black Beans and corn tortillas

















Last night we had spicy black beans with corn tortillas and refried beans. It was really filling and good! I got tired of looking at that Maseca in my refrigerator and not knowing what to do with it, so I improvised a tortilla recipe using my flatbread/tortilla recipe (left out the brown sugar, only used 1/4 C oil) and it turned out well! I found the spices from a post on vegweb but of course I couldn't find it again for the love of me!

1/2 C TVP (or you could use Boca or even tofu, frozen and crumbled)
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 T chili powder
1 t cumin
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t oregano
1 t salt
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T oil

Blend/food process together 1/2 of the can of tomatoes and 1/2 of the can of beans.
Saute onion and garlic, add spices and TVP and mix well.
Add to the onion and garlic the other half cans of beans and tomatoes and the blender ingredients.
Cover and bring to a boil, uncover and lower heat and simmer until thick.

Corn tortillas

1 1/2 C AP flour
1 1/2 C MaSeCa
1/4 C oil
1 t salt

Mix together, then slowly add water until it makes a ball; I used roughly 1 1/2 C water, your mileage may vary.
Make into a ball, flatten out a little and cut into eighths. Roll out thin and cook on a hot skillet until bubbling up and then flip and cook other side until brown spots appear.

Finished the exit wounds book- double meh. She ends the story with this wide open hanging open type of deal, you never find out what happens with the characters- lazy! No, I mean, it really bothers me. Maybe I'm supposed to all just 'decide on my own' what the rest of the story is, possibly she's trying to empower me or something, to free me from the restraints of the traditional reader/story constraint, but really? please. Lame.

Started Distraction by Bruce Sterling- it's ?I think? supposed to be sort of canonical sci fi, like really early good stuff and so far it's pretty good- different than recent sci fi, but that's to be expected. Mostly it's an exploration of what might happen in America if certain things (the internet, freedom of information) exploded. Pretty masculine. But I like it. I'm kind of waiting for a twist or I guess the climax of the story.

In knitting news, still cranking on the scarf, actually knitting it now instead of just trying to find a satisfactory way to knit it. Am afraid I will run out of yarn. Should have left provisional cast on on so that scarf can suddenly be a cowl.