Roast Salmon with Green Beans and Black Bean Cakes

The unanaimous decision on these was: Good but not great, but they could be great.

They need cilantro in the cake, and a little more heat. I used the bell/jalapeno combo rather than the poblano because there weren't any when I went grocery shopping and I didn't want to make a special trip. Maybe next time I will...

I was a little unsure about what creamy beans look like, but other than that this recipe is not super difficult but it is time consuming. Make sure you start these EARLY. Chris and I ended up giving up on night one and saving the pureed beans for the next day.

The only tricky thing about these is actually cooking them. If you've ever made fried mashed potato pancakes you know how tricky it is. It requires a lot of patience, needless to say Chris got a little frustrated. :p Make sure when you're cooking these you cook them on true medium and ROTATE them before you flip them to ensure they are cooked evenly. The only thing that holds this guys together is the crust that forms from frying so unless you want just a gooshy mess, take your time, rotate, flip, rotate and then finish them in the oven.

What I am really excited about for this recipe is making Huevos Rancheros without a tortilla. I think some eggs, shrimp cheese and salmon would be FANTASTIC on these with or without heat. If you try it let me know how it goes, I might do it this weekend. If you have any questions about roasting salmon or cooking green beans leave a comment.

Bottom line: 3.7 Stars with Potential for a solid 4.5

Mama's Chili

I don't like chili. Unless it comes on a hot dog or french fries I'm generally not interested. That being said, of all the chili I have tasted, I still think my Mom's is best. I know that most children think their Mom's cooking is the best, however, when you have a chef with 30 years of experience as your Mother, you are probably right.

When I made this Chris was a little dubious. Cocoa powder? There's a lot of water... etc. If you aren't familiar with cocoa in chili, you should try it. It brings all the flavors out, adds an earthy sweetness that when it's mixed with the beans and the meat make it hum.

I had a mix of beans so you'll get some mixed directions. Making it with dry beans is BY FAR the cheaper way, so as long as you have the time to devote do it. We have a bajillion cans of kidney beans so I added 3 of them to the dry beans I had soaked. It was yummy. You can make it spicier if you want. To my mind it's always better to make it milder, since spice tends to grow the longer it sits, and you can always add more.

This is a pretty sizeable batch of Chili. Chris and I filled up 4 yogurt containers which we froze, and still had enough for two lunches each and a little to have with dinner.

Beef, Black Bean and Corn Nacho Dip with Sour Cream and Guacamole

We had this for dinner last night, it's pretty good. Would be great to take to a party, since it is tasty and your chips stay nice and crisp. We didn't have chili powder, so we used some cayenne, we also subbed canned corn for the frozen corn. We also added a little cumin, which I think was a good addition. If you're into heat definitely add some jalapeno!

Update: we made this for our Harry Potter Movie Marathon and we did it in the slow cooker and it was fabulous. Sautee the onion and brown the meat first then just dump it and everything else into the crockpot and leave it on low for 3-4 hours. We poured it into a baking dish, covered it with cheese, sour cream and home made Guacamole.

Bottom Line: 4 Stars

Cod with Mango Salsa and Black Bean & Corn Tortilla Cakes

I love fish with fruit salsa. When I was little I didn't like mangos, I think they just got lumped in with Papaya as some disgusting tropical fruit. I still think papaya is gross and smells like vomit and butt, however I have very seriously changed my mind about mangoes. 

I thought the mango salsa could have been more mango-y, maybe next time I'll chop it a little finer so that it distributes more evenly. In addition I added 1 tbs of minced jalapeno to the salsa. My biggest issue was that I really wanted a firmer fish, like halibut rather than cod, but cod is so much cheaper it was hard to justify to myself, or Chris, spending 4x as much money on the Halibut. Swordfish or Mahi Mahi would make this dish AMAZING.

The corn cakes were awesome, and really easy to make. I shortened them down to 2 layers (3 tortillas) rather than 3 layers because that seemed ridiculous given the height of the things as it was, and I also didn't have quite enough tortillas to make it that way. There was a TON of cheese in these, so if you are dieting I would suggest cutting the amount of cheese down to 1 cup of each, it would probably still be plenty.This would be an awesome meal to cook for a gluten free family member or friend!

UPDATE: I made this with prawns and thought it was better than cod, but I still think a good firm fish would be preferable.

Bottom Line: 4.6 Stars (I'll probably up it to a 5 when I figure out the right fish!)

Prawns w/ Avocado and Blood Orange Salsa

Ooooh man. This was GOOD. Like top 5 home-cooked meals ever good. I think all the stuff I made would be great made into tacos with a little rice added. That being said it was really good just on it's own. I've had blood oranges before, but these were so sweet and so tangy they practically sizzled on your tongue! The salsa was such a nice counterpoint to the buttery-ness of the prawns.

I served it with black beans, which don't look so pretty in the pictures, but really they aren't the focus anyway! I really need to learn something to do to doctor canned black beans besides simply warming them up. I like them better than most other beans, but they are still sort of ho-hum unless you take the time to really make them from scratch.

I added about half a cup of cilantro to the mix, and I think it was a good thing I did. Who ever heard of fresh salsa without cilantro. That's just crazy talk. In the future I will also add a little cumin and maybe a touch or oregano. Also, my blood oranges were teeny-weeny so I used four of them. Chris thinks that they need to be chopped rather than segmented so their distribution is more even throughout the salsa. I sort of liked pairing a wedge with each prawn, but I see his point. I'll try it next time and update. I'll also add photos to this post and the previous one this weekend.