Beans, beans, the musical fruit...

This time of year, I always get on a cooking kick. It goes with the whole healthier eating thing, I guess. And lately, for me, I've realized it's just another form of creativity. Over the past few years, I've stocked my kitchen with handy appliances, wonderful pots, and wicked knives. And my Microsoft One Note is full of recipes culled from the web. There are lots of good blogs out there. Maybe later I'll write a blog about all the gadgets that have made cooking soooo much easier and more fun and maybe one featuring some of my favorite culinary web sites.

So New Year's Day, we did our traditional sauerkraut & kielbasi. I, of course, eat only the kraut & smashed 'taters. That was followed the next day by Hoppin' John . I figure we have all our "prosperity" bases covered for 2012. I did forget to burn my bayberry candle on New Year's Eve. But I did burn one on Christmas Eve, so we should be good to go.

Yesterday I made Korma. I was introduced to this by my lovely neice Nicole who writes the blog Killer Blog From Outer Space. I've played around with it several times, so this recipe cited here is just sort of a guideline. Like Nicole, I used coconut milk and the creaminess is unbelievable. No beans in this one, but lots of brown rice...so the effect's the same. I'm not much of a fan of most brown rice, but this was really good. It's called Texmati. It's an American grown (Texas, to be exact) long grained brown basmati. It takes about 30-45 minutes to make, but it is well worth the wait.

Tonight is was Rachel Ray's Veg-Head Chili from her Veggie Meals book. Now, Rachel's a little too "cute" for me (I would rather hear Lucas scratch the black board than hear her talk about "makin' sammies"). But this is a really good Chili. And there's enough left over for Frito Pie for lunch tomorrow.

So I've been very satisfied with my efforts thus far, and Gary cleans his plate (sometimes twice), so that's always a good sign. Now tomorrow is his turn. Then I want to try Vegetable Pad Thai. I went crazy at Whole Foods and bought all these sauces & spices for stir fry and such. Actually, I had delusions of making lettuce wraps! So anyway, I have the ingredients for the sauce, so it won't be that much of an investment.

So...what have you made good lately?