the color of storms, shadows, and rain

I got what in some circles might be called a wild hair and besides assisting my mom in making the corn pudding recipe she is bringing to her office Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow (we shall see how that is, since a post-mixing consultation of reviews reveals that some people regard that recipe as overly sweet), I also decided to try the recipe for smittenkitchen's Unstuffed Mushroom Casserole (although I am waiting to bake it until tomorrow so it isn't reheated.)

This despite the fact that I am... mushroom reluctant, particularly with ordinary Agaricus bisporus (the white, cremini and portobello mushroom).

I have found a few recipes that I more or less enjoy eating mushrooms in, and I do enjoy mushroom rice and some mushroom (possibly mushroom and potato?) pierogi from the Grandma's Foods brands. But there's no guarantee I shall enjoy 1.5 lb of mushrooms chopped up and combined with cheese... I have only successfully eaten a stuffed mushroom once.

(however, I tried a bite of the unbaked mixture and found it intriguing. so we shall see...)

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Aside: while sorting out which brand of pierogi it was I meant, I found out that mushroom ~pierogi (that brand calls them tortellini) for borsch are a recipe that exists, and is apparently served at Christmas Eve in Poland, and now I want to try it.

(at one point Deb Perelman (i.e. the blogger behind smittenkitchen) wrote, approximately, "I suspect that the liking for these flavors originates within my Eastern European ancestry" and like... so far as I know my ancestors didn't come from any further east than maybe a few from what would eventually be East Germany for a while, but I do tend to like Eastern European cooking...)

today I happened to look at the chili bean selection at the supermarket, perhaps drawn to the newer packaging of chili magic, even though I've probably never bought it.

for some reason, I was bizarrely surprised to learn that all varieties of chili magic and iirc at least two other brands of chili beans (plus they're in Bush's mixed chili beans otherwise) use pinto beans.

I'm not sure this should have been surprising—it's not that I dislike pintos (in fact they are my fast casual burrito bean of choice in recent years), but the prototypical chili bean in my mind is either small red or kidney beans, though there are also specific black bean and white bean chilis, and for some reason pink beans also feel Extremely Acceptable for chili.

(it's even very true that I've made midwestern-ish (via Mollie Katzen, transplant from New York to California) lentil chili and enjoyed it, although it's again not the prototypical chili in my head)

I suppose this is probably also why this one Jamie Oliver chili recipe felt Wrong— chickpeas are not archetypal chili material.

...it's not impossible that some manufacturers may have switched to pinto beans—Camillia brand claims they are extremely popular, and my nonrepresentative experience suggests that small red beans otoh are not in fact terrifically popular. there could even be crop availability issues.

but growing up they were among the select few varieties of beans I would even eat: baked beans (mostly either from Bush's or my mom's family), chili beans, and kidney beans, so I didn't expect to be so unfamiliar with the product.

(PS: it's also my personal view that small red beans are The Proper bean for Cincinnati 4/5-ways (and, while I have vastly less room to speak on the topic, red beans and rice), even though I see kidney beans recommended for both these applications.)

What bean(s) do you like in chili? Do you have any Bean Opinions?

requested by flowersforgraves, belated and mostly written a few days ago but not finished then.

I don't have an answer to this question, really XD

In the sense that I have looked at what must be several thousand recipes through 100+ cookbooks, and there are many many more out there, and I can't decide.

(I have not, by the way, cooked that many; a member of my household (i.e. my dad) mostly objected to me cooking into my teens and then often to eating my perfectly acceptable* cooking after he allowed it, and I'd estimate the number of different recipes I've made is in the low hundreds.)

( Read more... )

*I have made my share of mistakes in the kitchen but these did not correlate to his objections. The most memorable of which, if long after that period and not recipe-affecting, might be the time I was baking potatoes for a potluck, accidentally touched my potholder to the oven element, and caught it on fire. Thankfully I was able to quickly smother it against the oven door.

It was "oh. I should use up these vegetables" time, so four dishes plus patties made of leftover from-a-mix porcini risotto (the mix was from Lundberg, and the risotto had originally accompanied a redux of the harvest roast chicken(!) and "haters" salad*, plus leftover baked beans in the tomato-y style of my mother's family)

( vegetables! )

( other recipes in the interim )

*I'd recommend either a mushroom rice or a long grain and wild to accompany these two dishes, as a meal. (By the way: the salad improves either after a marination period in the dressing, or with riper pears.) Whereas today's was...not super well designed as a meal

I'm sorry, I don't have pictures.

Crafty Stuff: The Sierpinski Carpet in filet triple (2/box) crochet is finished,( Read more... )

Cooking: ( re: Still Life With... menus )

I'll try to back-post about the ones I already made, but here's today's:

( Indian Summer Casserole menu )

( other recent recipes )