Frijoles Negros

This recipe for black beans is another from Atlanta Cooknotes, an old Junior League book. My husband, who already has the body of a Greek god, has been wanting to gain muscle (and prior to marrying me existed on cereal, pop tarts, and peanut butter with occasional bacon and eggs, so nutrition might actually have an influence now), so I Googled, as a refresher, good food to eat for that. I sadly have never been in a position of “wanting to gain weight” so it’s not like we can both suck down whey protein at every meal and chase it with three hard boiled eggs (also, ew. Also, actually a bad idea). Rice and beans it is! Alongside some (small) fish tacos. These flavor choices brought to us by my coworker trying to give away this basket of jalopeños.

I searched the tag jalopeños and came across this Green Sauce recipe from Finding My Inner Chef. It sounded like it would go amazingly well with fish tacos and black beans and rice, so I whipped up a batch in my blender. It’s fantastic.

Frijoles Negros
This recipe calls for dried black beans, so plan accordingly for that soaking process.

Ingredients
1 cup black beans
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 garlic clove
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small piece of bacon, diced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Wash and soak beans in water eight hours or overnight.  Boil beans in two and one half cups water until tender (about an hour). Saute chopped onion and garlic in olive oil.  Add onion, garlic, chopped green pepper, diced bacon, salt, and pepper to beans.  Simmer 15 additional minutes.  Serve with rice, if desired.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken

I got this recipe from a church cookbook, specifically my church cookbook.  I actually grew up down the street from the lady who submitted the recipe.  I feel like that has to be the most classically southern thing ever.

I love this cookbook because I know so many of the ladies who added recipes.

I don’t know how Indonesian this recipe is…the lady who submitted it is certainly not Indonesian.  It is definitely gingery though.  Shout-out to my wedding gift box grater for making the ginger grating process much less painful. Also…so much garlic! I’ve never put that much into one recipe before.  I should invest in something that makes the mincing process easier.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken
This recipe requires overnight marinating.
Ingredients
1 cup honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced garlic (8-12 cloves)
1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger
6 bone-in chicken breasts (or two chickens quartered with backs removed)

Directions
Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted.  Arrange the chicken in large, shallow baking pan, skin side down, and pour on the sauce.  Cover the pan tightly with foil.  Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 1/2 hour.  Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up, and raise temperature to 375.  Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear and the sauce is a rich dark brown.

Aunt Eileen’s Peach Cake

Here is the aforementioned recipe for the cake I made for my friends’ engagement party. It also happens to be Tea and Cake Tuesday! Oh, happy day!

This recipe came from a glorious Junior League cookbook from the 80s, Atlanta Cooknotes. Sadly “Aunt Eileen” is not my Aunt Eileen, but perhaps she is Mrs. Wendling Peacock’s.

I recently inherited my grandmother’s Bundt pan, still in its original box, so I was eager to use it.  I have so many memories of chocolate chip cakes made in that pan…

Sadly, I didn’t get a good picture of the cake in its whole Bundt-y form because some of the peaches sunk to the bottom, so it wasn’t that pretty, flawless image that I was looking for.  It was still very delicious and could almost be coffee cakeish.  It suited very nicely for a party that had fruit and punch and cheesecake squares along side.  It’s not overly sweet, but I would still feel weird about serving it for breakfast…if that makes sense.

Aunt Eileen’s Peach Cake
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups sliced fresh peaches (I would make my slices smaller next time to prevent sinking)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Optional: Confectioner’s sugar for topping

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat eggs and add sugar and oil, mixing well.  Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; add to egg mixture alternately with orange juice (just an FYI, the orange juice to flour ratio is like 1:12). Add vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, toss peaches with sugar and cinnamon.  Pour one third batter into a greased, lightly floured tube or Bundt pan.  Layer one half peach mixture over it.  Cover with one third batter and the remaining peach mixture.  Spread remaining batter over all.  Bake one hour.  Cool cake ten minutes before turning out onto wire rack.

Because the World Needs Another Zucchini Bread Recipe

Zucchini bread seems to have gotten really popular lately. I guess a lot of people have started growing their own gardens and zucchini often make more than any family can consume or give away. That was my motivation when I pulled out my copy of Mountain Elegance, put together by the the Asheville Junior League. This particular recipe is very cinnamony.

Zucchini Bread

Yield: Two Loaves
Prep: 20 mins
Baking Time: 60 mins

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups zucchini, grated (shoutout to my new box grater that made this process a dream!)

Directions
Mix flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, thoroughly beat eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla (I used a stand mixer!).  Stir in sifted ingredients.  Blend in grated zucchini.  Pour into two greased standard loaf tins.  Bake at 325 for 60 minutes.

Also, I wanted to show off my new and much beloved tea towel made by the fine folks at Double Dutch Press in Athens.  Their tea towels are adorable and their prints are pretty cool too! Check it out!

I feel like it’s also important to add that Mrs. B. G. Powell gets all the credit for this recipe! Thanks Jeanne!

  

  

Obligatory First Post

Don’t let the title deceive you…this blog will have nothing to do with cheese 90% of the time. I do like feta cheese very much, but feta workshop is more of a play on Weta Workshop, whose work on the Lord of the Rings movies is much admired.  A Google search revealed that feta workshops, where chess making is explained, are actually a thing, but this is not a blog about cheese making. Sorry to disappoint if that’s what you were expecting; I would search for books on Amazon-they should be able to help you out.

 I don’t really have specific vision here. I do know a few things…

• I have an addiction to spiral bound Junior League or church cookbooks snagged at thrift stores, so I’ll do my best to bring some of those classic recipes, written by women who always go by Mrs. Husband’s Name, to the blog and Pinterest world. 
• I just got married three weeks ago, so I have more cooking stuff than I ever have owned before AND I am not living with other women taking up my fridge space for the first time, so cooking for two might be an emphasis because, well, I am. 
• I occasionally do crafty things.
• I also like taking pictures. 
• Sometimes I like writing. 

Yep, that’s about it. We will see where this goes.