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Saturday, January 26, 2008

*full of beans.

It's Saturday night at la casa de K, which means two things: I bailed on appropriate 20-something weekend activities because I'm basically a grandma, and I'd snacked all day long. So I knew I wanted something light but satisfying. Preferably something that would distract me from the disintegration of my social life.

That said, I was feeling pretty lazy. So I needed to concoct something with the contents of my kitchen. And that meant Mark Bittman. I love him from his New York Times "101" articles here and here. His recipes in the HtCEV cookbook are uber-flexible, which makes them easily adaptable to whatever specific ingredients you may have on hand. Here's what I had:



The bean burger recipe, for example, calls for canned or dry beans of almost any variety. I had chickpeas (I always have chickpeas) in the lazy Susan. And I wouldn't be my mother's daughter if I didn't have rolled oats always at the ready. One medium onion, an egg, salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of chili powder make things flavorful but simple. Falling in step with my new love affair with all things Cuisinart (or, in this case, Black & Decker), everything went in for a chunky chop.



It rests for a moment whilst you ready the buns. I know! Kinky! then gets formed into patties. Which is made easier when you're working with vegetables, because there's no ... erm ... shrinkage. A couple of three minutes on each side in a spritz of olive oil ...



And you have a veggie burger. I'll never go frozen again! The whole thing, start to finish, took probably 16 minutes. Eight of which were spent searching for the can opener.



And yes, those are the evil potatoes of doom you see there on the left. I can't throw away perfectly acceptable wallpaper adhesive masquerading as a side dish. Now, I'm off to sleep. It's way past grandma's bedtime.

2 comments:

Southern Foodette says:
at: 12:09 PM said...

I love the cutting board! I wonder who got you that?

K. says:
at: 3:21 PM said...

actually, that was a gift from a gorgeous young lady i know. lives down mobile way. it was nearly stolen by an evil man-who-shall-not-be-named (cough! bohn jryan). but now it is nearly my favorite cutting board in all the land. it features prominently here!

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I am a work in progress. I perpetually need a hair cut. I'm totally devoted to my remarkable nieces and nephew. I am an elementary home cook and a magazine worker bee. (Please criticize my syntax and spelling in the comments.) I think my dog is hilarious. I like chicken and spicy things. I have difficulty being a grown-up. Left to my own devices, I will eat enormous amounts of cheese snacks of all kinds.

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