Frijoles, arroz, y pollo para la cena.

So, one thing I’ve had a hard time finding here has been beans. Rich likes the “Mexican cuisine”, and that includes a helping of some kind of bean usually. The grocery stores only carry what they call chili beans (red kidney beans), or baked beans. No pintos, no garbanzos, no refried nada.

Well, my vegetarian cookbooks have lots of bean ideas, and I picked up some dried black beans at the Turkish market, so today was the day to try out a recipe. I made the basic black bean recipe (substituting leeks for onions, and thyme for oregano), and added my secret seasoning - Sazon (this stuff rocks, put it in basically anything and all the flavors go up a notch – they sell it at Cub). Then I used the nutrient rich (so said the cookbook) bean broth to make rice (substituting again leeks for onions). Put that together with some pollo, tomatoes, cabbage, and garlic, and it was a yummy little dinner.


I don’t know if this can compete with Rich’s dinner last Friday night. I bought schnitzel (flat pork steaks I think). Rich cannot (CANNOT) eat schnitzel with anything but spaetzel. Since I don’t make spaetzel, Rich was on deck. Four pans, three small bowls, two big bowls, and countless utensils later, dinner was served. Did I mention that we haven’t (can’t) used our dishwasher yet? Rich said – I thought you said you liked to wash dishes – right honey?