Sunday Recipe - Black Beans with Creole Tomato Salsa

From The Gumbo Shop Cookbook
1 lb. black beans
2 quarts water
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp olive oil
1 3/4 finely chopped onion
3/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped jalapeno pepper (seeded)
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup minced garlic
2 tsp Balsamic vinegar
2 tsp salt

Rinse the beans well and pick through to remove any small rocks and debris. Place them in a large pot, cover with the water, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

Set the pot over medium heat and slowly bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Add the bay leaf and cook until beans are tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, adding more water if needed.

Meanwhile, in a large heavy skillet heat the olive oil over medium high heat and saute the onions, bell peppers and jalapenos until tender. Stir in the white pepper, black pepper, cumin and oregano and cook for one minute. Add to the cooked black beans and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Heat the 1/4 cup olive oil in a small sauce pan and add the minced garlic. Stir and cook until the garlic is evenly browned then immediately stir into the beans. Add the balsamic vinegar, then the Tabasco and salt to taste. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve over rice, garnished with about two tablespoons of Creole Tomato Salsa per serving.

Creole Tomato Salsa
1 lb Creole or other vine ripened tomatoes, chopped
1 minced jalapeno pepper, seeded
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
Tabasco to taste
1 tbsp fresh basil or parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup diced green pepper
3 tbsp minced shallot

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for at least one hour.

What's Cooking This Weekend

We'll be doing a lot of cooking this weekend. Nick and I had a deal. I wouldn't cook any "major" recipes again until he got to make his favorite gumbo. This is what happens every time the weather changes. When summer hits we're competing over who gets to make the first ice cream, sorbet, pasta salad and the like; with the cool weather that's heading in, it's time for us to start competing for stove time again with hearty soups, stews and gumbos. I snuck in the first dish (red beans and rice), with the agreement that Nick's gumbo would be next. The only problem is, I'm really craving my favorite black bean dish, so in order to keep my promise while also getting my way, he'll be making his gumbo on Saturday and I'll be making my black beans on Sunday. Want to cook along? Here are the recipes:

For Saturday:

Shrimp and Chicken Etouffee originally from Food Network Magazine
Feel free to swap out the shrimp for crawfish, which we often do. Sometimes we leave out the seafood altogether if we know we're going to have leftovers, since it doesn't reheat in the microwave well. You may have noticed in the post that I'm referring to this as a Gumbo but the recipe refers to it as an Etouffee. That's Nick's call. He's pretty emphatic about it. I'll let him explain, but either way, it's delicious.

For Sunday:

Black Beans with Creole Tomato Salsa from The Gumbo Shop Cookbook
Delicious, comforting, and as a bonus, vegetarian. If you're into that kind of thing.

Introducing The Italian Scallions!

We are Nick and Cayley M., a.k.a. the Italian Scallions, a freshly married couple that fell in love in the kitchen and have been cooking together ever since. No, we are not professional chefs. We are food enthusiasts who have each worked in some element of the food industry - Nick in kitchens as well as as a server and trainer, while Cayley's first job out of college was in marketing for the foremost smoker manufacturer in the United States - learning the tricks of the barbecue trade along the way. While neither of us are currently in the food industry, food is our passion. We love cooking it, eating it, talking about it, watching television shows about it, and most importantly, feeding it to the people we love.

The Italian Scallions (ISs for short - Nick will be IS1 and Cayley will be IS2 - we normally go by our last name followed by the number 'round these parts, but lets be honest, we live with Nick's amazing parents and don't know that they want creepers looking them up on the internets and calling them up at weird hours of the night. Because: 1. We know internet weirdos are out there 2. Yes, some people still do have landline phones and this is therefore a real concern and 3. Yep, you read that right, we live with our parents. And we love it. And I'm not just saying that because they might read this. It's because it's true. In addition to all of the other reasons [like it's great to be around family at the end of the day],  relating to the theme of the blog: it's easier to cook for four people than two [because most recipes are portioned for four]. Also, it's better for you to feed four people then two [because then you're spreading the love and deliciousness even further]. Fact.)

This blog was a natural progression for us. It started with nightly posts of pictures of our dinner to Facebook, which led to recipe requests, which led to meal planning requests. So here's the plan: weekends are for menu planning.  That's when we'll post what's coming up for the week. Want to cook along? Awesome! We'll post recipes then too! On the nights that we cook, we'll post our pictures, stories and reactions to what we made. And if you cooked along with us, you can too. Cayley (once again, IS2 for short, you'll learn quickly we're big on nicknames and abbreviations around here. But not emoticons) will be doing most of the posting, mostly because of the fact that Nick is busy posting over on his other blog, OKGastronaut. Join in, get involved, and let's get cooking!