Rice with Pineapple and Beans

Tim and I bought a fresh pineapple last week, and after eating most of it straight, my tongue was going a little numb from the acid.  I decided I needed to cook the remaining fruit a little to tone it down, and thought I might mix it with some beans and rice.  (As an aside, I thought I was buying black beans, but somehow ended up with red kidney beans... oh well.)

  I sorta made the dish up, loosely based on some recipes I found online:

-In a small pot, saute a couple cloves of garlic (minced) and some chopped onion in a pan, add 1 cup of rice and then 1.5 cups of chicken stock- cook until rice is done

- Meanwhile, in a frying pan, saute a couple cloves of minced garlic, 2 or 3 chopped green onions, a couple minced hot peppers (I think I used 3 or 4 birds' eye chilis) and about a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander until fragrant.  

- Throw 1.5 cups of chopped pineapple (and any juices that accumulated) and a 15 ounce can of rinsed beans into the frying pan heat up and carmelize a little bit.

-  Mix the rice and bean mixture, add salt and pepper to taste

- Top with lime juice to taste and lots of coarsely chopped cilantro.

- Eat!

Pretty good!  Tangy, sweet, spicy, earthy.  You could probably make it healthier with brown rice, but that's hard to find here. 

Chipotle Tamale Pie

Made this chipotle tamale pie thingy for dinner because I needed to use up a can of chipotle in adobo I had opened... it was basically chili with a built-in cornbread top, but that's fine by me! We needed a break from root vegetables. 2.5 months of eating things that grow underground can get a little old.

I made a bunch of substitutions based on what I had in the house (and what I like): ground beef instead of turkey, yellow and orange peppers instead of green (green = gross), black beans instead of pinto. Plus I threw a handful frozen corn in, too.

Green eggs, no ham.

I had a craving for this egg recipe that I had when I visited Liz in Atlanta. This Rachael Ray recipe seemed reasonably close to what I remembered, and it was. Pretty good overall, but I think I liked the restaurant's version better. I finally remembered the name of the restaurant, the Flying Biscuit, and it turns out they have the recipe online! I think the feta is key, rather than the cheddar that Rachael calls for...