Mushroom Tomato Casserole

My mother asked me to use up some mushrooms and tomatoes she had around, so I decided to make a casserole. Why? I'm not sure. I don't know anything about casseroles.

I cut up a mirepoix plus some peppers and garlic and the mushrooms, basically just what vegetables we had.



I simmered them all down in a pan. Mushrooms love alcohol, so I looked for wine but there was none. I did find some Jim Beam, so I poured a little of that in. Let it all simmer down for a while.

Eventually I put some spices in there, too. A little turmeric and a tiny dash of cayenne. Maybe a little salt. I don't really remember. Do what smells right.



In another pot I made up a roux, and then I added a can of chick peas all mashed up, some vegetable broth, a little soy milk, some yogurt (if you were going vegan, I would recommend using vegan cream of mushroom soup instead - in fact, even if you're not). I stirred in pasta of about equal volume to my vegetables, and then the vegetables. I may have added a few more spices here. The last two things in the pot were a can of black beans and some chopped u fresh tomatoes.



Once it's mixed, pour it all in a casserole dish. I topped mine with raw sunflower seeds and wheat germ. Bake at 350 for twenty or so under foil, then defoil and toss back in at 425 for another ten or so. Done done done. It's a subtly flavored dish, but it has that creaminess you want in a casserole.

Sweet Potato Waffle

I found myself in possession of a spare baked sweet potato. I don't want a cold potato, and microwaving always seems like it ought to be avoidable. i decided that my best option was to make it into waffles.

In a bowl, I mixed maybe two cups of flour with some baking powder and a little salt. I tossed the sweet potato into a food processor along with half a banana, some brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, and enough soymilk to allow it all to spin.



I mixed the powders and goos together in a bowl. It is important to remember (and I only mention this because i always forget it) that waffle mix can be quite a bit thicker than pancake mix. Then I tossed it all into a waffle iron, as one ought.





I mixed together yogurt, honey, and fruit juice to put on top of my waffle. I would have used fresh fruit, also, but I didn't have any. Incidentally, unless you put stuff like yogurt on top of these, they're totally vegan.

Tex-Mex Suburban Meat Pie

Australia and Texas. I'm sure you have associations with both of them. I'm there are a few associations you have with both of them. I'm sure the most prominent is that they are both havens for criminals. Perhaps this mystic bridging is what caused a large population of Australians to emigrate to Texas in the early twentieth century.

The first generation of Texans-begot-by-Aussies came of housekeeping age in the forties and fifties, which was a time of small and easy foods, like casseroles and twinkies. As such, it is natural that the Australian foods their forebears had lain upon them would get treated to a small reformatting.

Today's dish is based on the result of this situation: the Tex-Mexification and muffin-tin redesign of the classic Australian meat pie. I used things we had in the kitchen (in fact, I embarked primarily because my mother had put some Tex-Mex themed fake meat in the refrigerator). As such, there are a lot of things that I would do differently, and my instructions will reflect that, so if it looks like I'm recommending a thing I'm not doing, that's why.



First, gather things in two piles.

Pile number one (the outside):
Flour (a cup)
Masa (two cups)
Cornmeal (a half cup)
Salt (enough to make the powder taste like Fritos, actually slightly less than that)
Baking Powder (two teaspoons)
Butter (two sticks, warm)
Corn oil

Pile number two (the inside):
Meat (ground beef or something, or a pouch of fake meat, as I had; a cup)
Black beans (a cup)
Salsa (I dumped some in, but you should make your own; a cup)
Then mess around with it. I also had red peppers and little spicy peppers. I would recommend also some spices; cumin is pretty necessary.

Also, you ought to, if you're into it, use cheese in both piles (though I had none). You can mix it in the filling and put it on top of the final product before (or midway through) baking.


Mix the powdery stuff in one bowl, and the innards in another. Use a fork to mash the butter into the powders, and if it's still too dry moisten it with corn oil until it's around the consistency you would use to make tortillas.





Now it's an issue of just greasing up a muffin tin, mushing some crust into a shell (I would refrigerate it for a while first), spooning some filling into the middle, and then putting a little hat on each one (I ran out of dough; don't do that).





Bake it at 325 for half an hour or so. Start checking at probably twenty minutes. When they're done let them cool for a while, then pop them out and eat. Get sloppy.






While I was cooking this I was listening to: NPR's All Things Considered