Author: Cathy

mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog, written by a few friends who like to eat.  Continue reading.

Hi.  Cathy here.  It is Friday and I usually show you a meal for two for $5…but tomorrow is Valentine's Day and maybe you want to spend a little more and maybe have dessert.  I am here to accommodate.

The Mister and I are strange.  It does not take much to amuse either of us.  We used to have this game we played…(continue reading, it is not dirty and is food related: I am focused).."pretend there was an earthquake".  We still play it, actually.

The rules are simple: We each would have to run into the house, pull at most three cans out of a cupboard and maybe something from the fridge and run back out and make a meal.  Something that can be cooked on a stovetop or gas grill(all that might be available if we really did have an earthquake).

So anyhow, that is how these two recipes came about-I have made both of these "recipes", so I know they are good.

I do tend to buy stuff if I kow I like it and it is on sale.  rarely do I have to go out and pay ful price for something because I don't have it in the house. So, this meal still is not expensive overall.

Part One: The ingredients are fresh mushrooms, a can of artichoke hearts and a can of garbanzo beans.  The fish (cod) is on sale at Henry's this week for $5.99/lb.  You should not need half a pound of fish per person. 

Put olive oil into a HOT pan, then put a pat of salted butter into the oil.

Quarter the mushrooms and cook them in the olive oil/butter hot pan.

Add the drained, quartered artichoke hearts to heat through,

  as well as the drained chickpeas. 

Since there is salt added to the water, and I use oil and salted butter, I do not add any more seasonings.  This all is a medley of textures.

Now, salt and pepper both sides of the cod.   A whole pound is a lot of fish.

Place into hot olive oil and resist the urge to flip the fillet.

Let it cook until kind of crispy brown on one side (about 4 long minutes- you can see the bottom part start to turn brown.

The flip, cook for about 2 minutes more (until the other side is crispy.

Serve the fillets on top of the vegetable mix.

Time to get three more ingredients!

Part Two:  Jasmine green tea, crystallized ginger and pears.

Make a pot of strong tea.

I use about 3 Cups of water and 5 teabags.  I let it brew and cool with the bags in the pot.   Then I reheat, with some pieces of the ginger in the tea.  There is sugar on the ginger and that is enough sweetness for me.  

Halve the pears, core and peel-or don't peel-  and slowly submerge the pear halves into the lightly boiling tea until the pears are very soft when you pierce with a knife. 

Let cool a bit and serve, drained, with plain (butter) cookies. If you leave the pears in the tea longer, the flavor is deeper. The skins  absorb most of the tannins and I like that flavor more. That is why I leave the skins on for my serving.

I cool the jasmine green tea with the ginger in it and drink it iced.

I hope everyone is feeling healthy and has a nice three day weekend. Thanks for reading this little bit of my life and recipe 'secrets'. I hope you have/had a nice Valentine's Day.

mmm-yoso!!!  is a blog about food we (Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Cathy) eat.  We like to talk about it.  You apparently like to read about it. Welcome back.

Hi.  Cathy here, making a meal for two for less than or equal to $5 out of stuff I found on sale this week. 

Casseroles are communal meals- one dish meant to be shared.  Cassoulet, a French casserole meal, is based with white beans, meat and herbs.  Essentially, it is a peasant dish said to date back to the 14th century siege of Castlenaudary during the Hundred Years' War, fed to the soldiers to keep them strong and send the invaders away.  If you win at Trivial pursuit by knowing this little fact, you owe me.   

The French can make cassoulet kind of  very fancy, using duck confit or smoked duck as a protein, but you can use chicken, or sausage, smoked pork,  pork rind, pig knuckles or a combination of meats.  White beans are the key ingredient. 

It so happened that Vons had the smoked sausage marked down to $1.99 and the one pound of beans was 49 cents at Food 4 Less, so this was going to be an extremely inexpensive couple of meals.

I'll mention some optional add ins as I go along.

Rinse and clean one pound of white beans and put into a pot with 8 Cups of water. 

Let boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat, cover and let stand one hour. 

Next, put in one whole small onion, one whole carrot and the center of a celery stalk (you know-the feathered part that you usually toss out).  I also put in a couple of sprigs of thyme and two bay leaves.

Let simmer until the rest of the water is absorbed and the beans are mostly tender and fully almost cooked, about an hour.

(You want all of these ingredients whole, because you will be removing them).

While the beans are cooking, chop up the onion, carrot and celery and put into a hot pan with olive oil.  Let the ingredients sweat on low heat for about 20 minutes.  Until the onions are translucent (not burned).

Add the sliced sausage and some Herbes de Provence and saute until warmed through, about 5 minutes.

Now add some liquid (beef or chicken broth or stock, and-or some red wine, or just water-but add some more seasoning if you only add water) and simmer for another five minutes-to get that flavor infused in the meat and vegetables.

Remove the whole vegetables from the cooked beans, which should have very little (if any)water in it and add the vegetable sausage mix.  Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes until the liquid is also absorbed into the beans. 

You could serve with a salad or piece of crusty bread.  The flavors get deeper overnight.

Cathy's Cassoulet

1 lb white beans, 2 small onions, celery and carrots, smoked pork sausage, broth or red wine, Herbes de Provence.

Optional: smoked ham, pork, pork rind, chicken or duck.  Brown the chicken or duck if you are using it.

Quick soak the beans. (add 8 C water, boil for 2 minutes, cover, remove from heat and let soak for one hour.

To the beans, add one whole carrot, one whole small onion, a few celery stalks to the water and simmer until the rest of liquid is absorbed, about 50 minutes.  (optional: add fresh thyme and 2-3 bay leaves) Remove those whole vegetables (and herbs).

In another pan, with about 2 Tbs olive oil, on low heat, sweat a chopped onion, celery and carrot until the onion is translucent-about 20 minutes.  Add the sliced sausage and some Herbes de Provence and stir, heating through the meat (about 5 minutes).

Add liquid (broth and wine or water and some Herbes de Provence) to cover the vegetable/meat mix, bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable/meat/liquid mix to the cooked flavored beans.  Mix well and return to a low heat, covered, until the liquid is absorbed into the beans (about 15 minutes).