White bean dip

You are probably beginning to see a trend in these recipes.



1. I dig beans, and


2. I dig beans.


What can I say, they are such a good source of good things for your body, how can I hate on them. Let's celebrate the bean!


So here's a delicious white bean dip that I made. I served it with fresh out of the oven tortilla wedges, that were zipped up with olive oil and white wine vinegar. So so good. I want some right now dammit.





Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons
1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano

For the tortillas

4 tortillas cut in to pie wedges

Two glugs of olive oil

One glug of white wine vinegar


Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place the beans, garlic, lemon juice, 1/3 cup olive oil, and parsley in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is coarsely chopped. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the bean puree to a small bowl.
Dip each tortilla wedge in the olive oil/vinegar mixture. Arrange the tortilla wedges on a large baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, or until toasted and golden in color.
Serve the tortilla wedges warm or at room temperature alongside the bean puree. Be nice and let your friends dip their tortilla wedges in the dip. Do not use tortillas as a dip approaching hand-stabbing device. You can make more dip.

Black Bean Orzo Pasta Salad

With the weather being warm, I'm all about lovely pasta salads, and I love anything that includes beans, because:

1. They are yummy.
2. They are cheap.
3. They are good for you.

I saw the orzo in my grocery store, and it just called out to me. I had to have it, in pasta salad form. I found an easy recipe, and after tweeking here it is:

Isn't she pretty? Now I know the picture isn't so great. I tried .... really. I used a 100 mm lens, but I didn't hold the camera quite still enough. Time to break out the tripod for future pics I guess.

The following recipe is from my favorite, Cooks.com. I should tell you that I did not use the bottled italian dressing the recipe calls for, because I didn't have any, and I love making my own vinaigrettes. So there. My recipe is two glugs of a flavorful olive oil to one glug of whatever vinegar you want to use. In this case, I used an aged white wine vinegar, and it was rad.

Also I did not garnish with tomatoes as the below recipe says. Because the tomatoes available for purchase in the market looked like crap. I used a can of well drained tomatoes and incorporated them well into the pasta.

Here's the orignal recipe:

BLACK BEAN ORZO SALAD

8 oz. Orzo or other sm. pasta shape
2 sprigs fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 c. prepared Italian salad dressing
1 c. (15 oz. can) cooked black beans, drained
1 c. cooked corn, drained
Tomato wedges, parsley sprigs (optional garnish)

Prepare pasta according to package directions, drain. In a large serving bowl, combine parsley, pepper, cumin and Italian dressing. Drain pasta and add to dressing along with beans and corn. Mix gently. Cover and refrigerate overnight for maximum flavor. At serving time, garnish with tomato wedges and additional parsley. Serves 4 to 6.


Oh! And another thing you should consider. Orzo is a small pasta. Apparently too small for the colanders I have in my kitchen. I improvised, and carefully drained the pasta on my steamer basket. It worked pretty well in a pinch. I'm not perfect yo.

Super Easy Buttermilk Bread

I generally don't bake bread unless the recipe is dead simple. This recipe was, and since I had leftover buttermilk that I really wanted to use, this was an obvious choice. I pretty much followed the recipe below, but instead of using the shortening, I substituted Smart Balance 50/50, because um yeah I didn't have any shortening at home.

Oh! And I also brushed buttermilk on the bread before baking. I would recommend doing that!

The recipe is courtesy of Cooks.com

3 c. sifted white flour
1 cake fresh or 1 pkg. dry yeast (dissolved in 1/4 c. of tepid water or buttermilk)
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. shortening
1 c. buttermilk (approx.)
1/4 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Sift flour into roomy bowl. Add salt, sugar, soda and baking powder to the flour and mix thoroughly. Add shortening to the flour and mix until the flour is like meal; add dissolved yeast and buttermilk. Mix thoroughly. Knead the dough until it is not sticky. (The flour and milk will always vary a little.) Transfer the dough to a clean bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and allow it to rise away from a draft until it has doubled in bulk. Punch down. Roll out as you would in making biscuits. Roll up like a jelly roll, tuck the ends under.

Place in a greased loaf pan. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in bulk. Put in an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 15 minutes, turn thermostat to 350 degrees and bake the bread 30 minutes longer.

Cowboy Caviar

Oh hi hello y'all! Here's a recipe that I made for to bring to a party. Each couple was supposed to bring a dish to share. Since the party was a good thirty minutes away from my house, I really did not want to prepare a hot dish, that would be eaten lukewarm at the party. So, I decided to make a cold recipe.

COWBOY CAVIAR!

You may be asking yourself.....what is this crazy lady talking about? Is there really caviar in there? No friends. I do not know who came up with the name, but it is a wonderful hearty dish. Here is a picture of the dish before it was devoured:



Isn't it lovely? Here is the recipe, courtesy of Recipezaar:

Ingredients
1 (11 ounce) can white shoepeg corn, drained
1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained
2-3 roma tomatoes
2/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1-2 avocados
1/3 cup green onion, chopped
Dressing 1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon garlic (minced, chopped, whatever)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup garlic red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon cumin


Directions

1. Mix all dressing ingredients together and set aside.
2. Mix all veggies together in a large bowl.
3. Add dressing and mix together well.


Since roma tomatoes are absolutely pitiful right now, I used canned diced tomatoes that I drained well, and they were delicious. I also used regular red wine vinegar, and added a can of black beans. I let the beans, corn and tomatoes soak in the dressing overnight before I added the other ingredients. It was served with Tostitos scoops, and everyone loved it! This could also be used as a side dish or as a salsa for fish or chicken. Try it!

Oh hi there!

Greetings and welcome to Tina in the Cucina. This site will feature my favorite recipes, products that I love, and wonderful places to eat here in Nashvegas.


Since we're just meeting, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tina. I have lived in Nashville for 17 years, transplanted from Long Island, New York. I am American, but my family hails from Italy, and that shows up a lot in my cooking influences. My family is a long line of wonderful cooks, and I like to think that I can throw down in the kitchen too. I hope you enjoy what I share, and hope that you will join in the fun!


This is me....more to come.