Miss Rachel

Tuesday was Sweetie’s birthday, and since I knew I had to work that night I decided we should have a birthday-inspired dinner the night before. I cooked up some chickpeas with garlic, onions, tomatoes and a bunch of spices. It wasn’t quite Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, but I did follow the spice combination in her Very Spicy, Delicious Chickpeas recipe and dinner was indeed delicious and spicy.

I served the chickpeas over basmati rice. I used up all our brown rice, and I’ve decided to try white rice for a change.

For dessert, there was no question of what we’d have: cupcakes. I took VCTOTW out of the library again, and made some birthday cupcakes. (I ran out of sprinkles by the time I got to the last few.)

I put some candles in one for Sweetie and snapped a pic before he blew them out.

It’s wintertime, and we’re expecting a big storm. Rice and beans is a good combination anytime, but it’s especially appealing when the weather is cold and blowy and snowy.

Here’s what I did: I sauteed a diced onion and some crushed garlic in a little oil for a few minutes, added 1 t of chili powder and 1/2 t each of coriander and cumin and 1/4 t of cayenne and cooked and stirred for a few more minutes. Then I added a can (15 oz.) of black beans and a can (14.5 oz.) of diced tomatoes and simmered everything for about an hour.

I served it over rice. Note: I also think this would be really good over a potato, but I had some leftover brown rice hanging around so that’s what I used. (And this post is called rice & beans so I had to use rice - ha!)