Vegan Chocolate Cake (easily made in Colombia)

I promised a post, and I'm going to deliver! With photos!

This is a very moist and fairly chocolate-y cake, especially considering how amazingly accessible the ingredients are. I imagine it would be easy to duplicate this cake almost anywhere in the world. Well, anywhere that has an oven. (Although, since the batter is vegan, you could just eat the raw cake batter. Mmmmm.) The best thing about this cake is that it is SUPER easy and contains really normal ingredients, so it is a great cake to make any time, even if you aren't vegan. Also, it avoids most allergies (except gluten!), so it's pretty friendly. It's low fat if you use the orange marmalade because you can use less oil... Plus, it's delicious. The texture is somewhat like a light brownie.

Essential equipment for vegan baking in Colombia:
a measuring cup
measuring spoons
whisk
2 mixing bowls
heaving spoon (plastic or wood) to do heaving mixing
Although it isn't essential, I highly recommend a spring-form pan for this cake. Just like a cheesecake, it's very moist and dense, so it would fall apart if you tried to remove it from the pan, and just like a cheesecake, it is prettier when you can see the sides. Obviously, it is up to you, but if you want a 12 inch spring-form pan, I know they sell them at La 14.

Moist Vegan Chocolate Cake, Egg-free, Dairy-free

Here's the basic recipe:
2 cups flour (harina de trigo)
1 cup cocoa (cocoa en polva--my favorite brand is Luker)
1 teaspoon salt (sal, I like sea salt best. It's called sal marina)
2 teaspoons baking soda (bicarbonato)
1 cup of white sugar* (azucar blanco)
1 cup of brown sugar** (azucar moreno)
2 teaspoons white vinegar (vinegre blanco)
2 teaspoons (at least) of vanilla (again, I can only find the fake stuff here, but it's called vainilla)
1 3/4 cups soy milk (leche de soya. I recently discovered that Exito marked down the price of Silk, and Silk changed its packaging so it is in Spanish on one side. Check near the cereal aisle. I prefer Silk Unsweetened Natural.) You can sub water for this if absolutely necessary. I wouldn't. You could also sub orange juice. That might be a bit better.
1/4 (maybe a bit more) of juice from fresh oranges
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1/2 cup orange marmalade (mermelade de naranja, my favorite brand is La Constencia)
3 tablespoons (or more!!) of shaved unsweetened table chocolate. I used about 2 squares of Luker.

*I think it is vegan here because the kind I buy is very unprocessed, but using only brown sugar, which is actually turbindo sugar in Colombia, would not hurt a thing.
** If you like a very sweet cake, go ahead and use 2 cups of sugar. If you like a slightly more bitter cake, I would definitely recommend cutting down the sugar to about 1 1/2 cups, maybe even a tad bit less.

Directions:
1. Add flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda to a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with a whisk to get rid of clumps OR sift.
2. In a measuring cup, measure the soy milk. Add the orange juice to the soy milk and stir. Dump in another mixing bowl (not the one with the dry ingredients!).
3. Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar, and canola oil to the soy milk mixture. Then add the sugar. Whisk until it is well-blended. Then, add the orange marmalade. Stir.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. It should bubble a bit because of the chemical reaction between the baking soda and vinegar. Stir to incorporate, and then whisk until completely blended.
5. Add Luker shavings. Stir well.
6. Pour batter into a greased and floured baking sheet (9 x 13, 2 small loaf pans, or a 12 inch round pan).
10. Bake at 350 degrees F. Depending on the size of your oven and the size of your pan, this could take anywhere from 20 minutes to 45. Check on it often. The top should set (it shouldn't wiggle if the pan is shaken), and a toothpick should come out relatively clean (read: crumbs okay, raw batter not really) when inserted into the center.
11. Let it cool, and then top it with this quick icing:
Melody's best icing:
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup powdered sugar (you can make this, look up a recipe online, or buy it... azucar pulverizada)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon soy milk (may need more)

Sift cocoa powder and powdered sugar together. Stir well. Add vanilla and soy milk. Whisk. You might need to add more soy milk, but whisk really well before you do. It should be about the same consistency as liquid dish soap--easily pourable and spreadable. Pour it onto your cake and spread it with a knife. It will set quickly, so if you want to add toppings do it now. For this cake, I added coconut (coco) and Oreos, which are vegan if you eat white sugar. (They don't have Newman O's in Colombia.)

It makes a cute birthday cake!


Variations:
Orange-Chocolate: You can make this extra orange-y by adding shaved orange peel to the batter and using more orange juice to replace some of the soy milk. You can also use orange juice instead of soy milk in the icing, and then you can top it with orange peel.
Chocolate-coconut: Replace up to one cup of the soy milk with coconut milk, or simply reduce the vanilla to 1 teaspoon and add 2 teaspoons of coconut extract. Sprinkle with coconut.
Chocolate-strawberry: Use strawberry (fresa) jam instead of orange marmalade.
Plain old chocolate: Use 2/3 cup canola oil, get rid of the 2 tablespoons and don't use orange marmalade. Add another tablespoon of shaved chocolate to the batter, an extra 1/4 teaspoon salt, reduce sugar to 1 1/2 cups, and add an extra tablespoon of vanilla.
I made this YESTERDAY, and between my friends, my masseuse, Warren, and me, almost half of it is gone!

Vegan MoFo! (VEGAN MONTH OF FOOD)

Two blog posts in ONE day! What what!

Okay, so here's the deal... It's Vegan MoFo, and although this isn't a vegan food blog, I did promise to write about being a vegan in Colombia a long time ago, and I think that as it is Vegan MoFo, and my last month in Colombia, it's probably time for me to keep my promise. So, without further ado, I bring you Melody's Vegan Mo-Fo from Colombia. First topic: vegan birthday desserts, using what's available in Colombia.

I'm a decent baker, and so this past year I've done my fair share of baking. I've even baked non-vegan birthday cakes for some close friends. At home, I would never dream of baking something I can't eat, but it's difficult to find all the stuff I need to make a really good vegan cake here, like vegan shortening or vegan cream cheese or vegan butter. This week I'll post some cake recipes for sure, but first I want to post this fab apple pie recipe.



Ingredients:
At least 8 Granny Smith Apples
2 3/4 cups flour (Harina de trigo)
1/2 cup canola oil (aciete de canola)
1/2 cup soy milk (Exito has Silk Unsweetened!)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (sal)
4-6 tablespoons brown cane sugar (azucar moreno)
1 teaspoon flour or cornstarch (Maizena) (optional)
juice of 2 lemons (I found actual lemons at La 14 the other day!! If you can't find lemons, use 1 orange, not limes.)
2 teaspoons Cinnamon (canela)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (nuez moscada)
1/2 teaspoon cloves (clavo)
1 tablespoon maple syrup (I can only find the fake kind here, but the flavor helps) (miel de maple)
1 teaspoon vanilla (vainilla)

Directions: Peel and core apples. Slice them into small pieces. Pour lemon juice over them, stir. Add sugar and maple syrup. Stir. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and vanilla (if using). Stir very well. Add flour/cornstarch if using (it just thickens the juices a bit, not at all necessary). Stir very, very well. Let sit in the refrigerator, stir occasionally, for about 20 minutes while you make the crust.

To make the crust, follow this recipe, but substitute soy milk for regular milk. You might need to double the recipe if you want to make a top crust.I didn't need to chill it, but I did add a bit of extra flour. To roll it out, I put the dough on a floured cutting board and put a floured plastic place-mat on top. I then used a can of chickpeas to roll it as thinly as possible. Put it in the bottom of your pie plate (I bought mine at Home Center), and if needed, push it around the edges. Try to keep the crust no more than 1/8 inch thick. Make sure you have crust that goes all the way up the edge. If you want a lattice crust, simply take leftover dough or make more, roll it out, and use a pizza cutter to make nice strips of dough.

Assemble: After you have your un-cooked crust in the bottom of the pie, stir your apple mixture and then dump them in. Spread them evenly in the crust. It's okay if they are piled up very high--they'll cook down. Put your top crust on the pie, making sure it is sealed to the bottom crust. Wrap the outside edges in foil. Bake at 375 degrees. The time will vary--the top crust should brown and the juices should be bubbling. Also, if you made a lattice crust or no top crust, you can just stick a fork into the apples to see if they are soft. It's probably about 45 minutes to an hour, but it will definitely depend on the oven. Take the foil off the outside of the pie about 20 minutes after it has been in the oven.

Let it cool, and then eat! YUM! We both thought the pie tasted better the second day. No idea why... I guess the flavors just absorbed into the apples better.

Saturday Night Hummus

Last night, Warren and I planned a double hummus date with our friends Luis Mi and Diana. Although we love all of our friends, we really appreciate it when we can spend time with another couple. (Warren especially appreciates it, since most of our other friends are girls.) Plus, it's fun to have them over because Diana doesn't speak very much English, and it makes the conversations we have more challenging, but in a good way.

I made way more food than we could have ever eaten, but we certainly made an attempt. Pictured below: four types of hummus, lots of veggies, crackers, chips, and pitas for dipping into the hummus, bruschetta topping and baguette slices, pesto, garlic dip, and roasted red pepper dip.





We also had pineapple and grapes for dessert. Yum!

The four types of hummus I made were roasted red pepper, green olive, roasted garlic and red onion, and fajita spice. They were all good in their own way. My favorite is green olive, but honestly all four rocked. Many thanks to Kristin and her roommate, Kelsi, at Coffee, Calculations, and Colombia for passing on their hummus recipe. We've basically eaten hummus everyday for three weeks.

My own hummus recipe is a bit different now that I've learned how to do it, so I'm going to share it. You know, just to add to the millions of other hummus recipes in internet land.

Ingredients:
1 can of garbanzo beans
1 tbsp tahini
2 tablespoons (or more, depending on how much citrus you like) of lime juice
1 teaspoon orange juice (makes the lime less powerful)
4 or more cloves of roasted garlic*
water and olive oil (I add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil initially and then add more oil and water as needed. Water makes it really creamy and gives it a lighter texture. I probably put around 1/4 cup of water in each batch, but only a bit at a time so I know if it's getting too watery.)
paprika, sea salt, and white pepper to taste
Whatever "flavoring" you want to add.

To roast garlic, take however many cloves you are using, don't peel them, and wrap them up in foil with a little olive oil drizzled over the top of them. Then roast in a 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. When they are finished, you can just squeeze the cloves out of the peel. Yum!

Directions: As Kelsi suggested, I rinse the beans really well and then cook them. I usually let them boil for 5 minutes or more. While they are cooking, I put the lime/orange juice, tahini, garlic, and my flavoring* in the blender. When they are finished, add the drained garbanzo beans and about a tablespoon of olive oil to the blender. Blend well. If you have trouble blending, add water and a tiny bit of olive oil or citrus juice. When the mixture is smooth, add spices. Blend again until it looks perfectly creamy. Chill and then eat!

*Flavorings:
1. To make green olive hummus, add about 1/2 cup of green olives (or more if you love them) to the blender. Don't add any salt to this hummus. The olives are already salty.
2. To make roasted red pepper hummus, I add two roasted red peppers. (See Kelsi's directions in the blog link above.) I also add a lot of paprika and red pepper powder.
3. For roasted garlic and red onion, I add an entire bulb of roasted garlic and HALF of a large roasted red onion (do it the same way as the garlic), along with a little more citrus juice instead of water. I also add a lot of pepper.
4. For fajita spice hummus, I cheated. I added 1/2 a package of Old El Paso (I found it at Exito) fajita spice mix. Hooray for MSG. I also added a lot of pepper, paprika, and red pepper powder. I would normally use chipotle and other various yummy Tex-Mex spices, but I can't find them here.

Graduate School and Black Bean Burgers

This is the first year EVER that May didn't mean the end of the school year for me, and I have to admit, it's a bit strange. Everyone else is studying for exams or finishing up with their teaching this year, and I am grading spelling tests and looking forward to 7 more months of teaching. The school year in Colombia begins in January and ends in December. That meant that this past year, I had to wait through an entire fall before I could begin my "real" job. I made good use of the time, working at my former job doing study abroad work and teaching English at a language institute, but it felt like prison anyway. I had to stay in my old college town and work at two part time jobs just to pay for my tiny little apartment. Not an ideal situation.

I think it was worth it, because I certainly enjoy my job here and I love my apartment and lifestyle in Colombia. The problem is that I'm looking at one more "semester" like I had last fall: next spring, I'll be waiting to *hopefully* start graduate school in the fall. If there's any reason to not teach in Colombia, the fact that the academic year is opposite to the American academic year is a strong one. It basically means that 1 year of my life is "wasted" while I wait.

Of course, I'm not REALLY going to waste an entire Jan-Sept period of time. I'm hoping to go to a Spanish immersion school and then find a job in whatever city I end up in for grad school.

Speaking of graduate school, can I just say I hate the process of even applying? When I went to Missouri State for my graduate certificate, I treated it as seriously as applying to Target for a summer job. I knew I would get in, I didn't have to take the GRE, and my only real concern was which assistant position I would get out of the three I applied for. (For the record, I took the one that paid the best and had the coolest job description.) Applying to graduate school for "real" is very intimidating. I want a very specific program (International Education and Development) and only about 5 schools in the entire USA offer programs that really fit my career goals. It's extremely intimidating, and I'm scared to death I won't get in to my top choices. Also, I hate standardized tests with so much fervor that whenever a school requires the GRE I automatically lower them on my list of top choices. (Take that, American University!)

Anyway, I'm probably going to be blogging a bit about graduate schools from this point on as I begin my search and application process. Most of my applications are due in January or earlier, so I'll be writing personal statements, begging for recommendation letters, and taking the GRE here. In Colombia. Oh joy.

On to happier things...

A Fabulous, Homemade, Entirely Vegan Black Bean Burger!


If there's anything I miss about the States, it's pre-packaged vegan faux meat. I know that's disgusting, but it's a lot of work to come up with protein every night from scratch. I miss my vegan sausage and chorizo, and I definitely miss a good vegan burger.

I created these on Wednesday and we ate them again on Thursday. Quick, simple, and very easy, they definitely satisfied my burger craving... and with no preservatives! here's the recipe:

Black Bean Burgers
3 cups pre-cooked black beans in their cooking liquid
1 small yellow onion
1 red pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil (or canola oil)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup cornmeal (not dulce)
2 tablespoons tomato paste (or 1 tablespoon paste and 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce*)
salt and pepper to taste
*Good and cheap BBQ sauce in Colombia: San Jorge brand, near the salsa de tomate

Directions:
1. Chop onion finely and sauté in 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Don't let them burn, just become translucent.
2. While the onion is cooking, dice a red pepper into small pieces and add to the onion. Sauté until tender.
3. While pepper and onion cook, mash black beans with a fork, potato masher, or in a blender or food processor. They don't need to be perfectly smooth, just broken and mashed a bit. I recommend blending them with about 1/2 cup of their liquid (or water/vegetable broth if you don't have cooking liquid).
4. Add half the onion and pepper mixture to the food processor and blend with the beans. (This makes them less likely to fall apart, but keeping half of the mixture intact makes them prettier.)
5. Dump the blended mixture into a bowl. Add the rest of the pepper/onion mixture and the tomato paste. Stir until everything is generally the same consistency and the sauce is well mixed.
6. Add the spices. You can be creative here--I love a good cumin-scented black bean burger and I eat it with avocado and salsa, but if you have liquid smoke or want to up the BBQ flavor and ditch the cumin, or whatever, really, feel free.
7. Add the breadcrumbs and cornmeal. Get your hands nice and dirty and mix it all together as if you are kneading bread.
8. Add the 2nd tablespoon of olive oil and mix again. If it seems dry, add more BBQ sauce, tomato paste, cooking liquid, or olive oil. (It doesn't really matter, just base it on what you want the burger to taste like. A good, fairly smooth salsa would be fantastic.) If you aren't vegan, I would highly recommend adding a beaten egg, but only because that's what most recipe books tell you to do.
9. When everything feels basically like raw hamburger meat (EWWW), start forming patties. I made mine about 1/3 an inch thick and about 4-5 inches across.
10. Cook over medium heat in a frying pan, flipping occasionally. Be careful when you flip them--if they are dry they might break apart.
11. Serve. We ate them on arepas (so Colombian of us!) with salsa or BBQ sauce or mustard or ketchup or... you get the idea.

Black bean burger on an arepa.



Warren is a fan.

How I'm Coping with My Rainy Day: Two For One Special

Left: Chocolate Caliente and the rain that inspired it.

Please read my post below before you read this one... this is just a quick update!

I live in the coffee region of Colombia, therefore, I drink coffee in the mornings, and so do all my co-workers. The only "hot drink" variation I ever see is agua panela (which I can post about another time) and sometimes, just sometimes, the health conscious at school drink hot tea. Kids might drink hot milo (kind of like Nesquik or Ovaltine), but primarily my fellow Risaraldans drink coffee. And lots of it.

In various other regions of Colombia, coffee is second in popularity to chocolate caliente (hot chocolate). Not the typical, sweet Swiss Miss-style we drink in the United States, but pure melted chocolate, mixed in water or milk, with a tiny bit of sugar. It's dry and bitter, but just as popular as coffee, especially among working-class men. (Nothing like a cup of cocoa before heading out to build a new apartment or drive a bus!)

By a chance accident (I needed chocolate, Warren doesn't understand the words "unsweetened") we had a package of Luker brand chocolate at the apartment. On this cold, rainy day, I decided there wasn't much that I would enjoy more than a cup of hot chocolate. So, I did my best.

It wasn't as sweet or smooth as my hot chocolate at home, but it definitely warmed me up and gave me a happy dose of endorphins.

Below: Chocolate Caliente



I've included two recipes below, one from the Luker package itself (with my notes about how I prepared it) and one from my cookbook Secrets of Colombian Cooking (by Patricia McCausland-Gallo), which was a Christmas present from my brother Billy.



Luker Recipe for Chocolate Caliente

Ingredients
Unsweetened chocolate (should be pure: only 100% cocoa mass)
Agua Panela (if you are Colombian) or water
Sugar (probably 1/2 tablespoon per cup)
Unsweetened soy milk if you're vegan, regular milk if you aren't as cool as me (just kidding)

Directions:
In a saucepan, warm up water or agua panela (1/2 cup for each cup you want to make). Add a square (7.8 grams) for each cup you want to make. Stir until melted. Add a tablespoon of sugar for each cup you want to make. Stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup of milk for each final cup you want. Beat with a whisk (the Luker package suggests putting it into a blender to make it frothy, but that seemed totally unnecessary.) Warm thoroughly and then serve. Don't let this boil, ever. Also, stir often so it doesn't burn/stick on the bottom of the saucepan.

My additions: I added a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, and extra chocolate squares. I then tasted it and added sugar until it tasted less bitter. (About another teaspoon per cup.) If you are using Baker's chocolate in the U.S.A., I would estimate that 1 Luker square equals 2 Baker's rectangles.



Chocolate Caliente, from Secrets of Colombian Cooking (McCausland-Gallo, pg 208)

Ingredients
4 ounces sweetened table chocolate (vegans-don't use milk chocolate!)
4 cups milk or 2 cups water and 2 cups milk (sub soymilk if you are vegan)
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:
1. Place the chocolate, milk, and sugar in a pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer (but don't let it boil) for about 5-7 minutes, or until the chocolate is very soft.
2. Remove from the heat and with a whisk stir rapidly and continously until hte chocolate forms a lather or foam.
3. Serve and enjoy!

A very rambling post with a side of chili.

Above: Not my best picture, as it was taken on the bus, but here's what I've seen every day since the beginning of April: clouds, rain, and more clouds and rain. Also, this is one of the poor areas of Cuba. Please read on for more about why I posted this photo--I need your help!

No one commented or voted "interesting, etc." on my last post... should I take it as a hint that you don't want to read recipes? Or am I the only person reading my blog? If you are a secret reader out there, I would really love it to hear your comments. When you comment or vote interesting, funny, or cool, it lets me know that you liked the post, and I'll know to post on the same topic or use the same idea again. Plus, you must remember that I live a fairly lonely life here in Colombia (although my 17 students informed me that they were my 17 closest Colombian friends yesterday), and when you comment or vote, it makes me feel more connected to people at home. You don't need a blog or a Google account, either. So... you secret readers out there... please let me know what you want to read about!

Okay, so the real part of the post (when I don't lecture my readers):

Onto a more interesting (and vastly more important subject), the photo at the top of this post (as bad as it is), is of a poor neighborhood in Cuba, a barrio in Pereira. I'm posting it to help inspire you... I need your help. I'm trying to come up with ideas to engage my students in a fight against poverty. I want to instill a desire to help and aid the lower classes in Pereira in my students. Teaching wealthy students frequently makes me guilty in this country, but I also realize that my students are the ones that have the ability to make a difference. So, I would like to hear your ideas. How can I teach my students to care about the plight of others, and what kind of projects or activities could we do to help the poor populations? I would specifically like them to help kids their own age. If you have any ideas AT ALL, please comment or send me an email. Thanks for your help!

And now: Why I hate the rainy season.

It has rained here continuously every day, all day for 2 weeks straight. The most sunlight and warmth we've gotten has been little snippets for an hour or two when we are lucky. Usually it's just cloudy and rainy, with a break for 30 minutes here or there. I've been bragging about Colombia's weather for months, but I'm so over it. Until we've moved past this constant downpour, I'm officially NOT a fan of Colombian weather. I know I sound like a big baby, but you have to remember that LPV is an OUTDOOR school. We don't have hallways or doors.. it's all open air. That means that every time it rains, all my posters fall down because the air is so moist, the desks are covered in water because it drips through the guadua shingles, all the bugs come inside to get dry, the electricity frequently goes out, my classroom and my students are covered in mud and water, and my students go CRAZY because there's no where they can go to play except our classrooms because they are the only covered areas! I love the school and it's environmentally friendly/hippie outlook, but I'm definitely not handling the rainy season well. Unfortunately, I've got around 1 more month of it left AND there's another one coming in a few months. Again: I'm so not a fan.

What I am a fan of is a hot bowl of chili when it rains.


Above: Chili, our dinner on Monday AND Tuesday (we had leftovers!)

There are few things in the world that scream American to me as much as a hot bowl of chili on a rainy, cold night. I made chili Monday and was incredibly pleased with how it turned out. Why? (I mean, it's just chili, right?) I was scared it wouldn't work because I can't find CHILI POWDER in Colombia. How is that even possible?

Anyway, here's the recipe. It's certainly not anything like my American recipe, but if you're in Colombia and want a hot bowl of chili, this will definitely satisfy your craving.

Colombian Chile

Ingredients:
3 cups of speckled beans (or black, kidney, pinto, etc. Feel free to mix if you have different types of prepared beans), pre-cooked (see directions below the recipe)
1 red onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 red peppers
4 tomatoes
4 tablespoons of tomato paste (pasta de tomate) (you can use less or more if you need... if you don't have any, use ketchup!)
water as needed
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
Spices: Cumin (comino), pepper (pimenta), salt (sal), ajo (garlic powder), oregano... I used a mix called "Salsina", a product of El Rey spices, that was garlic, cumin, and pepper mixed.

Directions
1. Chop onion finely and sauté in olive oil until the onions are translucent.
2. While the onion is cooking, mince garlic. Add to the onions.
3. While the garlic is cooking, dice the red pepper. Add to the garlic and onions.
4. Dice tomato and add it to the vegetables.
5. Cook until the red pepper is tender and the tomato is almost mushy.
6. Add beans and liquid from cooking the beans. Add water if needed... the beans should be floating and the mixture should be easy to stir (not stew like, soup like!).
7. Add tomato paste and up to a tablespoon of yellow mustard. Stir until the mixture is well blended.
8. Bring to a boil.
9. When it begins to boil, turn heat down a bit. Stir. Add spices. These should be to taste, but to begin I recommend: 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon oregano. If you are using "salsina", you can use it to replace the garlic powder and pepper, but you'll still need 1 teaspoon of cumin.
10. Let it cook for about 30 minutes on medium heat. Stir often so it does not stick to the bottom.
11. After about 30 minutes, taste the sauce. I added more cumin, pepper, and salt, but you should add as you think you'll like. You might want more mustard--it helps a lot if you like it.
12. Cook for 20 minutes or more over low heat.
13. Serve with your favorite crackers, and if you are Warren, cheese!

How to prepare dried beans (almost any type): Dump beans into a bowl, clean out and remove anything that looks like it doesn't belong, and cover with 2 times the amount of water as beans (so, 1 cup of beans, at least 2 cups of water). Soak overnight (or at least 8 hours). Drain and rinse after 8+ hours, and dump beans into a soup pot. Cover with the same amount of water. Bring to a boil, turn heat down but keep them at a low boil. Cook for at least 1 hour--may take longer, just test them every 30 minutes or so. They should be firm but easy to smash. When they seem like they are almost done, salt them a bit (a teaspoon or a bit more is good). When they are finished, store them in a plastic container in their cooking liquid in the refrigerator.

Barely American Learns to Cook!

Above: Our dinner on Sunday night... Recipe Below!

First of all, I already know my way around a kitchen (but I'm always learning new things), but this blog has never served as a food blog before, hence the title. However, the only blogs I ever read before I started my own were vegan blogs, and they are still my favorite blogs to read and my writing inspiration.

Sidenote: I decided to post these recipes for a few reasons. 1) To show what we eat here. 2) I like to write and think about food. 3) If anyone is living in Colombia or South America, I think it can be hard to find ways to cook "American" food, especially for vegans/vegetarians. In case anyone ever stumbles onto my blog because they are vegan in South America, maybe this will help.

Background: I was incredibly lucky to find 3 packages of fresh, full basil at Exito on Sunday. In keeping with my desire to save money (each package cost 650 pesos, roughly 32 cents), I used only half of one package on Sunday making our favorite dish: bruschetta. Warren and I usually eat bruschetta at least once a week. It's very home-y and satisfying, and the flavors are definitely not Colombian, so it's a good variation from school lunches. Along with our bruschetta I threw together a quick dish of Italian-style beans. I didn't exactly know what I was doing, but I knew I needed protein and I had already soaked and cooked the beans. As a future warning for these and all other recipes to ever appear on this blog: I don't follow recipes or cookbooks, except sometimes when I'm baking. All recipes to appear are created by me, and I don't measure, I just eye-ball it. (I learned from my mother.) That said, make sure you taste things as you cook them if you follow my recipes.



Melody's Bruschetta

Ingredients
1 large French or Italian style baguette (in Colombia, the best ones are at Exito and Carrefour)
4-6 medium red tomatoes(I remove the hard white part directly underneath the stem, too.)
baby tomatoes if you have them (we had some leftovers)--any amount from 1/4 a cup to 2 cups will work in this recipe
4 cloves (not bulbs) of garlic
Tomato paste (Found near the ketchup and called pasta de tomate in squeezable packages)
salt
pepper
fresh basil or dried oregano (basil is better!)
olive oil

Directions:
Before you begin, rinse the tomatoes and fresh basil in cool water.

1. Smash and chop the garlic cloves finely. Sauté over low heat in 1 tablespoon olive oil until the garlic just starts to brown.
2. While the garlic is cooking, dice the medium-sized tomatoes. Add the tomatoes. If you are using any baby tomatoes, you can add them whole). If the garlic begins to turn brown before you are finished with the tomatoes, remove the pan from heat. (Don't let the garlic actually turn brown--you just want it to start to turn brown.)
3. After you add the tomatoes, turn the heat to medium heat. Stir frequently so that the tomatoes do not stick to the pan. Let the water cook out of them so that they are mushy. If you used baby tomatoes, you want them to "pop"--there should be a place where the skin on them breaks, but they should disintegrate.
4. When the tomatoes are finished cooking, remove from heat and stir for about 30 seconds. Add the tomato paste. How much is up to you--at least 2 to 3 tablespoons, but if you add more you'll have more tomato-y goodness for your bread. It should look just a little bit thicker and chunkier than a chunky spaghetti sauce. Return to heat, simmer on low heat.
5. Slice the bread into 1 inch (or smaller) slices. If you have a toaster oven or toaster, you can toast the bread that way. If you don't, simply heat a frying pan over medium heat. You can add olive oil to it, but it's not necessary (and adds calories). Toast the bread on each side in the pan for about 1 minute--just watch it, don't let it burn.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste (about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper), stir quickly.
7. If you are using fresh basil (and you should), chop up between 1/4 of a cup to 1/2 of a cup and add it to the tomato mixture. Stir quickly and then turn off heat. Stir tomato mixture for another minute.
8. Finally, spoon tomato mixture over the toasted bread. If you aren't watching your weight, you can dip the toasted baguette slices in olive oil first.
ENJOY!

Italian-Style Beans

Ingredients
1 cup of pre-soaked and pre-cooked speckled beans (white beans would work too)
2 cloves of garlic (1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon thyme or 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (basil is better!)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Chop garlic finely if you are using fresh garlic.
2. Heat olive oil in a small sauté pan over low heat. Add garlic (if you are using fresh) and sauté for about 1 minute.
3. Add beans. Turn up the heat just a bit. Stir them around so they are coated with olive oil.
4. If you are using garlic powder, add it now. Also add the salt and pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon salt and a pinch or two of pepper.)
5. Add the basil (or thyme) and stir.
6. Cook about 5 minutes total (the beans should brown just a bit but not burn or get very dry).

Serve with something yummy--but they are addicting on their own!