Good eats!

I was looking at E.Foss's blog and found this Chicken Masala recipe (Indian and good to celebrate St. Teresa of Calcutta). And, her baked mac and cheese looks good too. We are trying to save money by planning our meals.

I want to get back to having black beans and rice once a week with pan sauteed chicken breasts, baked chicken legs or fish or pork. We eat too much dairy and red sauce and breads -- I love how the Saving Dinner recipes suggest brown rice with alot of their meals. Admission -- I cannot pull the weekly SD menus off yet. It is inspiring! (Also, I want to add good quality cod liver oil as one of my many supplements.)

Discovery -- buying plain yogurt and flavoring it with good, local honey. I ate so many peaches this summer sprinkled with wheat germ and yog and honey. (One of these days, I am going to have to make my friend Angela's recipe for homemade yogurt from local, fresh milk.)

A few nights ago, I was reading The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living by John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak, a book sure to get that down-deep, belly laugh. They published a recipe for Devil's Food Cake to celebrate the feast of the Archangels on September 29th and here it is:

They say in the book that the following recipe was inspired by a Charlie Trotter creation:
2/3 cup grapeseed oil 1 t baking powder
1T plus 1t ancho chili powder 1/4 t salt
2t vanilla extract 2/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar 4 ounces bittersweet choc., melted
2 eggs 1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup pumpkin puree powdered sugar
1 cup plus 2T flour

Preheat oven to 350 and oil and coat an 8 inch cake pan with cocoa. Heat oil and ancho together until pepper darkens. Allow to cool. Add vanilla. Strain into bowl with sugar. Beat 5 minutes. Add egg and pumpkin. Mix until thoroughly blended. Sift together dry ingredients and blend into sugar mixture. Add chocolate and sour cream. Mix well. Pour into cake pan. Smooth top and bake about 35 min. Serve with dusting of powdered sugar. Serves 8-10. My note: it would be fun to make a paper stencil of one of the archangels to lay on the top before dusting with p.sugar.