Cornbread

Tonight I made cornbread and chili for Mr. Barefoot while I went to a job thing.  I made the Pioneer Woman's Skillet Cornbread.

It came out just fine, if you like your cornbread dry and tasteless.  I like sweeter, moister cornbread, so I will continue hunting for a recipe that mimics the #10 cornbread I had in the Caymans.  

Do you have a good cornbread recipe? Is it moist and delicious? Please share.  

Bonarie Travel Notes

For this post, I will use this blog for it's intended purpose - a way for me to track and archive my own recipes, meals, and other food-related issues. If you regularly travel to small Carribbean islands in which you do not have access to regular grocery stores with regular hours, you might also find this list helpful. Mostly I wanted to remember what we used on the trip and keep it in an easy-to-access place. This is also a pretty good list of car-camping foods. Also, we had 3 couples each bringing food, and then combining it when we got there, so there isn't a lot of harmony on this list, and overall, I think we can all agree that we brought too much of some foods. There are also some foods we simply didn't get around to eating.

What we brought / What we ate:
Quinoa - 1 lb bag / 1/2 bag
Dried beans (1 lb black beans; 1 lb white) / 1 lb black
Pasta salad mixes from target / both eaten
1 small jar (3 inches high) and 1 regular jar peanut butter / small jar lasted the week - for sandwiches and apples; brought large jar home
Powdered pasta sauce / didn't eat
Velveeta Shells and Cheese - 2 boxes / eaten in one night
English Muffins - 1 pkg wheat, 1 pkg regular / both eaten
Frut snacks, rice crispie treats, trail mix / eaten
pistachios / eaten
peanuts / not eaten
pre-made beans mixes / not eaten
Mrs. Dash spice mix / went through about 1/2 a jar
butter / ate about half the container
rice - 1 lb bag /ate half the bag
canned corn - small can / eaten
granola / ate half a bag
canned tuna / ate about 2-3 cans
canned salmon / Mom and Dad Barefoot ate about 6 foil pouches
canned chicken / ate 1 can; Mom and Dad Barefoot ate about 4 more??
mayo / did anyone eat this?
salad dressing / used some to make the worst pasta salad ever
barbecue sauce / really good on mac & cheese, did not use otherwise
whole wheat pasta - 1 lb bag / this was a terrible idea
cereal - 1 box / didn't work that well b/c couldn't get milk until mid-week. ate half box.

Can be purchased in Bonaire - relevant for next trip - all items can be found at both Warehouse and Cultimara unless otherwise indicated:
Indian curry sauce mix/other mixes (at Warehouse Supermarket)
Tomato paste & pasta sauce
Sandwich meat, cheese, tomatoes (at Warehouse Supermarket)
Yogurt
apples (at Warehouse Supermarket)
garlic, onions (buy these at Cultimara if you don't want 10)
frozen veggies (peas and green beans mostly)
shredded cheese (Warehouse)
Cookies, delicious snack food, dutch sprinkles

Can't always find:
milk, stuff to grill, produce, salsa

In the future, we will probably bring, in addition or differently from what we brought this time:
1-2 cans of beans (heavier than dried beans, but worth it to not have to soak, and didn't eat full pound of dried beans that we cooked.)
taco seasonings and salsa (we did taco night midweek and it was a great idea)
tortillas (all that was available was frozen, bringing your own from the non-perishable section of the grocery store would not go amiss)
regular elbow macaroni and 1-2 packages of italian dressing (not whole bottle)
more pasta salad mixes
small package of bbq sauce
pizza crust mix/premade pizza crusts
spice mixes - hopefully we'll get these when we register and can fill them with delicious spices.

Good Post-Dive Meals
taco night (this was a really good idea, and done early in the week so we had plenty of leftovers)
mac & cheese (delicious after a night dive)
pizza (we didn't try this, but we will in the future)
grilling (if you can get fresh fish to grill - we did this in Caymans and it was fantastic)

Family Barefoot, feel free to chime in with your own comments on what worked and what didn't.

In which our intrepid hero attempts to eat her entire kitchen in three days....

Anyone who has ever moved more than 2 hours away knows the three Ps of eating down your kitchen before you move:
1) Prioritize
2) Perishables
3) Portability

1) Prioritize - the things that you cannot take with you or donate to a food pantry are the most important to eat. This is anything frozen and anything opened. This is why for the next three days, I will be eating a lot of salmon and also a weird pasta salad I made by mixing two boxes of pasta.
2) Perishables - perishables obviously must be consumed before the trip, but see rule 1. Potatoes should be less of a priority to eat than any kind of berries or grapes or other things that require refridgeration. Things like apples and any other eat-on-the-run snack makes a great road trip food, so take those with you and eat those berries.
3) Portability - this has been our biggest problem, not just on long distance moves but on short, half hour moves. Some foods are hard to travel with. Eat all canned beans. They are seriously heavy and tough to transport. Boxed foods can be very bulky and take up a lot of space. Baking supplies are usually fine to transport, and it makes no sense to throw away or donate a half-used can of baking powder.

My menu for the next few days? I dunno. But I'm apparently having salmon for every meal, because the frozen salmon I bought 10 weeks ago was a pack of 10 and not a pack of 4 as I had thought. It's going to be in the nineties, so I'm not sure how to cook it, except that cold salmon with a balsamic reduction is pretty good....also with brie, which I have. I was going to live off the cans of beans in the pantry, but I'm prioritizing the salmon and either taking the beans home or dropping them at a local shelter, space pending.
I have some fruit that I'll be eating down, and I'll be seeing what I can do with the rest of my foodstuffs to make road trip snacks for me and my mom (my mom is flying out to Cleveland and driving home with me). I have a bag of salad that I think I will eat in some kind of salmon with salad and balsamic vinegar.

Truthfully, I don't really want to eat any of these foods. When it is this hot out, all I can actually imagine eating is watermelon and grapes. But my shoulder has been hurting, so I think the increased fish intake will help with muscle repair, and who knows, maybe I can cook the salmon in the crockpot over night and chill it in the fridge during the day to have a nice cool salmon salad....

Goat Cheese and Black Bean Buritto

So I came home for lunch today and made myself a burrito, but since I splurged at Costco and bought goat cheese over the weekend, I knew I wanted to use it. (Goat cheese is $4 for like, 1lb. of it at Costco, so its really not a splurge.) I had a black bean and goat cheese burrito at Burrito Beach when we were in Chicago, and it was delicious, so I decided to channel that.
Ingredients:

• Goat cheese
• Black Beans (I used about a half a can, but that was for just me)
• Spinach leaves (fresh.)
• red onion (I happened to have some leftover, you could use regular onion as well, or no onion
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste (I was too lazy to mince garlic)
• Tortilla
  

Procedure:

1. Saute onions in olive oil.
2. Add black beans and warm through. Remove from heat. Season.
   
3. Add goat cheese and melt in with the black beans
4. Put tortilla in the microwave (I zap them for about 20 seconds so they are more malleable.
5. Spread a thin layer of goat cheese on the tortilla.
6. Add some spinach leaves.
7. Pile on the black beans.
   
8. Enjoy.

I estimate the total cost of this burrito to be less than $1.50. I think the one I got at Burrito Beach was like, $6. It did have veggies and rice though, but this has certainly perked up my Tuesday, all in about 10 minutes.

A potless girl in a strange city

So Mark and I moved in together over a year ago, and combined our kitchens. I threw out all of his stuff and replaced it with mine, because I'm a controlling woman and my stuff is nicer. So how do we divide it up again?
I am moving to Michigan for the summer, to work in a job that sounds amazing. To me, this means that I get to use my pineapple sheets and flowered duvet cover and pretend I'm single. It also means that...we have to divide up the kitchen, possibly. Depends on whether the sublet I find comes with pots. It'll be furnished, but furnished does not always mean pots.
I'm pretty sure that I can get by with the basics - my knives, a cutting board, an always (3qt) pot and an always pan (6qt. saute). I guess I need a colander. Oh, and my food processor. Fortunately, I'm currently hoarding two.
I'm planning to borrow some knives from my dad so that Mark and I don't have to be too hard up - and I'm leaving the meat knives with him, as it only seems fair. I get the veggie knife and the (new!) tomato knife. Cuz there is a farmer's market.
If we have to acquire pots, we'll either hit up my sister who just got married and has an excess, or try goodwill, or check Ikea.

Food as Culture

Okay, so I firmly believe in food. I wouldn't have started my own cooking blog if I didn't. I wouldn't have eaten a full serving of mint M&M's (easily one of the best things about Christmas) since I got home if I didn't love food. Okay, so I'm also a nervous stress eater. And I eat to make myself feel better. This is how I gained weight. But my weight gain is neither here nor there. The bottom line is, I love food. Awhile ago, I contemplated what it means to be friends with somebody, and what you look for in a friend. I genuinely believe that finding friends is similar to dating. Some people are your type, some people are not. It's okay if they aren't. Anyway, one of the things I look for in a friend is a similar love of food. I enjoy eating food, cooking food, and talking about food. I love trading recipes with people. I love going out to new restaurants or trying old favorites. I love having potlucks, going to potlucks, and hosting fun, funky themed food parties. (The breakfast-for-dinner-party? Going to become annual.)
Mr. Redline is a friend of mine from the neighboring state of PA, but honestly, he is one of the truest Washingtonians I have ever met. Sorry man, you are one of us. Anyway, he's going back to Pittsburgh this weekend and wrote a post about things that everybody should know about Pittsburgh. Of course, it is about food.
I'm pretty sure though, every great city can be defined by its food. So what is your favorite place to visit, and what are the culinary reasons why?
I dream of going back to Italy and paying 19 cents for a box of pasta, 50 cents for a thing of pesto, and mixing the whole thing up back in the apartment; I think about getting a pizza-by-the-pound at the corner market; I miss those mozzerella, tomato, and basil sandwiches at the cafe across the street from the AUR; and man, gelato. Oh man. Gelato is delicious. Okay. I'm now searching for flights to Italy over spring break. Ooooh maybe if I can't find a job, I can just study abroad this summer. Not having a job just started to look a whole lot brighter.
I dream of going back to England and making macaroni and cheese with fancy English cheddar, stopping on the street to buy a cornish pasty, buying a sandwich at the market outside of Southwark, pasta with a feta cheese alfredo sauce (technically Scotland); and oh man...scooooones. Tea and scones. Crumpets are pretty good too.
Boston had great breweries - and I am a vegetarian who looooooves pub food (and hates beer). Plus there was this crazy little taco place that was dirt cheap and fantastic.
Baltimore. Crab on everything. And sweet pototo fries. Duclaw and Mad River have the best crab pretzels in town. Plus, The Brewer's Art.
I'm not even gonna start on Bethesda, as it is derived from the latin meaning "great restaurants" but the original Cal-Tor is there, and the Pines of Rome...plus Rio Grande, if you like your mexican food meaty. Tara Thai, which is a (I think) local chain; Giffords for ice cream. And just...those places on Cordell which "looked good" and you would go into.
What food defines your favorite cities/countries?

T-3 Days: Don't be that guest.

I know I harp on this every year. But seriously people! Don't show up empty handed to Thanksgiving! Don't show up at 5 when dinner starts and leave at 7 before cleanup. If you are the hostess, do not be shy about drafting your guests into cleanup duty! If they are close enough to you that you invited them over for Thanksgiving dinner, they are close enough that you can ask them to do the dishes. If nothing else, when you play the thankful game, toss out a, "I'm thankful that you guys are going to do the dishes."
My Uncle John always shows up with a pie, and his wife always helps clean up. One son brings something and the other carves the turkey. They are on the list of "good guests". The list of bad guests? One set of family members that shows up at the start of dinner and then leaves before it is over, avoiding bringing anything or set-up/clean-up. On the list? The husbands who let their wives do all the work and then watch football. The wives that let their husbands do all the work and then watch football.
There is a concern about "too many cooks" if you are sharing a kitchen with houseguests. Do what we do - cook in shifts. Plan a schedule. The night before Thanskgiving, I can tell you when the turkey goes in and my dad gets the kitchen, when I get the table for prep, and when I get the stove, and how many burners each of us get and for how long. I know which dishes go on the bottom rack of the oven below the turkey. I know what I have to cook in the crockpot or the toaster oven.
There is an issue when people bounce from Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving - it can be tough to keep dishes hot between one house and another. The most ambitious of us do it in shifts - prep two dishes. Bring one to Thanksgiving #1 and put the other in the oven when you get there - usually, the chef isn't using the oven once dinner is on the table. The better option is to bring a cold dish - desserts are best for this. This is my first Year of Two Thanksgivings. I'll be bringing pies to my grandmothers, which I plan to bake tomorrow night. (And then not eat. We'll see.) I'll also prep stuffing for my parents to bake and take over with the turkey. If you really can't bring anything, and really are so pressed for time, make sure you thank the hostess doubly and try to make up for it, either at Christmas dinner, by hosting next year, or just having them over for dinner sometime.
There are a million ways to help out at the holidays. If your mother/Aunt Sue/Uncle Charley/Grandpa is so controlling that they will not let you show up to Thanksgiving dinner with a side dish or dessert in hand, call them and offer to come a half an hour early to help out. Maybe you can take their kids for a walk or out to play in the yard so they aren't in the way. If you don't cook, offer to bring wine or sparkling cider. Sometimes, its really just the thought that counts. Calling and offering something can be a really nice thing to do. Or just let them know that they can call you and ask you to get ice/drinks/crudites/whipped cream from the grocery store if they forgot it. (A great option if you are traveling and can't cook.) If nothing else, make sure you stay later and clean up. Or when she/he gets up to clear the table after dinner, say, "Oh no, Aunt/Uncle/Grandma/pa/Mom/Dad - you did so much cooking for this fantastic meal that you do not have to clean up. Cousin/wife/husband/parent and I will take care of that." This way, you not only get to help out, you draft your lazy-good-for-nothing family into it as well. Just don't break the fancy china.
Nobody like a guest who shows up with one arm longer than the other. Don't be that guest.

Cooking with Rum

Having just gotten back from a week in the Carribbean, I'm eager to try some new recipes that will hopefully mimic stuff I got to eat while I was there. Caribbean cooking is great because they use rum in everything. My three favorites were rum cornbread, honey rum beans, and rum cake. I'll be working on the cornbread first.
I found this recipe via Recipe Zaar for Rum Laced Caribbean Cornbread. I'll be trying it while I'm still out of school and reporting back.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons rum or 1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flaked coconut
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Equipment:
8 Inch Square Pan, greased
Oven at 400 degrees
Procedure:

1. Combine butter, milk, eggs, and rum in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
   
2. Add remaining ingredients, stir until moist.
   
3. Spread in pan.
   
4. Bake 40-45 minutes.
   

Travel Cooking

My family likes to stay in places where there are kitchens when we travel, both to reduce the cost of food and to be able to make healthy meals. Right now we are staying in a condo in Hawaii with a full kitchen. Last night my sister and I cooked Marlin for the family to enjoy.
The problem with marlin is that it is extremely tough - a "game fish" and the chunks we got of it were very thick - which we did not cut down.
Marlin is not a common fish on the east coast, leaving me blank on how to prepare it - and even my father said he had never had it before - it wasn't terrible, but I won't cook it that way (see the recipe for Salmon) again. Instead, if you are going to cook marlin, I recommend:
1.) Not cooking marlin
2.) Pan frying small chunks of marlin and mixing them with some kind of tropical fruit salsa
as a topping