Mushy bananas that needed to be used: check.

Spices: check.

Bread machine: check.

WTF did I make?

Ingredients for Banana Pumpkin Thing, devised out of necessity from a hybrid of two Joy of Cooking recipes and contents of pantry:

1/3 cup mashed bananas

2/3 cup pureed pumpkin

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

7 tbsp (or about 1/2 rounded cup) sugar

1 cup white flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

dash of cinnamon, vanilla extract, and about 3 pods’ worth of cardamom seeds

Put all ingredients in bread machine and bake on the Quick or Cake cycle.

It came out…kind of puddingy. I think the recipe would have been better with more flour, and even better with more flour and in muffin, not bread, form. If I hadn’t been in a rush, I probably would have done muffins, but as it was, it was easier just to throw everything in the machine.

So, okay, texture not perfect, but the flavor–I’ve decided that I really like breads with cardamom. The flavorings and spices, definitely a winner. Texture needs some tweaking.

1: I have recently learned that while I adore tempeh (and I’m not even a vegetarian, so that’s saying something), I cannot stand natto. Good lord. I’d say it’s the foulest thing I ever tasted, but that wouldn’t be nice. Instead, I’ll say that even the squirrels wouldn’t touch my leftovers.

On a brighter note, I made some great Valentine’s Day-themed cookies. Will take pictures and post the recipe soon!

It’s the time of year for potlucks! For a company potluck, Chris and I wanted something tasty that fit the following criteria:

• Used at least some ingredients that we already had on hand
• Didn’t look like it took all day to make (so this idea was out)
• Didn’t actually take all day to make (so this was doubly out)

We finally settled on a recipe from Taste of Home: Turkey Pecan Enchiladas. The only ingredients we ended up not having to buy were the turkey and the peppers, but we probably saved tons of money by using turkey we had on hand. We’d bought the bird for 50 cents/lb and they’re now going for like a buck-thirty, so omg so happy our freezer was stocked.

The recipe:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups cubed cooked turkey breast
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 12 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) reduced-fat reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 cup (8 ounces) reduced-fat sour cream
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 2 tablespoons canned chopped green chilies
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
• 2 tsp minced fresh cilantro

In a small nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook and stir onion over medium heat until tender. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, water, cumin, pepper and salt until smooth. Stir in the onion, turkey and pecans.
Spoon 1/3 cup turkey mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine the soup, sour cream, milk and chilies; pour over enchiladas.
Cover and bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until heated through and cheese is melted. Sprinkle with cilantro. Yield: 12 servings.

We doubled the recipe and sliced each tortilla in half after baking to yield 48 “servings” of enchiladas. Then we watched as they vanished within 15 minutes of our arrival. I think this is a good potluck dish even though it contains every allergen known to man (wheat, nuts, dairy, meat) and is full of calories (you know we didn’t use any of that reduced-fat shit and neither should you) because people just saw the hot melted cheese and made a beeline for it. Very successful, though I wouldn’t serve this at a party full of health-conscious people or vegans.

If I were to make this for just Chris and myself, I would probably cut back on the cream cheese and sour cream, but still use the full-fat stuff. And the dish was a little bland for my tastes, even after I snuck in extra pepper and some red pepper flakes–I would probably double or even triple the cumin, add some other spices (coriander, garlic, maybe even some chipotle) and add some jalapenos to the filling as well as sprinkling them on top. But again, that’s what makes this dish so good for a potluck–nobody doesn’t like carbs, turkey, and cheese and there are those odd ducks who disdain spice.

Another odd note: We couldn’t find 6″ tortillas and ended up with 7″ ones. Filled them with 1/3 cup mixture as directed and still found them slightly overfull. And we had about 1 cup of the mixture left over. So if you use 6″ tortillas, either seriously cram the mixture in there, or expect to have lots of leftover filling. It’s good by itself, though–we plan to make quesadillas or even just sandwiches with the leftovers.

Happy potluck season!

Rachel: A friend sent us this list of 100 foods a “good omnivore” should eat at least once. Some of these things I’ve never even heard of!

I bolded the foods I’ve tried, and Chris has italicized the ones he’s eaten. We still have a ways to go. Baiju, anyone?

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Breaks down to 47 / 59. Time to go order that horse tasting menu, perhaps with a few glasses (tankards? Jugs?) of harissa.

All I wanna say, y’all, is that I love vegetables. Love ‘em. When I don’t get them, I crave them. (I crave chocolate, too, so this says less about how healthy I am than about how neurotic my cravings are.)

Last night, Mr. Scrapple made us a delicious “cooked salad” with Napa cabbage, cucumbers, celery, and green onions. I have no idea what he put in it other than that. Maybe he’ll log on later and share his secret because damn if I don’t know what it is.

My food contributions recently have consisted of a re-imagining of this shepherd’s pie recipe. Mine is pretty much as this recipe is written but uses skin-on mashed potatoes and no cream.

I’m pretty much making this post because I just ate a leftover meal consisting of both these foods, and I wanted to share.

Yes, another recipe post from yours truly! I was, and have been, and still am, on a root vegetable kick. Never mind they’re not in season–we had some parsnips sitting in the bottom of the crisper. (Who knew you could keep ‘em that long? Not I!) So, do this and your taste buds will thank you: (PS: Bonus secret side dish recipe at the end!)

Coarsely chop all the vegetables that have been sitting in your fridge for the last 3 months. We used parsnips (about 2 small ones), carrots (about a cup), potatoes (2 medium), onions (1 medium). Toss with olive oil and Penzey’s “Northwoods Fire” seasoning (or fake it with salt, paprika, chipotle pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, rosemary and garlic). Throw into a roasting dish. Put some meat in there if you want. We had a pork tenderloin which I dug out of the freezer and used. This sounds like an abuse of meat, but the tenderloin had been in the freezer since the fall of the Roman Empire and also wasn’t that good in the first place…the manufacturers had “helpfully” soaked it in a solution of like 18% salt/preservatives/fake flavoring. So it’s not like a good piece of meat went to waste in this dish.

Anyway. Stick the whole thing in the oven at 375-400ish (our oven is totally not temperature-consistent..I think it was around there). If you are feeling energetic, sear the meat before you do this. Otherwise be lazy like me and just roast.

Our meat took 40 minutes to cook, but again, that was probably due to the oven temperature sensor not behaving. Figure about 30 minutes for a tenderloin–for other meats or cuts, use your judgment. 10 minutes before it’s done, do two things:

First, sprinkle a handful of raisins into the mix. Dried fruit is really good with pork. I don’t know why this is. Prunes would have been even better, but at Chez Scrapple we don’t often have prunes lying around.

Then, get out some kale. (This is the super-secret side dish) Chop it, get rid of the toughest stems, rinse, whatever you like to do with kale to prep. Toss with a 50/50 mixture of olive/canola oil (this per Kim O’Donnell @ Washingtonpost.com who definitely knows what she’s talking about), a little hot sauce, chopped garlic, and a handful or two of pine nuts. Put in another roasting dish and add to the oven. Ten minutes later when your meat/veg are done, the kale is done too. Unless you like it a little toasty; I’d never roasted kale before and after 15 minutes, it was done and just on this side of burnt. Which was great, but I can imagine it’s not for everyone.

If your veggies aren’t cooked through when the meat is done because you chopped them too roughly (like mine), psst, you can totally cheat. Microwave the stubborn ones with a little stock of your choice (I wanted to use pork stock, but couldn’t find our stash–so some absolutely delicious homemade chicken stock went in instead) and seriously, you won’t be able to tell the difference. Maybe picky people could, but my veggies still tasted roasted, not microwaved, even after a quick zap.

The best thing about this meal is not how easy it was (it was), or how few dishes there were to clean up (hardly any), but how, if you’re restrained with the meat, it’s an incredibly healthy dish. I stuffed myself for under 500 calories. And, as I’ve been telling folks, the freelance life is really not conducive to healthy eating. (No stairs to take instead of the elevator, no parking lot to park at the far end of…and the fridge is RIGHT. THERE. ALL. DAY.)

PS, Chris liked it too.

Futurist cooking:

 ‘I was personally quite keen to serve chicken with ball bearings. You cut open the chicken and ball bearings pour out. For some reason,’ he smiles wryly, ‘the committee couldn’t be persuaded.’

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