Nowheymama is Not Lisa Kudrow

While the rest of you have been getting Fit on your Wiis, I've been trying out my own Nintendo Personal Trainer. Personal Trainer: Cooking for the Nintendo DS, that is. I'm sure Santa put it in my stocking thinking it would be a nice project for Katherine and me. And it is--it's been fun to find recipes using the world map, to talk about geography and the foods of different countries. But it makes me nervous to have her DS in the kitchen with us while we're measuring and stirring and cooking and spilling, and the game isn't intuitive for me yet, so I have to keep back-clicking, like, twenty times after each step. Luckily, K. chose Apple Crumble for our first recipe, which is probably the easiest one out of all of them. Whew.

Nowheymama is not Catherine Newman, Either

Have you been reading Catherine Newman's food column on Wondertime? It is excellent. It's not just a good read; she has a gift for writing recipes that use what you have in your fridge at the exact moment you are reading. Recently, she posted recipes for Dinner Beans and Corn Chowder. We have two similar recipes in our repertoire, so I thought I'd share them just for fun.

Black Beans and Corn from my friend Beth

1 can black beans
an equal amount of frozen corn kernels
1 jar of salsa

Mix together and heat.

Serve:

• over rice
• with chips
• as a side dish
• with chicken

Sometimes Beth puts chicken breasts in the mixture and poaches them in the oven and then serves it all over rice. If you use a mild salsa to make it kid friendly, you might want to serve it with some hot sauce for the adults.

Corn Chowder adapted from Guerrilla Cooking : The Survival Manual for People Who Don't Like to Cook or Don't Have Time to Cook by Mel Walsh

1 cup water
1 cup plain soymilk
1 pound frozen hash brown shreds (about 4 cups)
17 ounce can of creamed corn
1/2 cup onions, green or white, chopped
4 slices of Canadian bacon, or bacon, or leftover Christmas ham, chopped
salt and white pepper*

Put the water and milk in a large saucepan and heat just to a boil. Meanwhile, chop the onions and bacon/ham and open the creamed corn. When the water/soymilk mixture comes to a boil, add the potatoes, breaking up any large chunks. Stir for a minute, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cover and simmer for about eight minutes.

* You can use black pepper, but it sure is visible floating around in the pale broth.