Limey Couscous, Black Bean & Veggie Salad - Great for New Parents

IndySpectator invited me to write a guide to bringing food to new parents which ran today. The article, "Bundles of Culinary Joy for New Parents", includes an image with a mix of homemade and store-bought treats for parents, including an amazing tomato sauce that Ben recently made with a Smitten Kitchen recipe (more on that later) and a couscous-black bean salad that I whipped together to make the photo a bit more complete. 

This salad is sturdy and healthy - made with whole wheat couscous, fiber-rich beans, veggies, a limey dressing and a bit of fresh cilantro to add a boost of flavor. This recipe could be refigured in a variety of ways - different beans, different vegetables, lemon in place of lime, basil in place of cilantro - to fit the taste of a new parent that you're delivering it to. Or your tastes, if you just want to make a simple salad that will keep in the refrigerator for a day or two. It also doubles beautifully.


Couscous Salad with Black Beans & Veggies - makes two side servings


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup whole wheat couscous

• 1/2 cup boiling water

• 1 tsp olive oil

• pinch of crushed red pepper

• 1 carrot, cut in a small dice

• 1 small or 1/2 a medium zucchini, cut in a small dice

• salt & pepper

• 1/2 cup black beans - homemade or canned

• 1/2 lime, juiced and zested (zest first to make life easier)

• 2 tsp olive oil

• salt & pepper to taste

• 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro (to taste)

• Optional: crumbled feta cheese

In a medium skillet (I used nonstick - you may need more oil if you're using a traditional pan), heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add crushed red pepper, carrot and zucchini, cook until the vegetables are tender, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper while they cook. Add the black beans, stir and set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, combine the lime juice and zest, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add to the cooked couscous, stir in the vegetables and cilantro, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. If desired, stir in the feta cheese. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

If you are delivering this to a new parent, please take a moment to label it with instructions for eating and proper storage advice. If you add the feta, you'll want to advise eating it more promptly.

Menus, with Soundtracks

The husband and I wrote a little piece for Punchnel's. It's basically some menus paired with albums, because food and music are awesome. 

Here's a little sample of one of our musical picks for one of the four menus.  

Little Pleasures: Kouign Amanns at Circle City Sweets

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a danish and a croissant had a baby, but that baby was a little bit more dense? If so - or if not, frankly - you need to go get a kouign amann from Circle City Sweets.

The Circle City Sweets crew typically offer a mix of choices - cinnamon, cream cheese, cream cheese and cherry, and on the absolute best of days an almond filling - in their kouign amanns. No choice is a bad choice (kind of like their croissants). 

Cherry-cheese Kouign Amann

Saturday, Ben and I split a cheese-cherry one, because I love him. There is no other reason to share one of these delicious, rich, perfectly buttery delights. 

You can pick up your Circle City Sweet kouign amann at the southern end of the Indianapolis City Market. And you should. 

People Knowing My Name...

It's hard for me to pick a place where everyone might know my name. I'll blame my parents and myself for that, because they gave me a hard-to-pronounce name and then I made it worse by hyphenating my last name when I got married.

However, there are a few places that I really love to go, because I am recognized and valued there. Three essential spots:

• The Red Key - Lana knows my name, which is the most important part, because I love Lana. Everyone else is lovely, too, and we always run into friends here.

I like the Red Key so much I bring finger puppets there.

• The Monon Coffee Company, either location - it's kind of funny that someone who seldom drinks coffee (me) would feel so much at home at a coffee shop, but I do. It doesn't hurt that they have Rene's delectable almond croissants and pumpkin bread, as well as a clientele (and staff) that typically includes a friend or two.
• Yats, early crew on College - I love the Yats crew, Joe and all the good guys at the counter. They always welcome me, noticed when I lost weight this year, even though I go there one-tenth of the amount that I used to (it's not close to work any more), are respectfully flirty, and always ask how my husband is.  

It's fun to go places where people know me, but it's even better that I get to go places where I know people - you know what I mean?

This post is a part of #thinkkit11.

Best Event of 2011 (for me)

2011 had a lot of events in it. I saw some exciting speakers, participated in good conversations, laughed, cried, all that, thanks to all the exciting people making cool stuff happen in Indianapolis.

Still, my favorite event was Tonic Indy. The event benefits Second Helpings, where - full disclosure - my guy works. Tons of my friends contribute, in the form of visual artistry, musical stylings and/or cool-kid volunteering. Every planning meeting is fun (I co-chair the Tonic Gallery and provide a lot of social media support to the whole event). Each conversation about Tonic, with artists, musicians, press, friends, anyone, is a pleasure.

Why I loved it even more than usual: This was the 10th Tonic Ball. We raised over $40K - all of which will go to feeding hungry neighbors and providing job training for unemployed and underemployed people. We got Ken Honeywell an amazing custom-designed suit in the style of Nudie, created by the undeniably talented Jerry Lee Atwood, to honor Ken's decade-long contribution as a founder and leader of the event.

And these things happened.

This post is a part of #thinkkit11.