I'm back in your reader!

You might be wondering why I'm showing up in reader again. Well, here's why. I used to be an open, publicly accessible blog, and then it sort of creeped me out that anyone could read it, so I went private. After a few months of this, I came to realize that I was just making it harder on people. I don't like having to sign in to friends blogs (they usually just go unread, because I don't think to check them.. reader is just sooo much easier) and I don't like having to sign in to read blogs. I figured, if I didn't like it, why was I inflicting others with it? So, I'm back to being not private. Welcome to my life, again.

confetti salad

I've been lucky enough to be able to do a lot (seriously, a lot) of cooking lately, and I just have to share the things I've learned. This is becoming an amateurish food blog for the next little bit, interspersed with little glimpses into our lives. Sorry if that bores you. 

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Oh my goodness, this is tasty! I found this recipe on a delightful little food blog, Mel's Kitchen Cafe (I have made so many of her recipes... it's a little embarrassing how much I trust her), and set I about making it, only to realize that I was missing a few ingredients... so here's my version, adapted from this one. I used an orange bell pepper instead of red, and I use a red onion instead of green. I loved how colorful it turned out, and I love that it had purple and orange... not a common color combo in food, I think. I also used a blend of lemon and lime juice in place of red wine vinegar, which I didn't have. This recipe is pretty versatile, and I bet there are a million different ways to make it.


Here's how it goes:


Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked rice - cooled
- 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
- 1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed & drained
- 1 can corn, drained
- red onion, diced (I used about 3/4 of a small one - just depends on what you like).
- 1 orange bell pepper, seeded, cored, diced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (once again, depends on what you like - add more or less if you want)

Dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/8 cup or so lemon juice
- few tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powered
- 1/4 tsp black pepper



*I didn't measure on a few of these things - you really just need to mess around with it till it tastes good.

It's so easy, just throw everything thing together in a big salad bowl (it makes a lot of food) and mix up the dressing ingredients separately. Pour the dressing on, mix it in well, and put it all in the fridge till it's time to eat. It's best to leave it in there for a couple hours so the flavors get nice and blended.


*I only added about 3/4 of the dressing, and kept it in the fridge. This recipe makes so much, we had leftovers for a couple days. On about day three, the salad seemed a little dry (the rice just kept absorbing that moisture) so I threw the rest of the dressing on the remains of our confetti and it was delish!