Practice plus dinner

Last weekend, I attended Eliot Cohen's Digital Camera class at the Smithsonian - it was a Christmas gift from husband.  It was an all day event, both inside the classroom along with some practice outside.  Although it was about 28 degrees, so I think our outside time was cut shorter than usual.  We learned about aperture, exposure, shutter speed, depth of field, and more.  It was completely overwhelming but I'm excited to practice and learn more about how to use the different features on my camera.  (I have a Nikon D5000)

So, while making dinner last night, I grabbed my camera and started taking photos.  I'm always envious of the blogs that I read and their beautiful dishes that they prepare and their clear photos.  Also, in an attempt to be a more exciting blogger, I thought I'd share my recipe with you - AND have photos to boot!

Last night I made this amazing Black Eyed Pea stew from one of my favorite "stranger" blogs, Eat, Live, Run.  I have "friend" blogs and "stranger" blogs - pretty self explanatory.  Anyway.  I have printed out several of her recipes (and need to print her recent chicken parm one) and was excited to try the first one.  It was delicious and totally easy to make.

Black Eyed Pea Stew

serves 8

2 cups cooked black eyed peas (prepared from dry or from fresh according to package directions)

    *I used canned.

1 12-oz bag chopped collard greens

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes

4 cups vegetable stock

    *I didn't have enough veggie stock so I did 1/2 veggie and 1/2 chicken

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

12 oz chicken andouille sausage (or regular..whatever floats your boat!), chopped into 1/2 inch thick slices

1 T canola oil

1 T cider vinegar

Heat the canola oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. When hot, add the chopped onion and saute until soft and translucent—about six minutes. Add the garlic and saute thirty more seconds.

Add the chopped sausage and stir everything together. Cook for another five minutes, stirring often, so that the sausage can brown a bit. Then, add the veggie stock, black eyed peas, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for fifteen minutes.

Add the tomatoes, collards and vinegar. Simmer for another ten minutes or so until the greens have wilted and cooked down a little. Serve with hot sauce and cornbread on the side.

Somehow I missed the "serve with cornbread" note at the bottom when putting together my grocery list, so we ate it with some Ritz crackers I found in the pantry - not quite as good as the cornbread, but still pretty good.  (I forget how yummy Ritz crackers are because I don't buy them often...but they're so good!)

Don't let the collards in the stew scare you.  Husband thought he didn't like collards but he loved the soup - and didn't even know they were collards until I told him :)  It was really good, healthy, just spicy enough, and very filling.  Served with a yummy glass of wine and this made for a great Friday night.  Put it on your list to try - you won't be disappointed!