Here is Part One.

As stated in Part One, Bánh Cuốn (directly translates to “rolled cake”) is rice crepes rolled with minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. Apparently, it’s traditionally eaten as breakfast food but I could eat it any time of day. You dip it in a special dipping sauce and it’s usually garnished with cilantro and sauteed crispy scallions. Part One was my mom making the sauteed scallions. Here is the second and final part. Enjoy the video.

Editing and annotating the video has given me a craving. I guess now that I know how to make these crepes, I can try… OR I can just be a lazy daughter and wait til I go home to Houston next. Hee.

In comparison to 2008, 2009 was awful! The one thing I can think of that 2009 had over 2008 was that I read more than double the books I read in 2008. I’m anticipating the fresh feel of a new year that is 2010. In the meantime, here’s a review of how my year has gone with heavier emphasis on my blessings verses my misfortunes.

Note: All links open in a new window.

January 2009

• Celebrated New Years with Alan and his friends.
• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.
• Saw one of my favorite movies of the year, Slumdog Millionaire.
• Kim sent me Tiff’s Treats at work to cheer me up about something.

Celebrating New Year’s with the boyfriend

February 2009

• Alan took me to my third Killer’s concert as a Christmas gift.
• Tried out Joe Dimaggio’s for the first of three times this year. Went as a Valentine’s date with Alan.
• Got flowers from Alan at work.
• Alan, his roommate, and I all played Bingo for the first time.
• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.

Alan and I at the Killer’s Concert

March 2009

• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.
• Went to my first rodeo with some work friends and Brandi.
• Ate at Mighty Fine for the first time, now my favorite burger joint of the year.
• Celebrated Brandi’s birthday at Pete’s Dueling Pianos.

Rodeo, Austin, TX

April 2009

• Went to Houston for my daddy’s birthday.
• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.
• Was supposed to be Jamie’s date for a wedding. We got lost in West Austin and ended up exploring Salado, Texas instead.
• Celebrated Selina’s birthday at her house on same day Jamie and I almost went to that wedding.

Selina’s Birthday

May

• Worked a lot; logged a lot of hours.
• Visited San Francisco for the first time and went with Alan. It was our first vacation together and we ate very very well.
• Put in notice at my Clincial Research Job and thus ending that career path (for now at least?)
• I finished out May working at that job and I stopped logging too many hours.
• Celebrated Sae’s graduation from Law School.
• Kim visited from Houston for Memorial Day Weekend.
• Katambra introduced me to a snowcone stand that I frequented often in the summer.
• Saw Star Trek in IMAX, was surprised to love it.

Celebrating Sae’s law school graduation

June 2009

• Ate at a lot of happy hours with old coworkers, with Alan, Sae, and his girlfriend with new free time.
• I took a certification class to become a teacher
• I went to Houston for Father’s Day
• Kim and I tried out Feast, voted best new restaurant in Houston by a handful of magazines.
• I saw Thomas in Houston and we ate at Fufu’s.
• Went on a lot of double dates with Sae and Young. (Here’s our first time at North)

Cindy and me at Grand Lux Cafe in Houston

July

• Celebrated Fourth of July with Brandi and her boyfriend at Zilker Park..
• Went on a lot of double dates with Sae and Young.
• Went to Houston for my mom’s birthday.
• Saw Cindy in Houston and we ate at Classic Kitchen.
• Kim and I discovered Hugo’s, hands down my favorite restaurant in 2009.
• Moved in with my current roommate, and long time friend, Brandi.
• Celebrated my birthday with tons of great people at Trailer Park Eatery.
• At one point, had 4 bouquets of flowers delivered at our apartment and they were all to me from different people. Felt very loved.
• I took and passed my state certification test to become a middle school teacher for science.

Brandi and me on Fourth of July

August

• The first two weeks of August, I tried to squeeze in as much time as I can with Alan because he was about to leave for Korea for up to 4.5 months.
• Starting, August 16, I started counting days Alan was gone.
• Kim came to visit the weekend of the 22nd and we saw Wicked.
• I saw 500 Days of Summer three times this month, in theatre, of course. This is the first movie I’ve done that.
• Jon visited from NYC.
• I got a part-time, part-time (yes you read that right) job, thanks to Brittany dropping a good word for me.

Alan’s last night out with friends before going to Korea.

September

• Hosted the first Alphabet pot luck. We started with the letter P.
• Wrote a blog entry about my journals, surprisingly my favorite blog entry of the year.
• Friends and I got dressed up for Deesh’s brother’s wedding reception.
• Visited Mary Ellen for a long weekend in Boston. First time I’ve gone to see her since 2005. Had best breakfast ever at Mike and Patty’s and most interesting hot pot.
• Alan surprised me by coming home from Korea early.
• Went out for Selina’s Bachelorette Party.

October

• Celebrated Alan’s birthday at Joe Dimaggio’s. Was very happy to have him back in Texas and to be able to celebrate his birthday with him and take him as a date to weddings. He had good timing :)
• Stood in Selina & Ryan’s Wedding and witnessed strong love.
• Realised I don’t really want to be a teacher.
• Threw 2nd Alphabet Potluck.
• Dressed up as a cow girl for Halloween.

November

• Went to Wurst Fest with friends.
• Went to Cathedral of Junk for the first time with Brandi.
• Texas Renaissance with Jessica and Brandi
• Had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Houston where I reunited with people I don’t normally see! (Willis, Thomas, Kim, Shane, Kelvin, Chris, Aishah, Kym, Hillary, Alex)
• Had my second progressive meal this year.

Having hot chocolate at Ren Fest.

December

• I started my new full time job and kept my part time night job.
• I struggled with what it means to be someone’s family.
• I struggled with what it means to be someone’s friend.
• I made truffles for the first time!
• Saw Avatar in IMAX opening night. Awesome.
• Attended and witnessed proudly, Bing graduate from college
• Attended annual Christmas Party for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America with my little and her family.
• Jennifer from Philly is in town and I introduced her to Teucsher.
• I went home to Houston for Christmas break and was able to see Mary Ellen, Aishah, Pinky, Cindy, and Kim of course my lovely family.
• Had hot pot on Christmas day twice. Lunch with Mary Ellen and her mom and dinner with my own family. Hot potted out! (Blog entry to come.)
• Released balloons 4 days early as part of a New Year’s Tradition with Kim. (Blog entry to come.)
• Tonight, most likely will be going downtown for New Year’s and spending it with Alan.

After party in the car.

I’m a blessed girl. Instinctively, I’d tell you my 2009 was pretty awful but when I write it all out like this and focused on the good rather than the bad, I can see now I’m still quite lucky. Farewell, 2009.

Tell me how your year went. Or better yet, if you have a year in review entry, I’d love to read yours.

I know this may be obvious as I’m a Vietnamese American girl, but I really enjoy Vietnamese cuisine. I don’t get to eat it enough. Austin has an abysmal selection of Vietnamese restaurants in comparison to Houston. I think my personal appetite for Vietnamese food has finally pushed me to start learning how to cook Vietnamese dishes. As of right now, the only Asian recipes I know are Chinese and Chinese American. I wanted to start off with something pretty easy something, something I crave often, and something not easily found in Austin. Bánh cuốn appears to satisfy all three requirements.

Bánh cuốn (directly translates to “rolled cake”) is rice crepes rolled with minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. Apparently, it’s traditionally eaten as breakfast food but I could eat it any time of day. You dip it in a special dipping sauce and it’s usually garnished with cilantro and sauteed crispy scallions. Over Thanksgiving, my mom agreed to let me video her teaching me how to make bánh cuốn. Here’s part one. She’s showing me how to make the crispy sauteed scallions. I can nibble on these delightful crisps on their own. They taste like the fried onion crisps you top green been casseroles with.

My mom’s speaking in Vietnamese in the video and I’m translating. I apologize if I mumbled a little. I had just woken up.

To be continued here.

I got to Alan’s from work at 10:30 PM. We’re both leaving for our respective hometowns after we wake up in the morning and pack. At midnight I had just gotten out of the shower and was lounging in just a towel while Alan was working in his office. I was pretty damn hungry since my dinner at work was a mere pudding cup and 2 bags of chips. I tiptoed into his kitchen hoping that he still had some tacos left over from dinner yesterday. No tacos. His fridge is bare, bare, bare. I looked in his freezers. He had tater tots, wings, and garlic bread. I opted for a snack of tater tots, preheated the oven, and then waited patiently for 20 minutes for the timer to ding. Mmm. Back in college, I lived with Laila and Aishah and I remember we used to make snacks of just tater tots. Aishah and I would have them with mustard. This was the happy memory I was nursing as I waited.

Halfway through my snack, Alan came out. He noticed I’m just in my towel.

“Put some clothes on!! It’s been an hour!”

I didn’t know what the big deal was. I’m in a towel. So what?! He practically PUSHED me into the bedroom. “Put some clothes on!!”

I humored him and was putting on a sweatshirt when the light bulb came on. THE MANIPULATIVE BOY WAS DISTRACTING ME FROM MY OWN SNACK! By the time I got back, my tots were gone!!

Thief!! I should have known better after him ninja stealing my organic lollipop last week while I was in the shower.

We went back to the freezer and decided a meal was in order. Out came the rest of the tater tots, the garlic bread, and the frozen buffalo wings. It was an impromptu feast.

Although it was a meal made of default items already in the freezer, it made me happy as technically, we’re spending the first few hours of Thanksgiving together and we broke bread.

Being a neophyte in the kitchen, I often have a lot of questions when I make desserts. I usually call Mary Ellen, Brandi, or Cindy asking for assistance. I’ve asked them questions ranging from, When are the cookies “done” and okay to pull out? to What kind of butter should I use, unsalted or salted? Thank goodness for patient friends. I usually use up 1-3 lifelines every time I make something sweet. For the pumpkin parfaits that I made for last Friday’s Thanksgiving potluck, I initially bugged Selina.

For this recipe, Selina schooled me on where to find Ginger Snaps (cookie aisle, who would have thunk it?) and what the difference between whisking and beating is.

Whisking, you’d do by hand with a whisk.

Beating, you can use the hand mixer!

Simple enough. I swiped the recipe from Gourmet.com. I doubled this recipe and shared with Alan and his buddy and Bing and Deesh.

I used one more lifeline and gchated Shane. I didn’t know what folding was and had a little help. Even made a video about it!

After I finished folding, the pumpkin color lightened up.

I assembled and set the parfaits to sit prettily in Alan’s fridge to chill overnight.

I had a parfait to test the next morning and my verdict is that this is a keeper. I’d use more cookies next time because it was a bit too much on the cream layers. I LOVE the pumpkin layer. Apparently a lot of the girls at work do not like pumpkin or are allergic to cinnamon. However, Brittany, Deesh, and Bing claim they enjoyed it!

Jessica’s birthday was last weekend but she was out of town. We wanted to go somewhere to celebrate with her on Wednesday but she had a test she had to study. Since we’re all on really tight budgets, she said she had a coupon for a medium sized pizza from Double Dave’s. I had some chicken in the fridge, and Brandi thought that maybe making some kind of chicken pizza would complete the pizza party. I picked the first recipe I found on Allrecipes.com: BBQ Chicken Pizza.

The new ingredient to me this time were molasses and cilantro. I grew up on A LOT of cilantro as it’s a very popular in Vietnamese cuisine and I love Mexican food. But I’ve never officially cooked with it. (I’m really intimidated by Vietnamese cooking, I must start tackling that soon.) Molasses is new to me too. I only used a teaspoon of my new bottle of molasses. I think I’m going to try molasses sugar cookies as my next baking adventure. This was an easy weeknight dinner. Easy cleanup and fast! Recipe follows with my modifications in a bit. I cutback the brown sugar because reviews on Allrecipes.com mentioned it was too sweet.

I would make this again for friends. I, myself usually don’t crave BBQ chicken pizza. It wasn’t too sweet with less brown sugar and I’d keep that modification.

Edit: Alan had a couple of slices last night and he said it was “awesome.”

This is the chicken sauce mixture on my prebaked pizza crust.

I sprinkled onions on one side planning on giving the option of slices with no onion. I screwed up and didn’t mark what side had onions. Doh!

Recipe called for one cup cheese, I used 2 cups!

Baked and done!

Jessica takes pictures of her birthday pizzas.

Recipe serves 8

Ingredients
3 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed
1 cup hickory flavored barbeque sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon molasses
1/3 cup 1/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 (12 inch) pre-baked pizza crust
1 cup smoked Gouda cheese pizza cheese mixture, shredded
1 cup thinly sliced red onion white onions

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine chicken, barbeque sauce, honey, molasses, brown sugar and cilantro. Bring to a boil.
Spread chicken mixture evenly over pizza crust, and top with cheese and onions. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Anyway, I lost that recipe and the most recent time I’ve made shrimp scampi was a super easy no flour no wine recipe, I found on foodnetwork.com via Barefoot Contessa and I made it maybe two years ago when Alan and I were still roommates. I recently made Alan and me shrimp tempura (I used a tempura mix) maybe last week and I remembered I still have half a pound leftover of shrimp in my freezer. The Barefoot Contessa recipe came to mind and was appealing because it’s super low maintenance, fast, and easy. I still had parsley from the Chicken Scarpariello I made 5 days prior so I had all the ingredients lying around and no trip to the supermarket was needed! This was dinner Sunday night for Brandi and me.

I googled how to keep parsley fresh. I usually end up having to throw fresh parsley out because they wilt almost instantly in the fridge. Apparently, you store them similar to how you would flowers! You cut the bottoms off the stems, put them in a water vase, wrap the bunch with a paper towel to soak up extra moisture and then you loosely tie a plastic bag around the vase. I tried this technique 5 days before and the parsley was still fresh! Neat.

This recipe serves 3.

Sauteing the shrimp

Tossing the linguine with the sauce and lemon zest

Voila, and serve!

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
Kosher salt
3/4 pound linguine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1 pound large shrimp (about 16 shrimp), peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 lemon, zest grated
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced in half-rounds
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Directions
Drizzle some oil in a large pot of boiling salted water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the linguine, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or according to the directions on the package.

Meanwhile, in another large (12-inch), heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Be careful, the garlic burns easily! Add the shrimp, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and the pepper and saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat, add the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and red pepper flakes. Toss to combine.

When the pasta is done, drain the cooked linguine and then put it back in the pot. Immediately add the shrimp and sauce, toss well, and serve.

I tried a new recipe last week, Chicken Scarpariello and I used Rachel Ray’s recipe off of the Foodnetwork. I still consider myself a cooking novice and this recipe was fun for me because I’ve never cooked with Orzo before and haven’t even heard of cherry peppers. I enjoy learning new things!

What are cherry peppers?

So the recipe called for 3 cherry peppers, drained. I used “drained” as my clue and just looked at where jarred jalapenos are at the groceries which are in the same aisle as jared olives. Sure enough, that’s where Cherry Peppers were. They’re kind of cute. See below.

They’re also very seedy. Hint, wash your hands after handling! I didn’t. :(

Rachel Ray’s Recipe

Overall, it’s a pretty easy recipe with a lot of heat. I followed it to a T. Here’s the Chicken Scarpariello about done. I especially love the lemony orzo. These recipes are being filed under keeper!

Served over Orzo with Parsley and Lemon Zest.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 hot cherry peppers, drained and chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped or thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or broth
1/4 cup chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
2 tablespoons juice from hot pepper jar

Directions
Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Cut chicken into large chunks and season with salt and pepper and poultry seasoning. Add 1 tablespoon extra-virgin oil to the hot pan, 1 turn in a slow stream. Set chicken into pan and do not turn for 2 or 3 minutes or you will tear the meat. Brown chicken 3 minutes on each side and then remove all of the chicken to a warm plate. Add bell peppers, hot peppers and garlic to the pan. Saute the peppers and garlic for 5 minutes, tossing and turning them frequently. Add wine to the pan and reduce 1 minute. Scrape up the pan drippings. Add the chicken stock and bring it up to a bubble. Set the chicken back into the pan. Toss the parsley with the chicken and peppers and cook the chicken through, 2 or 3 minutes. Scatter a little hot pepper juice over the pan and serve the Scarpariello over a bed of lemon orzo. WOW!

Orzo with Parsley and Lemon Zest:

1/2 pound orzo
Coarse salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
2 large lemons, zested
Black pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls

Cook orzo in salted water about 12 minutes, to al dente. Drain orzo well. Do not run under cold water. You want the cooked pasta to remain hot. Transfer pasta to a serving bowl. Drizzle orzo with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add lemon zest and parsley and toss to combine the flavors with the pasta.

Last night for a late late dinner, I made us Chicken Marsala and Dutch Potatoes. We have a bunch of potatoes around so I was searching around looking at potato recipes. I wasn’t in the mood for mashed potatoes as I made Shepherd’s Pie just last week but I stumbled on a recipe for Dutch Potatoes that I thought was so intriguing! You basically mash up potatoes and carrots together. Carrots! How perfect! Alan also has a bunch of carrots he bought hoping to snack on but he has so much of it hanging out in the fridge. It’s a good way to sneak some real veggies (Potatoes are really just a fake veggie, aren’t they? So starchy. But the carrots are definitely a REAL veggie) into our meal. After making this, I learned that carrots take a lot longer to boil tender than potatoes. Next time, I will boil them separately and longer. I think it’s suppose to be more blended but I ended up having chunks of carrot in my potatoes. Next time I will also add more onions than the recipe called for and maybe mix in some bacon.

Oh! P.S. I forgot the chives. Ooops.

Recipe serves 2 (I scaled it to serve 8 so we could get rid of the carrots)

Ingredients
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons butter
2 cups peeled, cubed potatoes
1 cup sliced fresh carrots
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt snipped chives

Directions
In a small skillet, saute onion in butter for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, place potatoes and carrots in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain. In a small mixing bowl, mash potatoes and carrots. Beat in onion, sour cream and salt. Sprinkle with chives.

I’ve never made Chicken Marsala before I order it often enough to know this was a recipe I wanted to try. It’s amazingly easy. I had no idea it’s such a simple dish. You mainly just bread your chicken and cook it in Sherry and Marsala wine.

Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients
1/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – pounded 1/4 inch thick
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1/4 cup cooking sherry

Directions
In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.
In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Turn over chicken pieces, and add mushrooms. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

For dessert we had some festive cupcakes and brownies taken home from work.

The icing smudges were from my 30 minute transit not from my licking it. Though, that would be a very educated guess.

So I have something to say about those cupcakes. They were from HEB and I’m usually not an icing kind of girl. A while ago, I wrote about a delicious cupcake I had at Austin’s first Cupcake Smackdown. I swooned over their icing! Here is the excerpt from that entry.

Upstairs on the rooftop was where are the goodies were and where I ran into Peter Tsai, food blogger, photographer, and engineer (For serious!) who was also a judge at this event. I asked him what cupcake he recommended. He pointed at the yellow cupcake from Wicked Cakes, a cupcake and cake catering company. He likened them to HEB cupcakes which prompted me add HEB cupcakes to my next HEB grocery list. I picked the chocolate with peanut butter cream icing. I don’t usually enjoy icing as most are just too starchy, thick, and too sweet for me but the peanut butter cream was light, fluffy, and HEAVENLY. I gobbled the whole thing up icing and all.

- August 2009

Fast forward 2 months, I have my first HEB cupcake and there is the icing again! I talked to Mary Ellen about this icing and she was telling me that it must be a buttercream frosting that is just whipped differently. I was skeptical because I hate buttercream. I learned today that the frosting is called Elite frosting. I’m so happy to know this.

Yum :)

I’ve been cooking more in efforts to not eat out so much and I’ve also been experimenting with new recipes. One of the recent meals consisted of Tilapia baked with capers and oregano with a side dish of Succotash. Both recipes were new and I got off of Epicurious.

The fish I overdid on the salt. It had flavor but was a bit too salty for me. I subsituted the olives that the recipe called for for capers since Alan doesn’t like olives. I fricking love olives.

The Succotash, Alan enjoyed because it was healthy. It was too clean and light a bite for me and made me crave french fries. I used edamame instead of lima beans. I’m definitely going to save the succotash recipe for later. It gets you fresh veggies and adds a lot of color to your meals, a win win situation. The fish is a good basic recipe. It makes me sad I over salted but I’ll probably try to find more adventurous fish recipes in the future or use my older fish recipes.

Recipes sharing time.

Fish Fillets with Olives & Oregano

Ingredients

4 (1 1/4-inch-thick) pieces white-fleshed skinless fish fillets, such as halibut (6 oz each)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 very thin lemon slices
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup pitted brine-cured green olives such as picholine, halved lengthwise (2 oz) 3 tablespoons of capers
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

Preparation

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Pat fish dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sear fillets, skinned sides down, until browned well, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer, seared sides up, to baking dish (reserve skillet), then top each fillet with a slice of lemon.

Add wine to skillet and bring to a boil, scraping up any brown bits. Boil 30 seconds, then pour around fish. Scatter olives around fish and bake, uncovered, until fish is just cooked through, 8 to 12 minutes.

Transfer fish to a platter, then whisk lemon juice, oregano, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil into cooking liquid in baking dish. Season sauce with salt and pepper and spoon over fish.

Succotash

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
Coarse kosher salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 cups chopped red tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 1/4 cups corn kernels cut from 4 ears of corn (preferably 2 ears of white corn and 2 ears of yellow corn)
2 cups fresh lima beans (from about 2 pounds pods) or 10 to 11 ounces frozen lima beans or baby butter beans, thawed a bag of edamame
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
print a shopping list for this recipe

Preparation

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sprinkle with coarse salt. Sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, corn, and lima beans. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until corn and lima beans are tender and tomatoes are soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm before continuing.

Stir in basil and serve.