Bake-tastic!

Today I am making Lemon Bars from the Cook's Illustrated baking book.
I'm pretty sure other baked goods will be assembled today and tomorrow as well. No reason, just that having 2 days off with nobody in the house seemed like a good excuse to clean, and bake lots.

I'm also going to whip up my black bean and corn salad too (now, with more couscous!)

1 can goya black beans, drained and rinsed well
1 small can corn or mexicorn (anything but creamed!)
1-2 ribs of celery roughly chopped
1-2 carrots roughly chopped
1 can diced tomatoes or fresh if they're around
1/2-1 green pepper seeded and roughly chopped
Pickled banana peppers are really good in here too
Onion, diced, if you must

Mix all of the above ingredients together. If this looks like enough for you, swell! You can skip the couscous. If you like to pad this out, and eat it for a few days (like I usually do) make a batch of couscous (I tend to make a cup or a cup and a half)using whatever manner floats your boat. To top it all off use your favorite southwesterny viniagrette or...

The juice of 1/2-1 lime
a good teaspoon or so of Cumin
a pinch of red pepper flakes and/or hot sauce depending on your masochistic tendencies
red wine vinegar
olive oil
salt & Pepper

Mix together the spices & lime juice with your red wine- I like a very vinegar-y salad, so I use probably a good 1/2-3/4 cup to significantly less olive oil, but that's just me. Stream in the olive oil, and pour over the veggies and couscous.

It gets better with time, and is great for lunch. If you need to have meat, it'd probably be really tasty with chicken or steak done fajita style, but I usually don't bother with that.

A Lemon Bar update when I have one.