Runaway October

One of my lit­tle broth­ers talked about going to culi­nary school at one point. Since then he’s kinda dropped the dream, but I think he would be awe­some at it and I’m try­ing to stoke up that dream again. I asked him recently if there was any­thing he would like to try and cook and he responded with Stuffed Bell Pep­pers. Awe­some! We all love stuffed pep­pers here.

I came across this recipe at Sim­ply Recipes and it sounded like just the ticket. We took pic­tures, as they turned out beau­ti­fully, but some­how Mom’s cam­era ATE them — that’s how good they were. We dou­bled the recipe eas­ily, but should have quadru­pled it for leftovers!

I think one of the things that made it so good was not cook­ing the ham­burger ahead of time. In essence you’re just cook­ing the meat twice which dries it out. These needed noth­ing but a side of gar­lic bread.

Dad’s Stuffed Bell Pep­pers, from Sim­ply Recipes.

Ingre­di­ents

Matt will eat just about any­thing that has to do with bratwursts, even sauer­kraut, which he nor­mally wont touch. I, on the other hand, love it. Declan’s lit­tle taste buds are still so fresh that sauer­kraut is over­pow­er­ing for him and he can’t eat it fresh. We were eager to try this recipe because it had a cou­ple things we all enjoyed.

The first attempt I left in our can­tan­ker­ous crock pot for too long — it burnt.
The sec­ond attempt was just off.
The third attempt was a dou­ble batch and there wasn’t room for the pota­toes, so it was off as well.
Finally on our fourth attempt it turned out really good — we all agreed.

While I’m not sure it’s the great­est meal nutri­tion­ally, it’s good com­fort food. Espe­cially for those of us who love sauer­kraut and bratwurst. It’s a nice blend of tangy and sweet. I add mus­tard to mine. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll admit that the thought of Kale and Lentils has never been appeal­ing to me — either together or by them­selves. But when Heidi of 101 Cook­books shared this recipe I couldn’t help but think it sounded deli­cious. The trick would be get­ting Matt to eat it.

I tried being all nonchalant-like, very matter-of-fact. “We’re hav­ing Lentils and Kale for din­ner.” While in the back of my mind I was really hop­ing that it would turn out okay. While still preg­nant with Rowan, my mid­wife would tell me to eat up on things like Kale and Swiss Chard because they were so high in bio-available iron which would obvi­ously help keep my blood iron lev­els up. I have to admit that I didn’t try either one. I had visions of munch­ing on a piece of bit­ter let­tuce and my stom­ach rolled. That’s all it takes for a preg­nant lady.

But my mother and I were pleas­antly sur­prised at how much we liked it. Matt was indif­fer­ent but he’ll have to live with it. I was plan­ning on putting an over-medium egg on top, but for­got. Matt would have liked it that way.

Lentil Soup, from 101 Cook­books

Ingre­di­ents

• 2 cups black bel­uga lentils (or green French lentils), picked over and rinsed
• 1 table­spoon extra vir­gin olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tea­spoon fine-grain sea salt
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cup water
• 3 cups of a big leafy green (chard, kale, etc), rinsed well, deveined, finely chopped

Saf­fron Yogurt

• a pinch of saf­fron (30−40 threads)
• 1 table­spoon boil­ing water
• two pinches of salt
• 1/2 cup 2% Greek Yogurt

Direc­tions

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan, add the lentil, and cook for 20 min­utes, or until ten­der. Drain and set aside.
2. While the lentils are cook­ing, make the saf­fron yogurt by com­bin­ing the saf­fron threads and boil­ing water in a tiny cup. Let the saf­fron steep for a few min­utes. Now stir the saf­fron along with the liq­uid into the yogurt. Mix in the salt and set aside.
3. Mean­while, heat the oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat, then add the onion and salt and sauté until ten­der, a cou­ple min­utes. Stir in the toma­toes, lentils, and water and con­tinue cook­ing for a few more min­utes, let­ting the soup come back up to a sim­mer. Stir in the chopped greens, and wait another minute. Taste and adjust the sea­son­ing if need be. Ladle into bowls, and serve with a dol­lop of the saf­fron yogurt.

Serves 6 to 8.

Vari­a­tions:

- You can serve it with a poached egg on top,
– or crunchy, fried shal­lots,
– with a driz­zle of chive infused cream,
– or with chunks of tiny pan-fried but­ter­nut squash cubes.

- Make a thicker ver­sion by using just a bit of water, and then spoon it over an omelette in the morning.

- Have some cooked farro or wheat berries around? Toss some in. Mil­let might be good too.

- You can fin­ish the soup by adding your favorite spices or spice blends. Smoked paprika, crushed chiles, toasted cumin, would all work nicely.

Mom’s birth­day was Sun­day and I have this whole long thought­ful post all scram­bled in my brain. It’s shy and does not want to come out. Hope­fully I can coerce it soon.

Also, I hemmed a set of my Ikea cur­tains today…
They are not straight…
Nor are they the same length…
I have mar­velous tal­ent, no?