Vegetable Lentil Soup

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm starting to get that Christmasy urge -- the one that makes me believe it's totally sensible to stay up till midnight stringing lights just so on the Christmas tree, or re-arrange the furniture to accomodate another Christmas tree, or generally string tinsel and garland over anything and anyone foolish enough to stand still while I rush about in a holiday frenzy. Some people would write this off to a typical young married woman's urge to create the "perfect holiday," something that no sane person has ever attempted, nor achieved. No, in truth, I rush around and get too little sleep because I truly believe this is the most wonderful time of the year. There's a feeling I get at the holidays that I don't really have any other time of the year -- everyone is kinder and friendlier (unless your holding the last Tickle-Me-Elmo doll still available for purchase, in which case, people are vicious, but still...).

Anyway, for several years (ever since I got married, as it turns out), I have been wanting to make soups in the late fall. Thick, luxurious, warming soups that I can eat with a chunk of warm crusty bread while curled under a fleecy blanket. Don't that sound wonderful? Ah, but sadly, life has always gotten in the way: there are errands to run, papers to grade, clothes to launder...you know what I mean.

But this year, I vowed, would be the year that I actually followed through and made...something!

So tonight, on my way home from school, I stopped at the store and picked up the ingredients for Vegetable Lentil Soup. Overall, it came together easily and is bubbling merrily away as I sit here, typing. For anyone keeping track, this is yet another Ina Garten recipe, although healthier than most of her other recipes. I liked that too -- I need to be watching my girlish figure as we head into the holidays (the better to scarf down my grandmother's cookies and other assorted goodies on Christmas Day!).

Vegetable Lentil Soup
Slightly Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ingredients:
1 pound French green lentils
4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 large onionss)
4 cups chopped leeks, white part only (about 2 leeks)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves) -- I used more; I love garlic!
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 Tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves (or about 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cups medium-diced celery (8 stalks)
3 cups medium-diced carrots (4-6 carrots)
*2 cans diced tomatoes
3 quarts chicken stock
1/4 cup tomato paste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

**Denotes my addition to the recipe -- I never met a vegetable soup that I didn't want to add more veggies to!

Directions:
In a large bowl, cover the lentils with boiling water and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large stockpot on medium heat, saute the onions, leeks, and garlic with the olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and cumin for about 20 minutes, until the vegetables are translucent and very tender. Add the celery and carrots and saute for 10 more minutes. Add the chicken stock, tomato paste, and lentils. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, until the lentils are cooked through. Double check the seasonings and adjust if needed. Serve hot and enjoy!

Christmas Cookie Ornaments

I have given in...

It's only November 11th, and in the past week I have caught myself humming Christmas carols, planning holiday cooking, scheming ways to sneakily purchase Christmas gifts, and generally getting into the Christmas spirit nearly a month too early.

Each time I realize I'm doing one of these things I guiltily force myself to stop. I caution myself to enjoy each day (it's been ludicrously warm around here lately, so it hasn't been difficult to do that...but still...), stop and smell the roses, whatever I can to distract myself from Christmasy thoughts.

Well, I officially give up. I've thrown in the towel, I'm waving the white flag -- basically, pick your favorite metaphor for surrendering -- I"m doing it!

I found a recipe at allrecipes.com for a white cookie dough ornament. In the past, I've made gingerbread-looking ornaments with cinnamon, but hadn't found a good recipe for a white flour/bread dough-type ornament....until now.

Yesterday I made a double-batch of the ornament dough and stuck it in the fridge before running errands and going back to work for a couple hours. The dough was simple, came together easily, and has only three (inexpensive) ingredients. Today I had lots of fun cutting out all sorts of shapes using cookie cutters, and even worked on a couple free-form ornaments.

Best of all (or the worst, depending on your perspective), the house smells like baking sugar cookies. It's wonderful for the house to smell so good, but the downside is that the dough isn't meant to be eaten. Let me say again: THIS IS AN INEDIBLE RECIPE!!!

Here's the recipe. I'll be posting pictures of cookies as they are finished.

Christmas Ornament Cookie Dough:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cup of warm water

Combine flour and salt in a bowl and mix well. Slowly add water, mixing as you go. When all the water has been incorporated, stir well (no need to worry about developing those glutens!). When you've mixed the dough as well as possible in the bowl, dump onto a well-floured board and knead until the dough is smooth and supple. You can either use the dough immediately or refrigerate it until ready to use.

When you are ready to make cookies, you can either pull, squish, and squeeze pleasing shapes from the dough or roll it to about 1/4 inch thick and cut using cookie cutters. Either way works well.

Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour.

*Mine got a little brown after an hour, so for the second batch I cut the cooking time to around 45 minutes. Bottom line: use your best judgment.

For decorating cookie dough ornaments, I have found that using fabric paint (also known as "puffy paint," those of us alive in the '80s probably remember this as the last word in fashionable t-shirts) accurately simulates the look of royal icing on cookies. After that, I raid the local craft store for buttons, beads, etc. -- anything that resembles candies, dragees, and other decorations.

French Apple Tart

*Pictures Coming Soon!*

As I think I've mentioned in the past, I'm a little addicted to watching the Food Network. One of my favorite shows is Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa. I know a lot of people (including my parents...hi, Mom and Dad!) who think she's dull as dishwater to watch, but everything she makes always looks so good and is so simple. Perhaps the problem isn't that her show is dull, but that people are easily bored by the deceptively simple (yet awesome) recipes she makes. Either way, I've yet to find a recipe from Barefoot Contessa that hasn't become a fast favorite.


Today's recipe was slightly scarier than my average Ina recipe, however. You see, I have a mental block/phobia regarding my ability to make pastries, breads, biscuits, etc. I believe my phobia on the subject goes back to the first year I was married and tried to follow a recipe for homemade buttermilk biscuits. Somehow, instead of being a sticky, but cohesive dough, what I got was a *liquid* (I know, ewwwwww, right?). Anyway, I have shied away from recipes of that sort ever since (the closest I've come since is baking up a can of those Pillsbury whomp biscuits -- so named because you have to whomp the tube on the counter to get the biscuits out -- and yes, whomp is a technical term). But I digress...


What was scary about the French apple tart recipe was that it called for making my own pastry. Granted, this looks easy as can be when Ina does it on TV, but remember, I have a phobia. So it was with great trepidation (look it up, it's really a word) ;) that I started today's project. In case things went badly, I didn't take any pictures of the pastry-making part of the recipe. But here's the thing. It really WAS easy. It actually worked EXACTLY the way Ina said it would. And now, as the smell of simmering apples and cinnamon (I tweaked Ina's original recipe just a tad) fills my kitchen, I relax, sniff appreciatively, and say to you, Happy Fall! I also say to you, go make this! Right now!


French Apple Tart


Adapted From: Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics "Easy French"

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1/2 cup ice water

For the apples:

• 4 Granny Smith apples* (I only used 3 and had left-overs)
• 1/2 cup sugar* (I only used a heaping 1/4 cup -- the apples were plenty sweet already)
• Cinnamon, to taste*
• Just a tad of freshly grated nutmeg*
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced
• 1/2 cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot jam (I forgot to add this.)
• 2 tablespoons Calvados, rum, or water (I forgot to add this too. The moral? Never multi-task and make dinner while making dessert.)

*Denotes my additions/changes.

Directions

For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 by 14-inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.

Peel the apples and cut them in half through the stem. Remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife and a melon baler. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices. Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices. (I tend not to use the apple ends in order to make the arrangement beautiful.) Sprinkle with the full 1/2 cup of sugar and dot with the butter.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour*, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. Don't worry! The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine! When the tart's done, heat the apricot jelly together with the Calvados and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the jelly mixture. Loosen the tart with a metal spatula so it doesn't stick to the paper. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

*45 minutes was plenty of time.

Isn't She Lovely?

Today, in honor of my friend Cari's birthday tomorrow, I made my famous (or infamous, depending on whether or not you ask my parents about it) homemade angelfood cake. Normally, this cake (which first appeared several months ago in my blog) is flavored with lemon zest. However, in honor of Cari's birthday, I went with orange zest for this particular cake. Rebellious, yes? Then, just to prove what a wild and crazy person I really am, I covered the whole she-bang (technical term) with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache. As the title says, isn't she lovely?

Presto! Pesto

I haven't posted anything recently, not because there's nothing going on in my kitchen, but because I've been so darned busy! Between the husband's promotion at work (!!!) and going back to school, I've been busier than a one-armed paper hanger (as the saying goes).

But as I said above, that doesn't mean I've neglected my cooking...just my blog (oops). Anyway, despite being busier than ever before, I'm going to try to catch you up with all my recent cookery. For now, however, I'll leave you with last night's uber-fast dinner:

Whole Wheat Linguini with Homemade Basil-Spinach Pesto

I used Barilla Whole Wheat Linguini and cooked it according to the package directions. Of all the different types of whole wheat pasta I've tried, I think this one is the best (I find many walk a fine line between being beyond chewy and needing to be boiled to mush just so I can chew it).

Anyway, the biggest and most delightful surprise of my night was the pesto; one of a series of things I've thrown together in my food processor recently (I love that little gadget!). Here's how to make your own (and keep in mind that I just wandered the supermarket, grabbing things that looked interesting).

Ingredients:
1 package (about a cup) basil
4 cups baby spinach
1/4 cup toasted pinenuts
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
3-4 cloves chopped garlic (don't stress about chopping it, remember it's going in a food pro.)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Olive oil as needed

Directions:
Roughly chop the basil and spinach and dump it in the food processor. Add the garlic and the toasted pine nuts and walnuts, and parmesan cheese. Blend until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Once combined and with the lid on and motor running, stream in olive oil until the pesto reaches the desired consistency (I think I used between a 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup of olive oil -- I liked the chunkier texture). Toss room temperature pesto well with pasta and serve with additional parmesan cheese if you like.

*For those of you who are counting, this is the second recipe I made up all by myself! =]

Pasta Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette

We grilled tonight (as you can plainly see). We couldn't decide what to grill, so we grilled a little of everything. If you look closely at the back of the picture, you can see the grilled tilapia. This was our first experience grilling fish and I was a little worried we'd be scraping umm..."blackened" fish off the grill by the end. I should have had more faith in hubby's grilling skills; as well as in my prep skills. I doused the filets liberally in olive oil and rubbed it in well. Then I used some Pampered Chef Sweet and Smoky Barbeque rub on the fish. I love this rub and it goes particularly well with fish. The fish was absolutely delicioius! Perfection! Major props to me (and hubby!). =] As you can see from the picture, we also had burgers and hot dogs. Hubby does a great hamburger -- I season the patties with salt and pepper and while they are grilling he bastes them periodically with barbeque sauce. The hot dogs are Hebrew National. I love their slogan ("No Ifs, Ands, or Butts!") and their dogs are yummy too!

But for me, the highlight of dinner was the pasta salad I made. I didn't really have much of an idea of what I was going to make to begin with. I knew I wanted to make something healthy that would provide plenty of left-overs for lunch this coming week. So I wandered the grocery store and picked out some veggies, all familiar favorites: a red pepper, a cucumber, a pint of grape tomatoes, and a handful of green onions. My plan was starting to come together. When I got home I boiled about 1 1/2 cups of Barilla Piccolini pasta. While that was boiling, I chopped my veggies (I meant to take a picture, but forgot). Finally, with about 2 minutes to go until the pasta was ready (I should have done this first), I started to make my vinaigrette. I was basically just throwing things together, but it turned out so well that I may never buy salad dressing again!

Homemade Vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon dried parsley (I would have used fresh, but forgot to pick some up, so I improvised)

Blend all ingredients on low in a blender, then with the motor running, stream in olive oil until desired consistency is reached. I used about 1/2 cup (guesstimate) and my vinaigrette was VERY thick.

I drained my pasta, then dumped in into a large bowl and covered it with about half the vinaigrette and tossed (so the sauce could soak into the warm pasta), then added all the chopped veggies. Finally I poured the rest of the vinaigrette over the top and tossed the whole thing well.

This is the first recipe I ever created (although I'm terribly afraid that it isn't that original), and it was wonderful. The vinaigrette tasted very similar to a caesar dressing, almost as though it had parmesan cheese in it. I'm not sure what combination of ingredients did that, but it was a fortuitous coincidence.

This would be a great, simple salad to take to a picnic or potluck because it can sit at room temperature., for hours, if necessary. I plan to make this again and often! You should too! =]

Multigrain English Muffins

This weekend marked the second recipe that Emily and I chose to make and blog about together. This week, Emily chose the recipe: Multigrain English Muffins. I was excited to make these since I enjoyed Emily's multigrain bread recipe. Interestingly, the weekend we chose to make the muffins was also the weekend that my husband and I redecorated our guest bedroom. Although I guess I can't technically say we *redecorated*, since that implies that the room was decorated before. And being used for storage and generally looking like a dump isn't exactly what I'd call the latest in interior design. So, where was I? Oh, yes, we were decorating, and the last thing we had to do was hang the curtains. No problem, right? Ha -- that just shows you know nothing about me!

I started the muffins early and then left them to rise for the first time while hubby and I tackled the curtains. The curtains were ironed and hung with the maximum amount of trauma and cursing, and then I returned to check on the dough. It was supposed to rise for an hour and "double in size." Ummm...I was willing to swear under oath that the stuff hadn't moved. Huh. Around this time, Emily texted me. Her dough wasn't rising either. Okay, now, I wasn't looking forward to making and baking multigrain hockey pucks, but it was comforting to know that it wasn't necessarily my fault. After a series of texts, we agreed to leave the dough to rise for another hour. Then, regardless of how it looked, we would roll the muffins out and cut them out. I was still apprehensive, but hey, at least we had a plan.

As you can clearly see from the pictures, despite my fears, things turned out very well. The dough didn't rise nearly as much as the original recipe claimed. Overall, the muffins were very good. I've eaten them with butter and jam, used them as hamburger buns, and had them toasted with scrambled eggs. I plan to make these again, and soon! Thanks to Emily for a great recipe.

Multigrain English Muffins (Recipe Copied From The View From the Thirty-Second Floor):

Ingredients:

adapted from Martha Stewart, June 2009
Makes 13 muffins

1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
2 3/4 cups white/wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tablespoon course salt
1/4 cup flax seeds
3/4 cup milk

Combine warm water, honey, yeast and butter in the bottom of your mixer. Let stand for 5 minutes or until foamy. Make sure the dough smells like yeast or is foamy. You want to make sure you activate the yeast. Combine the flour, wheat germ, salt and flax seeds in a separate bowl. With the dough hook attachment, turn your mixer on and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk. Mixture will form a ball. Let the mixer run for about 5 minutes to knead the dough. (You can knead the dough by hand if you don't have a stand mixer)

Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead just a few times. Put the dough into a bowl brushed lightly with oil so that the dough doesn't stick. Turn the oven on warm and put the bowl on top of your oven, cover with a dish towel and let rise for 2 hours. The dough will not rise much, so don't panic. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead for 1 minute. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to 1/2 inch thick. Use a 3 inch ring cutter to form 13 dough rounds. Place the muffins onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Cover the muffins with a dish towel and let rise again, for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Place English Muffins on the skillet in batches. Cook the muffin for 7 minutes on each side. The muffin will brown - don't let it burn. Take muffins off once they are cooked on both sides. Cool. Serve immediately or put in the freezer and take them out one at a time as needed.