Red Lentils and Peppers

Late summer here and I'm beginning to have a hankering for soups, stews, and slurries, but the reality of all the garden produce that is stacked up on counters and chilling in the fridge cannot be ignored. So this evening super chilled cucumber fast pickle cools the palate between bites of this simple lentil/pepper slurry on a bed of caraway rice.

Lentil and Roasted Tomato Soup

The past few days have been grey and misty. We've actually burnt more wood in the past couple weeks than we did for the entire month of April. The damp, raw chill has put me off a bit. I haven't walked as much as I'd like. The soil isn't warming up, as it should so that we can get to planting. Everything seems to be in a state of suspension, while we wait and wait for Spring to show her colors. Even our daffodils have been cheated this year! The first blooms were snapped off or flattened by that snow storm we had a few weeks ago. The stalwart buds that came after the melt have been slow to develop and less showy without their neighboring blooms.

We are in need of color!

Lentil Stew with Roasted Tomatoes and Spiced Almonds

Another brilliant showing by my friend, Nigel Slater ... this, a perfect stew for a cold, raw day when all you want to do is curl on the couch and let the stove and a heavy pot do the trick. The tomatoes are actually a riff on Diana Henry's roasted tomatoes sans bread crumbs and with Nigel's cinnamon-spiced almonds.

SB was skeptical when I told him that his stew was being topped with these sweet red beauties and cinnamon ("Cinnamon ?!?") toasted nuts. He ended up cleaning them up and backing down on his Yankee cynicism.

IHCC - Ottolenghi's Spiced Red Lentils and the Colors of Summer

Welcome to the first day of summer! Summer colors like warm terra cotta tiles and bright green grass and cool puffy clouds abound in this spicy dish that I found in Ottolenghi's Guardian column archives. He says he likes to have it in any season when he needs a warm comfy supper ... which is exactly how I approached it yesterday! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... way back machine ...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January and the 'Must Make' Soup List ...

If you take a look at the sidebar of The Spice Garden this month, you'll find my personal 'must make' list of soups. I am finding such inspiration around the web and from my friends' foodblogs! I'm also digging around in my cook book collection looking for some new inspiration. I invite all of you, dear readers and friends, to make your own list of  'must make' soups ... and post a few! I'll be looking around the web all month. By the time February arrives, I'm hoping to have a whole list of soups for experimenting with for the rest of the winter!

The Art of Being Alone ... and Good Supper

 

When you have good soup and warm bread and really good butter, it's okay to be alone for supper. Just sayin' ...

Middle Eastern Lentils and Peppers with a Side of Rice

My sweetheart has been gone for two weeks ... he's a long-distance bike riding maniac. My brother, Rich is his cronie and partner in insanity. They took a big loop of a trip from New Hampshire to Boston to Cape Cod to the Rhode Island and Connecticut coasts to Long Island to New York City to the Hudson Valley to western Massachusetts and back to New Hampshire. The weather has been less than stellar for the past couple weeks, so I wanted their welcome home meal to be hot, comforting and simple. I thought they would be wet, hungry, and tired ... and I was correct. Last evening, the guys dragged themselves and all their gear into the house at around 6 PM. They'd been riding since 7 AM. Boy, did they look haggard, but lo and behold ... dinner was just being placed on the platter! It was piping hot and so comforting! When I grinned and chortled, " Just in time for dinner !", they  asked, "Are you clairvoyant? How did you do this?" There was no clairvoyance. It was luck, folks. Pure luck.

Random Recipe - First or Last ?

This month Dom has challenged us to randomly pick a cookbook and decide whether to make the very first or the very last recipe in said book. Well, THAT'S fun! We get to choose this month!

My random cook book is one that is a recent addition to the collection. It's called Farmstead Chef and it has a mish mash of recipes that revolve around homesteading and agricultural advocacy - that is, families on small farms and in residential settings that use their homes and acreage for producing their own foods and supporting the local farmers that supplement with their fresh and local produce. The key here is homemade, preserved, less processed and more fresh and local meats and produce, and making the process of mealtimes a family affair. The authors are enthusiastic and fun-loving and the recipes reflect that ... the book has everything from homemade play dough and homemade cocoa mix for the kids to  Rhubarb Cordial and Creamy Leek Pastries for the more sophisticated palate ... it's a good little cookbook.

I chose to make the last recipe in the book - Lentil and Polish Sausage Soup. It's been a chilly cloudy day here and I have a big loaf of multigrain bread and a chunk of Cheddar that would sit nicely beside a big hot bowl of soup.

Turkish Carrots and Lentils

Cheap, nutritious, spicy, and good! That's it in a nutshell! Excellent with grilled meats and a plain green vegetable or salad to cool the palate ... make these! Really! I found the recipe in a Diana Henry cookbook called Plenty.

Chicken and Red Lentil Soup

Soup and crackers ... one of the simplest and most wonderful of comfort foods.

I am trying to be positive about my life right now, but boy, when changes come along that you really don't want to acknowledge, it's time for comfort food and a whack up side of the head. Well, I got my whack the other evening when I had the epiphany that I REALLY need to lose weight  ... for my health, for my comfort, for my self-image, for my husband and kids, for posterity, for every good reason in the world. Won't go into the gory details, but let's just say that I decided to finally do something about my situation.

So ... to keep myself honest, I'm divulging my big step. I joined Weight Watchers.