Curried Lentils

Lentils! Yay! Let me start by saying I loosely followed this recipe, and boy do I wish I had some sweet potatoes when I made it, not because it wasn't delicious without them, but it just looks and sounds like it would be oh so much better with them. But alas, we did not have any sweet potatoes in the apartment. Also I feel as though every non-sweet baking recipe I made starts with, let's cook up some onions in oil. And honestly, I don't have any problems with this situation!

Ginger. Garlic. If you've followed this blog even a little, you know that these also rank high on things I love using. Instead of the recommended spice amounts I just took a table spoon and filled it almost 3/4s of the way with curry powder, most of the rest with cinnamon, and a little bit of ground cumin. This seemed to work fine. I also forgot to add salt at any point in time. Oops. But I also figure that vegetable broth tends to have a high enough sodium content for this not to be a huge problem. Which really, it didn't turn out to be a problem.

I did not have, nor want, jalapeños. I'm just not that into spice. But we do have a bag full of little peppers in our fridge, so I chopped up four of those and threw them in the mix. No swiss chard for me (I'm not even that sure really what it is), like the salt I forgot black pepper, no cilantro (I wish! Lilly doesn't like it though), lime juice yes, zest no, bay leaf yeah sure we had that, no almonds or scallions (though I'd add them if you have 'em), and when it seemed to be a bit dry I added milk instead of more stalk, cause I'm just that kind of rebel. 

After covering it and letting it simmer for 25 minutes it was ready to eat. I threw it over rice and had a delightful lunch. Then I took a nap, but that's a different story. See you next Tuesday!

Peanut Sesame Noodles

There is almost nothing I love more in this world than noodles. I think I have already spoken to this subject before, but here is how I have been preparing my noodles lately, that's perfect for a summer lunch (though I suggest cooking them in the cool of the night, no one wants to boil water during the hot summer days :/ )

Sometimes I use Lo Mein. Sometimes I use Soba. Usually I use a mix of the two. 

While the water is boiling and the noodles are cooking I prepare the sauce in the microwave. First I chop up some ginger and put it in for 30 seconds. 

Then I chop up some garlic and onions and pop it in the microwave for another 30 seconds. 

Into the bowl goes sesame oil, thai peanut grill sauce, soy sauce, peanut butter and brown sugar.

 I microwave that for about a minute to a minute and a half, then stir it up. Once the noodles are done cooking and drained I mix them all together. Garnish with some variety of green onion. Now it's pretty good right then and there. It's even better the next day after it's been in the fridge if you eat it cold (though it gets a little less noodly this way, but I don't even care). Perfect summer lunch. Seriously. Pair it with an apple (side note: I eat a lot of apples). See you next Tuesday!

WIne Cocktail

This simple summer wine cocktail is born of a certain life experience. While I was studying abroad we realized that while the really cheap wine was way better than cheap wine in America ... it was still cheap wine that didn't taste top notch. The solution? Orange Fanta. When mixed with cheap wine, it made the wine a delight to swig down compared to before. So this drink here is an homage to those long spring nights of pre-gaming before wandering around and enjoying the Greek island life. Heck, throw a shot of brandy in this and I'll even let you call it sangria!

Step One: Start with a glass. (yes this is one of the ones I cut myself)

Step Two: Frozen berries.

Step Three: Wine.

Step Four: Orange soda. Sidenote: this Sanpellegrino blood orange soda is fantastic in general!

Bottoms up! and I'll see you next Tuesday!

Popsicles

So I don't know about where all you are, but here in New England we've had some fucking hot weeks this summer. Which has led to the perpetual making of popsicles in our freezer. We like to use Goya fruit nectars for a couple of reasons. A) One can is the exact correct amount to make our set of monster pops (though it comes up a little short with our other pop mold, but we just throw a little something random into that last pop). B) It's super cheap. 50 cents a can, which makes 4 popsicles cheap. And nothing is more delightful than a fruit ice pop on a hot summers day...well as far as eating goes I suppose. Enjoy these pictures of the adorable monster pops (and the clutter of our freezer) and I'll see you next Tuesday!