That Time I Accidentally Sprouted Lentils

I have a decent amount of time to think during the course of a normal day. Sometimes my thinking time comes during my morning runs, others it's during the course of my multi-hour commute. Last Tuesday, despite the near-perfect weather conditions and my pseudo-on-time escape from the office, it took me a solid 2 hours to get home. I was nothing short of livid. Thank you impromptu construction on 95-North in the middle of rush hour. It had already been a strenuous day to begin with and an epic commute was not the icing on the cake I needed. When I finally got home it was a toss up what I needed most: to urinate, eat, or guzzle a vat of wine. The very tiny silver lining in that nightmare was that it gave me the opportunity to assess what I would make for dinner the next day, after I'd spent the day working from home and was in at least mildly better spirits.

After last week's slightly epic feast, I found myself with a slew of lentils left over thanks to the lentil-based recipe grossly overestimating how many I should prepare. There are few things in life I hate more than wasting food, so I was determined to find a purpose for them other than sticking them in the freezer for safe keeping. With another wave of snow scheduled to hit my fair city on Wednesday, nothing sounded better than a homemade pot of soup.

I'm incredibly finicky with soup. If it's over 50 degrees outside, nothing sounds more off putting to me than soup. I have a very firm "no soup during summer" rule, which is slightly problematic at times like our annual August crab feast when I end up missing out on my Grandmother's crab soup more often than not. But during the colder months it's utterly divine and one of my favorite entrees. Back in the early days of my blog, I broke in one of my new Christmas kitchen toys (the immersion blender) creating this black bean soup, which quickly became a staple in my kitchen that winter. Unfortunately, I made that soup way too much that year and haven't been able to bring myself to eat it since (I'm also finicky about how frequently I can eat things without getting tired of them....it's a very delicate balance), so I needed to come up with something new.

With a large bowl full of lentils taunting me every time opened the refrigerator, I was determined to combine them with one of my favorite spices (curry) to create something magical. Thanks in part to the wonder that is Google, I was able to type in my hopes and dreams and in no time was wading through the interweb's best offerings for "kale lentil curry soup." It was a little overwhelming, but ultimately I found the basis for which I created today's plat du jour.

Kale Lentil and Curry Soup

Ingredients
Original recipe found here

• 2 Tbps extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 small carrots, diced
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced 
• 2 Tbps curry powder
• 2 tsp cumin 
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 cup sprouted lentils*
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 6 cups water or vegetable broth (or a combo)
• 2 sweet potatoes, diced 
• 1 package chopped kale
• Dried cranberries for topping (optional)

*When I went to pull the lentils out of the fridge for use, I discovered they'd started to sprout. At first I was hysterical and feared that I'd have to throw them away after all, but then I turned to the trusty Google again and discovered otherwise. Apparently, sprouted lentils are even better for you and easier to digest than regularly prepared lentils. Who would've thought?! If you don't have the habit of leaving lentils lying around to sprout, you can also use uncooked lentils in this recipe and just add them when you add the tomatoes and potatoes.

Preparation

1. Heat a large stock pot with olive oil over medium heat.

The adult child in me is still pretty excited about the new cutting board Santa brought me this year. It's so nice finally having room for everything! 

2. Add carrots, celery, and onions and saute for 4-5 minutes (this flavor combination always reminds me of making stuffing for Thanksgiving...and I'm not complaining).

3. Next, add tomato paste, garlic, curry, cumin, and red pepper flakes, stirring to combine before cooking for 3 minutes.

4. Lastly, add tomatoes, potatoes, broth and/or water, and salt and pepper.

5. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 35 mins total, stirring occasionally. After 15 minutes, add in the kale, and with 5 minutes remaining, add sprouted lentils.

6. Serve with your favorite fresh bread. Oddly, I was drawn to a rosemary and olive oil loaf at market. I typically wouldn't combine rosemary and curry, but it actually ended up being a delightful combination.

The dried cranberries was a delightfully sweet contrast to the curry. I highly recommend adding them.

Stay warm out there, we can't all be the snow bunnies that Baxter is!

When the snow started to fall she demanded that we walk around for half an hour in it, only agreeing to come inside after I bribed her

Never was there anything that Baxter loved more than snow

Silence of the Lambs

It's been almost a year since I moved into my Baltimore apartment and officially began to call Maryland home. Even after a year, it's still slightly surreal to me that I start several mornings a week running around Baltimore's Inner Harbor. As a child, the harbor was my absolute favorite place and one of the things I most looked forward to during our summers in Maryland. We'd usually only make it down to the harbor once during our stay (sometimes twice if I was well behaved enough to convince mother to take me on an outing sans sister) and I would work my hardest to ingrain a photo of that place into my memory for the next year.

Sister and I circa 1993 enjoying some play time at the harbor

My year in Baltimore has brought a lot of changes and new people into my life, but I couldn't be more pleased with my decision to give Baltimore a chance to win over my heart.  One of the few things that hasn't changed for the better since moving from DC is my commute time to work. It's incredibly unpredictable, especially if any sort of precipitation is involved. Sometimes it takes me 45 minutes to get to or from work, others it takes an hour and a half, and if it's really not my day it takes 2+ hours. One random day a couple weeks ago I got to work in 35 minutes and I could barely contain my excitement. While I can't control my commute time, I can give myself things to look forward to after my commuting for the day or week is done. Typically, this includes wine, good food, and even better company.

Since I'm back on the blogging train, at least for three weeks now, I've started to step up my Tuesday night dinner menu a little bit, much to the delight of all involved. It all started when I stumbled upon this recipe on Pinterest. I don't want to jinx myself, but I sometimes feel like one of the only people who can pull off things that they find on Pinterest. Maybe I'm secretly Pinterest talented and should start listing it on my resume under special skills, or maybe I am just really good at choosing recipes and projects that I can conquer.....it's impossible to know. Whatever the case, after gaining inspiration for the non-meat part of the dish, I had to spend some time coming up with the perfect meat accompaniment. This is where the former vegetarian in me would've just eaten dish #1 as a meal, but since I had others to consider, I felt the need to create a more well-rounded meal.

Since returning to meat, I've done chicken a lot  (most recently, last week), despite the fact that the texture of raw chicken creeps me out, but I didn't quite feel ready to churn out any sort of beef-related creation. I also had to rule out salmon because I cooked a gorgeous piece of salmon at some point in December (and really wish I'd at least photographed it) and wasn't ready to try and top that masterpiece yet. Choices, choices. While flipping through the Smitten Kitchen cookbook that Sister gifted me a couple Christmases ago, inspiration struck! We would have meatballs.

The recipe that caught my attention was for turkey meatballs, but after reading some of the reviews for the recipe online, I began to feel worried about loosing my focus and ultimately having them come out too dry, or worse yet, falling apart into a million pieces. For a little context here, I don't have the best history with meatballs. Back when I was a teenager and first starting to show a slight interest in cooking (which mother did not encourage...sorry mom, but it's true), I found a recipe on the interweb, courtesy of FoodNetwork, for meatballs and decided that I was going to make them, along with mashed potatoes and some sort of vegetable (I don't remember this component of the dish, likely because that's the only thing I didn't royally screw up) for the family. The meatballs didn't stay together in the slightest, due mostly to my failure to include the eggs that the recipe called for, and the mashed potatoes were a hard, lumpy mess. It's also likely that the grand finale to that meal was me storming off in a vertical huff and vowing not to cook again for a very long time.

Cut to present day. While I've come a very long way in the last 15 years with my cooking, I was still slightly skittish about diving back into the world of meatballs again, especially with a non-traditional meat.  After doing a little more research, I found another Smitten Kitchen recipe that I liked even better--Greek lamb meatballs. So, not only was I going to try my hand at meatballs yet again, but I was also going to take on a meat that I'd never in my life cooked.

Culminating the trifecta of reasons why this recipe was a perfect fit was the fact that it called for olives to be used in the meatball sauce. The olive is my food of the year circa 2015 (this will be discussed more fully in a future post devoted to the olive once I've conquered it), but any chance I have to start working it into things I'm all about. With my apprehension about making meatballs being what it was, I ended up making this meal more of a team effort than my dinners usually are and recruited a sous chef. He executed his assigned elements (browning the meatballs) perfectly and in time, my vision came to fruition and dinner was served.

Greek Lamb Meatballs with Roasted Beet, Tomato, and Lentil Salad

Ingredients

Greek Lamb Meatballs
Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

Meatballs

• 3 Tbsps water
• 2 lbs ground lamb
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3/4 tsp salt
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 Tbsps chopped parsley
• 2 Tbsps tomato paste
• Zest of half a lemon
• 2 Tbsps olive oil

Sauce

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• A couple glugs of red wine 
• 1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Zest of half a lemon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• A couple pinches of red pepper flakes 
• 1/3 cup pitted and chopped kalamata olives
• 2 Tbsps roughly chopped parsley, plus some additional for garnish
• Juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta

Preparation

1. Combine all meatball ingredients, sans olive oil, in a large bowl and mix until well combined.

2. Roll into 2 inch balls. This can be done the night before if pressed for time (as I often am on Tuesdays) and stored overnight in a an airtight container.

3. On cooking day, heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Carefully space meatballs around the pan, turning them slowly so they become dark on all sides. This is where my sous chef truly excelled. One of my great regrets with this meal was not better documenting his efforts. 

4. Once meatballs are browned on all sides, remove from pan and place on a towel lined plate to rest while the sauce is prepared.

5. For the sauce, save 1 Tbsp of the fat from the skillet and return the skillet (or wok if you're like me and prefer to do as much as possible in the wok) to medium heat. First add the onion and garlic, cooking til they begin to soften (about 5 minutes). 

6. Next, add wine and cook mixture until most of the liquid disappears.

6. Add tomatoes, oregano, lemon zest, salt, red pepper flakes, olives, and parsley to the skillet/wok. Bring mixture to a simmer and add meatballs.

7. Cover and cook at the lowest simmer for approx. 20-25 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. 

8. As the grand finale, squeeze fresh lemon juice over the sauce. Top with fresh parsley and feta after plating and before serving. 

Meanwhile, over on my side of the kitchen....

Ingredients

Original recipe found here

• 1 cup green lentils (A word of caution, the original recipe calls for 2 cups and it's an insane amount of lentils. No one needs that many lentils.)
• 2 cups warm water
• 1Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 beets, skinned and diced
• 2 cups red and orange cherry tomatoes 
• A couple Tbsps goat cheese (this is more of a taste preference....a shared love of goat cheese caused us to use a decent amount)
• Olive 3-4 Tbsps honey
• Sea Salt and fresh ground black pepper
• Few springs of fresh thyme 

Preparation

1. The night before, place lentils in a large bowl or pot along with warm water. Let sit over night, draining any remaining water, which won't be much, before use the next day.

2. Trim the stems from the beets and boil in a large pot of water until slightly tender. Preheat oven to 250F.

Hello food of the year circa 2014

3. While beets are cooking, wash and halve tomatoes and harvest (if necessary) fresh thyme. I grow thyme and a couple other herbs in one of my apartment windows, so my sous chef also got to assume the role of herb harvester. 

4. Once beets are tender, drain and remove skin with a knife. Dice peeled beets and place on a baking sheet covered with foil or parchment paper.

5. Add tomatoes to baking sheet and generously drizzle the beets and tomatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

6. Roast veggies for approx. 20 minutes, until the tomatoes start to brown. 

7. Remove from oven and  combine with lentils in a large bowl, topping mixture with lemon juice and honey. You can also add more olive oil, salt, and pepper if desired.

8. Plate and top with fresh thyme and goat cheese as the grand finale. 

I really couldn't ask for a better color combination

Finished product

And if you find yourself with leftover meatballs, they made a great addition to my pre-run pasta the following night!

Colorful Weeknight Chicken

After being in the office a total of 6 days during the month of December, last week it was finally time to return to reality. I like my job, I really do, but being away for long stretches of time always leaves me a little sad when it finally has to come to an end. No more running at my leisure, spending the day baking, and impromptu cuddles with my Aussie.

Luckily, winter had other ideas and come Tuesday morning (I work from home on Mondays), snow graced my fair city and I found myself working from the comfort of my home office yet again instead of making the dreaded trek to Bethesda as snow pelted the streets around me. A post-Christmas miracle.

I'm not gonna lie, being at home an extra day definitely had its pluses. I got to put the 3 plus hours that I otherwise would've spent committing into my work and my beloved Shepherd dog was able to spend some time in the snow (her favorite of the weather elements....after a warm summer's day) breaking in her new Christmas coat.

It was all fun and games until the freezing temperatures started to cause the snow to freeze between her delicate paws. She owns, but refuses to wear snow boots.

Perhaps the best thing to come out of my impromptu work from home day was that I got to break out a new recipe for Tuesday dinner date night (and we got to eat before 8:00 for once since I wasn't flying home in a frenzy). Everyone wins! 

I spent most of last year returning to meat. It was a long time coming and I'm glad to be back on (or off depending on your perspective) the wagon. Because my quest to finally learn to cook came during my time as a vegetarian, I realized last year that I had only minimal experience cooking meat, most of which was gained during my college years when my food standards were very different. It also doesn't help matters that I still tend to gravitate towards non-meat recipes when I'm cooking and save my meat allotment for the week for dining out. [It's not really that regimented, but it sometimes feels like that].  So, in 2015 I've vowed to cook more meat in the home. 

This recipe was great for both helping me to meet that goal and for incorporating my FOTY circa 2013 into the dish. Artichokes are something that I've come to like thanks to 2013, but I still don't seek them out as much as I should. My real joy in this meal came from the abundance of colors. Quite possibly the one cooking lesson that my mother imparted on me was an appreciation for a colorful plate. I may have squealed when this gem came together. 

Baked Chicken with Spinach and Artichokes

Ingredients
*Original recipe found here

• 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into thirds
• Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
• 1 can (14-ounces) quartered artichokes, rinsed and drained
• 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, sliced into thin rounds
• 3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 bag (6 to 8 ounces) baby spinach
• ½ cup vegetable broth

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425 F and heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet on the stove top

2. Cut chicken breasts into thirds and season with salt and pepper

3. Add to skillet and brown on both sides (no need to cook all the way through, they're continue to cook during part 2)

4. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside on a plate for later

5. Add artichokes, onions, carrots, and garlic to the skillet and cook for 5 or so minutes, until veggies are slightly tender

6. Add chopped garlic and spinach, cooking for an additional minute and stirring occasionally

7. In a 9 x 13 baking pan, combine veggies, chicken, and broth

8. Place in oven and bake for approximately 18 minutes, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked

9. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes then plate and serve.

Cheers for an easy weeknight meal! Later in the evening I would learn the importance of not being talked into watching a pseudo-scary movie (the Shining) before bed. Cue dreams of creepy children coming out of walls.... 

Hello 2015!

A new year is upon us and once again I'm dusting off the old blog and attempting to give it another go. I continue to impress myself and others with my food creations and it just seems selfish not to share it with the masses. Also, slightly selfishly, this is going to be a huge year and it deserves to be documented.

2015 is the year I finally take the plunge into 30. I'm not gonna lie, I've been dreading/fearing this birthday for years now, pretty much since I hit 25. Every year on my birthday I'm pseudo-hysterical about inching another year closer to the big 3-0 (and my younger sister's verbal taunts do nothing to help matters). As last year crept to a close, however, I began to make my peace with the impending birthday, and dare I say it, even look forward it. 

What brought about this sudden change? I think the real turning point was marathon day. Being the Type-A person that I am, I set a slew of pre-30 goals for myself back in my early 20s. These ran the gamut from graduating from law school to hitting a certain salary at work. One by one, they were checked off until the only remaining goal was running my first marathon. 

I'd been putting the whole marathon thing off for years, even registering twice for the Marine Corps Marathon, only to defer at the last minute. I have a love-hate relationship of sorts with running. Some days it's my absolute favorite thing in the world and I feel like I could run forever, while others I just want my run to be over sooner rather than later. 

Because I hate being hot, summers are my absolute least favorite time to run. This has always made training for an early fall marathon problematic as it requires me to do long runs in August/early September when the sun's heat rays are in their glory. I just can't get on board with that. After surveying some fellow runners, I ultimately decided to sign up for the Richmond Marathon. It took place on November 15th and the weather was perfection (low 30s at race time). Running in the cold brings a huge smile to my face and made 26.2 miles as manageable as possible. 

My favorite part of marathon training was long run Fridays. Watching the sun come up over the water became one of my favorite parts of the week.

Morning of marathon day. I proudly represented my alma mater (the University of Oklahoma) and my adopted homeland (Maryland)

Sister and mother kindly braved the cold and trekked around Richmond to hold up signs for me along the way.

Despite how much pain my body was in, I was in remarkably good spirits in the end

And because I'm back on meat, I celebrated the accomplishment with a delicious beer and an even better burger

As excited as I am to have my first marathon checked off the list, I will not be going down that road again any time soon. 13.1 is a much better fit. So, with my marathon done, I finally feel ready to usher in 30 (I'd be lying if I said I didn't already have a pre-40 list in the works) and shall be spending 2015 doing what I love, running and continuing to perfect my craft of cooking.

Keeping with that theme, Christmas brought with it a slew of new kitchen toys for me. I felt like a kid again! One of my favorite new toys was a complete surprise and has taken my cooking to a whole new level. I was gifted (actually, surprised with) a crème brûlée torch. My parents were terrified of me being left alone with a flaming torch [full disclaimer, I've never burnt anything down or caused a kitchen fire, so the fear was slightly irrational], so I vowed, at least for the first time, to use it in the presence of an assistance not named Baxter the Australian Shepherd. 

Saturday was the big day. With the help of one of my favorite Food Network chefs I found the perfect recipe and culminated date night with my first attempt at crème brûlée. It wasn't perfect [which my inner perfectionist is still a little sick about], but it was still good and the firing part was more fun than I could have ever imagined! I dream one day of finding a way to incorporate fire into every meal. Until then, crème brûlée for everyone!!

Crème Brûlée Courtesy of Alton Brown

Ingredients

Original Recipe found at Food Network

• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup raw sugar (this was an edit on my end that created a better texture)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 quarts hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 F and slice and scrape out vanilla bean into a medium saucepan.
2. Add cream to vanilla pulp, as well as the vanilla bean, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. 
3. Once boiling, cover and remove from heat, allowing to sit for 15 minutes. 
4. Remove vanilla bean and reserve for additional use. This site has some great ideas!
5. Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and the egg yolks until well blended, then add cream incrementally, stirring continually.
6. Divide liquid among ramekins (7-8 ounces in size) and place ramekins in a cake or roasting pan. 
7. Fill cake/roasting pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
8. Bake approximately 40-45 minutes, until the liquid is set but still trembling in the center.
9. Once finished cooking, remove pan from oven and remove ramekins from pan. 
10. Ramekins should be refrigerated for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days before serving. I refrigerated overnight.  
11. At serving time, top with raw sugar, spreading evenly on top, and torch until melted and crispy on top. Prepare for happy taste buds.