“When I’m in a blue mood I head for the kitchen. I turn the pages of my favorite cookbooks, summoning the prospective joyful noise of a shared meal. I stand over a bubbling soup, close my eyes, and inhale. From the ground up, everything about nourishment steadies my soul.” Barbara Kingsolver – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
It’s been quite a Thanksgiving. We’ve been on the road for more hours than I care to count, but it was worth it to be with our families. Consequently, I missed my Daring Bakers post yesterday. I was too swamped to set it up before I left. Luckily, I squeezed in the baking part a few weekends ago. I made two other cakes that weekend, too, so if incredibly sweet, dense, caramel cake is not up your alley, look for some other options in the next few days.
We have been eating around here, but we’re in the third week of our winter CSA share from Brinkley Farms. Which basically means that we’ve been eating kale, butter beans, collards, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, fresh eggs, and pork. Really there’s not much to most of those items and I’ve been making considerably shorter trips to the grocery store. We love our CSA because you get a weekly e-mail with the offerings and you can choose what you want based on the dollar amount you paid out at the beginning of the season. It’s winter so there’s not tons of variety but we don’t mind.
In the midst of those veggies, I made myself some of these lentils a few weeks ago to take for lunch. My mother-in-law introduced me to this recipe and it is just killer. After having it a few times at her house I begged for the recipe and haven’t gotten sick of it yet.
1 1/2 cups green lentils
6 cups chicken stock
1 garlic clove, pierced with a toothpick
1 tsp. herbes de Provence
1 small bay leaf
1 tomato, peeled, seeded, chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp. minced parsley
1 tbsp. capers, drained
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. Dijon
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz.) crumbled goat cheese
French bread
Rinse and pick over lentils. Put lentils in 4-quart saucepan and add stock, garlic, herbs, and bay leaf. Bring to gentle simmer and cook, uncovered for 20-30 minutes, or until tender. Do not overcook. Drain and let cool. Remove garlic and bay leaf.
Put lentils in bowl and add tomato, onions, parsley, and capers. Whisk together vinaigrette, add to lentils, and toss. Sprinkle with goat cheese. Serve with French bread.
Before you even ask, I am, of course, glued to the TV watching returns. However, I have to admit that I am easily bored with the repetition of the same results over and over, despite the fact that they keep insisting that they have a “big projection coming up.” So I figured it was an opportune time to grab the computer and get a post up. I’m sure there are others out there like me, keeping one eye on the news and the other on some unfinished task. If your other eye is hungry, you’ve come to the right place!
I’ve been unable to forget this recipe even though it has been more than a week since I made it. It has been unseasonably cold here which means that I have difficulty planning any meals that don’t involve soup or roasted chicken. I’m trying to pull myself out of this habit, but I let myself fall big time when I grabbed this recipe out of my soup file. I know it doesn’t look like anything special: meat, mirepoix, spinach, pasta. But there is something so satisfying about it… I think it’s umami. And the spinach. The spinach sealed the deal for me.
