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By mlb, on March 15th, 2013%
Hello French Fridays with Dorie and this week’s Orange Scented Lentil Soup recipe. How are you? Well, I thought you were delicious!
I tend to have the opinion that, although lentil soups are in standard rotation at our house, they can be kind of boring. But not this bowl — the orange and spices are definitely different flavors than I normally go with and I think that really made this recipe a huge stand out.
Of course, I did a few things differently. I had about a cup of lamb braising sauce (sorry, Morrissey!*) leftover from the lamb shank adventure last weekend and I substituted that for about one cup of the broth (the miracle of lamb fat).
Other changes: I let my vegetables get a little brown in the beginning for more flavor. I also added some chopped kale at the end and I used red lentils instead of French green lentils. Because of that, I was able to shorten my simmering time by about 15 minutes. For garnishes I used the suggested crumbled bacon (oops!) and Greek yogurt. So good.
Here’s a link to everyone’s Orange Scented Lentil Soup this . . . → Read More: FFwD: Orange Scented Lentil Soup
By mlb, on February 26th, 2013%
This is a great meatless meal for when you have winter squash you want to use up or if you just want a hearty bowl of warm soup. Or maybe you’re just bored and you want a food project that will take about an hour. This is what to do if any of those scenarios are true. Plus, it’s just a really delicious bowl of winter soup. So there.
I used a combination of one small acorn squash and one small delicata squash — together they totaled about 1.5 pounds. There’s actually a story behind the squash: I received them (and about 6 more pounds of produce) as part of my kickstarter reward for being a backer of Know Thy Food’s new market! That’s pretty cool, huh?
Red lentils will look nicer, but if all you have is brown lentils, don’t let that stop you from making this. And if you have some naan in the freezer, take this opportunity to toast that up and have it on the side.
If you are a cilantro-hater, you can substitute with parsley.
 . . . → Read More: Curry Lentil and Squash Soup with Cilantro Yogurt
By mlb, on January 31st, 2013%
Okay, I’ll admit it — I was a little skeptical about this French Fridays with Dorie. Not because of the brussels sprouts or the squash, because I really like both of those vegetables, but because they were steamed. Why steam vegetables, when you can roast them? Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of the steamed vegetables. But, I set my vegetable preparation beliefs aside and I made the recipe pretty much as written and well, I really liked this one.
A couple of notes: Instead of a sage leaf in each packet, I used some dried sage tossed in with the salt, pepper and olive oil. For the butternut squash, I substituted a small delicata squash. And finally, I used the parchment paper heart method for the en papillote-ing.*
I believe I’ll even try making this one again, but add a piece of fish to the bottom of each packet — maybe halibut or salmon. I probably would have tried it this time but I was way too lazy to stop and get fish on my way home from work, which is how a lot of meals . . . → Read More: FFwD: Brown Sugar Squash and Brussels Sprouts en Papillote
By mlb, on January 3rd, 2013%
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Herb-speckled Spaetzle and it is on epicurious, so even if you don’t have the cookbook, you can still make the recipe.
This was very good. I actually just tried making spaetzle a few weeks ago using a different recipe (buckwheat spaetzel) and while that was good, this was great. I used a colander for making the spaetzle both times, but I wish I had a flat grater, that idea sounds intriguing and a bit easier.
Notes:
1. I made 2/3′s of a recipe and it worked well (with three eggs, it was fairly easy to third — one egg, 3/4 cup flour, three tbsp milk, etc…).
2. I used fat-free milk. Seemed to work fine.
3. I added a handful of chopped spinach leaves when I added the broth and I also grated on a bit of asiago cheese.
4. I used a little whole wheat pastry flour for some of the white flour — 1/2 cup white and 1/4 cup wheat.
Okay, here’s a link to everyone’s awesome spaetzle posts and my photos below. I skipped photos of making the batter, those were kind of boring.
![]() . . . → Read More: FFwD: Herb-speckled Spaetzle
By mlb, on December 29th, 2012%
I am taking these last few, precious days of 2012 to post things that I should have posted much, much earlier. This trip to Seattle for instance, happened way back in September but unfortunately, time got away from me. Hopefully, I can do a much better job in 2013. That’s the goal anyway.
But back to September — we headed up to Seattle to see the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center (hey! the exhibit is there until 1/6/13! But you can no longer take photos), we ate a lovely dinner at Lecosho and we stayed at Hotel Andra. It was just a quick overnight trip but it was a lot of fun. Here are the pictures.
I wish I remembered to take photos of all the informational notes for each item. Fail.
This however, I know is Akhenaten. While in college, I took a whole class on his reign. Monotheism!
A really huge Akhenaten statue. Sun god. Amarna style.
A gold funerary mask. And . . . → Read More: End of 2012 Photos: Seattle
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