Pasta with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

I don't know why, but for the last two Sundays I have been utterly incapable of sleeping in. It's like my body realizes that this is my one chance each week to catch up on sleep, and it likes to make me irritated by making it the one morning I have no trouble waking up at 6. This morning I managed to get my taxes filed before 9, then completed a 10K, and was at the mall by 11 in order to be done before the rest of the world showed up (I was reminded this morning yet again how much I hate malls). In fact, I felt so productive, that now I'm contemplating watching TV for the remainder of the afternoon and procrastinating on homework. Except that I won't... because I am trying not to do that, even though I never remember any of the reading I do on Sundays by the time the following Saturday rolls around.

Before moving on to this week's recipe, I do have to make one comment on the weather in Denver this weekend: bizarre. Yesterday, I think it reached almost 80 degrees. Sitting in a hot, stuffy classroom all day was absolute torture. This morning on my run, I literally felt the weather change from sunny and 60, to windy with clouds rolling in. Currently, it is snowing and in the mid 30s. Of course. What else would it be doing on April 3rd in Colorado?

Okay, on to the recipe: I officially have a new favorite spice, and it goes by the name of Smoked Paprika. It adds such an amazing flavor! I would go into more detail, but my descriptive capabilities have always been on the more lacking side in my writing. Suffice it to say, it really made this recipe work in my educated cooking opinion.

This recipe is higher in Weight Watchers points values than the others I have posted, but I was looking for a change, and found it worth it. For some reason I have been craving wheat products recently. Not sure if that has to do with getting over the flu or what. The original recipe is taken from the February, 2011 Bon Appetit Magazine and I found it, as usual, on epicurious.com. I eliminated the oil and sortof doubled the recipe. In eliminating the oil, it mean that I couldn't cook the tomatoes the way that the recipe called for. I thought what I did came out fine, though. I also used bow-tie pasta instead of penne. I don't like penne for some reason, and I found out last night while grocery shopping that apparently neither does Mom. It's funny how tastes can be passed down in generations without the parties involved ever actually talking about it... Those were my main changes.

This recipe makes 7 servings and each serving is 10 WW PointsPlus. The whole thing took me about 20 minutes including prep.

Ingredients:
1 package bowtie pasta (about 14.5 oz - I LOVED the Barilla Plus pasta. Not nearly as difficult to force down as whole wheat pasta.)
2 lbs tomatoes, cut into pieces (original recipe called for using cherry tomatoes. I used tomatoes that were vine ripened, and about 1.5 - 2 inches each, cut into sixths. I also ate some of them before they made it into the recipe... I was hungry.)
1 6-oz container of plain hummus (It sounded weird to me, but it's very good.)
3 garlic cloves, pressed (got lazy after cutting all the cilantro... used garlic powder instead)
1 cup black olives, lightly chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (I would have used more, but it took too long and I got bored. And I don't think I really like cilantro very much after trying it today. It's fine, but not great.)
2 teaspoons smoked paprika


Instructions:
1. Cook pasta in boiling water for about 10 minutes. While it's cooking, prepare the tomatoes, olives and cilantro
2. Drain the water from the pasta, and in a separate, large pan, add all the rest of the ingredients accept the cilantro and hummus. Cook together for 5-7 minutes on medium-low until warmed through.
3. Add the pasta, cilantro, and mix in the hummus. Let it all cook together for another 3-5 mins.

I found this very filling and good. As I said earlier, the paprika made this dish what it turned out to be in my opinion. I also really liked the effect of the hummus as a sauce. It was all very good. I may try a flavored hummus if I make this again.

Lentil and Vegetable Stew with Kale

I knew I jinxed myself when I wrote that I was going to always post on Sundays from now on... I got sick last Sunday and have been sick pretty much since then. Never have I been more annoyed at myself for missing the free flu shot at work this year. Every time I don't get a flu shot, I come down with the flu. At least this time it wasn't over Christmas. I am now mostly recovered, but haven't been able to workout and missed a lot of work. I probably should have missed more than I did, too, since everyone made sure to tell me how terrible I looked on Wednesday. Tomorrow will be my first run since last Saturday, and the Colfax Marathon is coming up on May 15! I had intended to get caught up this week before school started up again, and ended up further behind. Oh, well. Veg time watching bad daytime TV wasn't too bad in retrospect, and since Mom's in town, I got to have someone take care of me for once. 

Spring quarter of school started today. I can't believe the difference an extra quarter makes. I feel like I am fully in the groove of being a student. It makes me so much more productive all around too. I just don't waste time. During my week off (the week before I got sick), I feel like I was totally unproductive. I am taking IT Strategies and Marketing. We had to fill out a profile about our current knowledge base for IT. I wrote that I am friends with the IT group at work, and I really like the British TV Show "The IT Crowd." I also know exactly who I need to call whenever something computer related breaks. I have a lot to learn.

I bought French lentils almost two months ago now, wanting to incorporate more lentils into my diet. According to Wikipedia, lentils have the third highest amount of protein in a plant form after soybeans and hemp. 3.5 oz of lentils (100g) has 26 grams of protein. Not bad. Not bad at all. I also impressed myself with this recipe because it calls for two additional ingredients that I had never used before: kale and rutabaga. Well, if I'm being totally honest, there was a third ingredient that I forgot to put on my shopping list that would have been a first as well, celery root. I had eaten kale and celery root before, but never cooked it before. I am unclear if I have ever had rutabaga, and after tonight, I still haven't as I realized when I got home and was looking up how to prepare it online, I seem to have purchased a turnip instead (they're in the same family)... oops. 

This recipe was adapted from one found on Epicurious.com under the same name, and is originally from the March, 2011 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine. For Original Recipe Click Here. The main changes I made were too add cumin and more herbes de Provence than called for, and I used French Lentils instead of brown. From what I can tell, French Lentils are more flavorful, and keep their shape and texture exceedingly well. They take about 10 minutes longer to cook, though, so that is reflected in my cooking times. I also decided to go without any oil. I've figured out that if I am cooking soup or stew, I can cook the onion and other ingredients for not much time without them burning on the pan, then I add the rest of the liquids, and am none-the-wiser for it afterwards. 

I am estimating that this recipe will provide 8 servings. If anyone is reading this who follows Weight Watchers, it has a Points Plus value of only 5. Almost too rediculously healthy for its own good. Start to finish was about an hour and a half for me because of all the prep for the kale and other veggies. Actual cook time wasn't bad.

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped 

2 large carrots, chopped 

1 medium celery root, peeled, chopped (in absentia in my case, but I'm leaving this here as a place holder to remember when I make this again...)

1 medium rutabaga, peeled, chopped (2 cups) (my turnip worked great - apparently the main difference is that the rutabage has a somewhat stronger flavor)

1 pound French Lentils

1 tablespoon herbes de Provence (used more than that)

1 tablespoon cumin 

8 cups water

1 large bunch kale (About 9 ounces), ribs removes, leaves coarsely chopped (took forever in my opinion. I'm wondering about the potential of using frozen in the future...)

1. In a large pot, combine onion, carrots, celery and rutabaga. Cook on medium heat until the veggies verge on sticking to the bottom of the pot (5 or so minutes.)

2. Add the rest of the ingredients, turn the heat up, and bring to a boil. (The kale takes up a ton of room in the pot until it cooks. I kindof freaked out about this and added an extra cup of water. Then the kale cooked down and I felt a bit stupid for freaking out...) (10 or so minutes)

3. Lower the heat, partially cover the pot, and cook for 30 minutes.

Done. Super easy recipe to make. The prep was the most annoying part. Will make again. I liked it a lot, and the lentils will add plenty of variety to what I've been eating. The cumin gives it a bit more of an Indian taste overall, and that doesn't go with the herbes de provence really, but it worked for me. I also read that the cumin is supposed to help with some of the less appealing side effects of beans/lentils... while I am immune to the effect that beans have on some people since I eat so many of them, I thought I'd add cumin, since this recipe needed more spice than what was originally included anyway.

Wheat Berries with Winter Squash and Chick Peas

It's interesting to me that I chose not to write this post on Sunday. I cooked this dish on Sunday. But I used the excuse that I had a take home final due not to write about it until now. I am not doing that again. From now on, posting on Sunday will be happening. Unless I'm sick again. That is an okay excuse I suppose.

The New York Times published a series of interesting recipes for people going Vegan during Lent (no, I'm not going Vegan during Lent, in case anyone was wondering). This recipe just seemed like it would be amazing so I gave it a go, and I'm really glad that I did, because besides finding another recipe with my new favorite cheapest grain product around, also known as wheat berries, I got to buy some new spices and now I'm excited to use them more often. Who knew that allspice was actually a spice in and of itself? I'd kindof always thought that it must be a blend of spices.

I also wanted to provide a status update on my health this week. Since the high blood pressure conversation with my doctor about four weeks ago, I've lost almost 10 pounds. I've cut out cheese except on limited occasions, and most salt. I've cut out as much sugar from foods as possible, and am trying to eat it only in it's natural form, so eating a lot of fruit. And I feel ten times better. It's amazing, because even as I was stressing around finals, the stress felt different. I didn't feel it in my chest the way that I normally do. I have also re-dedicated myself to working out, and ran almost 5 miles on Sunday without walking. When I stop to think about what I'm eating, it sounds pretty highly restrictive, even to me, but when I don't stop to think about it, it's just working. I really don't feel deprived at all. On the contrary, I am experimenting with new foods and recipes that I would never have considered before. And more importantly, I feel like I can keep doing this. I still have about 18 pounds to lose, and I want them gone by Summer. I'm also confident for the first time now that I'll really be able to run the entire Colfax Half Marathon on May 15. Yay!

Onto the recipe. As noted earlier, this recipe is adapted from one I found on nytimes.com ORIGINAL RECIPE. It states that this will serve 6. I think it's more like 4 if this is served as a main course. The only real change that I made was to reduce the olive oil called for from 3 tablespoons to 1. This recipe has a WeightWatchers PointsPlus value of 9 per serving (assuming 4 servings). The link to the original recipe includes a full nutritional breakdown with 6 servings and the extra olive oil. From start to finish this recipe took me just under an hour and a half. The squash can be prepped while the wheat berries are cooking.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (Okay, I changed that too... I used three. AND, very exciting, I treated myself to a garlic press at the grocery store! I'd never used one before. So much fun!)
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup wheat berries
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups water (the recipe initially calls for 5 cups, and then I think they forgot about the 5th cup, because they only mention 4 later... so anyway, 4 cups water)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or mint (I used dill. Okay, and I cheated too. I used dried parsley and dried dill. There was so much flavor provided by the allspice and cayenne that I don't think it really mattered.)
1 pound winter squash (I used butternut), peeled, sliced and cut into small bite sized pieces
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained

Note: This recipe did not specifically call for pre-soaking the wheat berries. I was surprised by this, and I think they're better for you and easier to digest if you do, so I still soaked mine ahead for about 6 hours. This also cut down on the overall cooking time, which I appreciated. If the wheat berries are note soaked ahead, I think step 4 will need to be 45 mins to 1 hour instead of 30 minutes.

Instructions:
1. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven or similar pot with higher sides. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onion just starts to cook.
2. Add the garlic and the allspice and cayenne. Stir together.
3. Add the wheat berries, 4 cups of water and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, with the pot covered for 30 minutes or so.
4. Add the winter squash, chick peas, half the overall amount of parsley and dill, and bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes more. At this stage the squash and wheat berries should be fully cooked.
5. Bring the cooking temperature back up to high, stir in the remainder of the parsley and dill (if not using fresh) and cook off the excess liquid until it takes on a syrupy consistency. I found that this took about 20 minutes (If using fresh dill and parsley, add the remainder at the end).

And that's it. This dish is meant to be served warm or hot.

The verdict: The more I cook butternut squash, the more I am learning to really like it. I loved how the cayenne gave this recipe a great kick, and the whole dish just tasted great. It was fun to make too. I'm somewhat disappointed in the photo that I didn't pick a bowl that coordinated better color-wise with the dish, but I'm learning. Won't make that mistake again. There's also a fair amount of protein in this dish from the combination of wheat berries and chick peas, and the portion that I had for lunch at work stuck by me all afternoon. I'm really glad that I came across this recipe.

Veggie Paella

So it turns out that going to the grocery store to do the weekly shopping, when I don't know what recipe I'm planning to make on Sunday, isn't the best idea. It's also not the best idea to buy the store brand Greek yogurt (It's disgusting, and for some reason, they felt compelled to add "natural flavors" to plain Greek yogurt. Whatever...).

I have one week to go before I have a week-long break from school. So far, I haven't resorted to throwing a frozen burrito into the microwave and photographing that as my weekly cooking masterpiece (I did have one in the freezer, just in case though... ). I had been pretty concerned that as I got closer to this part of the quarter I would be resorting to that. What I didn't count on was using cooking to procrastinate from doing homework. This is similar to last fall, when I somehow managed to find time to clean my whole apartment before finally sitting down to right my 20 page globalization paper... hmmm...

So anyways, I found this recipe yesterday mainly based off of ingredients online. It turns out, when you grocery shop on a weekly basis, you tend to have a lot more on hand than when you don't. Who knew? I only had to make a couple of substitutions on this one, but sadly, I didn't have a single spice that the recipe called for, so some improvisation was done. I have no idea what the spices in the original recipe were supposed to taste like, or what traditional paella spices are, but mine came out pretty darn well if I do say so myself.

There's a really interesting article on what a Paella is on wikipedia: Paella . Sadly, I didn't read it until after I had made mine, or I would have reconsidered its presentation. From the pictures, food is neatly laid on top of the rice concoction, to make it quite pretty. Instead, I omitted the final touches from what my recipe called for, and used whole wheat orzo instead of couscous (although traditional dishes use rice, not couscous). The pictures on wikipedia are quite pretty. Traditional paella is made with either meat or seafood or a combination of both. Since this is vegetarian, it pretty much goes against that anyway. But hell, I'm calling it Paella anyway. Sweet!

This recipe was found on epicurious.com, and is from Bon Appetit, 1997. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/4688 The ingredients listed below are what I used, not what the recipe called for.
I ended up adding more than the original recipe called for in almost all of the ingredients. And maybe that's why I am pretty sure that this will easily feed 8-10 people. The picture above is after I had removed my serving for dinner tonight. I was a bit concerned that the whole thing was going to overflow at points in the cooking process...


Ingredients: 
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups chopped red pepper (I used three small red peppers. I am assuming that amounted to about 2 cups.)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (I actually used garlic instead of garlic powder. There's a first.)
5 tablespoons, or about half of a small can of tomato paste 
2 cups water1 15 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes with mild green chiles2 cups frozen peas (I only had frozen peas and carrots on hand, which worked out fine, except that I also added sliced carrots. So, lots of carrots.)1 15 oz can rinsed and drained garbonzo beans
1/2 cup chopped peeled carrot (I added 3 medium chopped carrots)
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
12 oz frozen package of quartered artichoke hearts, thawed1 1/2 cups whole wheat orzo


Directions: 
1. In a large pot, cook onion in the oil for about 3 mins. Add the red pepper, and cook until the onion changes color, about 15 minutes
2. Heat two cups of water to boiling, and stir in tomato paste (otherwise, you could substitute this step for vegetable broth. I've been trying to invent flavorful alternatives that don't involve so much salt. This worked for me in this recipe.)
3. Combine all remaining ingredients besides the orzo and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add the orzo, simmer for an additional 10 minutes, covered. Remove from heat, and allow any excess liquid to absorb for about 5 minutes.

Risotto-Style Barley with Mushrooms

Every now and then it seems that I forget what it's like to get sick and be miserable. So last week, I thought I'd test the waters and come down with a fever, sore throat and a cough to add to the fun trying to sleep. Oh, and mucus in the lungs. I can't believe I almost forgot that part. Silly Susie. Well, the verdict has just come in. Being sick is just as miserable as I remembered. And nothing really can beat having to write a paper and work on a presentation all the while wanting to crawl into bed and not move for three days straight.

Somehow I survived the in class presentation on Saturday, and thanks to two rounds of Advil provided by one of my professors, I even had a voice. Went home, made this recipe, and then promptly slept for twelve hours and thought I was going to keel over when I finally made it out of bed on Sunday around 11. Oh, to be young and home and have Mom take care of me when I am sick. But wait! I had the second best thing! Mom and Dad are visiting Denver from NH, and after I discovered that I had left my bottle of Advil at work, they came with a special delivery on Sunday for me. Almost as good as getting to stay home from school and watch a combination of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Little Mermaid, and The Princess Bride.

I'm finally feeling significantly better tonight. Well enough, in fact to post this week's blog entry. After last week's success with wheat berries, I've decided to test the waters by going through all of the grains I can come across in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. This week it was pearl barley. I don't know what the difference is between pearl barley and husked barley yet. But there was another bin for those as well. I also massively overstocked on barley, so I already have another barley recipe lined up for next week, if I can handle another week of it so close to this recipe. Only time will tell.

This recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit, November, 1998 as viewed at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/15672

This recipe yields 4-5 servings. Total recipe time: about 1 hour


Ingredients:
1 cup pearl barley (way costlier than wheat berries - I think it was a full $1.39/lb)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
12 oz baby bella mushrooms (I'm trying to teach myself about mushrooms, too. Baby Bella mushrooms are darker than the standard button mushrooms, and after trying them in this recipe, they have a lot more flavor as well. The original recipe calls for button mushrooms and one large portabella mushroom. Quite frankly, you don't need more than the 12 oz mushrooms in this recipe, and I will be cutting them smaller than I did as well. I sliced them. In the future, I will halve and then slice them.)
See original recipe for spice recommendations. I used dried basil and garlic powder (quickly becoming my two staples)
5 cups water (The recipe calls for either mushroom broth or vegetable broth. I made some vegetable broth in the original 4 cups of water, using one bouillon cube but frankly it wasn't even needed. When the mushrooms cook down they add a lot of liquid with a lot of flavor.)

Directions:
1. Cook the onion in a large saucepan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, until the onion starts to cook.
2. Add the mushrooms, cook until mushrooms have browned, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the barley and stir until it has absorbed the excess liquid from the cooking mushrooms (about 1 min)
4. Add 4 cups water and bring the whole thing to a boil
5. Reduce the heat back to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes, covered. (I didn't turn the heat down enough and the barley stuck to the bottom of my pot. Total bummer. Especially when you're sick and just want to go to sleep anyway.)
6. Add one additional cup of water, and stir off and on for final 10 minutes, uncovered. The barley and mushrooms will get creamy and totally take on a risotto texture and appearance.

So my initial reaction to this recipe was mixed, as I think my reaction always is to new tastes. But now that I've tried it again, I think I like barley. It's not as high in protein as quinoa and wheat berries, which makes me think I probably won't cook with it as frequently, but it does have a distinct taste. This dish does taste a lot heavier and heartier than the wheat berries do, and I totally understood why this would be served traditionally with meat. It almost tasted like it had meat in it, which was a little weird for me. I will likely make some form of this again, but perhaps substituting for a less flaverful mushroom.

Alright, bedtime.

Wheat Berry Salad with Olives and Tomatoes

Before I say anything else, let me just quickly say one thing: wheat berries are the greatest thing since before sliced bread. They've been around pretty much since the beginning of time, and since they are a primary ingredient in bread... but I digress. People are all talking up the awesomeness of lentils, of black beans, of all sorts of other foods (they are also good. I'm not saying otherwise.) that are a good bang for the buck. Well, forget them. I bought wheat berries at Whole Foods yesterday for $.69 a pound. Organic. I splurged, and bought a pound and a quarter for just under a buck. Then all I had to do was figure out what to do with them.

What exactly are wheat berries you might ask? Well, let me tell you everything I've learned about them in the past few days while browsing the internet/my cookbooks/ while I could have been being a productive member of society in some other way. Wheat berries are the whole grains of wheat with the husks removed. In order to cook them, they need to be soaked overnight, and then cooked for about an hour.

There are two main varieties from what I can tell: hard and soft. The hard wheat is typically ground and used for making breads while soft wheat berries don't have quite as strong a flavor, and are used in pastry flour. I bought soft wheat berries because they were forty cents cheaper per pound. (A penny saved is a penny I can save up to pay for my greek yogurt obsession). From what I read, they are also supposed to be easier to digest.

Wheat berries have all of the nutrients traditionally stripped out of commercial bread, and 7 grams of protein per serving. They can be used and substituted in recipes for rice or quinoa, or where one might use pasta (it sounds odd, I know). Wheat berries have a nutty flavor, and I found them to taste sort-of like quinoa and oatmeal combined. Only way better than that sounds.

Since I've now made the oatmeal reference, I was a little bit nervous heading into this week's recipe, because one of its suggested uses was in replacement of oats for a morning breakfast. While I think this would work, I think there must be far less starch in wheat berries, because there wasn't any stickiness in these, and a totally different texture, so wheat berries can go places that I would never go with oats... but anyways...

This week I made wheat berry salad. It's a really easy recipe as long as you remember to soak the wheat berries overnight, and are doing homework or something else around the apartment for the hour or so required for them to cook. (Once cooked, wheat berries can be frozen, so one of my cookbook authors recommends making large batches and freezing to avoid the long prep process.)

I altered the recipe from a WeightWatchers.com recipe I found with the same name. Then I changed it all. If anyone is reading this who is currently following WeightWatchers, this recipe is 6 PP (PointsPlus). It makes 4 servings of over a cup each.

Ingredients:
1 cup wheat berries, soaked overnight in water
2 medium tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped
40 black olives, coarsely chopped (This was the majority of a can of black olives. I didn't want to use the whole can, but if you really like olives, go for it.)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I didn't have any fresh ingredients, and other than the missing color that it would have provided, dried worked just fine thank you very much.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar


Directions:
1. Rinse the wheat berries, and discard the water they were soaking in. In a medium size saucepan, add the wheat berries and about three cups of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour, until the berries are soft and fully cracked. As the wheat berries are about halfway through cooking, add a pinch of salt.
2. Drain the wheat berries and put into a medium size bowl. Add the tomatoes and olives, mix.
3. Add the garlic and basil.
4. Mix together the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then stir into the salad.

Easy, right? So crazy good tasting! I can't wait to make more with wheat berries. They're awesome. I can't believe that I'm writing this, but this blog is totally working. I'm starting to feel more and more like I'm learning my way around the kitchen, and figuring out this whole cooking thing. And the scary thing is, I'm liking it more and more too... who could have known?

Butternut Squash Risotto

Who knew that babies have the cutest little fingernails! Congratulations to Ethan and Kate. I'm now an aunt to an absolutely adorable and wonderful nephew named Andrew, and I can't wait to get to watch him grow. Andrew is the first baby who I have ever seen at such a young age. And I got to hold him too! The whole idea of the miracle of life got present for me today in a way that it never has before.

It's perfect, really, that I would become an aunt this week. I had a doctors appointment on Monday and was officially diagnosed with high blood pressure. In my defense, the nurse taking my blood pressure reading made the mistake of asking me how school was going while putting the inflatable arm-cuff thing around my upper arm. I could literally feel my chest clench as she asked the question. "Stressful," was all I could respond with. I knew I hadn't passed the test when she immediately took a second reading. "I shouldn't have asked you how school was going, huh?"

It just so happens that I had a finance paper due yesterday that was not started on Monday, that I may or may not have spent some sleepless hours thinking about on Sunday evening before my doctor's appointment on Monday. So no, she should not have asked me how school was going before checking my blood pressure. It didn't exactly make my day, though, when my doctor informed me that my blood pressure was what she would have expected in a woman more than twice my age. Oh to be young again.

This week's recipe reflects some changes as a result of the whole high blood pressure thing. I didn't add any salt at all, and didn't even add cheese to this week's recipe. That was no easy feat. I realized today just how addicted I am to cheese. One of these years I'll find an alternative to it. Until then, I'll just be cutting back a bit... maybe...

I found this recipe on epicurious.com. This website may just be my new favorite. I found the written instructions pretty confusing, however. The link to the original recipe: Kaboucha Squash Risotto with Sage and Pinenuts. It makes 6 large portions, and will take at least 2 hours from start to finish.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 2 1/2- to 3-pound kabocha or butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 6 generous cups)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (The original recipe calls for sherry vinegar, which I didn't have, and only 1 tablespoon. I really like the zing of apple cider vinegar, anyway.)

2 onions, chopped (about 3 cups)

4 cups no-salt added vegetable broth (I couldn't believe they really made that. Good stuff.)

1 1/2 cups arborio rice or medium-grain rice

3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted, divided (I didn't toast the pine nuts. In retrospect, I would have looked up how to do this, as it would have brought out more flavor, I think.)

2 teaspoons cinnamon (this wasn't in the original recipe, but I thought it would work, and it did. Go me. I'm learning how to combine flavors. In some recipes, anyway.)

Preparation: 
Note: I used a large saucepan with high sides for this recipe. If I hadn't had that, I would have used a dutch oven. 
1. Preparing the squash took forever, and epicurious doesn't factor it into the total recipe time, which I found incredibly annoying. At some point growing up when there was nothing else on television, I watched a cooking show that mentioned that if you but butternut squash in the microwave before trying to cut it, it makes it way  easier to cut and prepare. It totally works. Prepping the squash still took a long time, but I didn't break any knives. As far as how small to cut the squash, I think 1/2 inch should be the max, and even smaller wouldn't be bad either.
2.  Cook the squash in a large saucepan in two tablespoons of oil for about 10-12 minutes, until the squash begins to get soft. 5 minutes into the process, add the sage and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Right before removing from the heat, add the 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
3. Wipe out the pan and cook the onions in the other two tablespoons of olive oil until cooked mostly cooked (about 15 minutes). 
4. Add the rice to the pan and cook for about 4 minutes, until the color changes slightly. Stir the rice so that it doesn't stick. While doing this, heat the vegetable broth in a separate pot with 2 cups of extra water.
5. Add one cup of broth to the rice and onion. The rice must be stirred almost continuously. Once the liquid is all absorbed, add an additional cup. Continue doing this until half of the broth is gone. (About 20 minutes)
6. Add the squash to the pan.
7. Continue adding the broth 3/4 - 1 cup at a time until all of the broth is absorbed. (About another 25 minutes.)
6. Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
FINISHED.


The squash adds a lot of sweetness to this risotto, as well as a lot of volume. While butternut squash has grown on me to the point that I can eat it, it still isn't my favorite vegetable, but oh, well. I did like this risotto. I will likely eat it at work this week - and add cheese.  

Super Bowl Vegetable Frittata

So what exactly does my meal this week have to do with the super bowl? Not a whole lot. But I am writing about it right now, in the first quarter of the game. I've been thinking a lot today about how I used to love and follow football. I remember the first time I was old enough to follow the Patriots and they made it to the Superbowl. I think it was the mid-90s. I remember all the local new stations carried stories about Green Bay fans, and how they were "cheese-heads." I didn't like them. Especially when they didn't make Drew Bledsoe look very good. Or the rest of the Patriot team for that matter. I've hated the Packers ever since. Can you tell that I'm from Boston? Good thing we really know how to let go of a grudge...

Did anyone else see the Cowboys & Aliens trailer during the Superbowl commercials and think it was a joke? Daniel Craig, what were you thinking? I mean, you went from staring in my favorite James Bond movie of all time (and I don't say that lightly) to this? I'm so so sad right now, not only for the end of the James Bond franchise, but now my happy memories of Daniel Craig are forever tarnished... but I digress. If anyone's interested, this is another trailer for the movie, in case you missed the commercial during the Superbowl. Not the same preview, but almost as good. You Tube Trailer for Cowboys & Aliens

As I was figuring out what to put in my vegetable Frittata today, I learned a bit about the difference between a frittata and an omelette and a quiche. "Frittata" is Italian for omelette. Unlike an omelette, however, they are more versatile, and can be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The commonalities I found among the various recipes is that the vegetables are all cooked first, then the egg is added, and then the whole dish is cooked in the oven. While many frittatas are cooked under the broiler, I cooked mine the same way that I cooked my crustless quiche (see January 2nd entry).

This recipe makes about 6 servings and the prep took me 30 minutes. It took another 45 minutes in the oven. (I do live at 5280 feet, so I think that increases cooking time, for both onions and ovens).

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 small potatoes, cut into pieces (I tried to buy red potatoes, but couldn't find them sold individually. So then I bought purple potatoes thinking that they were the same thing. They're not. They're actually purple. Well, it did add some color to this this recipe. Go Saints! Oh wait, that was last year...)
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 small zucchinis, cut in half length-wise and then sliced
1 large red bell pepper, cut into small pieces (I'm so technical with my size descriptions, aren't I?)

5 whole eggs, 3 egg whites
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
3/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese 
1/4 cup milk or soy milk
1/2 - 1 teaspoon each: herbs de provence, black pepper, basil

Instructions:
1. In a large pan, cook the potatoes, onion, and zucchinis, and red pepper in the olive oil. (15-20 mins)
2. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, then add the milk, spices and cheese.
3. Grease an 8 inch square baking pan, then add the cooked vegetables. Pour the egg mixture on top and put in the oven for 40-45 minutes. (I used a knife to see when the center was cooked through.)

Let cool to room temperature, then cut.

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

This recipe was suggested to me, and I thought it would be a breeze. And I could make it super easily, with a few substitutions and omissions, etc. Well, it's fine, I guess. I just feel like I'm starting to make the same random recipe over and over again. By that, I mean that my recipes are getting simpler and simpler as my school work takes over more and more of my time, and as my exhaustion level rises accordingly.

My intention with this blog was to make the recipes close to following form. I'm not really doing that. I'm getting exceedingly lazy. My integrity around recipe following is slipping...

I also have Mom's voice in my head with this one right now, because this recipe, now that I have made it and tasted it, is definitely more of a summer recipe than a winter one. I don't know exactly why that causes Mom's voice to go through my head, telling me that I shouldn't have made this when I did, but it does.

So, what have I been doing all day today instead of working on mastering a more challenging recipe? Well, currently I have a paper half written that I could have written at any point last week and not been rushed. But did I? Of course not. Adrenaline, I love you and all, but every now and then I wish I could be like the studious people in my class who already turned in their papers yesterday (early). I wish I could be more like Dad, really. He's such a classic book-learner. When he wants to learn something, he sits down, reads a book, and learns it. I imagine him turning in all of his school papers weeks, if not months early, never waiting until the last moment, never having to cram like I did for my finance midterm last week... But perhaps that's why he went to Harvard and I didn't...

But between catching up on reading that was more skimmed than read for my class that this paper is due in, and staring at the recipe I made last night, and the mess that is now my kitchen, and wondering if the smell will get too awful if I wait until tomorrow to clean it all (I'm not, Mom, I swear. I will clean tonight... after I submit my paper... and go for a run...), I guess that you could homehow call this a day off. And I've still managed to procrastinate from working on my paper as diligently as I'm supposed to be (Hell, I'm writing this blog entry right now.)

Okay, so without further delay, the original recipe, including pretty photo can be found below:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Bean-and-Tomato-Quinoa-238939

I was being lame and decided to double the quinoa. For the purposes of writing this recipe all out, I'm going back to just one cup, because I made way too much for one person. I don't know who all I think I'm feeding, particularly since I'm almost always too embarrassed that I probably messed up to even share my food still... maybe by July.

Ingredients (aka I barely used any of what the Epicurious people called for... but I probably should have...)

This recipe feeds 4-6 (6 being more as a side, 4 if you're vegetarian and love quinoa)

1 cup quinoa, rinsed. Cook according to directions on package, around 20 minutes with a 2-1 water ratio (I tried rinsing it in through rounds of water, as the link above described. I don't think it came out any differently than when I just run water through the quinoa in a strainer. But whateve. I also tried cooking the quinoa the way that the recipe describes above. I'm not even bothering to restate those directions. Total waste of time as far as I'm concerned.)
1 15 oz can of black beans rinsed and drained
1 container of store bought salsa, drained of excess liquid (This is where I pretty much strayed far far away from the original recipe. I like the salsa that you have to buy in the refrigerated section because it always tastes fresher, and I chose one with garlic so that I wouldn't have to add that ingredient either.)
1 15 oz can of yellow corn, rinsed and drained (I only added it because I found two cans of corn in my pantry. Why I have them, I have no idea. I don't even like corn very much. A few of the original reviewers of this actual recipe called for corn, and said how much they loved it. I'm done adding corn. I hate corn. I don't even like corn on the cob. It all just gets stuck in your teeth, and that's just a royal pain.)
Juice from two medium limes (I broke from tradition and didn't shop at Whole Paycheck last night, so didn't buy organic limes, so did not use any zest, but would definitely consider it in the future.)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Allow the cooked quinoa to cool/ chill / just sit there while you:
2. Combine the lime juice, butter and olive oil. Then add all that to the quinoa.
3. Add the salsa, corn and black beans.

The longer the finished product is able to sit, the more the flavors will blend. I think it is best at room temperature.

Wicked hard recipe overall. I know.

I think my favorite part of this recipe was that I didn't use any onions. I am officially on hiatus from trying to cook onions. It does taste pretty good and citrus-y. It just tastes like a summer side-dish, not really for end of January.

Lentil and Bean Chili

I made this chili last night. I've been avoiding writing about it ever since. It's hard to get excited about chili. It's lentils. And beans. Two kinds of beans even. Whoo-hoo. The compromise I made with myself is that I won't list out the full description of what went into it and how I made it and all that. Instead, I am writing about random thoughts that may or may not relate to making chili...

I went vegetarian last Thanksgiving. The Sunday following Thanksgiving if you really want me to be precise about it. I was sitting at home alone in my apartment, eating a frozen meal, when I randomly turned the television on, and started watching a documentary on the local PBS station called Eating. There are two things that I will always watch with unparalleled fascination on television. The first are workout infomercials. The second is anything having to do with health studies.

Eating turned out to be a somewhat low-budget, somewhat biased plea for the world to all turn into vegans. I couldn't believe the health benefits the narrator discussed, from curing cancer to ending heart disease. Oh, and then there was the global warming pitch. And the humanitarian side was thoroughly discussed too. Pretty much, becoming vegan (a low-fat vegan at that) was covered from every angle.

Well, I bit. It was the idea of being able to heal myself through the foods I ate that was what really appealed to me. I have never liked having even to take Advil when I am in pain, so the idea of healing through vegetables seemed great to me.

Susie of one year and two months ago was much like Susie of today. She felt like she should exercise more than she did, she liked to speak about herself in third person, and she knew even less about cooking, and had far less food in her pantry to cook with. Becoming vegan seemed like the logical next step. Or something like that.

I became a Vegan at about 330 in the afternoon, and had pretty much nothing to eat, nor did I go out and grocery shop that evening. Nor did I really know anything about being vegan. Nor did I really know anyone who was a vegan. It was a bumpy start, and within two weeks, I knew every vegan junk food available (not really the point of going vegan, I know).

I'm not vegan anymore. I eat eggs and dairy, although not a lot. In the end, what the narrator said in the documentary about eating low-fat vegan, that it's really not that hard to get all the nutrients and nutrition that you need, could have been true. He neglected to add that it does require a lot of home cooked meals. Quite frankly, traveling to rural parts of Wyoming and North Dakota for work really doesn't provide any food options for vegans. (Even if it has taught me the difference between a deer and a pronghorn.) It barely works being vegetarian, and usually requires ordering grilled cheese sandwiches off of the children's menu. Aside from traveling, it also doesn't work being vegan when your favorite meal to go out for is brunch, and you want to eat more than dry toast.

While I have no plans to go back to eating meat, I also understand why others choose to continue eating it. I know that meat is something that humans were designed to eat and all that. I just look at some of the statistics, like the sheer amount of energy required to produce a pound of beef, and I wish that people would not eat so much of it. A meal doesn't have to include meat in order to be a meal.

I was hesitant to even mention the fact that I am vegetarian in creating this blog, because I know that it skews how others will read it. Although at this point, it must be getting obvious. Who else would actually enjoy making a chili with lentils in it? As I gauged from Julie's reaction to what I made last night, the answer to that question is: not many.

This is the first chili that I have made since becoming vegetarian that I have actually liked. The texture of the lentils adds a nice variety to the other beans. I ended up with 10 portions after adding can after random can of beans. I wasn't expecting it to grow to quite the size it achieved, and nearly overflowed the pot that it was in.

Okay, well now, I think I may actually provide the recipe after all, if for no other reason than to remember it for myself, and, frankly, I've now had a request for it...

This is inspired, once again from a WeightWatchers.com recipe. I am following their program online right now, so have had lots of time to peruse their recipes. I will be breaking the mold and looking elsewhere next week though.

What I made makes 10 servings of just over a cup and a half each.
If anyone's curious, each serving is 8 WW PointsPlus

Ingredients:
1 1-lb package lentils
1 large onion, cooked in two tablespoons of vegetable oil (I cut the onion like a champ this time. I swear. Well, a little bit smaller anyway... the youtube link was great. Thanks! I've avoided writing about this step because I don't feel like talking about cooking an onion again. It gets old. And I'm only on week six or so of this.)
1 28 oz can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes (so much better than plain old crushed tomatoes)
2 15 oz cans of black beans
1 25 oz can of kidney beans 
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes with green chili (about as much spice as I can tolerate)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin 
2 red peppers, chopped up real good (For practically the first week ever, the item I was looking for at Whole Paycheck was actually on sale. A buck a piece!)

Instructions:
1. I cooked the lentils according to the instructions (about 20 minutes), then poured out all but about an inch of the water. I cooked the onion at the same time. The recipe called for adding the red pepper and cooking it at the same time, but I skipped that and added it with the other ingredients. It kept the pepper tasting more crispy, which I preferred.
2. Basically, I combined all of the ingredients after cooking the onion, and let it all cook on medium-low for 20 minutes. Wicked haw'd.

Alright, enough said.

ps. There's a pretty cool website that we looked at in class yesterday called waterfootprint.org. It's a pretty fun/scary/interesting website. I had no idea how much water went into making a cup of coffee...

Curried Quinoa with Chickpeas and Almonds

I feel stupid saying this, but here goes: I don't really know how to cook rice or other grains. It seems like this mysterious process. I am clearing the air with that, because this week I made a quinoa dish. I don't lump quinoa in with rice exactly, but it is another grain that always seems to taste better when someone else makes it. More on quinoa in a bit, but first, I am actually posting early this week. Yay me! I feel so responsible. If only I was this responsible with my school work, which is actually why I am posting tonight. I am somewhat freaking out over the work load this quarter, and other than starting my training for the Colfax Half Marathon tomorrow, I am reserving the day for working my way through about twelve hours of reading that I am looking to jam into six. Sweet!

But back to the quinoa! (Pronounced like "Keene," New Hampshire, followed by "WAAAAA!") Quinoa is a unique grain because it contains all essential amino acids and has the highest protein content of any grain as well. Plus, it makes any dish sound far more exotic and interesting than using rice. I mean seriously, how much better sounding is quinoa?

This recipe came out okay, but I'm going to have to do further study on cooking time differences between Denver, CO, at the wonderful elevation we so enjoy here, and sea level, where all recipes seem to be made. The quinoa literally took half an hour to cook tonight, and it was only supposed to take 15... but anyways...

I adapted this recipe from one I found online on Weight Watchers. It's from the cookbook Dining For Two, from Weight Watchers Publishing Group. I thought it was really lame that you would go to all of the trouble to cook only to make two servings, so I doubled everything. What follows is 4 servings.

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa (Quinoa has to be rinsed before you use it, apparently to get rid of the outer most shell of each grain, which tastes bitter when eaten. I am confident that I've gone without rinsing the quinoa first, and couldn't taste the difference, but I'm trying to be a proper cook now and following etiquette, so all quinoa was rinsed. But what's annoying is that I keep forgetting to buy a smaller strainer for the quinoa. For the most part, the little grains don't fall through the one that I have, but some do, and I feel like the messes up the overall proportions... but anyways...)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
3 tsp curry powder (I thought that was a lot. It did end being sortof strong to me, but I am also pretty sensitive to any spice. And I also always tend to add more spice than than whatever the recipe calls for through accidental spilling...)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium to large onion, chopped (I used a large one, and definitely didn't chop into small enough pieces. The photos pretty much say it all.)
1 clove garlic or garlic powder (I didn't realize that garlic has to be stored in a plastic bag to keep from drying out after it's been started. Oops. I thought I was going to use fresh...)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed (I just used half of a 16 ounce or so package and called it good.)
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained (The recipe I used actually called for 5 ounces of chick peas. I washed and drained the can and then weighed them, and they came out to 8.8 ounces. Close enough.)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup golden seedless raisins (I thought I was buying golden raisins, and then when I opened the box they were the normal purple/brown color. I was pissed. Didn't make much overall difference though.)

Directions:
1. Combine the orange juice, water, and quinoa in a medium size cooking pot and cover. Bring the liquid to a boil, then simmer until all the liquid is gone. This step apparently varies in cooking time. If you're at sea level it should take about 20 minutes for the quinoa to cook. If you are cooking in my kitchen on my stove that apparently has it in for me, allow additional time, even as your stomach is growling and you are wishing that you'd just bought something quick at the store to eat for dinner instead of having to cook at all... but I digress.

2. While waiting ever so patiently for the quinoa to cook: In a medium to large size skillet, heat the oil, then cook the onion, peas and carrots for 3-5 minutes, until the onion starts to cook, and the liquid from the veggies goes away.

3. Add the chickpeas and almonds, and allow to cook another few minutes. Remove from the heat, and add the raisins.

4. The quinoa will finish cooking whenever the quinoa decides to be finished. When it is, combine everything in the pan that you cooked the faster items in, and voila. This recipe can be served at room temperature, and I think letting the whole thing sit may bring out even more taste. I'll see how the leftovers turn out.

So, thus far, I have managed to keep my new year's resolution to maintain this blog once a week. I am not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with myself. I am taking suggestions for next week if anyone would like something made...

It's interesting, because before I started cooking I would look at cookbooks just to study their beautiful, glossy photos, imagining what it would be like to actually make them. I would get really bitter and irritated whenever cookbooks didn't include photos, or there were few and far in-between for the number of recipes included. Now that I'm actually making the recipes, I have been enjoying the mystery of having no photo reference. It's like I'm actually getting to make it for the first time, or that at least I have creative license for the recipe to come out exactly as I want it to, and it doesn't have to mold to how the original maker decided it has to look. I don't know why I felt compelled to write that, just an observation I guess.

Scandinavian Yellow Split Pea Soup with Dilled Yogurt

My MBA program started up again yesterday. Nothing like school all day on a Saturday to shorten the weekend. In my finance class the professor had us all fill out information forms about what finance classes we have previously completed, what our undergrad degree was in, where we went to school, what we do now, etc. Needless to say, with my vast background in finance, the form took me a while to fill in. He took what seemed like great pleasure (I'm sure it was my own sensitivity to it more than anything else) in announcing to the class my undergrad major: art history and visual art, then managed the usual butchering of the pronunciation of Bowdoin College, although, shockingly, he had actually heard of it. Wow, one of five people who's heard of my college in Colorado! During the remainder of the class, he managed to find as many places as he could to state how finance is really an art form, so I shouldn't have any trouble at all (look at all those pretty graphs after all!) I actually really liked him a lot, as he has quite a lot of energy for a Saturday morning, and he stayed remarkably engaging the whole time. No easy feat for a four hour class.

I only mention my finance class because we used Whole Foods as an example company for some ratio comparisons. We looked to see why their stock wasn't comparing well in the five-year term to the S&P 500 and within their own industry. While otherwise faring well, it turns out that Whole Foods' revenue per employee was significantly lower than the industry average. My professor concluded that whole foods must have too many employees. "How's the customer service in there?" He asked. "Are there too many people in there asking you if you need help?" Until he said it, I had never considered customer service to be a problem (Except in clothing stores, where I tend to take after my mother: if I didn't ask you for help, stop following me around the store.). 

Well, let's just say that I took advantage of the overabundance of extra help last night at the Whole Foods in Cherry Creek to find the ingredients for my recipe after class got out. I found this recipe on WeightWatchers.com, and that same website claimed this recipe to be "easy," on the easy to hard scale.

I didn't find wandering around the perimeter of the grocery store to be all that easy. All in all, the trip required a phone call to find out about leeks, and how many of them would likely make four cups, and how much of one you actually use, then two different assists from a store employee who kindly explained the difference between Italian and some other kind of parsley, then grabbed some fresh dill (at this point, I still thought I needed both dill and parsley). I am too embarrassed to write here how long I spent meandering around the store looking for fresh dill. And of course it turned out to be located right next to the leeks and parsley. Go figure.

Okay, just a tiny bit of griping now. When inexperienced to cooking certain vegetables, (or fresh vegetables at all for that matter) I am finding that I really hate the learning curve of figuring out ratios. Not finance ratios, translation ratios: what is the ratio of how much a certain vegetable item translates into American units of measurement for recipes - or any form of measurement for that matter? It turns out that one leek = more than two cups. But of course it does. What else would it equal? Also, who knew how expensive leeks are? Now I have an extra leek. That's three dollars that's probably just going to sit rotting in my fridge all week until I cook again next weekend - if I do a leek recipe again, which I doubt...

Side Note: How to prepare leeks

There's a lot written and demonstrated online about how to prepare leeks. Sadly, the first site that I went to and followed wasn't as good as a later one that I found that talked about putting the sliced leeks into a salad spinner to wash them. I thought that was ingenious. The problem seems to be that there's a lot of dirt that gets trapped in the various layers of a leek. None of the darkest color green is meant to be used either. That's all supposed to be removed as it's considerably more bitter than the lighter parts. The preparation method that I really liked is on a website called startcooking.com. I have the feeling that I'm going to be referring back to that site frequently in the future. There's also a link on that site to another site called: cookingforengineers.com.

After looking at both of these sites quickly, I am once again very happy that I didn't do any research before I decided to start a blog about learning to cook. Not only am I confident that the market is already saturated with a multitude of people who already have blogs related to learning how to cook, but I'm confident that other people have and will continue to do it better. In case anyone's curious, in looking up whether or not I will be sued for posting recipes if I don't attribute them correctly, I came across foodblogalliance.com, a site dedicated to helping food bloggers, which beautifully and fully answered my question. The number one search result of my google search turned out to be yet another site called Food Blogging 101. That's right. Blogging about food cooking and preparation is now so common that an entry level college course reference can be made about it.

But do any other learning to cook bloggers out there have my brand of sarcasm? I don't think so. In case anyone actually reads this and wonders what the answer to my search question is, I believe I should be able to "attribute" the recipe to a certain author, and as long as I change a lot of the wording after the ingredient list, putting it in my own words, I should be good. Well, since I never follow a recipe correctly, anyway, I think I'm fine...

So, finally onto the recipe:

This recipe is adapted from a Weight Watchers cookbook called In One Pot, from Weight Watchers Publishing Group.

Total time including prep/cooking - about 2 hours (They lied. They said it would be done sooner than that.)

Total servings: The recipe said 8. I think it's going to end up being more like 4-5.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp regular butter

4 cups leeks, large, cleaned and sliced (See above notes regarding that. I ended up just using two leeks and calling it good. I think that ended up being closer to 5 cups of leeks. Oh, well.)

2 cloves garlic, minced (I used three, and quite frankly, the whole minced thing just didn't seem to happen. I either need to acquire more patience in the kitchen or sharper knives. Neither of those things are likely to happen any time soon.)

8 cups vegetable broth, low-sodium (I used vegetable boullion cubes and used a combination of 1 cube with salt and 3 with no salt added)

1 pound dry split peas, yellow, packaged, picked over, rinsed, and drained

2 bay leaves (I forgot to add these when I was supposed to. Oh, well. They were added toward the end instead.)

3 medium carrots, sliced (So easy to know how many to use... if only I knew the correct size of a "medium carrot.")

2 stalks celery, sliced (I used three. I'm such a rebel.)

1 tsp dried marjoram (What do you know, I didn't actually have any like I thought I did. I added a weird combination of other odds and ends instead.)

1/4 tsp black pepper, (Never ended up adding any. oops. Still had plenty of flavor.)

For the topping:

freshly ground 1/2 cup(s) low-fat plain yogurt (I used fat free greek yogurt instead, and I used a whole 6 ounce container. Once again, total rebel, I know...)

3 Tbsp dill, fresh, or parsley (Hey, look who didn't read the recipe correctly when she started, it turns out I didn't even need to buy both dill and parsley. Well, now I have a ton of parsley to figure out what to do with.)

2 tsp lemon zest, grated (I used one lemon, since that's how much I bought, and called it good.)

Instructions:

1. Heat the tablespoon of butter in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Then add the garlic and leeks, allowing the onion to cook. (This took me about 10 minutes, and every time I stepped away, the leeks started to burn on the bottom of the pan. So annoying.)

2. Add the broth, yellow split peas, and bay leaves, and allow to cook on low for 50 minutes, covered. (The original recipe called for only 25 minutes here. Maybe it's because of the higher elevation here in Denver, but the peas weren't even remotely done after 50 minutes, which was the original time called for in this recipe.)

3. Add the carrots, celery, and other spices, and allow to cook for another half hour or so, until the peas are totally softened.

4. While allowing the soup to cook, prepare the topping by combining the yogurt, dill or parsley (I used dill), and lemon zest. Place this all back in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to blend.

5. Remove the bay leaves (I had trouble finding the second one. Took some legitimate digging around in the peas and vegetables with the soup spoon). So when the soup was finished, I am sorry to report that I looked at it and decided that it looked thoroughly unappealing in its final state. It reminded me too much of the vegetable soups that I would try to get down (and hated) when I was little. Truth be told, I never liked cooked celery or carrots growing up, and I still don't find them all that appealing in a soup. To get around all of that, I decided to use the hand blender that Mom bought me for Christmas last year (Yet another, "if I got this gadget, I'm sure I'll use it" that never panned out.) And blended all of the soup together. It looked way better this way, and hid most of the evidence of cooked vegetables.

After adding the topping, I enjoyed my soup, and I think I'll definitely be able to enjoy it again. The yogurt/dill/lemon added a great kick to it.

Okay, hopefully future posts won't be quite this long. I did enjoy the process of making this one, once I got all of the ingredients home. I totally could have added the third leek too...