recipe: lentil soup

It's been a year+ since I've stopped by to blog here, and I'm sure my four regular readers (hi, mom!) have long ago stopped checking in for new posts. I became a mom, then started a new job, and figuring out how to balance all of life has been a challenge. So blogging took a backseat. Like, the third row backseat in one of those gigantic SUVs.

I don't think I'm going back to blogging regularly, but I think I'll start posting ... occasionally ... and with a focus limited to new recipes.

Tonight, I found myself wanting to bake a loaf of bread to go with the lentil soup I was making, so I went to this blog to find my recipe for rosemary bread, and it occurred to me that the new recipes I've been trying, like the soup, aren't being captured here.

So here I am, sharing with a recipe for lentil soup. And I didn't take any pictures because, well, since I haven't been blogging, I'm no longer in the practice of taking pictures of the food I make. Sorry. It looked like lentil soup.

Earlier today when I was making a grocery list for the week, I got it into my head that I should base our meals on things that have been sitting in our pantry for a while. Like a bag of lentils. Valerie's made this lentil soup a few times for us, and it's a wonderful thick, spicy soup.

Lentil Soup

Adapted from Scaling Back

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 banana pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 cups almond milk
• 7 cups water
• 1-pound bag of lentils
• 1 can of garbanzo beans
• 3 large carrots, chopped

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven, and add onion. Turn heat to very low and cook 30 minutes until onions begin to caramelize. 

Add banana pepper and jalapeño and cook for 5 minutes. 

Mix in garlic, spices, salt and tomato paste and cook 2 minutes. 

Add almond milk, water, lentils, garbanzo beans and carrots. 

Cook 30 minutes.  

Serves 7.

<3

I intended to serve this with a loaf of whole wheat rosemary bread, based on this recipe. But it's been so long since I've baked anything that my yeast when kaput, and the dough didn't rise. Wah wah. So after brainstorming with my mom, I kneaded 1 tablespoon baking powder into the dough, and dropped spoonfuls of the dough on a baking sheet as biscuits. I baked them for 15 minutes. 

Verdict: good mistake. 

recipe: tony mcmuffin

Tony and I grew up an hour and 10 minutes from each other in Ohio, and in a lot of ways, we had very similar upbringings. Especially when it comes to food - our moms made a lot of the same dinners for us.  Everything from roast beef to spaghetti. So it's always funny to me when we discover some cuisine differences from our childhoods. Like the other week, we had cottage cheese in the fridge, and Tony suggested we eat cottage cheese and noodles for dinner, which was a favorite of his growing up. Um, ew - no way. And he was equally repulsed when I was dipping Fritos in the cottage cheese, a tasty combination I picked up as a child from my dad.

But Tony is always very, very impressed when I microwave an egg for a breakfast sandwich. My mom made these all the time growing up, so they never struck me as particularly special, but Tony had never had one. When I make them, I get compliments that include the phrase "best wife ever." The last time I made the sandwiches, Tony requested mustard on his, so I'm naming this sandwich the "Tony McMuffin."

Tony McMuffin

• 2 eggs
• 1 English muffin
• Butter
• 1 slice American cheese
• Mustard

Grease the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of an oversized coffee mug with butter or margarine. Crack 2 eggs into the mug. Stir with a fork to break the yolks.

Cover mug with a napkin, which will prevent a mess in your microwave if the egg pops. Microwave for 45 seconds. Use a fork to flip the egg. Re-cover mug with napkin. Microwave for 45 seconds more. (Check that the egg is no longer runny; microwave cooking times vary.)

Meanwhile, toast and butter an English muffin.

Assemble the sandwich with a slice of cheese and squirt of mustard.

Note: If you want to use just one egg, reduce cooking time to 30 seconds per side.

recipe: enchis on the grill

When Tony and I lived in Phoenix, we ate a lot of really great Mexican food, and we started experimenting with Mexican recipes at home. We eventually added enchiladas to our regular dinner rotation, and it's something we still eat regularly. (Tony and I call them "enchis" for short.) They're even better with a fried egg on top, a trick I picked up at one of my favorite restaurants in Phoenix.

Of course, now that the D.C. summer temperatures have reached yucky, and the humidity has reached disgusting, I haven't been turning on the oven very much. Instead, I've been trying some tried-and-true recipes on the grill, and I've had some great success so far. And I'm happy to report that enchis on the grill are just as fantastic as they are in the oven.

Enchis on the Grill

• 1 can enchilada sauce
• 4 8-inch tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 jalapeños, diced
• several handfuls of cheddar cheese
• 4 eggs
• cilantro

Line bottom and sides of a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick foil. Pour about 1/3 of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan.

Assemble the enchiladas. Spread 1/4 of the beans along the center of each tortilla. Top with tomatoes and jalapeños and other toppings of choice (such as green olives and onions). Sprinkle a handful of cheese in each enchi. Fold the enchi sides over to close them.

Flip the enchis over and place in the baking dish. Spread remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the tortillas. Add another handful of cheese on top of each enchi.

Cover top of baking dish with foil. Also cover bottom of baking dish with a piece of foil to protect it from the flame.

Grill on medium-high heat for 20 minutes. Remove foil top and grill an additional 5 minutes.

While the enchis are grilling, fry the eggs, over easy, in olive oil or butter.

With a spatula, transfer enchis to plates. Top with eggs and a handful of cilantro to taste.

Serves 4.

Note: Tony and I took the two leftover enchis for lunch the next day. And they were just as good (maybe even a little better) than the night before.

recipe: homemade funfetti cake

I grew up on the quintessential American street. It wasn't a large block - just a couple dozen houses, many of which the vacuum manufacturing company down the street built around 1920 and sold to its workers. My parents bought one of those houses soon after they got married. When I was growing up, some of the men on the street still worked at the company and walked to work.

A lot of young families lived on the street, so kids were always playing games in the street or playing hide-and-go-seek through the neighbors' backyards or drawing with chalk on the sidewalks.

When my parents brought me home from the hospital, the neighbors down the street had just brought home their two-week-old baby girl, Valerie. She and I grew up together, walked to school together, and marked a lot of milestones together.

Our lives went in a lot of different ways after high school, and we didn't stay in touch. But then last summer, she moved to D.C. for a fellowship, and she ended up moving into an apartment that is (literally) just down the street from where I live. Neighbors again. We see each other often now. It's funny how life works out that way.

The other weekend, Valerie turned 30. Which means, of course, that my own 30th birthday is right around the corner. (Cue the panic.)

Anyway, we had a really fun time celebrating Valerie's milestone with good, old-fashioned bowling at the Fort Myer Bowling Center. (It was a pretty rad place, so I'm planning to post a separate blog about the center.) The bowling alley has a party room, and they let me bring a cake to the party as an exception to the center's no-outside-food rule.

Valerie requested a Funfetti cake. Instead of picking up a boxed cake mix, I did a Google search to see if anyone had perfected a homemade version. Lo and behold, I found a recipe that turned out to be awesome.

It was super moist, had a lot of vanilla and butter flavors and was pretty easy to put together. My cake didn't turn out as white as the boxed version or the pictures on the original recipe writer's blog - but I still give this recipe very high marks.

Homemade Funfetti Cake

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

• 3 1/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups milk (I used almond milk)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sprinkles (not nonpareils)
• additional sprinkles for the top

Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Whisk in sugar and brown sugar. Whisk in eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Stir in sprinkles, being careful not to overmix, which would cause the sprinkles to bleed.

Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 33-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

When cool, frost cake with recipe that follows.

Vanilla Frosting (for a two-layer cake)

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• up to 3 tablespoons milk

Combine powdered sugar, butter and vanilla in a stand mixer bowl. Add milk, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, until frosting is a spreadable consistency.

recipe: tony's dump cake

There is precisely one dessert recipe that Tony knows how to make. And for years now, whenever he's called upon to bring a dessert to a dinner party or potluck, he turns to his trusty dump cake. Easy and tasty. So last Friday, when our neighbor invited Tony over for a man night with a group of guys (complete with steaks and whiskey), Tony volunteered to bring the dessert.

This recipe is simple. There are four ingredients, all of which can be kept in the pantry and fridge or freezer, ready for last-minute dump cake emergencies. Crushed pineapple. Cherry pie filling. Yellow cake mix. Butter. And as the name implies, you just dump it all into a pan and bake it.

(I should note that we only had pineapple chunks at our house, so Tony used a potato masher to break the chunks up. It's easiest just to buy the right stuff, though.)

Tony's Dump Cake

• 1 can crushed pineapple with juice
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 2 sticks butter

In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, pour crushed pineapple. Spread cherry pie filling on top. Spread yellow cake mix over the fruit. Top with pats of butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

recipe: almond french toast

Ben and Mandy came over for brunch a few weeks ago, and I wanted to serve something light. We ended up having almond French toast and yogurt with berries. This French toast is fantastic. I mean, I always love French toast - but the addition of the almonds elevates this version.

Almond French Toast

Via Cook's Illustrated

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
• 8 slices Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White. (Original recipe also recommends Arnold Country Classics White, Thomas’ English Muffin Toasting Bread or a challah loaf sliced into 1/2-inch pieces.) 
• 1 1/2 cups milk, warmed to the touch
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for cooking
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Triple Sec
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

In a food processor, combine almonds and 1 tablespoon brown sugar until coarsely ground, about 15 pulses.

Place bread on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Place in a 300-degree oven for 16 minutes to dry the bread, flipping halfway through. The centers should remain slightly moist.

(The first two steps can be done the night before.)

Place the wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in the oven and warm oven to 200 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk milk, yolks, remaining 3 tablespoons brown sugar, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons melted butter, salt, vanilla, Triple Sec and orange zest. Pour mixture into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Soak bread in milk mixture for just 20 seconds per side. Pick up bread with a slotted spatula and allow excess milk to drip off. Transfer slices to a baking sheet.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture over one side of each slice of bread.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat. Place two slices of bread in the skillet, nut side down. Cook until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip bread and cook 3 to 4 more minutes.

Transfer cooked toast to the wire rack in the warmed oven.

Repeat with remaining butter and bread.

Serves 4.

recipe: grilled cornmeal mush

Tony and I got a grill for Christmas from my parents, and we have been using that puppy regularly all spring. Food just tastes better with that grill flavor, with some char on it.

The weather was perfect last night, so of course we grilled. I read in the newspaper that you can grill cornmeal mush, so I decided to try my hand at it. I made up this recipe, based on my previous experience with mush and quick Internet research on cooking techniques. It turned out to be a fantastic side dish. Grilled mush is definitely a keeper recipe. (Oh, if you're fancy, feel free to call it grilled polenta.)

It's crisp on the outside and creamy inside with a great charred flavor.

Grilled Mush

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add salt.

Slowly pour cornmeal into boiling water, whisking constantly for 2 minutes to remove lumps as mixture thickens. Be very careful to avoid splattering yourself. (I've been burned before by mush.)

Turn heat to very low and cover. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring bottom and sides of pan every 5 to 10 minutes. Season with pepper.

Pour cornmeal mixture into a greased mini loaf pan.

Refrigerate until firm, at least two hours or overnight.

Before grilling, remove mush from pan and slice into 6 pieces.

Place directly on grill and cook 10 minutes per side over medium heat.

Serves 2 to 3.

recipe: peach sangria

This sangria recipe, which I made most recently for brunch after the marathon, is phenomenal. The recipe is simple: wine, peach schnapps, frozen lemonade concentrate and fruit. The frozen lemonade makes the drink sweet, and the schnapps gives it good fruit flavor. Your early-morning alcohol shouldn't be overwhelmingly booze-tasting, right?

I got this recipe from Camille a couple of years ago, and it's never failed to impress. It's the best sangria I've ever had, for sure.

Peach Sangria

• 1 bottle dry white wine
• 3/4 cup peach schnapps
• 6 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate
• peaches, apples, grapes, strawberries or other fruit of your choice

In a large pitcher, combine wine, schnapps and lemonade concentrate. Add fruit. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight to blend flavors.

recipe: potato & rosemary strata

So many great things happened Saturday. For example: A dog came to hang out in my house.

That's Lily - isn't she sweet? She came to visit after the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. Avery ran the race (yay, Avery!), and afterwards she came over to my house for brunch, along with Nathan, Lily and a few other friends.

Here's another shot of Lily, transfixed on a piece of food, no doubt.

The star of the brunch menu was a potato and rosemary strata. Because of the heaping amounts of various dairy products in this strata, I can't give you a first person review of this recipe, but, based on the reaction of everyone else, I'll put this in the "major success" category.

This is an America's Test Kitchen recipe. A couple of Decembers ago, right after Tony and I moved into our house, we hosted a Christmas brunch, and I made an ATK spinach strata, which also was a big success. So I had a lot of confidence going in that the potato and rosemary version would turn out well.

Potato & Rosemary Strata

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

• 8-10, 1/2-inch slices of French or Italian bread
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and divided
• 12 ounces medium red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• salt and pepper
• 2 shallots, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 6 ounces (or 1 1/2 cups shredded) cheese - recipe called for fontina, but I used a combo of mozzarella and provolone
• 6 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups half and half

Dry out the bread in the oven. Arrange slices on a baking sheet and bake at 225 degrees for about 40 minutes, turning over halfway through. 

When cool, butter one side of each piece, using 2 tablespoons butter.

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add potatoes and 1 teaspoon salt. Boil potatoes until just tender when pierced with a paring knife, about 4 minutes. Drain.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Add potatoes and cook until beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add shallots and cook about 1 minute. Add garlic and rosemary and cook 30 seconds. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer potato mixture to medium bowl.

Add wine to skillet and simmer about 3 minutes until wine is reduced to 1/4 cup. Set aside.

Grease 8-inch square baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter. 

Arrange half of bread, buttered side up, in a single layer. Sprinkle half of the potato mixture and 1/2 cup cheese.

Top with remaining bread, remaining potato and another 1/2 cup cheese.

In a bowl, whisk eggs, reduced wine, half and half, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste.

Pour eggs over bread.

Cover strata with plastic wrap, and weigh down with canned goods.

(As you can see, there are many cans of black eyed peas in my house at any given time.)

Place casserole dish on a baking sheet to mitigate any spillage. (Lesson learned from that Christmas brunch.)

Refrigerate overnight. (Original recipe says to refrigerate anywhere from 1 to 24 hours.

In the morning, remove strata from the fridge and sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.

Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes until edges and center are puffed and the edges pull slightly away from the dish. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 6 to 9.

By the way, I made this strata to be gluten free, which was very easy. The only gluten-containing ingredient in the recipe is the bread, so I used a loaf of Against the Grain bread gluten-free bread instead, which was a seamless substitute. (Avery picked up the loaf and said she finds it at a specialty grocery store.) No one could tell the difference.

And since I included photos of a dog in this blog post, I'd feel bad if I also didn't include a photo of Victor. (Victor spent the party shut in the second bedroom to avoid any drama. Victor has met exactly two dogs in his life. The dogs see Victor as a new friend and are eager to come up and smell him. Victor sees the dogs as loud, large enemies that want to eat him. Things don't end so well.) So here he is, post-brunch, once the dog has left, sitting on the steps, still looking a tad bit terrified from the commotion.

recipe: camille's mango lassi

Tony and I spent last Saturday evening at Camille and Matt's house, chowing down on some amazing homemade Indian food and playing Cards Against Humanity.

Let me first talk about Cards Against Humanity. Then I'll get to the Indian food.

Camille and Matt ordered the game for Tony and me for Christmas, but it's been on backorder, so we've been anxiously awaiting the day it would arrive. That day came. The box says it's "a party game for horrible people." Couldn't have said it better myself. The premise is simple. Every round, a black card is turned over. The black card has a phrase on it with one word blank. Then everyone has to fill in the blank with one of the white cards from their hand. Funniest card wins. It's inappropriate and dirty and simply awesome. I hate to say it, but I think I like it even more than I like Clue. And I love love love Clue. Check it out if you want to treat yourself or if you're in the market for a gift for a friend who happens to be a horrible person.

Anyway, back to Indian food. This was quite a feast we had. Matt made a spicy tomato-garbonzo bean dish and a tofu-spinach dish. There was basmati rice, naan and samosas. AND mango lassis. As you can see, I did not go home hungry:

Camille was the brains behind these lassis. They're simple and healthy, and I highly recommend them, either for an Indian food dinner party or even for an evening snack.

Camille's Mango Lassi

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup frozen mango
• 1/2 cup ice

Combine all ingredients in blender and process until smooth.

And because Camille is awesome, she made a dairy-free version for me, substituting soy yogurt and almond milk. YUM.

recipe: blondies

You know the final scene in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when the Ugly yells, "Hey, Blooondieeeeee!!!!" as Clint Eastwood rides off on his horse? For the two days that these blondies were in my house, every time I looked at one, my internal dialogue yelled, "Blooondieeeeee!!!!"

This is another recipe from the good folks at the America's Test Kitchen empire. Last weekend I renewed the Cook's Illustrated cookbook that I had checked out from the library, and I tried another dessert recipe from the book.

I made blondies -- they're shaped like brownies, but the brown sugar gives them the flavor of a chocolate chip cookie. I picked this recipe because I didn't have a lot of motivation for baking Saturday, and this was a straight-forward recipe. (That can't be said for all ATK recipes ... sometimes they get complicated.)

I served some of these guys Saturday night for dessert when Camille and Matt came over for dinner, and I brought the rest to Ben and Mandy's house for the Super Bowl. And if I may be cliche, these guys scored a touchdown! At least the cookies won, even if the 49ers didn't.

Blondies

Via Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup walnuts (or pecans), toasted and chopped coarse
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a medium owl.

In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar and butter. Whisk in eggs and vanilla.

Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.

Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.

Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch pan. (Original recipe wants you to make a "foil sling," but that's never worked out for me.)

Scrape batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Top will be shiny and starting to firm up when it's done. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

recipe: triple-chocolate cookies

The other week, Tony and I stopped in the library to pick up about a dozen books on DIY patio-building that I had requested. (I still am convinced that it's a project we can tackle.) And then I started wandering the aisles, greedily grabbing even more random books and adding them to my pile. Free books! I'd forgotten how fun it is to go to the library and just take whatever you want.

One of the cookbooks I checked out is the Cook's Illustrated cookbook, which, as far as I can tell, has a recipe for every single thing you would ever want to eat. Our Phoenix friends Ofelia and Nathan were coming into town to stay with us for the inauguration, and I thought it'd be nice to have cookies in the house, so Tony and I tried a recipe from the cookbook.

I know Tony's usually the one to speak in superlatives, but I'm going to acknowledge that I have never made a better chocolate cookie before. In fact, I can't even recall eating a better chocolate cookie that someone else has made. (Sorry, Mom.) They're that good.

Triple-Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

• 1 pound semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 10 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 bag chocolate chips

Microwave chocolate at 50 percent power for 2 minutes. Stir. Heat for an additional minute on 50 percent power until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In separate bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla. Sprinkle instant coffee on top.

In stand mixer with the paddle, beat butter, brown sugar and sugar until just combined. On low speed, add egg mixture until just incorporated. Add chocolate until just combined. Add dry ingredients until just combined. Be careful not to overbeat the dough. With a spoon, stir in chocolate chips.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes until dough is fudge-like.

For each cookie, roll 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball. Place cookies 1-1/2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Edges should set, but centers will be soft. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes, and they will continue to firm up. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes about 40 cookies.

recipe: rosemary bread

I've been making a lot of bread this winter because (a) it makes the house smell amazing; (b) the oven keeps the house warm; and (c) homemade bread is far tastier than the store-bought kind. I've been making a lot of white bread, but a couple of weeks ago, I switched things up and made rosemary bread. Rosemary grows well all year round here, so I have a ton of it in my garden. This bread is amazing.

Rosemary Bread

Adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup water
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons chopped rosemary, divided

Heat oven to 200 degrees and turn off when it comes to temperature.

Combine yeast and 1/4 cup warm water in mixer bowl. Let stand about 7 minutes.

Add 3/4 cup water, olive oil, sugar, salt, flour, and 2 tablespoons rosemary.

Attach the dough hook, and mix on speed 2 until dough is smooth.

Place dough ball into an oiled bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in warm oven for 1 hour.

Punch down dough and let rest for 15 minutes, covered.

Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a large rectangle with smallest side about 9 inches wide. With your hands, roll up the dough into a 9-inch-long loaf. Fold the ends over, so the end spirals aren't showing.

Grease two loaf pans, and place dough in them, seam-side down.

Press remaining 1 tablespoon rosemary into the loaves.

Cover and let rise 1 hour.

Dust loaves with a small amount of flour.

Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

<3

By the way, I got this oven thermometer as a Christmas present from my parents. Holy guacamole, was this thing an eye opener. Turns out, "400" is more like 350, so I've had to make some adjustments when I'm preheating the oven.

recipe: vegetable barley soup

As Tony was eating this vegetable barley soup, he said, "This soup has made me re-think my anti-soup stance." Apparently he doesn't like soup. Who knew? And now I'm thinking about all of the times I've made soup before ... apparently he didn't like it ... but he never said anything ...

You think you know everything there is to know about your spouse, and then you learn something new. Like earlier this week, in the car, All Star by Smash Mouth came on the radio, and I sang every word. Tony seemed to be equal parts impressed and bewildered.

Anyway, back to the soup.

This baby is good. It's got some spice to it. And it was my first-ever foray into barley soup making.

(Pictured above with rosemary bread, which I mentioned before. I've really got to post that recipe soon.)

Vegetable Barley Soup

Adapted from allrecipes.com

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup pearl barley, uncooked
• 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large carrots, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven. Add onion and cook over medium-low heat until browned, about 10 minutes.

Add garlic and cook a couple of minutes until browned.

Add curry powder, paprika and pepper and cook 1 minutes.

Add vegetable stock and water and bring to a boil.

Add barley, tomatoes, garbanzos, sugar, salt, carrots and zucchini. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.

<3

Note: The vegetables will be very tender. If you want crispier veggies, wait to add the carrots and zucchini until about 15 minutes from the end of the cooking time.

recipe: quinoa and vegetable stew

Tony tends to compliment my cooking in superlatives. The deep dish pizza I made the other week was his "favorite pizza ever." I made rosemary bread last weekend that was "the best bread you've ever made." (Recipe coming up.) And this quinoa and vegetable stew is his "new favorite food." Haha.

But it really is good. I usually do not eat leftovers, but I ate these leftovers for lunch the next two days.

Quinoa and Vegetable Stew

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen via USA Today

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 onion, chopped fine
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 hot banana peppers, minced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 1 pound red potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 1/2-inch pieces)
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven. Add onion and salt and cook over medium-low heat until onion is browned, about 10 minutes.

Add banana peppers and cook a few minutes until beginning to brown.

Add garlic and cook a few minutes.

Add paprika, coriander and cumin and cook about 1 minute.

Add vegetable stock and potatoes and bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 10 minutes.

Add quinoa and simmer 8 minutes.

Add corn and simmer 7 minutes.

Add tomatoes and peas and cook 5 minutes.

Off heat, stir in cilantro.

Makes 6 servings.

<3

Cute cat bonus picture!

In making this recipe, Tony and I learned that Victor likes cilantro. Here he is, eating one of the stems after I pulled the leaves off.

recipe: pierogies

I'm not ashamed to admit that there are Mrs. T's pierogies in my freezer. Mrs. T gets the credit for many a weeknight dinner in my house. But, I have to say, that Mrs. T's ain't got nothin' on Ms. Z's homemade pierogies.

Homemade pierogies are kind of involved to make, but they are worth it. I made a batch when Camille and Matt came over for dinner before Christmas. This recipe makes a bunch of pierogies, so I was able to freeze a lot for weeknight dinners.

Pierogies

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Dough

• 4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature

Filling

• 2 medium potatoes
• milk, butter and/or sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Extras

• 1/2 onion
• butter or olive oil for sauteing

In a stand mixer bowl, combine flour and salt. Add eggs, sour cream and butter. Knead until dough is smooth. Divide dough and half and wrap each ball in plastic wrap and store in fridge for at least an hour.

For filling, boil potatoes until tender. Mash with milk, butter and/or sour cream to create thick mashed potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough balls out, one at a time. Use a large glass to cut the dough into circles.

Place a spoonful of potatoes into the dough circle.

Fold the pierogie in half.

Pinch the pirogue closed with your fingers.

Lay the pierogie on the counter and use a fork to seal it. Flip it over and seal the other side.

Boil a large pot of water. Place the pierogies in the water and cook until they float.

Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, melt the butter or heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook until they start to brown. When the pierogies are boiled, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the frying pan. Fry until the pieroges are golden.

recipe: sesame seed burger buns

I made these buns before, but I was disappointed in how they turned out. The original recipe called for brushing melted butter on the buns before baking, which ended up making them too hard for my taste. This time, I skipped the melted butter topping and ended up with fluffy burger buns. Much better.

Sesame Seed Burger Buns

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. When oven comes to temperature, turn off.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

In mixer bowl with a dough hook, combine flour, sugar, salt, butter and egg. Add yeast mixture. Knead until dough is smooth.

Put dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in warm oven for 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and divide into 8 pieces. Shape into balls, and flatten. Place buns on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and let rise 30 minutes.

Brush a small amount of water on each of the buns, which will help the sesame seeds stick. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds on each of the buns.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

recipe: scalloped potatoes

Before we get started, let me just say, if your New Year's resolution was "eat healthy" ... you should skip this recipe. Ain't nothing healthy about it.

So last fall, I made a tasty tasty macaroni and cheese that used a bechamel white sauce. I made the recipe once with cow's milk, and once with soy milk, and there was no discernible difference. Which was an exciting discovery for me because the soy-based bechamel can be a good way to make creamy recipes without any dairy. So for the past several months, I've been trying/inventing recipes with bechamel sauce, but none have turned out well enough to post on the blog.

Until today, my friends.

I was talking to my mom about bechamel one day, and she said she makes it for her scalloped potatoes.

So I turned to whom I presume is the authority on the matter of scalloped potatoes and bechamel: Julia Child. Except her recipes for scalloped potatoes (which she calls gratin dauphinois, how fancy) doesn't use bechamel. She says to just use boiling milk.

But I really wanted to use bechamel, so I made some adaptations to Julia's recipe. (Is that blasphemy -- tweaking a Julia Child recipe?)

The result? OMG, delicious. Mmmm, crispy brown edges.

Scalloped Potatoes

Inspired by Mastering the Art of French Cooking

For bechamel sauce

• 1 cup milk (or soy milk)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour

For filling

• 2 pounds potatoes
• 5 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste

Peel potatoes, and use a mandoline to slice into super thin 1/8-inch slices. Store in a bowl of cold water until ready to use.

For the bechamel sauce, begin heating milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

In a separate saucepan, melt butter. Add flour, continue stirring, and cook for 2 minutes while mixture froths. This is called the roux. Remove the roux from the heat.

Turn the heat up on the milk, so it begins to boil around the edges.

Add hot milk to the roux, and whisk vigorously until the mixture is smooth.

Put saucepan over the heat again, continuing to stir with the whip, and boil for 1 minute. Remove the bechamel from the heat.

Grease a 9-by-9 casserole dish with 2-inch sides.

Drain the potatoes, and pat dry on a dish towel.

Layer half of the potatoes in the casserole dish. Spread half of the bechamel. Dot with half of the butter. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, bechamel, butter, salt and pepper.

Bake at 425 degrees on top rack, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Then broil for 2 minutes, turning the dish 90 degrees after 1 minute.

Julia says it serves 6, but it's more like 4 or 5.

recipe: chicago deep-dish pizza

I made this pizza for the first time after Tony and I got back to D.C. after Christmas. And I'm not ashamed to say that I made it again three days later because both of us were craving it. Tony has since declared this to be his favorite pizza ever.

I found this recipe when I was poking around the recipe pages of the King Arthur flour website. The crust is the best part about this pizza. It's thick like a Chicago pizza should be, and the bottom is crispy-fried. The sauce is the second best part about this pizza. It's chunky and spicy and unexpected.

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Crust

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water
• 2 3/4 teaspoons yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons cornmeal
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil for crust + 4 tablespoons olive oil for pans

Sauce

• 28-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

Toppings

• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• toppings of your choice (I used 1 pound cooked Lightlife ground veggie sausage, 2 cans mushrooms drained and sauteed, and a handful of green olives and a handful of onions)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil to drizzle on top

Preheat oven to 200 degrees, and turn off when it comes to temperature.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

In stand mixer bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, salt, butter, vegetable oil and olive oil. Add yeast mixture. On speed 2 with a dough hook, mix until dough comes together. Continue to knead for a few minutes after dough comes together.

Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover bowl with a towel, and place in warm oven for 1 hour.

Prepare 2 9-inch cake pans by pouring 2 tablespoons olive oil into each pan, and tilt pans, so oil covers the bottoms. (The original recipe calls for a 14-inch round pie plate, but I do not have that.)

Once dough has risen, divide in half and roll each half into a 11-inch circle with a rolling pin. Place the circles into the cake pans, and mold the dough up the sides of the pan.

Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Poke 10 holes in the bottom of each crust. Par-bake the crust for 10 minutes at 425 degrees.

For the sauce, drain the tomatoes thoroughly. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, oregano, basil, hot pepper flakes, salt, sugar and garlic.

Cover bottom of each par-baked crust with 1 cup cheese. Add toppings. Add sauce. Add additional 1/2 cup cheese. (Original recipe called for grated Parmesan here, but I only had mozzarella.) Top with 2 tablespoons olive oil on each pizza.

Bake for an additional 25 minutes at 425 degrees. Use a spatula to transfer the pizzas to a cutting board. Cutting through the crust will require a big whack with a sharp pizza cutter.

Makes 2 9-inch pizzas.

recipe: ginger fruit salad

Happy New Year! If your resolution was to "eat healthy," boy, do I have the recipe for you. I made this fruit salad when Mike, Jen and Jamie came over for our Christmas brunch. I like it because the ginger is unexpected.

The ingredients sound weird (honey + red wine vinegar + ginger) -- but trust me on this one. It's good.

Ginger Fruit Salad

Adapted from The Cook's Country Cookbook

• Fruit to fill a medium bowl (I used 2 large apples, 1 can mandarin oranges, 2 handfuls of frozen blueberries and 2 handfuls of grapes that I froze when they were on sale)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

Combine 1/8 cup oranges (or any fruit of your choice), water, honey, vinegar and ginger in a small saucepan. Break down with a potato masher. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Strain, reserving the juices and throwing away the solids.

Toss the remaining fruit in a bowl with the fruit juice. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

(By the way, after I cut the apples, I sprinkled them with lemon juice to keep them from browning.)