Variations on Greek Lemon Chicken soup

I'm going to add these to the original post as "variations" at the bottom (idea stolen from Alice Waters), but I thought I'd also point one out in a post. I hate when a recipe calls for only the yolks or only the whites, because then I have half an egg, or many eggs, in the fridge. Because these recipes generally demand more work than normal ones, I usually don't feel like cooking anything for a few days, and by then the half eggs would probably be better off not used. Such was the predicatment with the Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. But no longer! I found a really neat way to use the white. So, with the yolk you want to temper it so it mixes into the broth without scrambling. I thought it would be neat to then add the white, but without tempering and actually scrambling it on purpose by stirring, like in egg drop soup. It WAS neat! And, it adds protein. Hurray!

Curried Red Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew with Garbanzo Beans

I saw this soup in an Epicurious email I got (on the website here), and decided to try it. The recipe is originally from Bon Appetit. I followed some of the comments on the website and also added a pinch of ginger and a bit of cumin. I think I might have used more chard than called for, but that's ok with me. And I also threw in the stems as someone suggested, just did it earlier than the leaves so they had time to soften. I also used half red Swiss chard, and half white, which was fine. Mine turned out very thick, closer to a stew or dal. You could add more broth to make it more soupy. I have had it with brown basmati rice, which is a nice complement. The best part is it's really quick, and it only gets better as it sits in the fridge.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 5 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 14-ounce cans vegetable broth
• 1 large bunch or 2 small bunches Swiss chard, tough stalks removed, coarsely chopped (about 12 cups)
• 1 pound red lentils (about 2 1/4 cups)
• 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
• Plain yogurt

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté until golden, about 13 minutes. Mix in curry and cayenne. Add broth and chard. Increase heat; bring to boil. Add lentils and garbanzos; reduce heat to medium.

Cover; simmer until lentils are tender, stirring twice, about 10 minutes. Divide stew among bowls. Top with yogurt.

Winter Roasted Tomatoes

From Alice Waters:

Choose a wide, shallow earthenware dish and pour olive oil to cover the bottom. Over the oil spread a diced onion, 2 or 3 garlic cloves sliced thin, and a scattering of fresh herb leaves such as marjoram, parsley, rosemary or basil. Season with salt. Drain a large can of organic whole tomatoes (drink juice or save for another use), and arrange tomatoes in a single layer over the onions, garlic and herbs. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with a little sugar and drizzle with olive oil. Bake, uncovered, at 275 degrees. Coarsely cut up the tomatoes and serve as a sauce with warm pasta, roasted meats and beans or whatever you like. The tomatoes are also delicious served on crusty bread as an hors d’oeuvre.

RESULTS: sweet, velvety. Like sun-dried tomatoes but with more moisture. The garlic and onion on the bottom ended up being too black to eat, but the tomatoes got a nice char on them. I didn't chop them on the cutting board because I didn't want to lose all that nice sauce in the middle, so I just sort of shredded them over a bowl of pasta. Mmmm.

Roasted Beet Salad

So, I have to preface this by saying that I love beets. After living in Ukraine for 2 years, I decided they are an underappreciated vegetable here. I think that's changing, because I've seen more and more recipes with them over the last couple of years. Anyway, the other day a friend of mine brought a salad to class with walnuts and apples and feta cheese on it, and it made me think I wanted something similar for dinner, so I made up this salad. And it was fab. I made a big one as a dinner main dish, but you could use the same amount of ingredients for 2 or 3 smaller salads.

Baby spinach
2-3 roasted beets (recipe below), sliced
1/2 apple, sliced
Walnuts
Feta cheese
Dried cranberries
Olive oil & balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper to taste for dressing

It's a salad, so, you know, toss everything together, add some salt and pepper to taste, and there you go. It was really good when the beets were still warm and made the cheese a bit melty. I think it'd be nice with some red onion, too.

Here's how to roast beets (it's a great all-purpose recipe; I often do this and just eat them as a side dish, or you can add them to other things, like risotto, etc.):

Beets (as many as you want - I usually do 4 or so)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Sea salt

Cut off the tops and root ends of the beets. If they came with the greens still attached, save those and cook them separately. (They're great sauteed with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic.) You can either peel the beets now, or wait until after they're roasted and cooled a little, at which point the skins will slip off. It just depends on how much you want them to retain the flavor of the oil, vinegar and salt. Place the beets on some foil on a baking sheet, sprinkle some olive oil, balsamic and sea salt on them, and then close the foil around them to form a little packet. Roast at 350-400 degrees for about an hour, until a fork can easily pierce the beets. If you have baby beets, or have cut them into smaller pieces, it'll take less time.

Light and Dark Brown Sugar

I made the Outrageous Chocolate Cookies this weekend (I didn't name them, I promise) and the recipe calls for light brown sugar. All I had was dark. Had I known, I might have tried an exciting switcheroo to make the dark sugar light, but instead I just proceeded with a simple substitution, to no adverse effects that I could see. So, what's the diff? Why specifically call for light brown sugar when both light and dark yield similarly outrageous results? Chris speculated that it might have to do with the color of the cookies, but I think he said that without thinking because surely, at least in this recipe, the immense amount of chocolate put into the batter would camouflage any difference in color. The Internets doesn't seem definitive on this. I found out that dark brown sugar, with more molasses, has a bigger flavor and is, of course, darker, but I was wondering if it also had more moisture (which is important to consider in baked goods, eh?). Unclear. Thoughts?

By the way, my friend Jean from high school might be posting some recipes here, too. She makes killer salads, which is definitely an area in which I am lacking.

Baked Penne with Smoked Paprika

I decided to go ahead and try a baked pasta dish (baked penne) with the smoked paprika that Dave and Kathy brought back for us from Spain (aka, Chris's Favorite Spice) and it turned out really well. I just kept adding a little to the sauce until it tasted right, maybe about half a teaspoon? I would recommend, though, that if you try this you should get good smoked paprika, not mediocre sweet paprika, because the smokiness was really what did it for us. We couldn't tell if we were tasting the paprika or smelling it, but either way, delish. It's a nice variety.

Risotto and Butternut Squash

As per Sarah's suggestion, I tried the Risotto and Acorn Squash recipe with butternut. Very good, and I think I prefer the taste of butternut squash to acorn, anyway, because acorn squash can get a little bitter, in my opinion. When cutting the squash, I would say smaller is better so it cooks all the way through.