Monday, February 27, 2012

Joy's ginger and lentil soup

This meal really hit the spot during this chilly, gray, yet snowless winter we've been having.

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And it's a good thing, too, because this recipe makes a whole heap of soup.

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I followed Joy's recipe, and her serving suggestions. I ate this soup with pearl couscous and cheddar on top.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Joy's creamy garlic soup with roasted potatoes

I remember when I first discovered that you can just eat garlic.

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It was in college.  (I learned a lot of things in college.)  My friend Peter gathered a few friends together and took us to a tapas restaurant in Old Pasadena.  One of the tapas was roasted garlic with crostini.  It was so simple.  So brilliant.  Why hadn't I thought of this myself?!  Until then, garlic had been a spice, one thinly sliced clove here, a few crushed there.  It seemed so indulgent to just eat it, straight up, by the head.

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I felt the same way when I discovered garlic soup.

And then there are the potatoes.  Have I mentioned my obsession with the purple ones?  I'm convinced they're better for you than the garden variety.  (To validate my claim, I did a little googling, and it seems they actually are.)

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I realize she's a baker, but in my mind, Joy's savory meals are where it's at.  At least until I'm ready for dessert.

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Deb's smashed chickpea salad

I love easy recipes!  And meals I can feel good about, nutrition wise!  And chickpeas!  And taking photos in natural light, especially if it means not showing my face in the office 'til... I don't want to incriminate myself, but you know, after I cook, photograph, and eat lunch.  Smashed chickpea salad is perfect.

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I'm an olive hater, so I omit those.  I added raw red peppers into the mix.  A little of this, a little of that.

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This recipe is so simple, infinitely versatile (add feta, avocado, sun dried tomatoes, pepperocinis, help me think of others!) , and dirt cheap.  And so good I could eat it for lunch every day.

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At this point I'm just gushing, so I'll stop.  But seriously Deb, nice one.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Deb's really simple homemade pizza

I am so pizza obsessed. I have (at least) three favorite pizza restaurants around town, and I'm a fan of homemade pizza too. Sometimes I just burst out in song, proclaiming "I WANT PIZZA" like the Olsen twins, slowed down. However, I don't think I've nailed making my own crust yet, so I seem to try a new recipe every time. To have a more methodical trial and error method for pizza crust, I'll post the recipes I try on the blog, with a few comments.

The first is, of course, the really simple pizza crust from smitten kitchen.  Toppings were kept simple: this pizza was all about the smoked mozzarella we had picked up.

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His and hers pizzas.  I like mine saucy and light on the cheese (left), and Phil is the opposite.  Both are heavy on the garlic.

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The recipe says to bake the pizza at your oven's hottest temperature.  For me, that was 500ยบ F, and they came out nice and bubbly.

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And top mine with a small mountain of arugula, please.  It makes me feel healthy.

I thought the crust turned out well!  I didn't need to roll it out because it was easy to spread and shape just using my fingers.  Mine did turn out a little too thin in places, and because of my liberal saucing, it got a little soggy in those places.  Next time I'll try to make the crust a more uniform thickness (or thinness, but not too thin).

Saturday, January 28, 2012

another grilled sandwich

Ok, I was pretty proud of my sandwich grilling skills after making grilled cheese. I had seen a grilled pb&j on this blog, linked to ages ago by A Cup of Jo.  And since I've never been a jelly on her sandwich kind of girl, I went with something a little different.

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Grilled peanut butter and banana!  Or pb&b.

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Serve with plenty of milk.

Deb's tomato soup and grilled cheese

Phil went out of town for a week to a conference, so I took this opportunity to make a personal favorite. A huge batch of soup that would keep me well fed and warm while he was away.

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I was inspired to make a tomato soup by these really prettily packaged canned tomatoes from Trader Joes. I followed this recipe from deep within the smitten kitchen archives. The only changes I made were using water instead of chicken broth to make it vegetarian, and using light cream instead of heavy because that's what I had in the fridge.

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Of course, the giant food processor got to come out and play for this one.

My grilled cheese was a little less classic than Deb's version: I made it with my favorite pain de campagne from Whole Foods, Emmentaler cheese, and a few spinach leaves.

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Somehow the contents of my grilled cheese sandwiches seem to end up on the outside of the sandwich; I'm not that smooth when it's time to flip it over. But I like the toasty cheesy bits, so it's all good.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Deb's green beans and lemony pasta

It should not have been a surprise to me that Deb makes cooking look so easy.  Like inspire me to make a two-layer cake easy.  When I was browsing smitten kitchen for dinner ideas, I landed on spaghetti with lemon and olive oil.  Mouth begins to water.  And in the post she mentions she served these green beans.  Mouth watering intensifies.

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I know that making a meal with two dishes is no big deal for many people.  But I'm someone who might just eat chips and salsa for dinner if I can't be bothered to cook.  For me, this was on par with Thanksgiving.  (I actually did make these green beans for a thanksgiving potluck!)

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Let's just say that the process wasn't too graceful. Things got a little frantic. But the result was pretty darn good!