Red Lentil Thai Chili

I want to make this soon: http://www.theppk.com/2010/12/red-lentil-thai-chili/

Olive oil (1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons, however much you feel like using)
1 large yellow onion, diced medium
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced medium
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 ½ lbs sweet potatoes cut into ¾ inch chunks
1 cup red lentils
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups vegetable broth
2 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
1 15 oz can lowfat coconut milk
28 oz can diced tomatoes
½ cup fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish
Limes for garnish (optional)
Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium heat. Saute onions and pepper in oil with a pinch of salt, for 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and saute a minute more.
Add chili powder, sweet potatoes, lentils, salt and vegetable broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When lentils are cooked and sweet potatoes are tender, add the remaining ingredients and heat through.
Taste for salt and seasoning, top with cilantro and lime and serve!

Whole Wheat Belgian Waffles

This recipe came out pretty well. I used about half a cup of batter for each /side/ of the waffle iron, and it yielded 6 waffles (with a little extra batter.)

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/whole-wheat-waffles-recipe

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (from Trader Joe's)

2 teaspoons baking powder (**the next time I cut this down to 1.5 tsp so they'd be a tad less airy. I think I prefer that.)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (I warmed it in the microwave for 30 seconds in a glass cup - would have done it longer, the butter still re-solidified a little)

1/3 cup melted butter  (I used salted and omitted added salt)

Preheat your iron while you make the waffle batter.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and butte

Mix together the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. (I used a spatula)The batter will be a bit lumpy; that's OK.

Cook the waffles as directed 

I used not-the-hottest setting. (4/5?) I think something more like 3.5/5 would have been better - the first few were a tad overdone.

I ate them topped with sour cream (sweetened with some sugar) and frozen strawberries, defrosted.  

yet another brownie recipe: Tartine bakery style brownies

I saw this recipe and I had to try it. I used Trader Joe's 72% dark pound chocolate pound plus bar.  (Some reading suggested that there is not a formal difference between "dark" and "bittersweet."

I had to beat the egg/sugar mixture for quite a while, and it never really reached the color/texture combo described. Perhaps the eggs were too old, but colorwise I'm no sure how brown sugar would ever let this be pale yellow.

Anyway. The results were good, but kind of too fudgelike for me. Very dense, but almost too dense, if that makes sense. I would prefer a little moist and cakey, perhaps, rather than simply solid.  But perhaps they are so solid because the eggs didn't go as planned. Hard to know.  I think, overall, I prefer cocoa-based brownies. They are less work, too.

Pumpkin waffles

I made these: http://pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com/ultimate-pumpkin-waffle-recipe/

They are awesome. I had a container of pumpkin that was about 1.5 cups, so I multiplied the recipe by 1.5. I also didn't grease the waffle iron because mine doesn't seem to need it. And we added some chopped walnuts. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly. They were spicy and not too sweet, which was nice.

very fast stir-fry

This is like, not even a recipe because it's 4 ingredients and one of them comes pre-seasoned. But anyway, it was tasty and took me like 10 minutes to make.

package of Hodo Spicy Yuba Strips
half a medium-large onion, sliced relatively small
about half a red pepper, sliced
small crown of broccoli broken into small florets.

I sauteed the onion in my cast iron skillet on fairly high heat, with oil. (I think I also added some chili flakes, just a few.) Then added the red peppers, and some soy sauce. And then the broccoli - cooked it just enough to make it change color to bright green, really. And then I added the spicy tofu strip things and mostly turned off the heat and just tried to heat the strips through. The spice of the strips basically flavored the whole thing, so it was a fast colorful stir-fry situation.  Unfortunately the yuba strips are pricy though - I only bought them because they were on sale.

Waffles!

I found a Vitantonio brand belgian wafflemaker on the street, so naturally I had to try it out.


I used this recipe, which someone on the internets said came with their Vitantonio waffle iron.

I used 1/2 cup of batter for each side of the waffle iron (i.e. for each waffle) and that seemed just about right. I believe this made 8 waffles.


"Quick Waffles"
3 Eggs
1 C Milk
1/2 C Melted Butter or Margarine
1 Tbsp Vanilla
2 C Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Baking Power
2 tsp Sugar

Beat whole eggs in a bowl until thick *I used a fork*
Beat in milk and melted butter and vanilla
Combine remaining ingredients. Sift into egg mixture (I just added it slowly) and beat well (I stirred and allowed some lumps for fear it'd get too tough.) Bake and serve.

I made them on the second to highest setting for my iron and that worked well. I did not grease the iron at all.

Zucchini Ginger Soup

From http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/11/05/silky-gingered-zucchini-soup/


I used 4 smallish zucchinis, so perhaps 1 pound or a bit more, but stuck to the whole 4 cloves of garlic and the half an onion. I used low sodium packaged chicken broth from a carton, probably closer to 3 cups (or less.) Partly pulverized the zucchini with an immersion blender when I was done.

So, basically:

4 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/2 an onion, chopped

Sauteed in oil til soft but not browned much

Add 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger, some salt, and some black pepper
Add 4 zucchini, sliced.
Saute for 5-10 minutes

Add 3ish cups of chicken stock

Cook til zucchini is soft

puree with immersion blender.

Verdict: It's pretty good for how simple it is, and it has a nice mouthfeel - pretty creamy for something without cheese or a whole lot of fat.