KIDS! Come To The Table!

"It's Soup!"  When the weather gets cold the cooks get cookin'.  Lentil soup is one of the ultimates for me.  A simple meal of a nutritious pot of soup can be ready in under an hour.  It is so bright, cold and refreshing outside today that I decided to add some color to my usual lentil soup.  While I didn't grow my lentils I did add my carrots, celery and onions after sweating them in some Italian "Communiti di Mondo X" olive oil.  To the 16 oz of lentils, and 8 cups of stock, broth or water add about a tablespoon of cumin as well as a pinch of salt and pepper to the pot.  When the lentils were soft it was all topped with more lovelies from my gardens... red and yellow chard and the last of the tomatoes.  No need for a recipe.  Plenty to serve or freeze.  Don't you love coming in from outside to smell dinner cooking?!  If you are the cook, take a quick break outside and then come back inside to fully enjoy what you're lovingly preparing.



Nothing goes better with soup on a cold day than warm fresh baked bread.  This loaf baked on Monday was from an old family recipe. 



Well maybe not old.  And maybe only passed from a cousin, Brian, to my Aunt Nan to me.  But it is a busy (or lazy) bread lovers dream...No Knead Basic Bread I call it.  The gorgeous crust is due in part to the two tablespoons of olive oil and the flax seed meal.  It is so wonderful toasted, perfect crunch to the crust.  Nice holes for filling with bruschetta made from your own tomatoes or home made jam from your own orchard.  Grind you own almond butter, available at many grocery stores these days, and you'll never go back to jarred nut butters.  And of course it's just slurpy good with butter alone.  Double toasted with herbed chevre...ummm!  Now for those who don't toast it tears and dips just fine into olive oil with a bit of balsamic vinegar or pepper added to the oil.  The recipe will be posted in the Recipe Archive.