Gone with the wind.........

I had decades worth of recipes written on scraps of paper and 3 x 5 cards that I had been gathering since my teens, my Mom's, and Gramma's, wonderful family recipes of all my favorites ... my Mom's Chili Verde, her amazingly easy, flavorful Chop Suey, Granny's Chicken and Dumplings, desserts, salads, and of course, recipes for those marvelous soups and stews that warmed us on the cold blustery days... anyway, I had always intended to put them all into a book, or to at least digitize them so that they could be saved and shared. I loved those scraps of paper and never got around to it. Those grubby bits of paper and card stock, spattered by ingredients, creased and worn, soft from years of being refolded after use, and smelling oh so faintly of spices, felt real to me. tangible and homey. My mothers familiar scrawl, her funny little notes........Pulling out those handwritten treasures was almost a form of therapy, certainly they were a touchstone for me. They lived in a beautiful wooden and metal scrollwork box on a shelf in my dining room.

We found what was left of the box after the fire, we kinda recognized a bit of the metal scrollwork... my son pried it open while we held our breath, hoping that the once lovely box had somehow protected those vulnerable pages......
Once he peeled back the burned layers of what was left, a few charred edges of my treasured "receipts" fluttered out, then they just disintegrated and disappeared on the breeze.

So my mission now is to piece together those recipes, add in more that I find along the way, and get a cookbook published for my Mom. I think she would have loved that.

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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Lentil Spinach Soup

I spent years avoiding lentils.  I had no good reason, I just could not rouse any real interest.  I guess my turning point came when I was searching for foods that would up my iron intake and saw the lentils snuggled in amongst the various dried beans at the market.  I grabbed a bag figuring that at worst, I was throwing away a dollar, and if nothing else, I could add them to my regular bean soup and not be any worse off.  Wow.  Was I wrong.  Lentils have earned their reputation as a nutritional powerhouse, and they are delicious in the bargain!  Much easier than regular dried beans, as they require no soaking, and they cook up in about 20 minutes.  I have worked out a few recipes, but my favorite is my Lentil and Bean soup.  I fix it for breakfast on most work mornings now instead of oatmeal.  It is savory, warm and filling.  It carries me all the way through to lunch and I find that I am not snacking mid morning either.  Give them a try, it could not be easier.

1 can Chicken Stock
1/2 cup dried Lentils
1/4 cup salsa
2 handfuls of raw spinach, (about 2 cups)  Kale can be substituted with great results

Bring Chicken stock to a boil, add lentils and salsa, reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add spinach and simmer until wilted.  Season with a little garlic salt and pepper to taste. 

Yup.  That is it.  Amazingly simple, delicious, nutritious, fat free and ready by the time you are dressed and ready to go to work.  I throw it in a thermos and have it with my morning coffee at work.  Goodbye donuts!
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