Feed Your Kids

I saw this recipe in the January issue of Food & Wine (recipe here) and thought that it sounded really yummy. I really like lentil soup, but have never cooked lentils before, myself, so I thought I’d give it a try. They were really easy and they turned out to be delicious! Both kids loved them. Girl has been trying to speak in Spanish a lot lately and she must have said “Me gustan los lentils” about three times at dinner (for those of you that actually KNOW Spanish, I said she was TRYING, not that she was fluent…..). Hubby is out of town on business, but I think he would like these, too – I’ll definitely be making them again! Future Vegetarian Girl didn’t care for the boudin. Boy loved it until he overheard me talking on the phone to Hubby about the fact that boudin has “organs” in it. Guess I blew that one. Oh, well…..more for me!

As usual, I made a few adaptations. Something about the celery and onion made me think “Cajun” when I saw this recipe, so I used boudin instead of the chicken sausage. I had some in the freezer, anyway…..why use chicken when you can have pork liver?

Boudin is really fragile and falls apart easily once it’s cooked (because of all of the rice), so I just grilled it slightly, then gently sliced it and served it alongside the lentils, rather than trying to stir it into them (it would have fallen apart). It actually might have been good to pull the boudin out of the casing and stir it (loose) into the lentils after they were cooked – maybe I’ll try that next time.

I used a little less onion than the recipe called for and just chopped all of the vegetables myself, rather than food-processing them. I actually don’t OWN a food processor, nor do I want one. I actually find chopping veggies, herbs, etc. by hand (with a GOOD knife) to be cathartic. Weird, I know….. The only time that I wish I had a food processor is when I have to grate large amounts of cheese for something and it’s hardly worth it for just that….. Because of my hand chopping, the chunks of veggies (especially carrots) were more evident in my dish than they were in the original, but I kind of like that, anyway. I didn’t add the wedges of onion – just used the chopped, pre-cooked onion.

I didn’t have fresh thyme sprigs, so I just added a bit (1/2 tsp?) of dried thyme to the lentils in the final stages of cooking. I also added a bit of parsley. I’m adding a bit of parsley to almost everything these days, because my plant outside is HUGE.

Oh, and I forgot the vinegar, but that probably would have been really good! Darn.

Addendum:
Boy just woke up, came downstairs, and said that he was hungry, so these lentils may find themselves on our plate as a side dish in the future, rather than as a main dish.

I cleaned out my pantry this weekend. This was a VERY long overdue task. I threw out anything that I thought was too old and reorganized what was left. In the process, I discovered that I had duplicates of LOTS of stuff. Apparently, I’ve been buying canned tuna and hiding it in the back of the pantry without remembering it. I like having a can or two around (I’ll post my Tuna Melt recipe sometime soon – it’s actually quite yummy), but I had 7 cans in there! I poked around on epicurious, trying to find a good way to use up the surplus. This recipe looked like a really good possibility. It looked quick, healthy, simple and fairly kid-friendly. A couple of the reviewers recommended adding a bit of sun-dried tomato and/or green peas. That sounded good to me, so I added both. I used whole-wheat penne pasta. The tuna that I use (and had so many cans of) is water-packed white albacore (not the oil-packed that the recipe suggested). I actually liked this quite a bit, but it wasn’t a big hit with Boy and Girl. I think there was a bit too much lemon in it for them, so if I make it again, I might leave out the lemon juice and zest and just add a bit of vinegar, instead. I didn’t add the cheese, etiher, and that may have made the kids enjoy it more. Not an absolute home run, but definitely not bad. It was VERY easy to throw together and that’s never a bad thing. Thing would be a good dish to take to a potluck or on a picnic.

A cold-weather classic, especially since we’ve all been sick (bronchitis, allergies, sinus infection – 3 out of the 4 of us are on antibiotics right now). This was canned soup (I was in a hurry – Hubby was leaving for the airport – and did I mention that we’ve all been sick?). I’ll post my own soup recipe later, though it’s never the same thing twice – it’s variable depending upon what I have on hand at the time…..

OK, I’ve already revealed way too much about my TV-viewing habits, but……I also have to confess my love of HBO’s “The Sopranos”. I am counting down the days until the new season starts (April!). So, when I saw The Sopranos Family Cookbook, I had to get it. It’s actually (considering that all of the recipes were “written” by imaginary characters) a pretty good cookbook. I had a viewing party for the premiere show a couple of seasons ago and used quite a few of the recipes. I recommend the ones, in particular, for Biscotti Regina (Almond-Sesame cookies) and Arancini (rice balls).

And then, of course, there’s Carmela Soprano’s Baked Ziti. Mmmmm……
I’m too lazy (and afraid of copyright attorneys) to type the whole recipe in for you, but you basically make a batch of Uncle Junior’s Sunday Gravy with meatballs (recipe is in the book, but also available on HBO’s website here), boil a pound of ziti, pour a little sauce over the pasta, put it in a casserole dish, add a little ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan, then a little more sauce and parmesan, then bake it for about an hour.

I added a tiny bit of sugar, cayenne pepper, oregano, balsamic vinegar and sauteed onion and garlic to the original sauce recipe. For the meats, I used mild Italian sausage, beef stew meat (I just can’t make myself do veal) and 2 (1/2 lb. each) country style pork ribs. I also added one more large can of diced tomatoes, because I wanted to have a little more sauce left over to make another dish, and because I wanted it to be just a TINY bit chunky. I pureed the whole tomatoes in the blender before I added them.

It’s so delicious, it’s a dish you can’t refuse…..capisce?

Uncooked meatballs.

Browned meatballs (they finish cooking in the sauce).

This is a recipe from about.com (I did a search for a Crock Pot pork rib recipe). The recipe can be found here. I had some extra pork ribs (they came in a 3.5 pound package and I only needed one pound for the recipe I’m making tomorrow), so I decided to try this recipe tonight. I added about 1/4 cup of diced, purple onion that had been sauteed in olive oil, instead of the green onions, because I didn’t have any green onions on hand. I also used fresh grated orange peel, instead of the dried, because I DID have that on hand. I used about 1 Tbsp. freshly grated peel, and the the flavor was just perfect, just enough tangy orange flavor to balance the smoky sweetness of the hoisin sauce.

I knew today was going to be hectic, so I threw these in the Crock Pot this morning and only had to throw together a couple of quick sides when I got home. I roasted some cauliflower in the oven (recipe here), threw some rice in the cooker (Lundberg’s Black Japonica blend), some frozen edamame in the microwave and some turnips on the stove (boiled in chicken stock until soft and then mashed like potatoes – one of the kids’ favorites) and we had a veritable Asian-inspired buffet!

This entire meal was a hit with all four of us. The pork was delicious – even borderline vegetarian Girl said so! We’ll have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Boy REALLY loved this dinner. He’s never met a meat he didn’t like, and he LOVES edamame.