SAUTEED BELUGA LENTILS + BUTTERNUT SQUASH

I baked for the dinner celebration progressing this week in celebration of the special birthday. When we say we cooked, we really meant we, Hugh came along as well as was the hulk help. we can be quick, though 4 hands have been some-more fit than two. It was the group of twenty new friends, all strewn down the sides of the prolonged table, celebration booze as well as sharing cheese plates. Nellie came up with all sorts of amazing small of details, from the paper bag menu cards to wrapping the homemade ice thickk cream sandwiches in particular packages of vellum as well as bakers twine. Remember when we told we things like this were my dream? we love stuff oneself people, as well as prolonged tables, as well as laughing, as well as stringing lights, as well as grateful hearts. Thats got to be my the a single preferred part, making alternative people happy.

At the party, hosts being vegetarian, we served the chronicle of this to the single side the little tawny polenta as well as the frail butter lettuce, apple as well as arugula salad. Since we started cooking with beluga lentils, we havent been able to use any alternative variety. They have been only so stunning in color, as well as have some-more tooth to them than your normal brownish-red or red lentil. It worked, as well as Im flattering sure the beef eaters didnt leave hungry either. Except for the a single man who took full value of the a single night off his diet by finishing his meal with an complete hang of butter. we wont take which personally.

SAUTEED BELUGA LENTILS + BUTTERNUT SQUASH // Serves 4
This is the single of those recipes which is to taste upon the lot of things. You could regulate the garlic if we prefer, some-more a! rtificia l flavouring if we wish the greenery, some-more curry if we like it spicy. However, note which the curry should not be an powerful season here, its intended to be the compliment. Any squish would work, maybe even the pumpkin. You follow me?

4 Cups Cubed Butternut Squash
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 Tbsp. Curry Powder
1/2 Tbsp. Oregano
1 Tbsp. Muscavado/Natural Brown Sugar
Salt/Pepper

2 Cups Cooked Beluga Lentils, drained
2 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Chopped Basil
1/3 Cup Chopped Parsley
2 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
1 Small Red Onion, Diced
Grated Manchego Cheese

Oven to 450

1. On the baking tray, widespread out the squash, supplement the olive oil, oregano, curry powder as well as salt as well as pepper. Use your hands as well as toss all around until the artificial flavouring have been coating the squish evenly. Spread them out in the single layer, with as most space in between possible. Roast in the upper third of the oven for 20-35 minutes. (The time differs formed upon water calm of squash, size of cubes etc. Just watch them until the edges have been brownish-red as well as crispy).
2. While the squish have been cooking, put the 2 Tbsp. olive oil as well as minced garlic in the vessel over middle heat. Shake it around the couple of times, as well as concede the garlic pieces to frail up the bit in the oil. Add the lentils as well as saute to cover them in oil. Continue to stir intermittently for about 10 mins to warm through. Turn off the flame, though leave them in the warm vessel until the squish is done.
3. Remove squish from oven as well as set aside, put the lentils in the play as well as supplement the red onion, apple cider vinegar, dijon as well as half of the herbs, stir. Add the squish chunks upon top, the rest of the herbs, desired volume of gra! ted manc hego cheese as well as the grate of uninformed belligerent pepper.

Living & Leisure Buzz

Memories Of Provence & French Inspired Giveaway!

from Tartelette

I honestly think the older I get, the harder that jetlag thing becomes. Maybe it is simply that each time it becomes a tad bit more significant in emotions and events. I did give myself the weekend off to do the mundane "back from vacation" routine and spend some time with B. and our friends getting re-adjusted.

I also took time to write down some sort of schedule as my work time is pretty much spoken for until this April. I look forward to come here on this page and unwind with more recipes and stories!

In that spirit and to tell you "Thank you" from the bottom of my heart for reading, laughing, frowning and smiling with me, I put together a little basket of French goodies I picked up on my trip to give away today. Head to the end of the post for instructions on how to enter...!

In the meantime, on to the Southern part of my trip back home. I do hope my aunt and uncle won't mind my posting about their gorgeous home and the wonderful meal we had when we stopped there on our way from the Alps to Aix-En-Provence. I am so proud of the work they have done, I can't help share some pictures.

I have always thought my aunt Agnes should have been a stylist or an interior decorator and this visit proved it once again. They basically bought a ruin in Provence with 4 walls, a roof and pretty much nothing you could call a home inside. Today, they have turned it into possibly the most peaceful retreat one could think of.

I don't tend to carry my camera to every meal I attend but I knew that lunch at their place would be the perfect opportunity to make you part of an everyday meal for us. French food and cooking is always surprising. A perfect mix of intricate, controlled preparations, detailed methods and a more relaxed, everyday cooking which makes going out a true fete and dining in a celebration of simplicity.

With the myriad of regions, provinces and history in France, it's not uncommon for visitors to go a tad bit crazy over the fantastic food. I know I do everytime I come home but really French cooking is nothing but a strong appreciation for seasonal foods and the cooking methods that bring out the best of it. Simple, fresh, fragrant. And Provence is naturally perfect for that.

I just wrote myself a sticky note to ask my aunt for her confit de carottes recipe. Melt in your mouth slow cooked carrots that held their shape perfectly right up until you'd close your mouth upon them. Then it was an explosion of sweet and savory, garlic flower and thyme.

We ate and drank and took our time to appreciate the scenery before us. So much so that we made our way to Aix-En-Provence in the later part of the afternoon. The sun falling down over the city was casting a gorgeous golden glow on the house fronts and pebbled streets.

Going back there was a treat for all of us. My father went to school at the Institute of Political Studies there and got a bit emotional showing me his first apartment right on the Cours Mirabeau. We spent quite a bit of time in that area retracing steps to stores, restaurants, and other places we used to visit.

Things have inevitably changed since we used to live in the area but a few things remain as we remembered. The markets, the plazas, sitting at a cafe listening to an open air classical concert. Fountains, facades, shops...it was good to be back even for such a short stop but we had somewhere more important to be.

Going back to my old village of Calas-Cabries was amazing in ways I can't explain. In the five minutes I was out of the car, everything came back. The streets, the turns, the walkways, the shortcuts. My first bike fall, my first crush, my first dive...Trees and bushes had taken over the front lawn in my old house and that was just as well. I could almost hear us play in the pampa's grass again and not think about the pool newly installed.

Time and life change things. I did not expect anything upon returning home. Expectations ruin things most of the time. The old village had not changed however. The church where I did my communions, the central plaza where I did my ballet recitals. All these years spent there becoming the person I am today. I finally started making sense of myself to myself.

The chapel on the hill where we'd have Scouts meetings. It was good to be home and take a walk under the pine trees and to hear the kids running around at recess. Nothing like a trip home to reset the human clocks right.

It's good to be home now although I am already planning another couple of trips out West! First is BlogHer Food in San Francisco October 8th and 9th. I am honored to be back as a speaker on a photography panel with my buddy Jen from Use Real Butter as we share the same view about conferences being teaching tools not mere presentations of what is or should be. Sharing is key. We hope to see you there!

Along the trip, I could not help but pick up a few typical things as well as fun food related items that I thought you guys might enjoy and gather them in a giveaway. So what's inside that basket? Yep, it could be all yours...

- Fig and natural nougat from La Cure Gourmande in Aix
- Florentine and nougat caramel from La Cure Gourmande
- Basil olive oil and Herbes de Provence from Place Aux Huiles in Aix
- Milk Chocolate with chocolate crunch from La Place Aux Huiles
- Piment d'Espelette and Spiced Bread mealnge from Les Petits Poids in Toulouse
- Violet and Rose petals from Les Petits Poids in Toulouse
- Croissant shaped sugar cubes from Du Bruit Dans La Cuisine
- Macaron decorated napkins

To enter, leave a comment on this post between today Tuesday September 14th and Friday September 17th at midnight, US Eastern standard time when my better half will pick a number at random. One entry per person, no anonymous comment will be accepted. The giveaway is open to anyone as I will ship worldwide. Good luck!

apple and cheddar scones

This is flattering most October upon a parchment-lined baking sheet. They wish to be packed in a basket so they can go apple picking with we as well as to hide in a automobile to join we for a leaf-peeping drive. They wish to come to brunch with we as well as merit to be served with warm apple cider, either removing lost in a corn maze or searching for a best pumpkin to carve.

Have we spoken this week? If we have, Ive probably gone upon as well as upon about them, about how we never unequivocally was into which total apple-cheddar thing though these, these altered things. Theyre absolutely fantastic. Theyre from The Perfect Finish, which is a dessert cookbook by Bill Yosses, who is right away a senior manager pastry cook at The White House (but not when he wrote this) as well as Melissa Clark, who we suspect youre already quite fond of. When we first saw a recipe, we deserted it as fussy for making we fry apples (in one-sixteenths!) just to let a mount mixer crash them up. we snorted over how chefs always like to exaggerate which their recipes are fairly simple for home cooks though then make use of weights totalled to a one hundredth of a gram, rowdiness nobody.

... Read a rest of apple as well as cheddar scones upon smittenkitchen.com

smitten kitchen 2006-2009. |permalink to apple as well as cheddar scones | 7 comments to date | see more: Apple, Fall, Muff! in/Quick Bread, Photo

Living & Leisure Buzz

Product Review Odwalla Heart Health Superfood Fruit Smoothie with plant sterols

Odwalla, a wholly owned subsidiary of a Coca Cola Company, has been making juices, smoothies, as well as food bars given a mid 1980s. A company deputy reached out to us a couple of weeks ago per a new product with a really earnest name we see in a title of this blog post.

We had samples sent to loyal fooducate village part of Susan as well as her family, while we tried to figure out this plant sterol business. Here is what Susan had to say:

My father was vehement to see heart health upon a label. Hes been battling tall cholesterol for over twenty years.

The back tag of this Odwalla Heart Health libation has a critical small black box stating:

PLANT STEROLS & HEART DISEASE: dishes containing during slightest 0.4g per apportionment of plant sterols, consumed twice a day with meals for a daily sum intake of during slightest 0.8g, as part of a diet low in jam-packed fat as well as cholesterol, may revoke a risk of heart disease. A apportionment of Odwalla Heart Health contains 0.4 grams of plant sterols. One bottle of Owdalla Heart Health contains 0.8g of plant sterols.

Wowee. All my hubby has to do is guzzle a single bottle of this things a day as well as he may revoke his risk of heart disease. Sounds easy, right?

Unfortunately, no a single in my family could find a approach to essentially splash an complete bottle.

It was as well thick. Too gooey.

Hubby thinned it out with water, though still was incompetent to splash an complete bottle of a heart healthy beverage. One of my daughters poured a small in to a fancy plastic booze potion though usually took a couple of sips. She pronounced it was as well unenlightened to drink.

As for me, just seeking during a myriad of ingredients, 13 in all, did not make ! me thirs ty:

APPLE JUICE, PEACH PUREE, BANANA PUREE, STRAWBERRY PUREE, BOYSENBERRY PUREE, PLUM PUREE, LESS THAN 2% OF WATER, CONCORD GRAPE JUICE, PINEAPPLE JUICE, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, PLANT STEROLS, VEGETABLE AND BERRY EXTRACTS (PURPLE CARROT, BLACK CARROT AND LINGONBERRY) AND CITRUS PULP.

Most of a mixture I could clarify as well as commend as a food. The dual which werent were potassium phosphate as well as plant sterols. Where have been these magical sterols from, anyway?
Plant sterols have been extracts of sure plants that, when ingested, have been shown to inhibit a fullness of cholesterol in a small intestine. Theyre of course found in many total dishes as well as have been now finding their approach in to all sorts of food products. Time will discuss it if plant sterols have been a genuine understanding or just hype.

All which ripened offspring puree as well as ripened offspring extract adds up to quite a sugarine rush. I really dont see how drinking a libation similar to this, sterols or not, can work to revoke your cholesterol. As a make a difference of fact, there is a pediatric endocrinologist out during UCSF who has a small research to show which drinking ripened offspring extract can essentially raise your cholesterol - Sugar a Bitter Truth

I consider a family will pass. Well just eat genuine ripened offspring as well as splash a small H2O instead.

What we need to know:

Susan pretty much summed up a nourishment review, though wed similar to to add a couple of points:

Each bottle essentially contains 2 servings, not one, as well as presumably is not meant for a single portion. Perhaps which is a reason which nobody was able to finish a drink.

The sugars in a extract have been all from a fruit, though during 26 grams, (8.5 teaspoons per serving) or 17 teaspoons for a bottle, thats a lot of sugar! Youd have to eat 3 apples or 4 oranges to get a same amount. And youd feel! a lot m ore satiated.

When we eat genuine fruit, we also suffer a good of essential element as well as hundreds of additional nutrients which dont necessarily make it in to a juice. In this product, a essential element calm is not even mentioned (which is bizarre because a FDA mandates a labeling of essential element content). Its probably protected to pretence which there is small to no essential element in this juice.

We similar to a actuality which a ingredient list is mostly understandable to humans. The potassium phosphate is an addition which emulsifies a essence in a bottle, keeping all a pieces as well as pieces churned together.

Plant sterols, also know as phytosterols, have been steroid alcohols which start of course in plant oils, such as soybean oil. Their cholesterol lowering effect has been studied, though not all a tests have been positive so far. Thats because a phrasing is carefully worded May reduce

The product name is carefully phrased though, to lead consumers to hold they have found a soda fountain of youth

What to do during a supermarket:

Fruit extract should be considered a treat, not a libation for hydration. Weve got giveaway daub H2O for that. Choose 100% ripened offspring juices when we do choose. As for health claims, better to get a genuine understanding from genuine fruit.

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See Some Cool, Strange & Funny Stuffs

Raw Tuscan Kale Salad

I'm home. My container is unpacked. My washing is done. Fresh flowering plants are finding their approach behind in to Mason jars, as well as the avalanche of mail is, quite honestly, being ignored. Travel time from our apartment in Testaccio to our front doorway in San Francisco: twenty hours. Twenty. Hours. It hurts to even type that. And not to whine about it as well much, though flights similar to which disaster me up - the lack of sleep, the dehydration, the uncanny food. On the misfortune flights we infrequently get headaches which turn in to nausea. It sucks. we finish up longing extra-wholesome food for days after arriving home. This time, my initial day back, we incited out the super gratifying lunch desirous by two recipes in Melissa Clark's brand new cookbook, In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite.

The initial thing we made was her shredded raw kale salad. Lots of greens tossed in the vibrant, lemony-pecorino dressing. The recipe calls for just the handful of ingredients, though they all deliver - crunchy, toasted breadcrumbs, red pepper flakes, good olive oil. Simple, though special. It's the salad we threw together for lunch, though additionally something we can imagine creation for friends or family when they come over. And we can imagine endless ways we competence work it in to the one-dish meal. Make the bit of additional dressing, supplement some farro to the mix, as well as tip with the poached egg, for example. Or, soak up some roasted winter squish to one side the kale. Or, do the more finely chopped version before folding in to the play of seasoned quinoa.

I ate the kale salad to one side Me! lissa's mustard as well as pickle-spiked tofu salad served upon toasted poppy seed wheat bread. At which moment, integrate of things would have tasted better. we think both recipes will become regulars around here.

So, it's good to be home. we have the integrate Rome-centric posts upon the near horizon. One with an extra-special recipe from the very unique place, as well as one compiling the list of my favorite places from this trip with links to some of the sites which helped me plan this trip. Now which I'm not jet-lagged we competence be means to contend them in to something comprehensible...

In the meantime, we can follow Melissa Clark upon twitter, or keep track of her during The New York Times. San Francisco Bay Area folks can additionally locate her during Omnivore Books: 10/15 6-7 p.m.

Continue celebration of the mass Raw Tuscan Kale Salad...

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