Thankful

I feel like me life began again last September after the arrival of our daughter. Everyone tells you that a child changes your life and until you have one, you just nod and file it away. Now that Marin is here I know how much this is true.

I am so thankful for each and every one of my family members. This Thanksgiving is a special Thursday. My parents are here to celebrate the day with us. We haven't spent a Thanksgiving with family in 12 years. We moved to Colorado and it became too hard to travel back East for the holidays. Tomorrow we will celebrate with my family and close friends. I can't wait!

I'm ready to get back into posting here more often. Marin changed our lives in many ways. Time? What extra time? We've been eating and living but there isn't time to document it in writing. I'm ready to start documenting. I've noticed the last few weeks that I have been commentating my life in my head a lot lately. I think this was my way of telling myself that its time to type it out. Put it down in black and white and not just file it away. I want to remember this time in my life. My life is pretty special.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

Delish! If you haven't read In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories About Food You Love, by Melissa Clark, you need to. Not only is it a fun read but full of amazing recipes. I started bookmarking all the ones I wanted to make and quit after the first 10 because the list encompassed almost all the recipes in the book! This is the first one I tackled. Her recipes are very straight forward and in my opinion pretty simple. They don't have hard to find ingredients with immediately deters me from trying a recipe. Melissa cooks like I do. She tries a dish at some one's house or in a restaurant and immediately goes home and tries to figure out how to make it in her own kitchen. I hope you enjoy the red lentils. They are more delicate than the typical green or french lentils. They are perfect for soups because they almost dissolve into the broth of any soup. Pairing red lentils a touch of tomato paste, cumin and lemon is brilliant! I LOVED this soup! I made some changes only because I didn't have all the ingredients in the kitchen. First I added about 1/4 cup of couscous because I didn't measure correctly at the bulk bin when I was getting my red lentils. After reading the original recipe in Melissa's book-substituting one cup of lentils for bulgar I figured I could do something similar in me rendition (and it worked!) I didn't have 2 quarts of broth so I used a bit more water and a bullion cube. I'm never sure what two large carrots look like so I used 4 medium to small ones. See what I mean about making a recipe your own!

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

serves 4-6

4 T good EVOO
2 large onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t chili powder
pinch of cayenne
1 quart Chicken or Vegetable Broth
4 C water
1 bullion cube
1 1/2 C red lentils (or 2 C lentils and no couscous)
1/4 C couscous
2 large carrots (or so)
juice of one lemon
1/3 C chopped Cilantro

In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and saute until softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomato paste, cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder and cayenne, saute about 2 minutes. Add the broth, water, lentils, couscous and carrots. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer until lentils and carrots are soft, about 30-40 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Use an immersion blender to to puree half or all the soup. When ready to serve, stir in lemon juice and serve with cilantro and a drizzle of good olive oil.