Lentil Apple Walnut Loaf

Sweet, savory, and satisfying... Lentil Apple Walnut Loaf!

If you have seen only some of my little foodie blog, you surely know by now that I love lentils. These tiny, versatile legumes are quick-cooking and nutrient-rich with protein, fiber, and iron.  I have worked hard at making this recipe just the way I want it before sharing... which is why I am tickled to offer it here today!

This particular recipe is a bit involved- (be prepared to use multiple pots and pans) but I promise it is worth it. It's a great meal to make on the weekend or day off and enjoy for the week ahead. Having dinner ready to reheat on a weeknight is much appreciated for this (now!) working couple! :-)

Lentil Apple Walnut Loaf
Recipe adapted from Terry Walters' Clean Food

Ingredients
For loaf:
1 cup dried lentils
3 cups vegetable broth
3 tbsp ground flax seed
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, grated
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 apples, peeled, grated, and mixed with 1 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1 tsp garam masala
1 cup breadcrumbs
(*Note- Substitute brown rice breadcrumbs if making the recipe gluten-free)

For glaze:
2 tbsp organic ketchup
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tbsp corn starch

Directions
Preparing lentils
Rinse lentils, place in a pot, and cover with vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed and lentils are tender, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preparing loaf
In a small bowl, combine ground flax seed with water and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onion and carrot in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add rice vinegar and saute 3 minutes more until soft. Add grated apple, walnuts, and garam masala and saute another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and fold in cooked lentils, breadcrumbs, and soaked flax seed until evenly mixed. Press mixture firmly into lightly oiled loaf pan and set aside.

Preparing glaze
In a small saucepan over no heat, combine all glaze ingredient until smooth. Place over medium heat and stir continuously until thick (about 2-3 minutes). Spread evenly over loaf and bake, uncovered, 40 minutes.

Serve with sauteed greens and brown rice for a lovely meal!

Happy eating!

Work-toberfest

Mark's company had their annual Oktoberfest party yesterday (yes, in November, the hurricane/rain date from Sandy). It included a cooking competition where employees bring in dishes using 2 of the listed qualifying ingredients. Qualifiers were German-themed, including beer, cheese, sausage, cabbage, white asparagus, potatoes, chocolate, etc. We decided on a double-entry for our first year... you know, to come out strong, make a presence. Our entries: Broccoli and Cheddar Ale Soup, and Chocolate Chip Stout Bread.

all of the alcohol that went into our dishes... except for the wine. that was for me.

Frozen veggie burgers, Mark's un-gourmet dinner on cooking night

Handsomest Cheese Grater Award Winner! Mark's been cutting the cheese for some time now... see below!

THROWBACK: Mark grating Parmesan for our 6-month dating anniversary dinner

The soup was awesome! I adapted it from a 2005 Gourmet recipe for Cheddar Beer Soup. They recommended using Bass, a malty English ale, which we thought was great in the soup, less-great by itself.

Broccoli and Cheddar Ale Soup
Yields: 4-6 servings (we doubled it for the competition)
Ingredients:
2 onions, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
2 celery ribs, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups broccoli, cooked and chopped (or 1-12-oz package frozen, thawed)
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups 2% milk
3/4 cup reduced sodium vegetable broth (yes, or chix broth)
1 (12-oz) bottle ale, recommended: Bass
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1 lb extra-sharp cheddar, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Directons:
1. Cook onion and celery in butter in large, heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until vegetables begin to soften, about 7 minutes. Add garlic, and cook 1-2 minutes more.

2. Reduce heat to medium-low, and sprinkle flour over vegetables, stirring frequently, and cook for about 3 minutes. (Note- If vegetables appear dry, add a bit of water to keep the pan moist, allowing flour to cook.)

3. Whisk in milk, broth, and beer. Simmer gently, whisking often, 7-10 minutes.

4. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and chopped, cooked broccoli.

5. Add cheese by handfuls, stirring constantly, until cheese is melted, 3 to 4 minutes.

Bon appetit!

Broccoli and Cheddar Ale Soup... enough to feed the roaring Oktoberfest work crowd

Now onto the next recipe... the beer bread. We did a variation of the loaf we make it nearly every week. You may know baking yeast bread can trigger a freak-out for me, but this beer bread's actually a non-threatening quick bread; you mix the dry, add wet, and pour into a loaf pan. Easy! See the way we usually make it here. For Oktoberfest, we used Guinness, which gave the bread a deep, intense flavor, and added semi-sweet chocolate chips for a pleasant finish. Hey, this may be the only way to actually enjoy Guinness!

Chocolate Chip Stout Bread
Yield: 1 loaf, about 10-12 slices
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1-12 oz bottle Guinness
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) in a medium-sized bowl.

3. Add beer, stir 5-6 strokes until mostly incorporated. Add chocolate chips, mixing until combined.

4. Pour batter into a lightly-greased loaf pan and bake, about 45 minutes, until top begins to brown.

Note- This bread contains no added fat, so it's best enjoyed the day it is baked... it dries out quickly!

Chocolate Chip Stout Bread

Our score report: While both entries were enjoyed by co-workers, and the soup appeared to be a crowd favorite, we sadly didn't place this year. First place was taken by a German Chocolate Cake with chocolate-ganache. (Come on! What can compete with that?)

At least there was a tiny bit of soup leftover for me to enjoy when Mark brought it home from work. We'll get the win next year. And chances are, we will be making these wunderbar recipes before then!

Dough Woes

Let me be the first to tell you: I don't bake. I can bake, but I choose not to. Blame it on studying food science for years in a formal setting. I've learned the ins and outs of this chemical and that acid and what can go wrong and what it looks like when you screw this up and how it should have turned out otherwise. Now, I don't mind a quick bread, and I am particularly skilled at the muffin method (food science geeks, where you at!), but there are a few baked goods I tend to avoid due to their complexity. One- the creaming method (i.e., butter cakes, cookies) that involves beating sugar into a fat to create a tender crumb; and two- yeast breads.

Yeast really is quite magical. But too much salt can kill it. And too hot of water can kill it. And overworking can kill it. And underworking underwhelms it. I'm a realist, like my dad, so I'd rather leave the yeast breads to the experts and buy a delectable loaf of sourdough for $4 at the farmer's market and not worry my pretty little self about how it came to be.

Allthatbeingsaid... I do love a challenge. And when our sweet friends Tim and Katie gave us the ever-creative wedding gift of a bread cookbook (Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois) and bags of special flours, not baking real bread was no longer an option. Let's go!

"Look how cute we are! Baking bread must be so easy!"

I followed the recipe exactly for the "basic" whole wheat dough. I weighed gluten and two kinds of flours and yeast and salt and took care of the temperature of the water and mixed it all up with the dough hook attachments for the right number of minutes and let it rise, loosely covered for the prescribed 90 minutes! Okay, that's not hard, I didn't even have to touch it yet! And then it was 8:00 pm.

I folded and turned and tucked it. Sticky. Despite using extra flour to help with the stickiness. And then I read these crucial words, "Dough may be easier to work with when chilled." Hmm. I bet. But we would like to make pizza right now. All hands on deck.


The 15 minutes that followed sounded like this:

Morgan: Get more flour! This isn't working! The dough is going up my arms!

Mark: It's fine! It's fine! Just keep working it, I'm adding more flour!

Morgan: I need you to HELP me! This is a disaster! It's sticking everywhere! I'M THROWING IT OUT! Get the trash can!

Mark: Get a grip! You are NOT throwing it out now! It's fine! It's fine! Calm down!

Morgan: You don't know what this is like!

Mark: Yes I do! I made homemade pizza crust once in Michigan and it looked like this!

Author's note- How many guys in northern Michigan make their own homemade pizza dough? Probably just one, and he recently moved to Easton...

Silence ensued for several minutes as I topped our tricky pizza dough with pesto, roasted acorn squash, and goat cheese. Baked our pie for 20ish minutes at 450... and you know what? It didn't look half-bad! And it was GOOD!

And then we ate it all up and laughed at my freak-out. We might have danced around the kitchen pointing to each other and to the pizza exclaiming, "YOU ROCK!" I am thankful for my gracious husband and how he looks past the crazed baking Morgan to the less crazy, good cook Morgan. (I trust he would have been as forgiving of my temper if the pizza actually sucked.)

First attempt at homemade pizza- far from a failure

And then 2 days later... I used the leftover dough in the fridge to make a loaf of BREAD! And it was SO easy to work with once it was chilled... and I even did this thing where I put ice cubes in the oven to create steam and it made a shiny, chewy crust! Shoot! It was really good too! We ate this with cheese and dipping oil.

And then the next day we made another pizza with the leftover, leftover dough! I had a good feeling about this one... I even apologized to Mark. I said... "I'm sorry if you thought you would be having a mediocre dinner tonight."

This proud pizza was topped with sauteed kale, peppers, and onions.

Gosh. We did it. We made yeast bread. It was challenging. But it was also rewarding.

I think sometimes the most trying recipes are the most satisfying. Hey, is this a lesson for marriage?

If you are reading this, and you have ever baked a homemade loaf of bread that you had touch, and did so without becoming a complete spazz, give yourself a pat on the back! You rock!

Home (from our honeymoon) Cooking

Hey, did you hear? We got married!

Officially Mr. and Mrs

On October 13th, 2012, a perfect fall day, my best friend and I were wed! And two weeks before that, I passed my registration exam to become a credentialed dietitian! My husband whisked me off to Monterey, CA for a blissful week of cruisin' on the coast in a convertible, kayaking with sea otters, biking the famous 17 Mile Drive around Pebble Beach Golf Course, wine tasting, visiting the Earthbound Organic Farm Stand, and of course, eating. This was a true coastal California food fest, and we ate our fill of fresh seafood- mussels, salmon, crab, king prawns, scampi fra diavolo, saffron and wild mushroom risottos, fanciful salads, green goddess dressing, truffle fries, gourmet cheeses, wine, wine wine, mimosas! You could say we let loose... with no better reason than celebrating our new marriage.

we'll take a little of this, a little of that, and all of the vew

Although we were sad to say goodbye to the west coast, we couldn't wait to get back to our place and start our new, real life together. (With lots of new kitchen-y gifts, oh yeah!) I could not wait to get back into the kitchen after a week of rich food and dining out. Our first meal back was a Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup, inspired by a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' latest cookbook- Weeknights with Giada.

Throwback: Did you know I met Giada in high school? Here I am staring at her while she gives me a speedy high-five. #enamored 

Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup
In a fabulous Le Crueset dutch oven, or large pot, saute 1 onion, 1 carrot, and 1 parsnip, all peeled and diced, over medium heat. Cook until soft, about 5-8 minutes. Add 1 diced zucchini, 1 cup sliced portobello mushrooms, 1 can drained diced tomatoes, 1 can drained cannellini beans, and a few handfuls of torn kale leaves. Saute 1-2 minutes. Cover with 4ish cups vegetable stock (I use a tsp of vegetable base + water) and bring to a simmer. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup cornmeal, stirring well until incorporated. Allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season with cracked black pepper and perhaps some crushed red pepper, to taste. Garnish with fresh Parmesan!

Oh, we loved this warm and wholesome soup, and will surely make it again. Hopefully you will get the chance to make this one on your own... or better yet, stop by and visit us, we'll make it for you. We have guest towels and an air mattress! See you soon!

The Tomato Time of Year

While I am close to saying, I've never met a vegetable I didn't like (except artichokes from a can), the statement just isn't true when it comes to tomatoes. I've had one too many a tasteless, grainy, white, cold tomato on a restaurant salad to almost completely avoid all of them for 9 months out of the year. However, a real tomato, that is, one that is grown in-season and locally, is a different story. Packed with flavor and a beautiful color... summertime is definitely tomato time! I picked up a pint of mixed colored cherry tomatoes at the Keene Farmer's Market that were just too sweet not to share.

"Try to resist me! That's right, YOU CAN'T!" @thesassytomato

Although tempted, I didn't sit down on the couch to watch the Bachelorette and snack on these like candy. Instead, I made two new-to-me recipes with inspiration from a favorite cookbook. After all, they were on opposite pages and it made it very hard to choose just one!

Clean Food by Terry Walters

White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 sweet onion, julienned
• 1 fennel bulb, julienned
• 2 carrots, chopped  
• Olive oil
• 3 tomatoes, quartered
• 2 cups cooked great northern or cannellini beans
• Arugula
• Balsamic vinegar to taste
  

Place above ingredients on a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes or until tender. Fold in tomatoes and beans, returning to oven to roast for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and immediately place atop a bed of arugula. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar!

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas
• 3-4 scallions, chopped

Cut tomatoes in half and place in a large bowl with the chickpeas and scallions. Top with the following, after you've combined the ingredients in a food processor:

• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 large bunch cilantro (about 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

I am always hungry for new salads in the summer, and these two hit the spot.

I am winding down with my internship, folks! I'll be back in PA in just a few weeks. Last week was my final week of clinical, and I was so happy to have the 4th off to join my lovely friend Sarah and her family at their New Hampshire lake house. We had a blast! (I can even say that after I failed miserably at water skiing. Next year!)

"Oh yeah! Check out how cool I am! Water ski-bunny!"

nailed it.

Love you so!

xoxo!

Pasta e Fagioli

There is one dish I remember always eating for dinner with my family as a kid. It would typically be on a weeknight in the cold-weather months. It was good piping hot, but even better sitting on the stove top for an hour or two and coming to room temperature (not ServSafe, I know). I remember seeing it on a menu in a restaurant as a teenager, excitedly ordering it out for the first time... but what was served to me was insultingly NOT what my mom made. It is a true family recipe, which my mom made exactly the way her grandmother made it. And here I sit, in Keene, enjoying that same flavor I've experienced with my great Grandma Cicconi, my grammy, and my mother!

Pasta e Fagioli

This photo of my family was taken on Christmas day in 1982. The beautiful woman in the top left is my great Grandma Cicconi. My mom is in the bottom left corner, with my oldest brother.

This recipe comes from my great Grandma Cicconi. She cooked delicious Italian food for her family on a tight budget. I think Pasta e Fagioli (let Giorgio pronounce it for you here) sums up her cooking style so well because it is very simple, low in cost, with perfect flavor. The translation from Italian literally means "pasta and beans." Each cook makes it their own, which is why I can't enjoy just any soup by the same name! It's ready in 20 minutes. We eat it with a little sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Here's how to make it...

Recipe: Pasta e Fagioli
In a saucepan, saute 1/2 an onion in a bit of olive oil, until soft. Add 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can pinto beans (rinsed and drained), and 1 can water. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Add 1 cup elbow macaroni, and cook a minute or two less than box directions suggest (about 5-6 minutes), stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and let sit 5-10 minutes. Soup will seem thin at first, but the pasta absorbs the extra liquid and it thickens significantly! Top with cracked black pepper and a bit of Parmesan.

Pasta e Fagioli a la Grandma Cicconi

It's simple and healthful, an easy vegetarian meal! Now, for the first time, I used whole wheat pasta in the soup. Don't tell my people, but I actually like it a tiny bit better with white pasta... however, I would still make the whole wheat transition in this recipe for the improved nutrition. The texture is a bit different, which I'm not used to in such a classic Italian dish. I bet seasoned Italian cooks like my great grandma would cringe at the thought of whole wheat pasta... or corn and rice pasta, which my mom now uses!

I do love this soup, and I have to make it at least once a year. It reminds me of a simpler time for my family... before we spread out to Germany, Texas, and New Hampshire. I love how food can do that!

Buon appetito!