Lentil soup

Earlier this week, I embarked upon the last year of my twenties. I am tickled to say my husband has perfected his gift-selecting skills rather early in this marriage: a set of adorable little measuring cups, a pretty top from Anthropologie, box of fancy chocolates, and the "How to Cook Everything" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" box set by culinary authority (and no-knead bread perfecter) Mark Bittman. As the titles suggest, these are some formidable cookbooks. Considering we are all in the middle of soup season, I figured that would be a good place to start.

Oh, lentils. Is there anything you can't do? They're full of protein, fiber, iron, vitamins and minerals, not to mention quick to cook and cheap as hell - a "superfood" in every possible way. These are standard brown Spanish Pardina lentils, but I'm sure you could use whatever kind you have on hand (if you use the cute little green French ones, be wary of overcooking them).

Eggs in tomato sauce

While on vacation last week I read "The Man Who Ate Everything" by the venerable Mr. Jeffrey Steingarten, longstanding food critic for Vogue magazine (and occasional Iron Chef America judge). He devotes the entire first chapter to an 11 month period in his life when he was obsessed with baking le pain au levain naturel, a naturally leavened bread from France. And I mean obsessed - every week or two he would have giant 50lb bags of freshly milled flour shipped from California to his New York City apartment just for making bread.

Anyway, according to Jeffrey (yes, we're on a first-name basis now), there are two kinds of people in the world: those who can survive happily on bread alone, and those who also require meat, vegetables, and dairy. I used to think I would be placed firmly in the latter group, but now that I've started baking my own bread, I think I might belong in the former.

Ham, black-eyed pea and collard green soup

 
Well, the farm has suffered a bit of a setback; someone bought the land we were getting serious about before we could. This is only a temporary problem, as there is always more land out there becoming available, but man - it sucks. Yet, we shall press forward. Pure Land Organic cannot be stopped! Obstacles only invigorate our spirit! Yeah!!

In the meantime, have some soup.

Cajun salmon soft tacos with tomato-avocado salsa

This is one of our old favorites, perfect for when you don't want to cave in to crappy take-out, but just don't have the time or patience to spend more than a couple minutes cooking. It's so simple, it feels silly to write a recipe. So, I won't - I will just tell you what to do. Get a couple of salmon fillets and season them liberally with Cajun seasoning (we like Tony Chachere's the best).

Dice up a tomato, an avocado, a serrano chili (or whatever kind of hot pepper you like), and a little red onion. Combine in a bowl, season lightly with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, and squeeze in the juice of one lime. Mix thoroughly. I like to do this immediately upon getting home, then I cover with plastic wrap and let all the ingredients get acquainted in the fridge until dinnertime.

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a non-stick skillet and cook your salmon, flaking it apart with the spatula as it cooks. This will take like 5 minutes, start to finish. Once it's just cooked through, transfer to a serving dish. In the microwave, warm up some tortillas of your choice (I like La Tortillas) wrapped in a kitchen towel for 30 seconds. Flap out a nice little tortilla on your plate, top with steaming salmon, and adorn lovingly with tomato-avocado salsa. 

Serves as many as you like, just scale up. Takes minutes.

Beef broccoli over jasmine rice

This may be surprising, but I don't often attempt to cook Asian cuisine. [Correction - I don't often attempt to cook Asian recipes that are *supposed* to taste a distinctive way. I do actually cook with Asian flavors all the time. Resume post!] I just feel like it's always missing something, I can never get it quite right - kind of like how I'll ask my mom for the recipe to make a Trini dish, and she'll describe it and I'll write it down explicitly, but mine never turns out as good as hers. Then one day I'll watch her make it she'll add in all kinds of other stuff and say, "Oh, didn't I mention that? Yes, you must add some of that. Well, I don't always add that, but today, I am."  And it always turns out better than mine. Job security, Mom.

Anyway, I've got Thai green curry and a simple little shrimp and cashew stir fry down pat, so it's time to branch out. Beef broccoli, y'all. The American Chinese-take-out staple. And really, it was quite easy and turned out pretty good. A little ginger-heavy, even for ginger people like us, so be careful - the ginger and garlic cook only very briefly so retain most of their pungency. Use a light hand.