Warm French Lentils

I love to use Ina Garten, aka. Barefoot Contessa recipes.  They are always delicious.  I find that sometimes they are a little too salty, so I always cut the salt down quite a bit.  I also like to make changes to recipes and add additional ingredients or cut ingredients to make the recipes more simple.  

Here is her actual recipe:

2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup good olive oil

1 leek, white and light green parts, sliced 1/4 inch (Trader Joes carries frozen already sliced leeks.  They are great to use in this recipe and soups)

2 carrots 1/2 inch diced (I use a lot more)

1 teaspoon minced garlic (I use about 2 teaspoons or a little more)

1 cup French green lentils

1 whole onion, peeled and stuck with 6 whole cloves (I did this one time and it was great when I made my own lentils, but when I buy pre-cooked lentils I just chop up the onion and use it as part of the stir fried vegetables)

1 white turnip, cut in half (I used this once, but I don't use it anymore)

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I use the stone ground kind)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon kosher salt (this is WAY too much)

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add the leek and carrots, cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute and set aside.

Please the lentils, 4 cups of water, the onion with the cloves, and the turnip in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, add the leek and carrots and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes or until lentils are almost tender.  Remove and discard the onion and turnip and drain the lentils.  Place them in a medium bowl and add the butter.

Whisk together the 1/4 cup of olive oil, the mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Add to the lentils, stir well, and allow the lentils to cool until just warm, about 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

So that is Ina's recipe.  Here is how I simplified it:

Chop up celery, carrots, onion, leeks and use pre-minced garlic.

Whisk the oil, vinegar, mustard, a little salt and pepper and put to the side:

I use prepared lentils when I don't have time to cook my own.  Trader Joes carries a pre-cooked and refrigerated lentils.  All you do is cut open the package and dump into a bowl.

Saute the celery, onions, carrots and leeks in olive oil until warm and the carrots are tender but not super soft.  I like my vegetable to be a little crispy still.  Finally add the garlic and let cook for another minute or so:

Add the vegetables with a little butter to the lentils:

Mix the vegetables with the lentils and then add the dressing.  Mix everything up and you have a great side dish or meal.

It has tons of flavor and the longer it sits in the fridge the more the flavors blend together and it tastes delicious.

SALT

We tried a new restaurant, SALT a few weeks ago.  It has been open for about 12 weeks now.  I was nervous looking at the menu online because it seems like there were lots of items with pork and I am just not a huge pork fan.  Don't let that stop you, this is by far one of the best restaurants we have eaten at in St. Louis in a while.  It is located at 4356 Lindell in the Central West End.  There have been other restaurants in this location (it is an old big two story house off of Lindell, the restaurant Savor used to be in its location), but I have a feeling SALT will be here for a really long time.  It better not go anywhere because it is absolutely delicious.

Since it is located in an old house, there are different rooms with seating, but it flows really well.  The restrooms are located upstairs, but there is an elevator for those who need it to get upstairs.  It is a very comfortable ambiance.  Although it is very upscale food the prices and the atmosphere don't reflect that snotty attitude.  Some people came in jeans and others were dressed up and it didn't matter.

The wait staff was extremely knowledgeable about the menu, wine list and drink list.  You could ask them any question and they gave very detailed descriptions and offered wonderful opinions about the food and drinks.  The only thing our waitress wasn't sure about was which cheeses on the list were pasteurized and which weren't.  Since I am pregnant I can't eat any unpasteurized cheeses and she quickly went to the back asked and had an answer for every cheese on the list.

My husband and I love to go to dinners where we feel relaxed and not pressured to hurry up and eat our food and leave.  This was such a slow relaxing dinner.  I think we were there for almost three hours.

A plus is the corking fee.  It is only $10 if you bring your own bottle of wine.  That is such a great deal at such a nice restaurant.

The chef also likes to use as much local produce as possible.  You can taste the freshness in the food.

I can't say enough about how wonderfully delicious the food was and what a great dining experience we had.  We will go back many more times.

Here is a peak at the amazing food and drink:

 Since I am not drinking right now I usually ask the bartender to mix me up something refreshing and summery that is non-alcoholic.  This was my drink and it was delicious with giant square ice cubes which kept the drink super cold which I loved.  

I want to talk about each of the items above.  They were beyond flavorful.

Cheese Platter - We got two different types of cheeses (A goat cheese and a some other kind of cheese).  It came with almonds, crostinis and a homemade strawberry preserve.  The strawberry preserve and cheese together were a mouthwatering combination.  It was fresh, sweet and savory.

Pear Salad - This salad was full of surprises.  I didn't know what to expect when I ordered it and I was blown away.  There were julienne sliced pears, blueberries, mint leaves and smoked jowl bacon.  I wasn't sure about the combination when saw the salad, but the dressing that was used was spectacular.  It was a combination of bacon fat, vinaigrette and red pepper flakes.  The salty, spicy, tangy flavors with the sweetness of the fruit and freshness of the mint was like a party in my mouth.

Duck Fat Frites - I was nervous about trying these but it was so worth it.  The best part of this dish was the housemade mayo.  It also came with housemade ketchup, but the mayo was so delicious I wanted to lick the little container clean.  The mayo was full of garlic and salt and absolutely finger licking.  If I could change anything about this dish it would be that the frites needed to be a little bit thicker.  They were almost too thin and fried up a little too much.  I couldn't get as much mayo on each frite as I wanted.

I loved the dish that these meatballs were served in.  I am not really a pork fan, so things have to be really tasty for me to like them if they have pork.  These were pork and fennel meatballs with a blackberry jam.  Wow! There were layers of flavor in these meatballs.  You could definitely taste the fennel, but the blackberry jam was such a compliment to the pork.  I love eating food that the combinations are so unexpected, but so perfectly matched.

My main dish was a special that evening.  It was a  tart with caramelized onions, thyme, Gorgonzola cheese (and a few other things, but I can't remember) all wrapped in a pastry.  I could have used more balsamic vinegar over the top because I just love it, but it didn't stop me from eating this entire dish.  I wasn't a huge fan of the Italian parsley on the side and I didn't really eat any of it, but the presentation was beautiful.  

Although we were extremely full and could have gone without this dish,  my husband and I couldn't pass it up when we saw other people ordering it.  This is duck fat fried chicken.  It looked and smelled delicious.  It was two chicken thighs with mashed potatoes.  Everything tasted amazing.  If you like fried chicken you would love this.  It was salty and perfectly fried.  We were so full when we got this so we didn't fully enjoy it.  We took more then half of it home.  Also with all the other food this was at the bottom of our favorite list.  Not that it wasn't delicious, but all the other food exceeded our expectations.

They also have a brunch, which we haven't tried, but I can't imagine that would disappoint either.

Delicious Combination

Breakfast is such an important meal and I like to mix it up.  I love my eggs, quiches, pancakes and muffins, but I also like refreshing meals too.  It has been the hottest summer here in St. Louis since 1980 and I have been wanting something very summery for breakfast.

I think this is the best combination and surprisingly keeps me pretty full.

Blueberry Almond Yogurt


Plain Greek Yogurt (I get a Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt with added Fiber from Trader Joes.  It is wonderful by itself or in smoothies too)

Fresh Blueberries (This is the best time to buy and eat blueberries.  They are small, hard and packed full of flavor)

Almond Slivers (You can also get these at Trader Joes)

Then I top off all of that with a swirl of Agave Nectar.  I like that better then honey because it is a thinner consistency and mixes really well with everything, but you could certainly use honey too.

I just ate this for breakfast this morning and I am feeling so satisfied and healthy.  It is a nice way to start the day.

Spinach Quiche

Let me start by saying that I love eggs and I love quiche, so I always try out different ways to make a good quiche.  I have made lots of different versions of quiches, but I made this one yesterday and it was by far the best one I have made.  

Lately I always try to bake with whole wheat flour and I almost always use organic products.  One of my sons is very food sensitive and requires as much fiber and whole grains as possible.  I try to add ground flax seed to whatever I can.  I say all this because I usually add the ground flax seed when I make my own pie crust.  

However, I had a frozen whole wheat pie crust in the freezer that I needed to use up, so this is why I decided to make another attempt at a quiche.  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

I put my frozen pie crust out on the counter for about 10 to 15 minutes, then I pricked it with a fork and put it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes.  I hate when my pie crusts get soggy when I make quiches, so I wanted to harden it up a bit before adding all the ingredients.  After it has baked, pull it out of the oven and set aside while you are cooking everything else. 

While the pie crust was in the oven, I diced up half of a small onion (I would say it made between 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of chopped onion).

In a medium sized pan melt about 1 tablespoon of butter 

Add about 1 tablespoon of garlic (I love garlic, so I added a full heaping tablespoon of garlic, but you don't have to add that much) and the onions.

Cook the onions until translucent.  

Add about two cups fresh spinach torn or roughly chopped to the onion/garlic mixture.  

Cook the spinach down, takes about a minute or so.

Add 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup feta cheese to the spinach.  

Then pour the spinach cheese mixture into the pie crust.

In a separate bowl beat with a fork 4 eggs and 1/2 cup milk.

Pour eggs over the top of the spinach.  There is a lot of egg mixture so make sure you cover all of the spinach, you might have to use your fork to move around the spinach to coat everything.  

Put in the oven for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle additional cheddar cheese to the top of the quiche.  Continue baking for 30-45 minutes until set in center. Take out of the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes before you cut it.  

This was so delicious.  I ate it with a friend for lunch yesterday and my husband and I finished it off today for breakfast.  

I will try this recipe again and use Swiss cheese to give it a different flavor.  

Finished product already half eaten

Honey and Goat Cheese Crostini

This is very simple and delicious.  You could make these as an appetizer, to compliment a salad or just to eat anytime.  

Preheat Oven to 475.

I use a multi-grain baguette (but you could use any kind of baguette).  

Slice the bread, you can cut it any thickness you would like, the thinner doesn't necessarily make it better.  Place each slice on a cookie sheet.

Put a layer of plain goat cheese on each slice of bread and make sure you cover the entire top of the bread because you don't want bread exposed or else it will burn once you put it in the oven.

Drizzle honey or even Agave Nectar over the goat cheese on the slices of bread

I didn't have any fresh herbs at my disposal, but normally I like to put a little fresh Thyme on each slice of bread.  Even though I didn't add any herbs to my crostini this time, they still tasted delicious.  

Put in the oven for about 5-7 minutes, it may require a little long depending on your oven.  Watch it to make sure the bread is getting warm and toasty, but not hard and over cooked.  

Then switch your oven to broil and let the crostinis broil until the cheese and honey start turning a little brown.  You don't want to burn the bread.

Take out and serve warm.  They are also delicious the next day after being in the refrigerator.  

Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Peppers

I have been craving lots of very flavorful dishes lately, with some spice so I created this Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Pepper Dish.

Here are the steps:

Bell Pepper Preparation:

Cut a thin layer off the top of your bell pepper
Clean out the seeds and membranes with a spoon
Rinse out the peppers
Put peppers in a big pot (Dutch Oven) and fill with water to cover the peppers
Put on stove and bring to a boil
Boil for 5 minutes and remove from the water
Place in a baking dish with the opening up, so it will be ready to be filled

Preparation of Rice:


Cook Brown Rice (4-6 servings), takes about 40 minutes to cook

Cook in a small saucepan:
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 and a half Tablespoons Minced Garlic (I use the pre minced that you keep in the refrigerator for ease)
Half of a Small Red Onion Minced
Cook the Onion and Garlic together until the onions are somewhat translucent, but do not have the heat high enough to brown

Chop 2 Tablespoons Jalapenos (I use the jarred jalapenos) and add to the onion and garlic mixture
Add Cilantro (can use fresh or dried and however much you want to your liking)

After the Brown Rice is cooked add:
One can of drained black beans
One can of drained Rotel diced tomatoes with green chili peppers (you can just add a small can of diced tomatoes)
Add the sauteed garlic, onions, jalapenos and cilantro

Then in the same pan that you made the garlic and onion mixture add chopped fresh spinach and saute until cooked at least half way.  Probably need to chop up about two cups worth of fresh spinach it cooks down a lot.

Then add spinach to rice mixture.

Add some sharp cheddar cheese and Mexican blend cheese to the rice.  You can add as much as you would like.

Mix everything together.

Add the rice mixture to the peppers.  The amount of rice will probably fill about 4 peppers.  I only made three peppers and kept the leftover rice, so I can make burritos later or mix it in with scrambled eggs for a breakfast burrito.

Once added to the peppers top with more cheese.

I am debating adding an enchilada sauce to the bottom of the pan before I cook it to give it extra moisture, but I haven't decided yet.  The enchilada sauce I would use would be tomato sauce, garlic, cumin and chili powder.

Cook in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes covered with tented foil, so the cheese won't stick to the foil.  Then I will uncover it and let it cook for about 10 more minutes.

I will post a picture after it has been cooked.

Pam's Chicago Style Dogs & More in St. Louis

I am a huge fan of hot dogs.  I am always looking for places that serve a variety of dogs and tons of toppings.

I now know of two places in St. Louis that have Chicago style dogs.  One is Woofie's and it is located off of Woodson Road in Overland, MO.  I ate there about 7 years ago.  It was delicious, but I haven't been back.  Not because it wasn't great, it is just a little out of my way.

We discovered a new place this weekend: Pam's Chicago Style Dogs & More  Pam's is located in developing area east of Skinker on Delmar (6016 Delmar).  It is located across the street from the Delmar Metro Link station.  I believe they moved to this location in 2008.  The menu at this place is extensive.  Not only do they have a ton of different hot dogs, but they have a variety of sandwiches, salads and a plethora of deep fried desserts (fried Twinkies, singers, cupcakes, ding dons, muffins, oreos, snickers, cookie dough and cheesecake).  I didn't see anyone order a deep fried dessert, but I would have loved to.  There are at about 10 tables to sit and enjoy the food.  We got there pretty early and the lunch crowd just started to file in as we were leaving.  We were happy to get there when we did.

Our order consisted of a Pam's Colossal Dog (1/3 lb) 100% Vienna Beef Chicago Style dog, a regular kids dog, corn dog and a Paul's Veggie dog (their own creation 1/4lb, served Chicago style).  The kids meals came with french fries or cheese fries.  We had one of each.  Their definition of Chicago style is yellow mustard, neon relish, onions, tomato, sport peppers, a pickle spear and a dash of celery salt on a poppy seed bun.  You can also request for your dogs to be grilled instead of steamed, but they only grill at lower volume times.

We got the Colossal Dog grilled and it came on two poppy seed buns and all the toppings.  It was absolutely delicious.  Grilling the dog gave it a really nice crisp outer layer, so when you bit into it cracked and then they juices flowed.  The celery salt was a nice addition because it was a pop of flavor.

The veggie dog wasn't your normal tofu dog, which is what I was expecting.  They created a very good veggie burger mixture and shaped it like a hot dog and grilled it and put it in a poppy seed bun with all the toppings.  I got brown mustard instead of yellow mustard and again, I thought it was delicious.  It had tons of flavors and lots of veggies, which I was very happy with.

As I said above, we ordered a kids hot dog and kids corn dog.  When he called our order, he accidentally gave us two kids hot dogs.  He immediately realized his mistake and gave us the corn dog and let us keep the second kids hot dog.  The corn dog was perfectly cooked.  The corn meal was fried perfectly, so it was really crisp, but left the dog on the inside super juicy.  My one year old loved it so much he ate the entire corn dog.  My three year old son loved the regular dog and ate it for lunch and requested the leftover one for dinner.  Not the healthiest meals for my three year old, but he doesn't get regular hot dog very often.

You can get so much more at this place then just hot dogs.  They have a ton of sandwiches, burgers and even a Gyro Sandwich.

We felt pretty safe because a few tables over from us sat three St. Louis City police officers, which we have heard is a regular occurrence (not just that those three officers where there, but that lots of St. Louis City officers frequent the place).

We rate the restaurant as follows:

Food = A+ (if you like Chicago style hot dogs)
Service = A
Cleanliness = B+ (My husband used the restroom and he said that it wasn't super clean and it is a co-ed bathroom, so you know how dirty that can get.  The tables seemed clean and the floors were clean as well).