I think there's something in the air. Because for the past week, all I can think about is starting something new. A pair of socks, a shawl, a sweater, something, ANYTHING! Is it because I've set this goal for myself to finish all my WIPs before anything else and I'm just craving the thing I can't have? Or is it because all you darn bloggers keep tempting and distracting me with ideas for new projects? Or could it be something else altogether?

This morning I walked out of the house with those items you see there. I wasn't until I was walking to the Farmers Market that I realize I was screaming Project Spectrum. Maybe it's a combination of me wanting to start something new and wanting to knit up the greens in my stash, the sock yarn, the laceweight and some felted tweed. Whatever the case may be, it's definitely been a green day.

Dinner, anyone?

My dinner tonight came out of my apple green Le Creuset. What's inside? A creation inspired by and adapted from another Everyday Food recipe, curried Lentils in tomato sauce from the March 2007 issue. Using what I had I in my pantry I came up with my own version.

Curried Lentils and Tomatoes
adapted from Curried Lentils in tomato sauce, Everyday Food March 2007

3 tablespoons oil oil
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 1-inch piece of ginger finely chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup uncooked lentils
1 can 20oz diced tomatoes
juice from 1 lime

Prepare lentils by rinsing them and placing them in a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet (or in my case, a 2qt dutch oven) and add onions and ginger. Cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking until onions begin to brown and caramelize. Add spices and stir for about a minute. Add lentils and tomatoes and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add lime juice and salt to taste and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve over your preferred grain (shown with short grain brown rice).

Notes:
Not bad for my first try at adapting a recipe. It's good but not amazing. This is relatively spicey, so if you're not accustomed to spice, you may want to omit the cayenne and adjust the other spices accordingly. I can't compare this to the original as I haven't made it, but the original may be tastier as it calls for a jar of tomato sauce. Since I didn't have any, I used what I had. So this version of it may be a bit more bland since tomato sauce comes seasoned. Also, if you're planning on cooking for one or two, you might want to halve the recipe. The original calls for pre-cooked canned lentils and I kind of guessed the amount of uncooked lentils to use. If I had to guess the amount of people this recipe serves, I'd say 6. Let's just put it this way. It filled my 2qt dutch oven and if I don't find some people to feed, I'm going to be eating this for a week. Anyone want to come over for dinner?

I'm not quite recovered from the first of the season's glutonous holidays yet. Are you? It went by so fast, it was kind of a blur. The cooking part went pretty well and the eating part, of course, happened without a hitch. To sum it up, lots of good food was cooked and eaten. The superstar of my Thanksgiving dishes were the desserts.

So a little good news and a little bad news. Since my last post I was able to trace out three patterns! Wooohooo! But since then, I haven't done anything, not even wash and press my fabric. I'll get on that this week for sure. Slowly but surely, this wardrobe is going to come together.

So the real bad news is, my camera is dead. Okay, really it's not dead, dead. The batteries are dead. I got this camera almost two years ago and it came with rechargeable batteries and they finally gave out a few weeks ago. So what's a girl to do? I can't take photos and refuse to buy regular disposable batteries now (part of my green living quest). And who came to save the day, green LA girl! She posted about battery chargers the other day and I've been looking for it ever since! I tried to order it from Amazon and they had an estimated ship date of May 31st!! WTF? Okay, I can't live without a camera for that long. I did some searching around and ordered them (and some new rechargeable batteries, of course) yesterday and they're coming on Monday, yahooooo! So one of my short term goals, have a FO to shoot by the time it gets here.

Yeah, I put myself out there.

So let me leave you with of the final shots from my camera before my rechargeables decided to leave me camera-less.

Recipe: Orange Oatmeal Currant Cookies, Tartine Cookbook

Notes:
So very yummy!! This was my first try at an "icebox cookie." The recipe calls for you to roll the dough into logs and chill them overnight. I'm not sure if it was me or the recipe, but the dough was pretty sticky and I had a bit of a hard time rolling them up because the dough was so malleable. Even when I sliced them after freezing, they didn't quite hold their shape (they're supposed to be ovals). I have a feeling it has to do with the currants and the rolled oats preventing a clean cut. But despite these minor issues, the flavor is amazing! They're not crispy or firm (something I'd expect since they were frozen), rather they're soft with a bit of texture from the currants and oatmeal. Yum, seriously, yum!

Recipe: Tofu Quiche with Leeks and Asparagus, Real Food Daily Cookbook

Notes:
Let me give a little background before I go on about this recipe:

A few weeks ago, I went to a training weekend with my triathlon club to prep for an upcoming race. It's a pretty big affair with rented out cabins, coached workouts and fun social time. Anyways, our cabin decided to do a potluck and I set out to bring quiche. This was my first quiche ever (and I'm really sorry I don't have any photos.. well wait, actually.. you can see in the left corner of this photo) and I was surprised to find out that it has a lot fewer eggs in it than I thought! I used the recipe for the Asparagus and Scallion quiche from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book. The entire recipe called for only 2 eggs. The rest of the custard was made with half and half, cream cheese and goat cheese. Can you say heart attack city? HEART ATTACK CITY! HEART ATTACK CITAAAAAAAY!! Well first thing's first, it was amazing, AMAZING! It's the kind of thing you eat once in a while, with a HUGE green salad and like no dessert *sniff*. So anyways, since then I've been on a quest to find a healthier quiche recipe, either something with more eggs or tofu and less dairy. Here enters the Real Food Daily Cookbook recommended to me by a coworker.

So now onto the recipe. It's a vegan tofu-based recipe with no butter or dairy. So silly me, thought that I was going to get a healthier quiche recipe tasting like the full screaming fat dairy version. So when I tasted it, I was floored and really disappointed. I was complaining to friends that I didn't like it, that it wasn't absolutely horrible. It just wasn't what I was hoping it would be (the full screaming fat dairy version). I was so disappointed by it that I actually considered chucking it. What stopped me was that I didn't want to waste all the ingredients just because it didn't turn out as I expected. So the next day, mama- and papaFasu said to me, "Hey, you're pie is good!" That caught me totally off guard. I decided to give it another try, and indeed. There was really nothing wrong with it at all. It wasn't the best quiche ever, but it also definitely wasn't close to being the worst. I think because I was so set on having it taste like my first quiche, it felt like an utter disappointment. You definitely won't fool any meaties into thinking that what they're eating is really quiche. There are definitely a lot of recipes out there that you can use to "trick" meaties into eating vege, but this is probably not one of them. Like I've read before, there is seriously no real substitute for eggs and dairy, but there are certainly a lot of things that can come quite close. Either way, I'm still on a quest for a better, heathier quiche recipe.