Lentil Soup x2

Lentil Soup is a very easy and tasty dish to make. I made it two different ways and will have both represented here. Originally I made a simplified version only consisting of Lentils and Onions. The second version has more in it. I will explain Version 1 first and follow it with Version 2.

Ingredients:
Version 1:
1 White Onion
1 cup Red/Orange Lentils
1 cup Green Lentils
Italian Seasoning
Celery Salt
Perfect Pinch Cajun
Garlic Salt
6 cups Water
1/4 stick Sun Dried Tomato Basil Butter

I began by getting my spices together.

I then got out my White Onion and proceeded to dice it up.

Oh my, found some tasty Butter to caramelize the Onion in.

Now put Onions in with the melting Butter.

Once Onions are caramelized, add in 2 cups of Lentils.

Pour in your water.

Let it cook, stirring once in awhile, until done. The Lentils will be like little sponges and soak up almost all of the water.

I served this on Wild Rice with some shredded Cheese on top. Enjoy.

Version 2:
1 White Onion
1 cup Red/Orange Lentils
1 cup Green Lentils
Italian Seasoning
Celery Salt
Perfect Pinch Cajun
Garlic Salt
Ground Black Pepper
6 Celery stalks
8 Sm Carrots
1/4 stick Butter
6 cups Water

Alright, this recipe mainly follows Version 1 with a few changes.

First off, like no pictures. Sorry but it's sort of redundant. You begin by dicing up your Onions, Carrots, and Celery stalks.

Then you caramelize the Onions in regular Butter.

Add in the diced up Carrots and Celery when the caramelization begins. Stir together thoroughly.

Add in Lentils once Carrots soften up a bit.

Add in Water at same time. Stir.

Once Lentils are soft enough to eat, turn off heat and serve. Enjoy.

Simple Burritos

So I wanted something quick and easy to eat this weekend and I came up with Burritos. In the area I live there is a large influence of TexMex/Mexican/Latino cooking, which makes me very happy. So much good food around here that I have to try my hand at it quite often.

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef
1 can Black Beans
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Jalapeno Pepper
Lime Juice
Tortillas
Garlic Salt
Shredded Cheese

I began by gathering my ingredients. This is a pretty cheap dinner to make, so keep that in mind for during the week when you want something tasty, cheap, and quick.

I then diced up the Peppers.

Now I opened the can of black beans and put them in sauce pot and turned the heat to MEDIUM so they are nice and hot.

Time to cook up the Ground Beef. Very simple process, make sure to dice it up finely while cooking if you can. I added Garlic Salt to the meat, along with a healthy dash of Lime Juice. Makes the meat tasty and unique!

Alright, now get your Tortillas. I put some Gruyere cheese down first. I know an odd cheese choice for this, however I like the twist on flavor that it does in a Mexican themed dish.

Now I have everything ready to go.

I put it together quite simply, all lined up next to each other. Topped off with a Monterey Colby Jack Cheese mix. The second one I made was not so pretty looking, and did not last long enough to take a picture. Enjoy.

Cast Iron Frittata

So I've made Frittata and posted on here about it before, however that was always done with just a skillet/saucepan. Now I used a cast iron skillet I've had around and I think it improved the flavor at least 10 fold.

Ingredients:
9 Eggs
1 Green Bell Pepper, finely diced
1 Poblano Pepper, finely diced
1 Yellow Onion, finely diced
1/3 stick Butter
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Paprika
Garlic Salt
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Gruyere Cheese
Monterey & Colby Jack Cheese

Alright, so first things first. Get your cast iron skillet ready. This took me quite awhile since I had not used it in a long time and it may have gotten a little rusty. So to clean this don't use soap. It causes headaches. I used Olive Oil and a paper towel to wipe it down until it was fixed. This takes awhile.

Once you have that done, cut up a stick of Butter to where 1/3 of it is in the cast iron skillet, along with some Olive Oil. At this point empty out your oven and turn it to 400 BAKE.

Now gather the rest of your ingredients.

First, dice your Onion up very finely. You can leave it chunky if you prefer that, but I like it finely diced so that's just what I did!

Second, dice up your Green Bell Pepper. I also diced up my Poblano Pepper after this but no picture since it looks pretty much the same just darker.

Turn on the burner your cast iron skillet is on, I set it at MEDIUM. Once it melts most of the Butter into the Olive Oil, dump your diced Onions in and move them around.

At this point I cracked the eggs into a mixing bowl and mixed them up together with a dash of Ground Black Pepper and Sea Salt.

Your Onions should be caramelized quite nicely by now.

Add in your diced Peppers.

Mix together and add a light dusting of Garlic Salt and Paprika.

Once the Peppers start to soften, turn off your burner. Add the Egg mixture to the skillet. Top it with however much cheese you want on top. I went crazy with it.

Into the oven it goes. Make sure to use an oven mitt or something similar since the cast iron skillet will burn you.

It takes about 10-20 minutes to cook properly. I like my eggs a little drier when I make Frittata so I left it in the oven for about 18 minutes. You can tell it is done by the edges of the Frittata mixture pulling away from the sides of the skillet.

Due to my large amount of cheese used, there was a large cheese bubble on top of my Frittata! Once it began to cool it went away, but still interesting to see.

I let it cool for about 5 minutes and then cut into pieces and served. Make sure to use a sharp object like a knife to edge around the Frittata, otherwise it might stick to the outside when you are trying to remove it for consumption. Enjoy.

Chef's Original: Lunch for Work!

This is a dish I threw together last week and have since repeated as it is amazing for lunch on a workday. It began as a rough idea of throwing some things together. Namely, quinoa and peas. However, this changed to include a few more ingredients.

Ingredients
1 box Small Shell Pasta
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Corn
2 cup Quinoa
Sea Salt
Italian Herb Mix
Shredded Asiago Cheese

I began this by filling my deep saucepan with water for the Pasta. I then put a dash of Sea Salt in the water and turned the heat to HIGH and covered it. I also turned the heat to MEDIUM for the Peas and Corn to start them cooking.

Now I turned to the Quinoa portion of this recipe. This part is made simple by use of a Rice Cooker. If you do not have one of these, I strongly suggest investing in one to suit your needs. I measured out the 2 cups of Quinoa and put it in the Rice Cooker.

Then I put in the 2.5 cups of Water that is required. Then plug the Rice Cooker in and push the level to COOK. Now let it be. You might need to let out some steam later on though, it does tend to bubble over a little bit with Quinoa.

Now turn to your pot of water for the Pasta. It should be boiling or close to it. Add in the entire box of Small Shell Pasta. Make sure they all sink. No, I am not sure why you should do this but I do it and so should you. It's what all the cool kids do...

Now that the Pasta is cooking, you might want to turn the heat down a little bit to around MEDIUM. I added in 2 large pinches of Italian Herb Mix at this point to flavor up the pasta a little bit.

Now stir it to make sure it mixes well.

A few minutes later the Pasta should look like the following picture as it is done. Taste test to make sure.

Oh look, the vegetables are done as well so turn their heat off.

Now it's just waiting on the Rice Cooker to cook that Quinoa. Oh no! It's almost foaming over!

Just take the top off long enough for a quick picture and it dies down.

It will click off to WARM once the cooking is done. You can leave it on that, but it dries the Quinoa out so I just unplug it.

Now, strain the Pasta first using a strainer. We don't want any water in this dish. Now put the Pasta into a large mixing bowl. Strain the frozen vegetables and put them in the same mixing bowl. On top of this add the Quinoa. Then stir some life into it! Go crazy and make it consistent throughout.

Then serve! I added a sprinkle of Italian Herb Mix and pinch of Shredded Asiago Cheese to the top. Enjoy!

Chef's Original: Appetizer a l'oignon

Today I sort of threw together an entire meal on a whim. I was informed that my girlfriend was hungry and then noticed I had a fridge full of yummy goodness. So of course with any good meal, I began with a Chef's Original appetizer plate.





Ingredients:
4 Pearl of Boiler Onions
Cilantro
Chives
Sage
Basil
Butter
Italian Seasoning Mis
Cheese
Baguette(bread)

I began by putting some butter in a saucepan, I want to say about 1/3 of a stick. Dice up your chives, sage, cilantro, and basil. Put them to the side.

Turn the stovetop to medium and have the butter start to melt. Once it is mostly melted, swirl it around to make sure the butter covers the entire bottom of the saucepan. Now toss in the chives, sage, and basil you put to the side earlier. Mix them into the butter.

Now grab your Pearl or Boiler Onions and cut the top and bottom off, as well as the outer layer. I find this makes them taste better. Toss them in when this is done. Mix around with the herbs and butter.

Continure to mix them around every thirty seconds or so to give them an even cook through. They should start to turn translucent when they are cooked enough, turn the burner off.

At this point you should have your baguette cut into small pieces, or bought that way like I did, and proceed to put some shredded cheese onto the pieces of bread. You then place the onion on top of the cheese, along with a dusting of italian seasoning mix. Enjoy.