Lentil soup isn't so bad

I don't have anything against lentils.  But some of the Squirrelings, in spite of my cajoling that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup, have remained unconvinced, especially when it comes to soup. (Sprouts are okay.)

If you have reluctant lentil eaters, here are a couple of tips for improving your soup score:

Reduce the overall lentil content.  Aim for more of a vegetable soup than a straight lentils-with-liquid thing.  It helps if you cut the vegetables big enough so that they don't disappear into the lentils; the idea here is variety.

Work out a lentil-compatible flavour that your family already likes.  Might be Italian, pizza-flavoured; might be Middle Eastern; might be Tex-Mex.  Even a hot-dog, wieners-and-beaners kind of thing.

Here's a sample recipe that went over pretty well today.  The amounts are vague since I was just throwing things in the pot.

Lentil-Vegetable Soup with Salsa

3 cups chicken broth plus an equal amount water
Some green lentils--maybe half to two-thirds of a cup dry;
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 bunch celery, including some leaves, sliced
Salsa!

Rinse the lentils and check for pebbles. Bring the broth and water to a boil, and add the lentils and vegetables. Turn down the heat and simmer until the lentils are soft enough to eat and the vegetables are cooked. I poured in some mild salsa partway through--maybe half a cup, just enough to season it up and add a bit of onion and tomato.  Add more water if it needs it as it's cooking.

Serve with bologna sandwiches and Coffeemamma's Rhubarb Muffins.  Or whatever else you have.

Pizza Roll-ups, hold the sauce

A current favourite recipe around here is Recipezaar's Pizza Roll-ups. (Originally found through Gayle at Grocery Cart Challenge.) Same idea as cinnamon rolls only you use cheese and pizza toppings. No sauce in the rolls--you save that for dipping, which works well here for those who don't like or have to be careful with tomato sauce. And I find they're easier to shape than individually-stuffed calzones--you don't have to worry about the ingredients popping out, they're supposed to sort of stick out of the dough.

I have my own version of Recipezaar's ingredients (I think it could take a lot of variation): a 2-pound (4 cups of flour) recipe of bread dough (made in the bread machine), a stick of pepperoni, 200 g shredded cheese, a few sliced mushrooms, and a bit of chopped parsley. (I left out all the other seasonings.) Green pepper works fine too but is not as popular with the Squirrelings. Roll out the dough in a long, thin rectangle, mix the chopped topping ingredients with cheese, roll dough around the stuffing as for cinnamon rolls, and slice into 24 pieces. You don't have to let them rise a second time, but the recipe does recommend letting them sit for 10 minutes, and I put them in the fridge for awhile instead since I wasn't ready to bake them.

What I would warn you about though is that, contrary to one of the comments posted on the Recipezaar site, that melted cheese can be horrendous to scrape off, even if you do grease the pans. Last night I covered the pans with foil and then used non-stick spray on that; it seemed to do the trick, there were very few stuck places.

You might not have to bake them as long or as hot as the recipe says--just go with what you'd usually do for rolls, somewhere around 375 degrees. Keep an eye on them and take them out before they get hard. Serve with your choice of sauce or dip, or just plain.

The Apprentice asked if I will make her some of these for school lunches this year.

Christmas Day Lunch

[Updated July 2007]

Some people don't really eat lunch on Christmas Day, but we eat breakfast early enough that we're hungry again by lunchtime. These recipes were part of the article "Cooking up Christmas with Your Kids" by Noreen Thomas, published in The Lutheran, December 1998 issue. At one time the whole article was available online (that's where I found it), but now it's available only with a subscription to the website (see the link for details).

Anyway, these dishes have become part of our family traditions by now. These are my own renderings of the original recipes.

Jiggle Bells (the author called them Jiggly Bells, but the name has morphed a bit around here)

In a large sauce pan, sprinkle four envelopes unflavored gelatin over 4 cups cranberry juice (cranberry cocktail works fine); let stand one minute. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves, pour in a 9-by-13-inch pan and chill until firm. (This part you can do the day before. Actually you could do the whole thing a day or so ahead if you're pressed for time.)

Cut into squares a bit larger than a bell shaped-cookie cutter and let the children make bells (or, more likely, do it yourself while they're playing with their toys). Depending on the size of your cutter, you can probably squeeze about eight bells from the pan.

I usually cut out the gelatin bells and arrange them on a platter of shredded lettuce along with other salad things, like green pepper strips or small broccoli trees.

Star of the East

Mix 2 tablespoonfuls of instant lemon pudding mix with 1 "small container" cottage cheese, which I guessed to be about a cupful. You could double it to use up a 2-cup container of cottage cheese. Turn the mixture out onto a small plate, and mold it (with your fingers or the back of the spoon) into a star shape. I usually garnish this a bit--Clementine sections or canned mandarin oranges are pretty arranged on top, along with any other small sliced fruit pieces you have; and you can arrange other fruit or nuts on the plate between the points of the star. If you don't get around to making this for Christmas, you can save it for Epiphany.