A dream come true.

Ever since we purchased our home, I dreamt of having large holiday gatherings where I slave over the stove and make people happy. Finally, over the past year, we've started hosting all of our family holiday dinners and this Easter was no different. What made this holiday celebration even better was the addition of friends to mix of characters that dined and played at our house. Don't you always want to celebrate holidays with your friends? I mean, friends are your chosen family, right? But there's that catch...they always seem to have their own families to tend to.

When you get the chance to celebrate with friends on a holiday, you should reward them with things like my nearly flourless chocolate torte. They didn't even care that it looked a little rustic around the edges.
The babes didn't care that we had fancy desserts though. A family member brought them cookies and oh did they ever take advantage of the Easter sugar rush. They were so ridiculously happy with these cookies that I didn't even feel bad about losing all my principles where child nutrition was concerned. For a day I'll blame the Easter Bunny.Chocolate Decadence
Recipe source: Better Homes and Gardens from about 10 years ago!
1 cup whipping cream
14 oz dark chocolate, chopped
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
6 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
cocoa powder to dust 9 inch springform pan

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a small saucepan, add cream, cinnamon, and orange zest and melt chocolate and cream mixture over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly in the pan.

In a mixing bowl, add eggs and sugar and mix on medium speed. Slowly add the flour and increase speed to high. You will continue to mix this on high speed until mixture is thick and light yellow (in my KitchenAid, this takes about 5-7 minutes).

Fold in a small amount of the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture. Fold in the rest of the chocolate mixture until well mixed.

Pour into a well greased, 9 inch springform pan. I typically "flour" the pan with cocoa powder so that you don't get any unsightly white streaks when you remove the cake from the pan.

Bake 50-55 minutes until set. Cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Refrigerate at least 4 hours prior to serving. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Slice, serve, and smile.

Go get yourself some yeast to make these rolls. Just don't buy it at Costco.

It took me a long time before I ventured into using yeast in any of my baking. Then I met my friend Nikki. She made wonderful bread and rolls and I couldn't get over how little effort (although not so easy in terms of time involved) it took to make such things. Even after watching her do it, I still dragged my heels and continued to buy my bread, pizza, and rolls, and whatever else made my life easier because damnit, I was a busy lady. Then my in laws bought me a bread machine for Christmas a little over a year ago. I became less fearful of yeast because I could dump it and forget it! Well, now that I am a woman of leisure (cough, cough), I guess I have time to let the dough rise without the help of the machine (and who has space for these things anyway?) and my oh my, does the house smell good when bread is baking.

Today I am making sweet orange cinnamon rolls in preparation for our Easter feast. Of course I was dumb enough to start the recipe at the tail end of an unusual morning nap for The Boss (she's still suffering a bit from CBD) so naturally, she woke up just as I needed to mix the yeast mixture with everything else. I whisked her to the kitchen before she had a chance to let her eyes adjust to the light, put a sauce pot, a few spoons, and spatulas on the floor and instructed her to "cook like Mama". In a flurry of activity, I managed to get the dough in the bowl to rise without a baby on my hip. We then banged up the pot with a few spoons in celebration of this feat.

Then we sat around watching Oprah and eating bon bons for two hours while the dough doubled in size and the house cleaning fairies took over for me. I told you, I am a woman of leisure!

A note about yeast: Just buy those pre-packaged envelopes for ease of use unless you plan on making bread all the time. Soon after I received a bread machine, my dear husband went on a little jaunt to Costco (we are notorious Costco whores if there is such a term). He was enjoying those fresh baked loaves and knew I needed yeast to make them. So he was kind and thoughtful and brought me home a present.Thanks, honey, just what I always wanted! Two pounds of yeast! While this was very cost effective, I now have to store two pounds of yeast in the fridge because once opened, it should be kept refrigerated. Since most recipes I make only call for 2 1/4 tsp of yeast at a time, I'm pretty well set until The Boss goes to college and I make "I survived 18 years of parenthood" rolls. Until then, we'll eat these. By the way, these aren't overly sweet so they are still a good accompaniment to a savory meal, but I suspect also good for breakfast!

Orange Cinnamon Sweet Rolls
recipe source: Gourmet by way of epicurious.com
my additions are in italics
***these are best eaten the day they are made.

3 tablespoons warm water (105-115°F) plus 2 teaspoons water at room temperature
1 (1/4-oz) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
5 to 5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup warm milk (105-115°F)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing bowl
4 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes, or submerged in a bowl of warm water (105°F) 5 minutes
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried, sweetened cranberries

Stir together warm water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon sugar in bowl of mixer fitted with paddle attachment and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

While yeast is foaming, whisk 4 cups flour with zest, salt, and cinnamon (and the dried fruit if using) in a bowl.

Add milk, vanilla, butter, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar to yeast, then mix at medium speed until combined. Beat in 3 eggs, 1 at a time, then add orange cinnamon flour and mix until combined well.

Replace paddle attachment with dough hook attachment and mix at medium-low speed, adding more flour (1 to 1 1/2 cups), 1/4 cup at a time, until a smooth but slightly sticky dough forms, about 5 minutes. Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand until smooth and elastic (dough will remain slightly sticky), about 3 minutes. Form dough into a ball and transfer to a large buttered bowl, turning dough to coat with butter.

Cover bowl with kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Line a 17- by 14-inch baking sheet with parchment paper.

Turn out dough onto work surface and knead several times to remove air. Cut dough into 12 equal pieces (I made smaller rolls and cut 16 pieces). Cup your hand over 1 piece and, using your thumb and pinkie to keep ball inside your cupped hand, push dough with heel of your hand against work surface while rolling in a circular motion (clockwise or counterclockwise) to form a smooth ball. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough, arranging balls 1 inch apart on baking sheet.

Cover loosely with kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F.

Whisk together remaining egg with remaining 2 teaspoons water in a small bowl. Cut a 1-inch X (1/4 inch deep) in top of each roll with kitchen shears. Brush rolls lightly with egg wash and bake until golden and rolls sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer rolls to a rack and cool, at least 15 minutes.

Feed the knitters

It was a great weekend with lots of much needed girl time. This of course also included needles and yarn....and equally important snacks and sugar. I have to use knitting get togethers as dispensation from the household sugar ban. If I can't have it, I'll make sure my friends eat it. You'd think women working with wonderfully expensive yarn would shy away from anything sticky or gooey or melt in your hand scrumptious, but nope, we're not afraid to lick our fingers.

Actually, this recipe has been on the back burner since Christmas. It got lost in the time crunch of last minute present wrapping and vacuuming pine needles off of the floor (which I'm still doing it seems). So, get yourself ready...go put on a freshly pressed linen (or silk, whatever would be ridiculous for you to cook in) blouse while you wait for your husband to return to you in the Hamptons, and whip up a batch of Ina Garten's toasted coconut marshmallows. I promise, you don't even need any type of jet puffing machine like the bagged versions might suggest. I love discovering recipes that seem like it would be horribly complicated but in reality it's very easy. This is one of them. You will need a candy thermometer though, so if you don't own one, have your husband stop by some quaint, specialty cooking boutique (owned by one of your friends no less) on his way home.

I overestimated everyone's like for toasted coconut. I happen to love it but the consensus was that if I had only stuck with chocolate instead of coconut, I probably wouldn't have brought any home. What's wrong with me? Always go with chocolate (unless you love toasted coconut).
My tips and/or changes to any part of the recipe instructions are in italics.

Toasted Coconut Marshmallows
Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa-recipe is listed on foodtv.com

Homemade Marshmallows:
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
7 ounces sweetened shredded coconut, toasted

Toast coconut. To do this, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, dumped the coconut onto a jelly roll pan and placed in the oven. About every five minutes, I stirred the coconut around and put back in for another five minutes and so on, until it was light brown and toasted. Allow to cool while you make the marshmallows.

Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle half the toasted coconut in an 8 by 12-inch nonmetal pan (I used a glass 9x12 pan and sprayed only the sides with non stick cooking spray). Pour in the marshmallow batter and smooth the top of the mixture with damp hands. Sprinkle on the remaining toasted coconut. Allow to dry uncovered at room temperature overnight.


Remove the marshmallows from the pan and cut into squares. Roll the sides of each piece carefully in confectioners' sugar (I just rolled the sides in the toasted coconut that fell off when removing them from the pan). Store uncovered at room temperature.

To do a chocolate coated version, I think instead of putting toasted coconut on the bottom of the pan, I'd put a heavy layer of powdered sugar so that it will release from the pan. You can brush off the excess when it's removed. Cut into squares and dip into melted chocolate. I will definitely do this sometime soon!
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I also brought Curried Chicken Salad Sandwiches

1 lb cooked chicken (chopped, shredded, however you like your chicken salad)
3/4 cup-1 cup mayo
1 TBSP curry powder
1/4 cup diced red pepper
1/4 cup pineapple tidbits
1 green onion, thinly sliced
small handful raisins
Optional ingredients :
sliced, toasted almonds
shredded carrots
chopped cilantro

Mix mayo and curry powder until thoroughly blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. You can serve this immediately, but I think it's better once the flavors meld together and the raisins plump up a bit. Serve on bread or cracker of your choice.

Crispy, Crunchy, Yummy

I grew up eating hearty, Midwestern meals of pot roast, meatloaf, roast chicken and pork chops. Ugh, pork chops. For some reason, my wonderful cook of a mother just could never get these right. I also grew up in a Clean Your Plate kind of house so tough and chewy pork chops sometimes left me chewing for some time after dinner was over. I know, double Eeew. I'd say for most of my adult life then, I've avoided cooking the other white meat.

We're riding a healthy cooking wave in this house and I've been sticking to lean protein sources, so when Cooks Illustrated featured a recipe for a crunchy baked pork chop (in the magazine, not my recipe testing thing so I'm allowed to share this one) I thought I'd give it a whirl. I contemplated making it for weeks before I actually cooked it because I think I was still a little leery and it included a few extra steps that made it seem fussy. Hey, I'm all for fussy recipes, but I had fallen in the rut of Quick and Easy since The Boss wants to be all up in my bizness all the time. As soon as she can stand on a step stool next to me at the counter, my cooking life will be much easier. The good news is that she seems so interested and they say kids who participate in food preparation are more willing to eat what is prepared. But I digress. If you are like me and have a little one between your feet most of the time, split this recipe up and prepare it in steps when you have time instead of making it all at once.

The Twists and Turns (the breadcrumbs and other coatings)--
I've always had some issue with those cannisters of seasoned breadcrumbs. Of course, I've used them but they aren't something I stock regularly. I was really happy to see this recipe called for homemade breadcrumbs (no, don't run away at the thought of doing this) and intrigued by the mixture this recipe called for. Let me tell you, once I took them out of the oven, I could have stopped right there. Forget the meat, these smelled so good I didn't want to go on. But I did, because I was committed to get a nice dinner on the table and a wholesome dinner is not comprised of spoonfuls of breadcrumbs. I ended up using whole wheat bread for the crumbs because that's what I had and I'm sure it didn't make that big of a difference. The difference is simply making your own and you won't go back to the canister after you've made these.

As with most breaded cuts of meat, you do a flour coat and then an egg wash coat before rolling in the breading. The interesting part of this recipe is that the egg wash is made simply of egg whites, dijon mustard and a little white flour. this made a really nice and thick coating for the breadcrumbs to adhere to. This also added a lot of flavor and kept the meat moist.

A note on keeping it crunchy: make sure you bake the pork chops on a wire rack over a cookie sheet to ensure both sides of your chop remains crisp. You won't believe these weren't fried!

I served this with baked sweet potatoes and steamed green beans because we're keeping it healthy, kids!

Crunchy Baked Pork Chops
source: Cooks Illustrated

Table salt
4 boneless center-cut pork chops, 6 to 8 ounces each, 3/4 to 1 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat
4 slices hearty white sandwich bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup plus 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
3 large egg whites
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Lemon wedges

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Dissolve 1/4 cup salt in 1 quart water in medium container or gallon-sized zipper-lock bag. Submerge chops, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes. Rinse chops under cold water and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

2. Meanwhile, pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground, about eight 1-second pulses. Transfer crumbs to rimmed baking sheet and add shallot, garlic, oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss until crumbs are evenly coated with oil. Bake until deep golden brown and dry, about 15 minutes, stirring twice during baking time. (Do not turn off oven.) Cool to room temperature. Toss crumbs with Parmesan, thyme, and parsley.

3. Place 1/4 cup flour in pie plate. In second pie plate, whisk egg whites and mustard until combined; add remaining 6 tablespoons flour and whisk until almost smooth, with pea-sized lumps remaining.

4. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Spray wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and place in rimmed baking sheet. Season chops with pepper. Dredge 1 pork chop in flour; shake off excess. Using tongs, coat with egg mixture; let excess drip off. Coat all sides of chop with bread crumb mixture, pressing gently so that thick layer of crumbs adheres to chop. Transfer breaded chop to wire rack. Repeat with remaining 3 chops.

5. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chops registers 150 degrees, 17 to 25 minutes. Let rest on rack 5 minutes before serving with lemon wedges.

Digging for truffles

It's no secret that I found my husband on the internet (although in the beginning I was more than willing to keep it a secret until I found out he actually told people the truth-damn those upstanding kind of guys)! The title for my online personal was the same as this post- Digging for Truffles. I thought it was a clever nod to my foodie self and the fact that well, finding a decent guy is a bit like digging through some mud to find something valuable (heck yeah, truffles go for up to 450 bucks a pound)!

Fast forward a few years. In the process of planning a wedding and then soon after having a baby, I ended up finding some lovely girlfriends in the same vein. A few of them had birthdays earlier this month and in honor of their friendship, I made them truffles. I know, you wish you were born in February now, don't you? I'm sorry, you'll have to take that up with your mother. These truffles also satisfy my vow to make handmade gifts all year long.

This recipe comes from Robert Linxe, the founder of La Maison du Chocolat and one of the most highly regarded chocolatiers in the world. Apparently he gives out his recipe freely because he knows you'll never be able to duplicate the quality of his ingredients--both the cream and the chocolate are made especially for him. No seriously, unless you're able to get your cream from Switzerland and have cacao plantations of your own, you're kind of screwed. I think a lot of chocolate lovers will settle for your best interpretation though. He infuses a lot of his truffles with herbs and flavorings, but I took a very traditional approach and left the chocolate alone. My real life truffle and taste tester even liked them and he typically doesn't like truffles. I know (rolls her eyes).

I love making ganache and you have to make ganache to make truffles. It's so pretty and shiny.















The thing with truffles though, they're not all that pretty. I'm not talking about those that are machine made, perfectly spherical, and decorated all fancy.True chocolate truffles look like they were just dug up out of the earth, but taste a whole lot better. Nothing a little paper cup can't fix! You should always close your eyes and savor when eating chocolate anyway.



I had a lot of fun making the truffles. Especially because it required wearing these:


I thought it would be funny to put my ring over top the latex gloves like I was going to some ball wearing elbow length gloves instead of staying in on a Friday night. Ok, I thought it was funny for like a second and then removed it. This is what happens when you are left alone with a one year old most of the time. You start to use your imagination! Doesn't it look like Oprah's Dr. Oz when he's about to show you something gross? Of course I have nothing gross to show you, because even when chocolate is ugly, it's good.

Robert Linxe’s Chocolate Truffles

11 ounces Valrhona chocolate (56% cacao)
2/3 cup heavy cream
Valrhona cocoa powder for dusting

Finely chop 8 ounces of the chocolate and put in a bowl.

Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small heavy saucepan.

Pour the cream over the chocolate, mashing any big pieces with a wooden spoon.

Then stir with a whisk in concentric circles making sure not to beat or you will incorporate air. Stir with whisk until the ganache is smooth.

Let stand at room temperature until thick enough to hold a shape, about 1 hour (it took longer for me so I put them in the fridge for a bit), then, using a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch opening or tip, pipe into mounds (about 3/4 inch high and 1 inch wide) on parchment-lined baking sheets. When piping, finish off each mound with a flick of the wrist to soften and angle the point tip. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt 3 more ounces of the same Valrhona and smear some on a gloved hand. Gently rub each chilled truffle to coat lightly with chocolate.

Toss the truffles in unsweetened Valrhona cocoa powder. A fork is the best tool for tossing truffles in the cocoa powder. Shake truffles in a sieve to eliminate excess cocoa powder.

Store truffles in the refrigerator.

The messy kitchen leek and swiss chard tart

We've all done it. You do a bunch of cooking over the weekend but what you didn't do was clean up along the way and you decided to just let everything 'soak' so that you could ignore the mess and move on to more fun things like knitting and play dates. Monday rolls around and you are left eating your cereal with the last spoon in the drawer which also happens to be one of the three that have been mangled by garbage disposal. What's a girl to do but make the kitchen even messier. It had to get worse before it could get better.

I still had some swiss chard left over from last week and it was looking like it might shrivel up in the fridge if I didn't use it ASAP. I was bound to send this chard into our bellies rather than the Earth Machine. My favorite food blog, Smitten Kitchen, just so happened to have a new entry with a leek and swiss chard tart. I had everything but the leeks and I never miss a chance to buy leeks. I'm not sure why I like them so much, but I do. So, I did the dirty pot shuffle to make some space on the countertop for the chopping board and in a matter of time, we had a delicious tart waiting for us. The recipe is so simple and I love the concept of using puff pastry as the crust. The 'real men don't eat quiche but still eat the crust off of it' husband of mine even liked it--but then again he was starving and doused it in hot sauce, because he's a condiment maniac like that.

I only made one addition to the recipe and that was adding around a cup of grated swiss cheese, you know, because it's good for the baby, not because I belong to the 'add cheese to everything' school of thought. No, no, I'm just looking out for my baby.

If you want to see pretty pictures of the tart, see them on Smitten Kitchen's site because my kitchen was way too messy to take pictures and I so did not need solid proof of it! I have to say, mine looked just as nice as hers did!

Leek and Swiss Chart Tart
Bon Appetit, October 1999 by way of smittenkitchen.com

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 bunch Swiss chard, ribs removed, leaves chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 1/4 cups whipping cream (I used whole milk)
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch of ground nutmeg

1 cup of grated Swiss cheese (my addition)

Roll out pastry on floured work surface to 12-inch square. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Fold under; crimp edges. Cover; chill.

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add leeks and thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover; cook until leeks are very tender but not brown, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add chard; saute until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; cool.

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F. Whisk cream and next 5 ingredients in large bowl. Mix in cooled leek mixture. Pour filling into crust.

Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake until filling is puffed and just set in center, about 15 minutes longer (this took my oven a total of 25 minutes once oven temp was reduced). Transfer to rack; cool 10 minutes.

Food for new parents (and not so new parents, smug marrieds, singletons, etc.)

In two days, two sets of friends had babies! The best thing you can do for a new family is feed them. They don't need you to help hold the baby--but they just might let you if you bring them a meal! Here's one of my favorite meals to make new parents. It's also one of my absolute favorite Italian dishes and yes, it has greens!

Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Shells
1 box of jumbo pasta shells
1 container of ricotta cheese (mine was a little over two pounds and I had some extra)
1 box of frozen, chopped spinach--thaw and squeeze out excess water
2 eggs
1 cup shredded mozzarella (I tend to buy the shredded Italian blend cheese)
1/4-1/2 cup parmesan--I usually just do a small handful
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Tomato sauce-your choice of jarred or homemade. If using jarred, you'll probably need two jars.

Cook pasta shells until al dente. I typically cook them a few minutes less than the directions call for since they will be baked. Drain and rinse under cold water so that you can handle them easily. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, parmesan, mozzarella, garlic powder and spinach. Mix well.

In a baking dish (I used a 9x13 dish), ladle some tomato sauce so that the shells can nestle into the sauce. Spoon cheese and spinach mixture into each shell and place in baking dish side by side. Spoon additional sauce over top of the shells (I usually don't cover them entirely, but do put some on top of each row of shells). Sprinkle the top with additional parmesan or mozzarella if you choose. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling. Let sit out of the oven for 5-10 minutes before serving.

If you are making this dish for new parents, prepare up until the shells should be baked. Assemble the dish in a disposable foil pan so they don't have to scrub out any baking dish and remember to return it to you. They kind of have their hands full with that new bundle of love.

Gotta eat your greens!

That's what Paula Deen would say before adding a sprig of parsley to fried butter. I won't go there. This recipe though, truly does make you eat your greens in a really delicious and comforting way. If you've always passed by those leafy greens like kale or swiss chard, give them a try! C'mon, you know eating more super foods was a resolution. I might add this dish was baby approved as well!

Curried Lentils With Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard(adaptations are in italics)

New York Times 11/14/07

Yield: 8-10 side-dish servings; 6 main-course servings.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded if desired, then minced (I omitted this since I forgot it at the grocery store)
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth as needed (I used 5 cups low sodium chicken broth)
2 pounds orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into
1/2-inch cubes (about 4 cups)
1 1/2 cups dried lentils (I used a mix of orange, yellow and brown lentils but the yellow and orange ones kind of melted away, so I will stick with brown lentils next time)
1 bay leaf (omitted because I ran out..who runs out of bay leaves? Apparently I do)
1 pound Swiss chard, center ribs removed, leaves thinly sliced (if you are really scared of this, use spinach you scaredy cat)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/3 cup finely chopped tamari almonds, for garnish (optional), available in health food stores
1/4 cup chopped scallions, for garnish.

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala, curry powder and jalapeno. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

2. Stir in 4 cups broth, sweet potatoes, lentils and bay leaf. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium, partially cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. (If lentils seem dry, add up to 1 cup stock, as needed.) Stir in chard and salt and pepper, and continue cooking until lentils are tender and chard is cooked, about 30 to 45 minutes total.

3. Just before serving, stir in cilantro, lime zest and juice. Spoon into a large, shallow serving dish. Garnish with almonds if desired and scallions. (or if you live with a cilantro hater like I do, chop some up on the side for yourself and then taunt cilantro hater with it!)

4. If you want to carbo load, serve with basmati rice (or Jasmine rice like I had on hand)