A Baalgy Dinner

Lunch was reeeeeally good. We all went to Centro – which is right down the block from our office, so we all walked! Bonus! I got the soup and salad combination – although I’ll have you know this was no ordinary soup and salad! I got the:

Insalata Mista: Seasonal greens tossed with tomato, shaved red onion, cucumber and roasted garlic vinaigrette.

Mmmmmm – this was really fresh and light – I love roasted garlic!! My soup choice was:

Creamy Potato Pepper Jack Soup: ummmm…usually I don’t go for any soup with the word “creamy” in it, but Pepper Jack cheese? Yes please! I know I said I hate spicy food, but I really like pepper jack cheese for some reason…? Weird I know, but it’s true! This soup was thick and creamy, cheesy and spicy. For once I semi hope the weather in Iowa stays cold, so I can re-create this stellar soup ASAP!!

My meal came with freshly made bread from the bakery connected to the restaurant. It was soooo soft, warm and definitely fah-resh! It was a ciabatta-y type bread? Honestly, I don’t care what it was – it was delicious and I had two wedges.

When we got back to the office there were cupcakes galore waiting for us! I had a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing…I’m sure you can imagine how this baby tasted. No picture, but it looked exactly like this!:

For dinner…well…I’m actually really sad to talk about dinner. I have had a recipe in my arsenal for awhile that I’ve been waiting – just waiting to try. It’s an Indian dish: Red Lentil Dal and Spinach Saag.

Red Lentil Dal refers to the thick, spicy stew which is a mainstay of Nepali, Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cuisine. It is regularly eaten with rice and vegetables in Southern India, and with both rice and roti (wheat-based flat bread) throughout Northern India.

Saag is a Spinach based curry dish eaten in India and Pakistan with bread such as roti or naan. Saag can be made from spinach, mustard leaves, or other greens, along with added spices and sometimes other ingredients.

These are both great with a capital G, Indian dishes that I highly recommend you try when you visit the nearest, quality, Indian restaurant tomorrow…because that’s how soon you should go to try this stuff. The smells that were wafting off of these dishes when I was cooking were incredible. I couldn’t wait to dive in! Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long, because the Red Lentil Dal, Saag and Basmati rice that I cooked to go along with the dish, were all ready in 15 minutes! Winner!

Beautiful dish, incredible smells, colorful, fun to look at…mmm yeah, didn’t taste like it. My spice ratios were off and ugh, darn it…it just didn’t taste right! I’m going to try this again someday though, to redeem myself.

Now, I don’t want to shame the person I got this recipe from because obviously their version was MUCH better, so I’ll link to different, but similar recipes so you can take a look at the ingredients. I DO encourage you to try these recipes out yourselves though…maybe you’ll have better luck than me!!!

Red Lentil Daal

Saag 

Ben’s Corner:

Ben wanted to share with you all the sandwich creation he came up with after his hunger pains were not cured by the bad dal & saag – baalg?? A peanut butter, jelly & an army of goldfish sandwich…which he ate in about a minute  I had some goldfish too.

So, yeah, I bombed with dinner tonight…they can’t all be winners though, right? What dishes have you made that just didn’t turn out like you thought?

Goodnight all! Tomorrow’s Friday!! Oh, also – click here to see the cutest t-shirts and aprons from Zesty Cook! He’s giving away two of each…zestacular!