Garlic can be — to put it mildly — a little strong. There’s a reason that it’s used to ward off vampires.
And if you ask Caitlin, garlic seems to have a particular staying power with me. I can come home around 9:00, some eight hours after having eaten lunch, and Caitlin will come up to me, and draw back, before demanding, “What did you eat that had garlic in it?”
To avoid those moments of recoil, …
Sometimes the simplest dinners are the ones that shine and surprise.
This dinner was not inspired or born of a late-night epiphany. Instead, its origins were pedestrian and utilitarian. It was a question of practicality over originality. There was no high math.
It was Saturday morning and I was taking inventory in the refrigerator. I was checking expiration dates, volume levels, and the state of the fruit and vegetable drawers. Milk was running low and the sour cream was running bad. There was plenty of fruit, but not enough vegetables. The cheese still looked strong, but the herbs were getting soft. …
The Palouse region along the Idaho-Washington border is lentil country. In field after field, the tiny, green-coated legume covers the land.
The Palouse region counts roughly 200 miles of land, and is home to over 3,000 family farms. Between them, these farms account for nearly 90 percent of the lentils grown in this country. But sadly, few of these lentils ever find their way onto American plates or palates. Nearly the entire lentil crop is exported – to countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, and India – countries that appreciate the culinary qualities of the lentil.
And the lentil is worthy of appreciation. Unlike beans, lentils cook quickly and do not require soaking. They pair with almost any dish, and …