Happy Eating in 2014!

Dear Husband had a big concert on New Year's Eve (you can read about it on his blog), and with his parents coming to town for it, I got inspired to try a trio of new recipes. On New Year's Eve he had an early call time, so I treated them to a new recipe from Better Homes and Gardens: lentil-rice patties. These take an hour to prepare, but they taste great and are marvelously filling (i.e. Peter Jackson-movie-length filling!). Make the batter on a weekend and store in the fridge for a quick dinner during the week. You can eat these on a hamburger bun, tucked into a pita pocket, or on top of greens. Your taste buds will thank you.

On the left, lentils, rice, broth, and onion simmering. On the right, in the order in which they will be added, drained and rinsed chickpeas; oats; mixture of egg whites, BBQ sauce (I don't have Worchestershire sauce and skipped the hot pepper sauce), and basil; chopped walnuts. After everything has been added and the batter sits a few minutes, you pan-fry patties in some butter until brown.

A good daughter of Texas, I wanted to serve black-eyed peas for luck in the new year. I modified this Texas Caviar recipe (no cilantro or serrano chiles!) and served it cold on the side. I suspect it would be tasty warm, too. Here's the full meal, complete with steamed broccoli and a dollop of fat-free plain yogurt. Delish!

 

On New Year's Day--which doubled as Christmas with DH's parents--I prepared coq au vin* over noodles, rosemary roasted brussels sprouts, and green salad. I used canned mushrooms and jarred baby French onions, but I added the carrots late in the cooking so they were still firm when I put it on the table. This hearty meal was finished off with MIL's blackberry pie. Happy eating in 2014!

* My mother sometimes made coq au vin, and she pronounced it "cohk ah vahn" (pardon my haphazard spelling). Out of curiosity, I asked the interwebs, and some food snobs over at the Village Voice who insist on saying "boo-fay" for buffet assert it should be "co-ooh-vin." But Miriam Webster agrees with my mother, so I'm going to continue pronouncing it the way she taught me.