vegetarian – Peaceful Reader

Panama City

I just got back from Panama and it was pretty amazing! I like beaches and forest and I didn’t think Panama had either so it wasn’t my ideal travel destination but I needed to use some unused tickets from Copa Airlines and their homebase is, yes, Panama City. My son, Tristan and I traveled last Sunday and made it to our super cool two bedroom apartment in the Casco Viejo (the old section) which is the also the tourist section with lots of restaurants and shops around the two nearby squares.

We built up a holiday routine; sleep late, a little fresh fruit and bread for breakfast at home, and then off to explore and find a place for lunch. As a foodie family we always look forward to finding delicious food and we are always on the lookout for amazing vegetarian and vegan food. We had amazing luck finding delicious vegan food in Mexico and I hoped we’d have luck here as well. We didn’t the first night but the rest of the time, after we’d had a chance to look around, we found a treasure trove of excellent choices.

I love that I can go on vacation outside the U.S. and find menus that have at least 4-5 vegan choices and several full vegan restaurants in the area. Amazing. I can’t find vegan or even good vegetarian choices in most of Iowa. Another side note is all the to-go containers are eco-friendly unlike Styrofoam boxes here.

We did make it to a beach 30 minutes away from PC and spent a lovely day and we took a tour bus to see the Canal and a biodiversity museum. We took two hours to tour and read all the information at the Museo Canal in town. We had a lovely trip and it was fabulous to spend 5 days with my son.

I have so many thoughts and feeling about what’s happening and with that narcissist running our country. It is a major shit show with people getting kidnapped by the ICE gang, secrets being shared with no accountability, libraries and artistic centers taking a hit, USAID which is major help for our 3rd World countries who need our help. We’ve entered into a zone with no empathy. It’s too much to think about and makes me so crazy.

Cooking with Love

One of my favorite things is to make food whether it be just for me or for friends here for dinner. I like both the complicated and the uncomplicated recipes. My mother and grandmother loved to cook. When I lived with my grandmother she would chide me if I didn’t offer to make visitors like my uncles a sandwich. My young brain thought “they are grown ass men; they can get their own sandwiches” and now while I still agree with that sentiment I do love to welcome people into my home with a good meal.

My husband’s job changed over the last month and we’ve been able to spend time with friends more in the evening because he’s not in rehearsal every night. I’ve made a handful of great recipes that you might like.

I made this delicious Chicken Korma recipe from Tea for Turmeric a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit. I’m technically. not a meat eater but if I can find it from a local farm then I’m okay with it. I could have substituted tofu but my husband eats many vegetarian meals for me so I decided to switch it up. He loves Indian food and he liked this dish. I served it with a side of brown rice and some roti bread.

One night in January I had some women friends over to play cards and I made this black bean soup from Cookie + Kate with fresh bread. It was delicious and easy and I’ve now made it two more times. I’ve really stepped into the Blue Zones idea of eating beans or lentils as much as I can. The first time I made this I used the 4 cans of beans it calls for but for the second time I actually cooked dried black beans in my slow cooker while I was laboring away at school. It was worth it to make my own for the recipe but the cans definitely made the recipe quicker. I served this with lots of toppings like avocado, green onions, crumbled feta cheese, blue chips, and sour cream.

Tonight I made a stir-fry that was very flavorful. I was hungry for tofu and quinoa so I Googled those two ingredients and came up with Sesame Tofu Quinoa Bowl from The Almond Eater. I swapped the broccoli for cauliflower and adding in edamame. We had broccoli last night with some homemade mac and cheese. Also because I don’t like plastic bags I used a bowl with a lid to marinate the tofu with the Tamari sauce. It worked out great and we ate with chopsticks in front of the fire while we watched Triangle of Sadness~highly recommend the movie as well!

Good food feeds your soul! Bon Appetit!

Oh, I forgot dessert! I’m attempting to step away from sugar but sometimes you just need a good dessert to share with friends. This S’more recipe is a perfect winter treat-I served it with a little cup of Bailey’s.

Wish you were here…

Right now in my kitchen. I’m making lemon poppyseed muffins and I just made a batch of cold brew. The smell is pretty great! I’m listening to India. Arie and the feeling in my kitchen right now is fairly groovy. I also have a wine glass of sparkling crisp apple cider (Loon Juice from 4 Daughters Winery). It’s been a good day.

All the above recipes are from Cookie + Kate, a vegetarian blog that I keep bumping into and finding amazing recipes there. Find the cold brew tutorial and the lemon poppyseed muffin recipes and then poke around her website to find many more delicious things to make! Her videos and her writing are very professional yet fun. I can feel her personality come through and would love to share a muffin and some cold brew with her on this lovely summer afternoon.

I made myself a very Iowa, summer friendly-brunch this morning and ate it while listening to a tech presentation. That is a (very) fresh egg on sourdough toast with goat cheese and spinach and yes, an ear of corn.

I’m participating in an online tech conference-Teach with Tech Conference 2019 and I love it. I can watch in real time FB videos and comment and ask questions all in my summer pajamas. I can also go back later and re-watch something I’ve missed. I’ve learned more about Google, FlipGrid, Bee-Bots, Teaching with Tolerance standard ideas so relevant for today, and how to use Google Earth and Maps to connect my students to the world they live in. It was not expensive ($30) for three days and I have access to the videos for a year. My favorite so far was Gary Gray, a teacher in Singapore at an international school who spoke on using technology to teach social justice. He was an out-of-the-box presenter and I’m sure his students love him. He has a new YouTube channel-check him out.

Yesterday I drove to Kalona, Iowa en route to Fairfield, IA to meet my husband for an Indian dinner. Kalona is known for it’s creamery and I needed a driving break so I went in and browsed. I ended up with a “calf-sized” ice cream cone of vanilla swirled with expresso and caramel. It was amazing-the creamiest ice cream I’ve had for years. It was worth the trip- so was the Indian restaurant.

On a funny note; this morning while reading in my favorite hammock (taking a break from the tech presentations) I tried to pull my dog Ruby in with me and the tree snapped and Ruby and I (pretty gently) landed on the ground. That is my knee, the tree stump we had it tied to, and the corner of the hammock. Luckily I was not injured in the fall.
I’m still reading Aru Shah, Brene Brown, Eat to Beat Disease, and Sharon Draper’s Blended.

That’s all the news from here.

Slow August Day in Fertile

{Cloth napkins-YES!}

We had an lovely vacation getaway in Northern Minnesota the past long week. It was spectacular and I have many stories to tell but on the way home, we stopped at an amazing restaurant, Cafe Mir, in the small town of Fertile, IA. Honestly, I’d never heard of Fertile before today. Now I’m a fan and I will be back. I was impressed that they have their own small public library.

My mom’s garden provides swiss chard to the chef and they use sustainable, local ingredients when possible. Not hard to do when you’re in Iowa; we have so much produce and organic farmers raising sustainable meat. While many restaurants are on this bandwagon not always is the food as amazing as the concept. Everything we ordered was delicious. There were 5 of us and we ordered a sauteed eggplant dish as a starter, and as meals, we had a pork and beef lasagna, a braised leg of lamb, Hrbek’s ribeye steak, and a wood-fired Margherita pizza for Groovy Girl. I had a “cornucopia salad for dinner, the lighter eater that I am, which is roasted sweet corn, feta, mixed hot and sweet peppers, cilantro, and lime. It was such a refreshing combination and a perfect amount. We had rhubarb pie for dessert and they make their own fresh bread as well.

{rhubarb pie}

The table was interesting with a lot of mismatched glasses, plates, and bowls giving it an authentic old farmhouse appeal. Also, they used real cotton napkins which just warmed my heart. I don’t know when I’m going to take the time to drive an hour and a half north to dine again at Cafe Mir but I know there are other treats on the menu I want to try. Road trip anyone…? I’m also curious to see what they will change seasonally.

{unassuming front of Cafe Mir}

After being on vacation I am realizing that my need for real food, homecooked, slow-cooked grub plus my natural inclination to eat small meals is often confounding to people. I just like to know where my food comes from and I’ve purposely spoiled myself. I like real greens not iceberg lettuce in a salad. Why bother? I’m not a meat eater and I prefer small batches of food compared to large platefuls. I’m not trying to be a pain; I just like what I like.

Reading and Recipes

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I made yogurt this weekend after one failed attempt. Truth: It takes the whole damn day-you’ve got to be prepared for that and I don’t always have a full day to spend with yogurt so I try to sandwich it between things which is why every once in a while it doesn’t work for me. This time I had one failed attempt-stayed milk-poured it right back into the Hansen’s jug used by my husband for his morning cereal. Second time-score-creamy, happy yogurt ready for my morning breakfast.

I also made a curry dish today and soaked chickpeas for the recipe. I found the cauliflower chickpea recipe on The Wholesome Fork and read about the proper method to soak chickpeas on Inspired Taste. I like it when I can prepare a whole meal without opening a bunch of cans. I used fresh tomatoes and some leftover coconut milk saved in a jar in my fridge. It was good and spicy and there’s enough left for lunch tomorrow. While blog surfing I found this great post about my chickpea love just a few months ago.

I picked up a book, Shadow Mountain; a memoir of wolves, a woman, and the wild by Renee Askins, from one of my TBR piles that I’d purchased a few years back while visiting Yellowstone National Park. Nonfiction is not my thing but I loved Terry Tempest Williams’ book Refuge and she is mentioned twice on the back cover blurbs. I’m sure that’s what inspired me to purchase Renee’s book at the Yellowstone gift shop. I’m more than 1/2 way through and I love her story. It makes me feel a little guilty because while I was goofing around in Denver, Co, causing trouble, going to Dead shows, Askins was living her passion, striving and working hard to reintroduce wolves back into Yellowstone. A life well-lived. My passion came later; a late bloomer as my mother loves to say. If you love being in nature, the call of the wild, I highly recommend both books!

Have a good week. We’ve got some changes happening here at our home/sanctuary and I feel I’m going to feel 1000 % percent better when it happens. Ciao!

Weekly Recipes

What I cooked this week…

With two kids home again I’m back to that grind of “what can I make that will please everyone…” It’s never easy to please everyone, even when that means only 4 people. I like it when those four/five people eat the food that I prepare with minimal fuss/pickiness. Working full-time to come home and prepare dinner, I want that sit-down affair to be a happy time.

For a year and 1/2 teenage boy was living on his on in Colorado and it was just husband and I with Groovy Girl to attend to and I could cater my meals in her direction. My husband literally will eat most everything set in front of him as long as it’s not peanut butter or shellfish.

We are ecstatically happy that Teenage Boy returned home to go back to school even though he does throw a new twist into my meal plan. If I went way back to early blog posts he is the one who “asked” us to think about eating meat. He played sports and as an active young male he begged, pleaded, and begged some more for me to add meat into our diet.

I don’t mind meat as long as it comes from a healthy and local source, which also makes it expensive. We can’t do meat every night (which is what Teenage Boy would like). He can through a meatless meal if pasta is involved.

The last couple of years I’ve tried to stay away from so much gluten. We’ve ruined wheat and it makes it hard to enjoy bread, pasta, sandwiches, and a nice cold beer. It’s okay; I’ve found many other delicious pleasures like hard cider, but it makes meal planning that much more interesting.

With all our different preferences it makes it difficult to plan the perfect meal. It takes creativity and ingenuity. And sometimes I just have to have a salad and be happy with that. It’s all good.

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1. Calzones: I made these on Monday night when husband was not home and I needed a purely kid-friendly dinner. I mixed two recipes together and Groovy Girl did the calzone part on her own for both. I made a lovely salad for myself and let the kids enjoy the cheesy, steamy calzones. They loved them. I used this pizza dough and filled it with good sausage, marinara, black olives, and cheese. Will make again especially because GG did all the work.

2. Artichoke and spinach pasta: This we enjoyed all together. Love it when we are all at the table as one. We had a salad so I could have just had that but the pasta looked and smelled amazing so I had a small portion. Yum! The family ate it up. Again I combined two recipes from Pinterest: food network and budget savvy diva; I used what I wanted from both recipes making it as natural as possible. I used real spinach, 1 can of artichokes, parmesan shredded, fettuccine noodles, and a little cream cheese to add creaminess. The roux was easy to make and the people at my table had 3-4 helpings. I filled my plate with salad and had a small amount of pasta to try it. (meatless)

3. Bean burritos: I created these one night using quinoa, a can of black beans with sautéed sweet peppers mixed in. The kids ate these with flour tortillas and I had corn, tastier, to me, and a much smaller portion. (meatless)

4. Stir-fry: This cleaned out my vegetable drawer; the last few spears of asparagus, last stalk of broccoli and cauliflower, a few peppers, a jar of Trader Joe’s simmer sauce, a pot of brown rice and we had dinner at the table in record time. I mixed in a little coconut milk for a change of pace and to tame the simmer sauce a bit for Groovy Girl. They didn’t even know they were eating “leftovers”. (meatless)

5. Black bean soup: this is for tomorrow. I cooked down a pound of black beans earlier in the week.

So all-in-all it was a creative week of meals at our house. And the BB soup will be a wonderful way to begin the week because it can be used in a variety of ways. How was your food week?

Weekend Cooking; A little of this, A little of that…

(chickpea mixture)

It’s been a crazy week here what with the book fair which meant two late conference nights at school. I’ve survived though and did have the gift of Friday off to recover. For two weeks I’ve worked on one recipe though which is pretty much too long of a turn around time for me. When I ordered magazines this year for school I ordered two family friendly magazines; Family Fun and Kiwi. Family Fun is more geared toward crafting and is quite popular with students. Myself, I LOVE Kiwi magazine though but probably won’t order it again for the library. It is really more of a serious organic parenting magazine; great for me, not so great for students as they don’t need to read articles about best methods for breast feeding! I had to cut that article out censoring myself.

(moist but no tails)

While browsing through the February/March Kiwi, before I defaced it, I found this article, a better burger by Caroline Shannon-Karasik with detailed directions on sprouting chickpeas to make a delicious veggie burger. We’ve sprouted other seeds and nuts so I thought chickpeas would be no big deal. That was two weeks ago. I started them the night of Groovy Girl’s sleepover when we made the snow ice cream and watched the Oscars. I laid them out and kept them moist and those little garbanzos still took their sweet time. At the beginning of this week we noticed tails sprouting out. Hallelujah!

Here’s the recipe:

Sprouted Chickpea vegetable burgers
adapted from Kiwi Feb/March issue

1 cup sprouted chickpeas
6-10 fresh basil leaves
1 large farm fresh egg
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced finely
1 stalk celery, diced finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T flat leaf parsely, chopped
1/4 whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp sea salt
Dash of ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
4 whole grain fresh buns
mayo, ketchup, lettuce, or any other burger toppings.
We had lettuce, tomato, and TJ’s wasabi mayo.

Many of their recipes give hands-on directions for parents and children to do together. Great idea but I’m going to simplify that for space and time. Just know this is a great recipe to have little hands to help.

Fill a steamer pot with an inch of water and steam sprouted peas for 10 minutes or until tender. While the chickpeas steam carefully pull basil leaves off the stems and roughly chop the leaves. Place cooled chickpeas into food processor with egg. (after processing chickpea mixture I added another medium sized egg-it just seemed like it needed it for moisture). Use a spatula to scrape the mixture into a medium bowl. Add the basil, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and parsley to the chickpea mixture. Then add breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper. Stir all ingredients until well-combined.

Take a palm-sized handful in your clean hands and work it into a flat, circular patty. Place it on a plate and repeat to make 3 more burgers. Pour olive oil (I used coconut oil) into skillet and place over medium heat. Add the patties, cooking about 5-6 minutes on each side. Carefully remove the patties and place on whole grain bun.

Sounds easy, right? Hmm maybe, except my burgers didn’t not stay together very well in my skillet. It helped once they started cooking. While I know there are added health benefits from eating sprouted beans that step made the recipe too difficult. Next time I would cook the chickpeas making them softer to work with and more paste-like. And I would add sprouts to the table array of toppings.

What did my family think, you ask? Everyone liked them except Groovy Girl. She thought they tasted sour. She still wanted to eat the bun (carb girl) though but dad wouldn’t let her; he ate her burger bun and all. She ended up making herself a grilled cheese with sprouts on it in the toaster oven. So she still ate something sprouted…win, win! We don’t usually let them eat something else but this seemed like a reasonable trade-off and she was willing to make it herself.

(Our chili)

I also made a meat-less version of Katie Workman’s chili recipe; I did everything she did but I added soaked kidney beans and a large can of rinsed black beans to the pot. We had it for dinner on Sunday night with homemade Angel Biscuits and again we had it on Wednesday with homemade cornbread-I just used the recipe on the side of the corn meal container as I was rushed for time.

I am headed down to my fancy basement yoga studio to get my Namaste on but then after that I am making these Smitten Kitchen brownies. I also made these brownies with this frosting last Sunday to serve at our teacher look-see for the book fair. I left a few at home for my treat-deprived kids and Teenage Boy had this to say after eating one; “While I was eating that brownie mom; I realized you found it, you really found it, the perfect brownie recipe!” Why thank you, son! What a great week. How about you?

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekend cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts with wonderful recipes.

Weekend Cooking; I love tofu and you can too!

I love transforming this basic square of protein into delicious dishes. I fell in love with tofu soon after leaving college and exploring my own vegetarian choices after spending my college years eating mostly from the salad bar and well, mashed potatoes!

Tofu is so easy to cook and add to recipes but I run into many people, including vegetarians, who just don’t like tofu. I generally think it is because they haven’t experimented with it on a deeper level. Last week I made baked tofu with coconut rice and we ate it all up. If you’ve wanted to experiment with tofu give it a try.

This is what the tofu looks like after you cut it out of the plastic container and dice it into bite-sized squares. With other tofu recipes you often need to drain some of the water out of the tofu by wrapping it in a dish cloth and setting a plate on top. This recipe didn’t request that but it is good to know that you should squeeze water out first before cooking, which will help the tofu take on flavor better.

Gather the tamari or soy sauce, organic ketchup and sesame oil together to create the sauce.

Happily drizzle it over all that tofu. Yum.

Stop to read the recipe again and have a sip of wine.

Start the coconut rice (recipe to follow)

Add the coconut milk after rice has had a chance to toast a bit with spices.

Sadly, once I plated this whole deal up and we sat to eat, we were all too busy eating to snap any final pictures. There are mixed feelings about soy but my motto is “moderation is the key” and it is fun to experiment with and will pick up flavor from what you cook it with. Groovy Girl’s favorite tofu is stir fried with just honey and tamari sauce. I buy wheat-free, low-salt tamari from the bulk section of my organic store.

Both of these recipes are from Moosewood Restaurant; Cooking for Health.

Any Easy Baked Tofu

1 cake tofu, 16-oz firm

2 T. dark sesame oil

2 T. soy sauce

2 T. organic ketchup

Cut the tofu into bite-sized squares and place in an un-oiled baking dish large enough to hold a single layer. Stir together next 3 ingredients and drizzle over tofu squares. With a rubber spatula, gently turn to coat. In a 400* oven, bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, stirring once or twice until tofu is browned and firm. Serve hot or at room temperature. Serve over rice or noodles and add a sauce ( like Trader Joe’s wonderful simmer sauces.)

Basic Brown Rice

1 cup rinsed organic brown rice

2 tsp olive oil

scant 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups water

In a saucepan or skillet on high heat, stir together the rice, oil, and salt for one minute, stirring constantly. Add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to very low, stir once and simmer covered until tender, about 45 minutes. If you like a softer rice add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more water.

Coconut Rice

Replace 1/2 the water with unsweetened coconut milk or dried, unsweetened coconut with the raw rice. For a golden hue, add ground tumeric (1/2 tsp)

The baked tofu did not get as crispy on the outside as I was expecting. The kids didn’t seem to notice or care. The rice was mellow and yummy and I liked cooking it this way instead of in a big pot of water.

I served the rice and tofu separately as all three of my children are not big fans of “mixed” food and this way they could add as much or as little of the tofu as they wanted. I did add several shakes of curry powder to my husband and my plates of mixed rice and tofu to spice ours up.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking!

Happy Eating.

I did something revolutionary this week!

(photo courtesy of Chez Us)

Don’t you get tired of buying cans, boxes, jars or cubes of veggie, beef or chicken stock? On my ongoing quest to bring less “stuff” into my house, especially the kitchen, I started to re-evaluate my constant need for stock. While searching through my favorite crock pot book, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson I ran across an easy recipe for stock and thought I should give it a try.

Maybe some people do this all the time but it was a revelation for me-how ding dang easy it was to make and how great it made my house smell. It made enough for me to use for the next two weeks with some to freeze.

Give it a try-here’s the recipe. I no longer have to worry about purchasing too salty or expensive boxes of organic stock. Thank heavens. I also set up my mise en place for this recipe which made me feel extremely cooking cool.

Light and Easy Vegetable Stock

A 5 1/2-to 6-quart cooker is best.

8 to 10 hours cook time

Low setting

Makes 8 cups

1 T. olive oil

2 medium-size yellow onions, quartered

2 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 celery rib, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 or 3 garlic cloves, left unpeeled and crushed

Peels from 2 large well-scrubbed potatoes (I actually used the whole well scrubbed pots)

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 large bay leaf

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

8 cups water

2 tsp tamari or other soy sauce (might be nice to make sure it is wheat-free)

1 tsp salt (I kind of thought this was unnecessary and didn’t add it)

1. Drizzle the oil in the bottom of a the slow cooker. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potato, parsley, bay leaf, and peppercorns, pour in the water, and add the tamari. Cover and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours.

2. Allow the stock to cool slightly, then strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a pot or bowl, pressing the vegetables against the sieve to release all the juices. Store the cooled stock in tightly sealed containers where it will keep for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

As I came down the stairs that morning there was a delicious smell filling the house. Now I’m ready to make the several soup recipes from Moosewood that I was interested in as well as the No Hurry Vegetable Curry on my menu for this week.

How ’bout you? Do you make your own or buy the box, cube, jar or can of stock? Do you have a favorite stock recipe?

Winning Recipe of the Week

(Food Network Image)

Menu planning has been chaotic this summer but I’m still working at it. My friend, Verda, sent me this recipe to try. One week I purchased some of the ingredients at the farmer’s market but then that week I didn’t have time to make an actual recipe-it was a lot of noodle soup and cold sandwiches. Yesterday I had the time and my ingredients were still good. Oh, and the results were so delicious and luckily there are leftovers.
Thank you for sharing Verda!

Lemon Rice and Eggplant-Chickpea Curry

3 T. olive oil, divided
1/1/2 cups basmati rice
4 cups chicken stock, divided (I used veggie stock)
1 bay leaf
1 lemon, zested
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground cardamon, optional (i didn’t have this)

1 T. butter

1 med. onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped (I used two baby eggplants and didn’t peel)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 14-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1 15-oz can of chick peas, drained
salt and pepper
2 rounded T. mild or hot curry paste
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped roasted cashews (I used sliced almonds because they were already in my cupboard, begging to be used)

Directions:
Heat a med. pot over med. heat with extra virgin olive oil. Add rice and toast for 1-2 minutes. Add 3 cups stock and the bay leaf, lemon zest, tumeric, coriander, cumin and dardamon. Cover pot and bring rice to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer rice for 18 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork, remove bay leaf and add butter. Toss to coat the rice evenly.

While the rice cooks, make the vegetables. Heat a deep non-stick skillet over med. heat with 2 T olive oil. Add onion, garlic, eggplant and bell pepper. Cover and cook stirring occasionally 7-8 minutes. Uncover and add the tomatoes, chick peas, salt, pepper, curry paste and remaining 1 cup stock. Simmer 6-7 minutes longer. MIx scallions into rice and top with vegetable mixture. Garnish with roasted cashews (or almonds in my case).

The spices were wonderful and Groovy Girl walked through the kitchen at one point and said “something smells really good!”

This recipe is from Rachel Ray and the Food Network.
Linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme-anyone can play along with a food-related post.