Soup to Dutts

Spring is here! I've always preferred colder weather, but the warm seasons are really starting to grow on me. One of the reasons is that I feel like we eat "lighter" meals in spring and summer, like this Greek pasta salad I threw together last week! I had an almost-full box of whole-wheat rotini and an almost-empty box of whole-wheat penne, so I just combined them, but any short pasta will do. Tri-color pasta would be fun! While the pasta was cooling, I made the dressing: olive oil, red wine vinegar, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. (Don't you love my cute little whisk? It's perfect for things like this. Thanks, Mom!) Speaking of my mom, chopping the veggies for this reminded me of a conversation she and I had a few weeks ago. I was talking about how much I hate chopping vegetables, and she said that was her favorite part of cooking! Well, the solution seems obvious: she and I should just always cook together; I'll do everything else if s

I found this recipe for black bean burgers and decided to make them for Meatless Monday! It's a pretty simple recipe. All of the ingredients are pretty easy to find, but when they tell you to finely chop the onion and bell pepper with a food processor, they mean it! Trust me; I learned this the hard way...! I don't have a food processor, but I had seen people use the Magic Bullet to chop vegetables, so I thought I'd give it a try with the bell pepper, since I used pre-chopped onions. Well...I clearly did something wrong, because my bell pepper ended up looking like this: It pureed my pepper! Who needs a food processor? This girl. I apologized repeatedly to my poor husband, mostly for attempting this recipe without the proper equipment. I should have known better. The Magic Bullet has gotten me into trouble before (I'm thinking specifically of the hummus incident of 2010). It's nice to have, but there are some things that it just won't do. Anyway, th

I'm not a vegan by any stretch of the imagination, but Tom and I have been trying to eat a lot more veggies and a lot less "bad" stuff lately. So tonight I made up a butternut squash soup based on some familiar flavors, and it's--you guessed it--totally vegan. And also totally delicious. Ugh, I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of the whole cooking process. I'm also kicking myself for taking a picture of the finished product with my phone instead of my camera. Just by looking at this, would you believe that this soup is actually a pretty shade of orange...? *sigh* You're just going to have to make it and see for yourself. Butternut Squash Soup Yield: 4-6 servings 1 tablespoon canola oil 1-1/3 cup chopped onion 2 medium-sized apples - cored and cut into chunks 2 pounds butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed 2 teaspoons ground sage 1 carton (32 oz.) vegetable broth Kosher salt Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add apple,

Our friends James and Lyndie invited us over for dinner this evening, and we brought dessert. I was pretty excited about it, since dessert seems to be my forte lately...or so I thought. We had some bananas that were getting extremely ripe, so I thought I'd make some banana bread. I poked around online, but the only recipe I saw that called for the number of bananas we had was a banana pound cake. It received hundreds of great reviews, so I thought I'd give it a try. And looking back now, I can honestly say... I WILL NEVER MAKE THIS AGAIN. Preparation went smoothly enough: I used the new stand mixer I got for my birthday(!), and the batter looked great. The problem was that there was just too much of it for my bundt pan (which is what the recipe recommended using). I poured in as much batter as I could without overloading the pan and slid it into the oven. After five minutes or so, I opened the door to check on it, and there was batter everywhere, including on the burner,