Back to School (and Good Cookin')

Apologies to all for the unexpected summer hiatus. I was living in Washington, DC for the summer doing my first-summer legal internship, which was a lot of fun but didn't leave a lot of time for cooking. Especially after I met and started dating someone new. But now I'm back at school, in my own kitchen, and I'm looking forward to cooking and baking all kinds of fabulous things this fall. Just yesterday I broke in my new ice cream maker with strawberry creme fraiche ice cream with lemon and coconut. I couldn't eat it because I'm on a diet, so unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to photograph it.

However, I did snap a quick photo of my dinner from two nights ago: curried lentils. I'm doing the South Beach Diet for a few weeks to try to undo the damage I did to myself this summer, so bear with me while I cook some moderately healthy (read: less fun/exciting) meals.


Curried Lentils
From the South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook

• 1/2 onion, diced
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 cup lentils, rinsed and picked over
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 c. chicken stock
• salt and pepper

Saute the onion in the oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the lentils, curry powder, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (I used black Hawaiian lava salt, as you can see in the picture.)