Kitchen Experiments

This weekend was full of deliciousness in our kitchen. First, I had some chicken in the fridge and some yogurt and decided I needed to find a recipe for a tandoori chicken marinade. I found one with tumeric and cumin and paprika and cinnamon and all sorts of other spices. I also decided I needed to eat lentils with dried apricots. So I cooked some up in chicken stock with some onion and dried mint and garam masala spice and then I added some fresh cilantro at the end. I don't know what got into me. I never eat Indian food, I've never tried to make Indian inspired food either. I was just inspired, I guess.

I also decided to experiment with puff pastry. I'm always hearing delightful things about the stuff, and I either don't remember to look for it at the grocery store, or when I do remember, I can't find it. Well, last week a box of it was sitting in the frozen food section at Trader Joes, just begging me to take it home. I put some squares of it in muffin pans and let it cook and poof up all delicately and flakily like puff pastry goes. And then I spooned in some chocolate pudding, some cool whip on top and then some chocolate shavings. It was a tasty first attempt at puff pastry. I'm excited to get some more and try different desserts, and even some savory dishes with the puff pastry.


As if there wasn't enough experimenting going on in our kitchen over the weekend, I decided to try making a little recipe for Gabriela. I cooked some lentils and sweet potato chunks in water with a dash of cinnamon until it got all mushy. Then I blended it up, added some breastmilk, and strained it so she has a nice smooth puree to eat. Today she is having this lentil mixture with strained mashed potatoes and a little bitty bit of carrot for lunch.

I am still trying to decide which food to introduce to her next.