Summer Dinner

Jim and Mike visited my humble abode for a lovely dinner earlier in the summer. The boys brought a Southwestern chopped salad with cilantro dressing that I'd seen on Pinterest. The Garden Grazer is responsible for the recipe. This is the first time I've encountered it, but it boasts some wonderful vegetarian recipes.

Southwestern chopped salad

Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

SALAD

Ingredients

Large head of romaine
15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large orange bell pepper
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 cups corn (I used frozen, thawed)
5 green onions
Creamy Cilantro-Lime Dressing 

Indian Dinner

Saag paneer

I used the saag paneer recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. Since I ran out of spinach from the garden, I substituted kale, which was surprisingly good. I might use it instead in the future. Also, I omitted the heavy cream because it didn't seem necessary.

Saag Paneer
serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1-in. cube of ginger (peeled and coarsely chopped)
3-6 garlic cloves
1/2 to 1 hot green chili, sliced roughly
paneer
salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/8 tsp. cayenne
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1.5 lbs. spinach
3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies + Lentil Soup

I found a divine lentil soup recipe to use up the remainder of the massive quantities of kale that Crystal and Jason generously gave me from their garden.

Onions and kale

Broth and lentils

As most of you know, I'm not much of a baker. For some odd reason, I had a hankering for cookies recently, so I made these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I think they turned out well, although J. mocked me because I didn't eat any of them for several weeks. In fact, a large plastic bag of them is still living in my freezer. I guess I just wanted to make them.

batter