Ah, Friday. Feel that? The load lifting to a couple of days of relaxation? Assuming my weekend on call is quiet, of course. After a long week, frigid weather and a mild sinus headache, we were happy to have a relaxing night at home tonight playing dueling chefs in the kitchen creating dinners. Plus I try not to party too hard while on call, my luck is that’s when a server blows up and ruins the evening. And my dog took her favorite spot on a cold evening, her puffy bed in front of the fireplace. Can’t blame her, I’m often parked in front of it myself.
When we get home from work, our cats are usually starved for attention after a quiet day and pester us for it by following us around the house meowing. Hubby caught this precious pic of Smokey mid-meow.
For me, the weekend officially started when I opened a fantastic Malbec we got on sale at Whole Foods last week. Perfect buttery taste, no bitter after bite and just smooth. If you’re a fan of Malbecs, give this one a try.
Halfway into a glass, I was ready to start assembling ingredients for dinner. Not easy because I really need to grocery shop, but I wanted to try the black quinoa in my pantry and was graving something hot after a cold day.
Black quinoa, green lentils, sun dried tomatoes, a bag of TJ’s frozen artichoke hearts and some seasonings – yeah, the pickings were slim!
I created a marinara-ish 4-cup soup base in the Vita-Mix.
And simmered the quinoa, lentils and artichoke hearts in it for about 35 minutes ending up with a thick stew.
It was nicely seasoned with the marinara base, garlic and basil flavors distributed nicely throughout with a tang from the lemon juice.
And it was very filling, nice way to warm up. Black quinoa looks different from traditional quinoa, but doesn’t really taste different and the texture was similar.
Plans this weekend are pretty tame, laundry, shopping and hopefully getting outdoors for some nature shots with the new camera – can’t wait! Hope everyone is having a great evening!
“Perfect buttery taste, no bitter after bite and just smooth”—Can you pour me a glass? Or three? Thanks, I’d love one :)
Sounds delish!
And boy, even tho it appeared to be slim pickings, you ALWAYS make great dinners…always! Amazing, Christine!
And your food shots are getting better by the day…your closeups are awesome! I just ordered (well on Monday so it should be here soon) a new lens! I blogged about it but would love to hear what you’re using for lenses,what you like, what you want to buy, etc….It’s all still pretty greek to me :)
Lol, we’ve nearly killed the bottle. But it’s a great price at WF!
Thanks, but I seriously need to shop now, I’m so low on fresh produce it’s sad!
Sent you and email on the lenses I’m using, can’t wait to hear about your new lens!
Wow, this dinner looks AWESWOME! I can’t imagine how great you cook with a well stocked kitchen. I envy your ability to just whip something up that’s edibile. I am so clueless on how to make this happen.