Chicken tikka masala, roast cauliflower, Clara's Depression lentils and rice.
For the tikka masala, I used an Archer Farms jarred sauce from Target. It was pretty good but way spicier than any tikka masala I've ever gotten from an Indian restaurant. I added milk to make it edible for us.
The real story here is the lentils and rice, which I made in honor of the stock market. It's a recipe from Great Depression Cooking with Clara, http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking . Clara and that whole video project are awesome. I highly recommend checking it out, both for the historical value and also for ideas for inexpensive, simple, tasty dishes.
My plan is to make all of her recipes. So this is my inaugural effort, and it was really easy and good! I was a little worried the kids wouldn't even touch the lentils, because lentils just don't look that appetizing when cooked. So I had a flash of inspiration and told them: Guys, this is something Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder's mothers would have made, so it's like a pioneer dish. (Josh was immediately hooked. "I love pioneer stuff!") So when you eat it, I want you to imagine you worked hard on the farm all day in the snow, and this is the hot meal on the table when you came in. (That got Alex for some reason.)
So okay, my characterization was off by like sixty years. But it got them to try it and they loved it!
For next time, however, I must remember that a bag of lentils and a cup of rice makes a pot big enough to feed a family of ten.
For the tikka masala, I used an Archer Farms jarred sauce from Target. It was pretty good but way spicier than any tikka masala I've ever gotten from an Indian restaurant. I added milk to make it edible for us.
The real story here is the lentils and rice, which I made in honor of the stock market. It's a recipe from Great Depression Cooking with Clara, http://www.youtube.com/use
My plan is to make all of her recipes. So this is my inaugural effort, and it was really easy and good! I was a little worried the kids wouldn't even touch the lentils, because lentils just don't look that appetizing when cooked. So I had a flash of inspiration and told them: Guys, this is something Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder's mothers would have made, so it's like a pioneer dish. (Josh was immediately hooked. "I love pioneer stuff!") So when you eat it, I want you to imagine you worked hard on the farm all day in the snow, and this is the hot meal on the table when you came in. (That got Alex for some reason.)
So okay, my characterization was off by like sixty years. But it got them to try it and they loved it!
For next time, however, I must remember that a bag of lentils and a cup of rice makes a pot big enough to feed a family of ten.
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