Lentils

I've had an epiphany of sorts, I guess, about lentils. It all started when my daughter made me a soup jar with lentils, noodles and other spices for Christmas. I realized then that we like the soup and it provided alot of protein and fiber. The lentils cook quick unlike dried beans and don't really impart much flavor. They do have some texture to them though. So I bought a bag and intend to throw them in other dishes as a filler to boost the nutrition. This isn't the first time I've experienced lentils - when I was in Spain we had lentil soup all the time. At first when Carmina, the widow we lived with made it, we were a little turned off, especially by its appearance. It reminded me of the black bean soup that I make, which is delicious but it doesn't look appetizing at all. We enjoyed it in Spain and when I returned home I even made it but I don't think it got its due respect. There were other foods I had while in Spain that were unique and I even made some of those when I came home. I remember the Spanish tortilla and the Monte Cristo sandwich we would have at our evening meal, which was about 10 pm. They were both delicious and I even bought a special pan for the tortilla. My husband eventually took that over for his corks during wine bottling. Another dish I remember was Albondigas or little meatballs in a brown gravy spiced with bay leaves - yum! I came home with a cookbook but I must not have saved it - probably because I couldn't read half the instructions or ingredients and they didn't taste the same as I remember. I often think of that time and remember how Carmina would keep eggs on her little porch outside instead of the fridge, chicken were whole (and I mean whole) in the fridge, we would get a three-cornered pouch of unpasteurized milk on the doorstep every morning and we drank cola-cao (a version of hot chocolate)for breakfast. We (the other girl I roomed with) made a pizza for them while we were there. Only the bakeries were allowed to have yeast so we used baking powder for the crust. It left much to be desired, as I recall. I also tasted octopus and squid for the first and last times while I was there. They would cut the squid in rings, bread them and fry like onion rings. They were a little too chewy for me and then serving them with their own ink was a definite turn-off. All that really made me appreciate what we have here. Of course now that I'm thinking about recipes, maybe I'll try adding some to my blog if it doesn't turn into too much of a project.