Tasty “Lentil Shepherd’s Pie”

During our sight-seeing trip last fall to New England, we stopped at a small café on the premises of a sustainable farm along the coast of Maine. Shepherd’s Pie was on the menu. Wow, I haven’t eaten this dish in many years. The restaurant included several “twists” on traditional Shepherd’s Pie recipes. In one variation, the filling included a local brand of porter beer. That pie tasted great! A second variation was a vegetarian one made with lentils. We ordered a second serving of this one! I associate Shepherd’s Pie with Irish cuisine and I believe that is entrée continues to be a popular dish in Irish pubs. With St. Patrick’s Day approaching, I decided to try my recollection and make the vegetarian “Lentil Shepherd’s Pie” version. Lentils are packed with nutritional value — an added plus to this tasty entrée.

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Chicken Noodle Soup with Root Vegetables

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup is soothing to the soul and body. My soup is healthy, too, full of aromatic root vegetables—carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, rutabaga and onions–available in autumn.  I’m taking the easy route to making the home-cooked broth by using rotisserie chickens; these will make a flavorful stock which is essential to good soup.Chicken Noodle Soup with Root Vegetables - IMG_5984_1 Continue reading

The Perfect Glass of Iced Tea

A perfect glass of iced tea should be soothing, slightly sweet, chilled and with none of the bitter tannin taste of the tea leaves. We drink lots of tea the year around at our house and I have a pretty good recipe for making iced tea. Tea in general has some very interesting potential health benefits as I learned at the FNCE conference.

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