Tomato Cobbler + Lentil Salad

Last night I made comfort food! A lot of things I make have a relative amount of comfort involved (I feed a man a vegetarian diet, I must make it hearty!). The only credit that I can take for the Tomato Cobbler recipe displayed below is that I found it in Sept 2012 Food Network Magazine, needed it, and made it! I also made a lentil salad (entirely my own creation), which I'll also share below. Have you noticed that I serve a salad with every meal? That's my own personal goal.

Tomato Cobbler done right.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tomato-cobbler-recipe/index.html

The best part of borrowing recipes is that as I'm recreating something previously created, I become lost with my thoughts, fulfilling the motions of measuring according to the paper until the steps are completed. But really, my mind is completely somewhere else. When I'm making something new and using trial and error, I need to maintain a general level of focus on the food.

Yesterday afternoon, both of my babies were sound asleep (thank you, dual naps!) and I began to think about the nature of people. I love people as much as I love food and spend hours of my day and night thinking about the way that people work. This infatuation with human nature undoubtedly drew me to my profession as a therapist. And when you stop working as a therapist, you never really stop working as a therapist.

I was making a mental list including the people in my life who are the same on the inside as they appear to be on the outside. There is so much to be said for authenticity, and every best friend that plays a role in my life has a great level of it. It only takes me a few moments to understand when someone is projecting something differently on the outside than they are feeling (chaos, generally) on the inside, and it always makes me sad but weary. And it almost always makes relationships complicated. What are your standards for friendship? Who are you willing (and unwilling) to invite into your life? What kind of friend are you? The helper, the follower, the leader, the listener, the avoider?

Relationships are the most important thing in my life and I am so happy (and so lucky) to have so many real ones. I have a family and a family of friends. My belief is that its always important to check in with ourselves and make sure that we are being the same kind of person that we expect other people to be. Our obligation to ourselves is to be (or become) the kind of individual that we respect and to have (or seek) attributes that we admire in others if we want to live a wholesome life and attract authenticity into our hearts. Be the friend you want to have. And enjoy the lentil salad posted below (make it for your dear friends and hug them today for being dear to you-life is short and true love is rare).

Lentil Salad with Cumin Dressing

Cook 1/2 a cup of lentils and cool. Mix the juice of one lemon, 2 garlic cloves, minced, a splash of olive oil, chopped fresh parsley and a pinch of kosher salt into lentil. Let sit to enhance flavors.

Combine mixed greens, diced red peppers and feta cheese.

Put an ice-cream scoop of compacted lentils on top of salad (to make it look beautiful)

Drizzle with dressing made from the following: 1/2 cup of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard, 2 1/2 tablespoons of cider vinegar, salt, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 a teaspoon of minced garlic.