Food is Divine and Left-overs are a Godsend.

The meal I made for date night was amazing! Well, that is what Ryan told me anyway (I had difficulty tasting any of it, because of nasal congestion). I can say first hand that there is nothing like homemade bread. As my olfactory glands have revived in the last 24 hours, I have enjoyed its flavorful richness.

I had second thoughts about even attempting to make bread, as I traveled to three stores before finding active yeast, and then spent fifteen minutes strenuously mixing the dough and kneading it. I almost hoped the bread would come out flat and tasteless so I would be less compelled to attempt this process again.

I am glad the hard work paid off and that we have two loaves of whole grain herb bread to show for it! YUM! I did not have whole wheat flour (it was whole wheat pastry flour), so instead I used a mixture of unbleached all purpose flour, wheat germ, and flaxseed, then I added fresh chopped parsley and dill along with dried thyme and marjoram (a spice I have never used before). The results were heavenly.

The bread came out crisp on the outside, hollow sounding on the inside, but soft and dense to taste. A wonderful compliment to our portobello and green bean ragout and artichoke parfait.

Though this meal took a tremendous amount of effort; both Ryan and I chopping and stirring away. It has yielded delicious left-overs.

For the first year of our marriage, I detested left-overs. For one, I have heard that bad bacteria grows in left-overs, so I tried to keep a safe distance and only cook what was necessary for the night's dinner. This is a good strategy, but it becomes tedious to reduce recipes (at the cost of flavor sometimes) and it takes the same amount of work to cook less without the added convenience of instant lunch or dinner the following day.

I especially love the instant lunch part, because I tire of packing my lunch for work after cooking dinner. Now, I often make an extra large salad for dinner that yields enough left-overs for a tasty lunch the following day.

In the recent weeks, I have become a friend of my slow cooker. I love it! Last week I made lentil sloppy joes for dinner. Though they had a nice flavor, the lentils overcooked a little, so the slop was a bit dry. This however did not stop Ryan or I from re-inventing the tremendous amount of leftovers (I think the recipe made six servings).

The night following the dry lentil sloppy joes, Ryan made his famous date infused basmati rice which is always moist. This rice has spicy notes of garlic and onion combined with sweet hints from the Medjool dates. The freshly chopped parsley also adds to its unique and satisfying flavor. While Ryan whipped up his rice, I heated the dry slop on the stove, adding water, hoping to give it back some life, and it did!

Wow! The combination of the date pilaf and lentils was surprisingly delicious. We opened a bottle of cabernet-sauvignon to add a little elegance and both of us felt like royalty at this modest feast of left overs. Ryan commented that the rice and the lentils paired perfectly, one was incomplete without the other.