This weekend's adventures

Even though the weather was nice this weekend, I still managed to do quite a bit of cooking.  On Saturday I cooked a lot of the veggies that I got at the farmers' market and also made a lentil salad.  I was trying to recreate something that I have had several times before, and I came pretty close.  I cooked lentils and let them cool a little bit, then added red onion, red bell pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, pepper, and feta.  Then I put it in the fridge to have on Sunday (it's good when it's still warm/room temp, but I think it's even better cold).  I highly recommend it, and it's incredibly easy!

Yesterday I experimented with crackers.  I love crackers, but now that I'm trying to avoid all of the preservatives and numerous variations of corn and soybean products added to everything, they're off of my shopping list.  I found several easy recipes, and decided to try one out.  This one came out of the King Arthur Whole Grain book that I got from the library, but I also found it at Kitchen Link.  I made half of a batch in case it was a disaster, and I reduced the sugar quite a bit.  I wasn't able to roll the dough out quite as thin as they describe, and it definitely did not resemble a square (more like weird abstract art), but that's ok.  They turned out great, especially the ones that I let get extra brown and crispy.  I never would have thought of putting paprika and vanilla together, but it definitely works (and tastes very similar to wheat thins!).  I'm looking forward to making a bigger batch soon!

I've also made a few desserts recently that I forgot to mention before.  Last week I made oatmeal raisin cookies sweetened with apple juice concentrate (and raisins, of course).  They don't have the typical cookie texture and are more gummy/chewy, but they taste really good.  I'm not sure that the consistency would work well with other cookie types, but it goes along nicely with the oatmeal.  I've also been making individual servings of fruit crisps from time to time.  The peaches at the farmers' market have been amazing lately, so some nights I'll slice one, add some lemon juice and cinnamon, sprinkle some oats on top, and bake it for a while.  It's SO good, and easy enough that I can make it fresh every time I want it.  I'm very sad that peach season is winding down, but I guess I'll have to try it with other fruits.