Lentil Soup and a Night on the Town

So Kelsey and I went to a fundraiser at Capitale and decided to have some people over beforehand.  We did a basic cheese/hummus/snacks on snacks situation.

lentil soup 1

 The real, star, however; was the lentil soup.  The now legendary lentil soup in our apartment.  We did not get to document the soup and if you keep reading you will find out why..

It started out as such a cute night… here we are all dressed up ready to eat lentil soup and dance at an open bar party til 2 am.

lentil soup 2

The soup was awesome.  I accidently over-lentiled the recipe and I’m not even pissed about it because it still tasted delicious.  It’s our little Buddha’s Recipe:

Lentil Soup

We had a bunch of people over and just kept it warm on the stove serving it in coffee mugs with parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil on top.  I knew the girls would destroy this soup but I was surprised that the bro’s we had over were so into it.  Our friend Ashley’s boyfriend played football in the NFL and he was even into our soup.  I mean I think that settles it: lentils are not just for hippies and DC food bloggers. 

Anyway it was getting late.  We realized running out the door that we never took a pic of the soup but since I’d made enough to last a week we figured we’d take it later….little did we know.

The fundraiser (Celebration for Education) was a blast.  We danced true to form and it supported a good cause.  So far we were winning.

lentil soup 3 {Casually throwing down dance moves–we don’t half-ass anything}

So how did the night end? Imagine Spiderman visited your kitchen but instead of attacking your apartment with spider webs it’s lentil soup.  Literally lentil soup everywhere.  Hand prints of lentil soup. By the looks of it none of the soup got eaten- it was strictly used to decorate our kitchen with brown sludge.  Most girls just order a pizza.  Clearly we are not most girls.

lentil soup4

Asparagus Tart

I almost didn’t want to share this one because it’s such a joke of a recipe. It’s literally three ingredients…. So yeah.. embarrassing.  It’s puff pastry, gruyere cheese and asparagus.  Normally I consider any pre-made dough white trash.  The ultimate exception is puff pastry.  Ever made puff pastry? Doubt it.  Shit is effing terrible to make and tastes the exact same as store bought.  Always buy puff pastry pre-made.

asparagus tart

Asparagus and Gruyere Tart

Anyways, all you do is roll out the dough… do some specific fork and knife markings, cover it with cheese/asparagus and bake.  Buy good gruyere and grate that shit yourself.  The recipe is three ingredients- you can handle grating the cheese. 

 

This tart is just a winner.  It’s great to serve a piece with a salad for lunch or to have on the table in lieu of bread with dinner (these went with those diva ravioli’s, so it’s a good thing this tart is supa easy).  It’s also soooo legit to bring to a party.  Reasons why:

1) Can be served at room temp or warm so you’re not that annoying friend that shows up and says “can I use your oven”… sure …. Go ahead… it’s not like I’m hosting a dinner party and don’t have 23075320532 things going on in there but let’s make room for your frozen spin dip.

2) It tricks people into thinking it’s a pseudo healthy/light option…. Because butter pastry topped with cheese and a hint of asparagus is just like eating an apple.

3) It can be transported in one piece without getting jacked up.  I once brought The Surge to a party and got in a car accident on the way there…. You can imagine how much aged cheese was flying everywhere…..

4) Tastes amazing and tricks people into thinking you are the founder of Paul Bakery.

Homemade Ravioli

Damnit these were annoying.  It started out so well.  I used the filling and dough from this recipe (Tyler Florence you are such a babe):

Homemade Ravioli

Came together fine… I had to keep reminding myself there was raw egg in this goo and that I couldn’t just eat it by the spoonful.

 

ravioli filling

 

Then I made the dough.  K- so this wasn’t too bad… I’ve been making pasta dough since I was a little nugget so it came together somewhat decently.

Next, roll out the dough.  Yea- you need a pasta roller. I’m not Ina- I don’t have some electric pasta maker worth 6 months’ rent.  I have an old school hand crank pasta maker. 

 

Now you guys know I love our new apartment.  I die for it.  But not a SINGLE SURFACE in this place has the right counter width to fit my pasta roller.  AKA every time I crank, the machine goes flying off the counter/ledge/coffee table.  Had I checked this in advanced like I encourage all of you to do, I never would have made these f’ing ravioli’s.  But here we are, filling was done, pasta was done and I had already bought the ingredients for the sauce. Needless to say I skipped the gym after man handling this pasta machine for an hour.  I mean look at these sheets of dough- it’s like they had been through WAR. 

ravioli filling2

 

By the time I got half way through rolling out the dough I realized I had just enough to serve two people ravioli without feeling like a cheap/white trash asshole.  So I threw the rest of the dough away and moved on with my life. 

 

ravioli3

By the time the ravioli’s were good to go I was glad I had decided on the easiest sauce in Amurica so I could get this experience over with-

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/roasted-butternut-squash-ravioli-with-a-sage-brown-butter-sauce-recipe/index.html

 

plated ravioli{DAMNIT that looks good}

As you can tell this experience left me a little jaded.  I’ve made ravioli before and fresh pasta 329582093853209532 times and it is worth it.  Just make sure your machine works first.

*White Trash Option: Buy pre-made ravioli.  That shit from the store sucks but Union Market has a guy with some legit ones.