Homey. Comforting. Sane.

There has been a lot of buzz over at the CLBB the past few days over a Lemon Lentil Soup with Spinach first posted by Alysha from The Savory Notebook. After last night's cooking debacle, this sounded like just the right thing to have for dinner tonight. Brightened with lemon and tomatoes, and redolent of garlic, this soup is loaded with antioxidants. To top it off, dinner would have been ready in less than half an hour if I hadn't been playing around with a Sara Moulton recipe for roasted cauliflower, then at the last minutes decided to make some Parmesan garlic bread wiith the leftover Roasted Garlic Cloves I made last night. Then, I decided to pull out the Oven-Roasted Tomatoes I also made last night, which I don't think I even mentioned in the rest of yesterday's saga. Then I sat down on the couch, with my husband on one side and two dogs begging for scraps on the other, and simply ate dinner. Aaah....bliss.

Roasted Garlic Cloves

Copyright 2006, The Stinking Rose Restaurant Cookbook

2 cups garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil

In a heavy saucepan, combine the garlic and olive oil and cook over low heat for about 40 minutes, stirring once at 20 minutes, until the garlic begins to soften. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic to a baking sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cloves are golden brown and slightly wrinkled.