Homemade bread would have been good but ugh...

Got home from work today to find my plans abruptly canceled...one of my friends had to work late and the other was too tired to go for the reading series at our school. So the whole evening stretched in front of me with nothing to do and since I hadn't eaten anything since 10:30 and it was now 6 dinner was forefront on my mind. Actually I wanted (and still want) an ice cream sundae but first things first...Nothing in the fridge. Just got paid but am putting the money aside for rent since I'll be short next check. Lots of rice and beans in the cubby, no produce, a wine crate of cookboks. Flipping through Chez Panise Vegetables--

and a side note on Chez Panisse...my mom keeps giving me Chez Panisse cookbooks for Christmas. I have "fruits", "vegetables", and "Chez Panisse Cooking" and out of the three of them have made a total of maybe three recipes in four years. Mostly because I don't eat meat and therefore don't have the sort of meat-and-potatoes-y meals that the vegetable side dishes should go with...and I don't exactly want to serve them with braised tofu. (Can you even braise tofu...? Or would it just fall apart)

I find Alice's recipe for Mediterranean Lentil Soup, which is basically lentil soup. And I do have carrots, garlic, onion and lentils, and it is somewhat cold outside and almost soup weather. So I go for it...but as my mom taught me I browned/burned my garlic in the gas flame. It's something she learned from Jordan and anyway I love that smoke garlic flavor.

Then I was thinking warm bread and butter...hell I can make warm bread. I do have yeast in the fridge and hi gluten flour and I was pretty sure I could cobble the ingredients together for something. And then have to let it rise and then shape it, rise again, bake it, and it's not difficult only I knew I would leave the kitchen out of sheer boredom and it'd overproof and it would be only ordinary bread and not divine because out of hunger adn not out of art, and I can just go to the foodmaster and buy ordinary bread.

But I still want divine bread. I do have a great recipe from Monte who bakes at Craigie Street Bistro, Tony Maws's fancy place in Cambridge where this waiter totally insutled me (this was before I became a chef) for Rosemary Raisin Bread...perhaps next week I shall make some with the rosemary from my garden, which I should bring in before the frost.

Alice's modified lentil soup is bubbling, and I'd like some red wine (but not my good Zin), but more than that I'd like company for dinner...Sigh.