A Brown Lunch

Today was not a great lunch day for me. I ate a carrot muffin and some pretzel goldfish with a coffee. Very brown, very boring, very unhealthy.

Why, you might be wondering, would I subject myself to this lunch? It's a little bit of a long story. You see, I got an amazing dutch oven for Christmas from my grandparents. I could go on and on about it, and I suspect I will in future posts. I was so excited about it that ever since I got it, I've been making all of my meals in it. It's just so beautiful, so useful, so wonderful. Note obsession here.

Alas, I decided to make a big bowl of soup to have for my lunches this week. It's freezing in New York, so soup seemed like the right thing to do. Instead of relying on my trusty soup recipes of the past, I thought I'd branch out and try something new: Lentil Soup with Sausage. Doesn't that sound delicious? I thought so too. I was excited. Thrilled, really.

I got out my first copy of Bon Appetit, which just started coming last month in replace of my - so sad - Gourmet subscription. I hope I don't offend anyone by mentioning that this issue was completely lackluster, and this lentil soup recipe was actually the only one I'd dog-eared. Anyway, I made the soup. It was pretty fun to make - especially since the color of the lentils looked so beautiful against my blue pot.

I stirred in some spinach at the end to make it even more hearty, and split it up into various tupperware for both freezing and bringing to the office. My kitchen smelled fantastic and I couldn't wait to try the soup!

Well. Well. The. Soup. Was. Awful. Awful. Awful. I could barely eat more than a few bites each day this week - the lentils were mushy and gross in my mouth, the sausage was bland, and the spinach was chewy. It was unappetizing, uninspiring, and unfilling. I was heartbroken. Still am. I am so far in denial that I haven't made a replacement lunch - I still have two large containers of it in the gallery fridge. I'm simply choosing to eat other things I happen to have here... like carrot muffins. And goldfish pretzels.

So there you have it. That's why I had a brown lunch today. I made a soup that was terrible. I don't think it was the recipe, I'm sure I did it wrong. I don't even know where I went so wrong. Maybe I just don't like lentil soup? Who knows. And I can't even come up with a moral of the story. Perhaps, you taste with more than your eyes? Because I know this soup sure looks good.

For the record, I've made some other extremely delicious meals in my new dutch oven - look out for more [actually successful] posts soon. And never be afraid to mess up! You'll survive. I have (so far).