What to eat after a final.

A final for a class called "Plagues", no less.

It's no secret that I'm crazy for legumes. At the moment, my kitchen contains four types of canned beans, two types of dried beans, dried split peas and five types of lentils. Five types of lentils! I never claimed to be sane. But of all the uses for all the legumes, this might be my favorite.

The French green lentils are key here. I made this once with black beluga lentils, which are gorgeous and worth trying, but this dish is worlds better if you use the real thing. The quality of the sausages is key too. I use hot dogs, but not just any hot dogs. They come from my absolute favorite place in the whole city of Chicago--Gene's Sausage Shop. Seriously, this place is over an hour away and if it weren't for school I would go every other day. Actually, if I didn't go to school in Hyde Park I would move to Lincoln Square just to be closer to Gene's. They make their own meat everything, and stock awesome (and amazingly priced!) Eastern European beer, liquor, and groceries. Actually, my lentils came from here too. Anyway, if you're lacking a place like Gene's, use some kielbasa or other high quality smoked sausage.

We ate this with roasted brussels sprouts (probably the last of the season!), but it makes a pretty good meal on its own, and is also good cold. I've tweaked the original recipe quite a bit, adding more sausage, decreasing the lentils by a third (the first time I made it, we never got through the leftovers) and upping the mustard in the dressing.

Warm French Lentil Salad with Smoked Sausage (adapted from Use Real Butter)

serves 4

-1 cup French green (de Puy) lentils

-1/2 lb smoked sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces

-3 sprigs fresh thyme

-2 smashed garlic cloves

-2 bay leaves

-black peppercorns

-1 small onion, peeled and halved

-1 small carrot, halved

-1 and 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

-1 tablespoon dijon mustard

-1 tablespoon olive oil

-1 tablespoon walnut oil (or replace with more olive oil, if you don't have walnut oil around)

-1/4 cup chopped parsley

-2 scallions, chopped

-salt and pepper

1. Put the thyme, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves into a cheesecloth pouch or spice bag. Place in a saucepan with the lentils, onion, and carrot and cover with about 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, and simmer 30-40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a cast iron skillet, and make the dressing. Whisk together the vinegar, mustard, and oils. Add salt and pepper and more of oil or vinegar, to taste.

3. When the lentils are tender, drain and discard the spice pouch, onion, and carrot.

4. Mix together the lentils, sausage, parsley, scallion, and dressing. Serve!

Chicken, Bread, Cookies

Yesterday, I woke up to some very sad and unexpected news. I took off work but figured that I'd best keep busy, so I did the only thing that I knew would distract me--I cooked and cooked and cooked. There are unfortunately very few pictures in today's post, as I was too busy cooking, stuffing my face, and cooking more things to stuff in my face, but I do have three fantastic recipes to share.

Chicken in Milk (adapted from Jamie Oliver)

The idea of this sounds kind of gross, and to be honest, the result looks pretty gross too. The milk curdles with the lemon peel, making a strangely chunky, yellow sauce. But I promise that it is delicious. In order to make it more visually appealing, I took all the meat off the chicken and pureed the sauce with my handy immersion blender (thanks, Mom). I made a few changes to the original recipe, including stuffing the chicken cavity with the skinned lemons and leaving the lid on the pot. This was my first time cooking a whole chicken, and it was surprisingly stress free.

-3.5 lb chicken

-1/4 stick of butter

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-2 lemons, zested

-a large handful of fresh sage leaves

-1 pint of milk (I used 2%)

-10 garlic cloves, unpeeled

-small cinnamon stick

-salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Wash and season the chicken on both sides, and stuff the cavity with pieces of the skinned lemon. Heat olive oil and butter in a large, oven-safe pot with a lid, and brown the chicken on both sides. I needed a third hand to turn the chicken over in my deep pot.

3. Remove the chicken to a plate, and pour off the excess fat. Return the chicken and all of the other ingredients to the pot. Cook in the oven for an hour and half. I took the lid off for the last half hour, but next time I'll leave it on, as the breast got a little dry and the skin wasn't great anyway.

4. Tear the cooked chicken into small chunks and serve, topped with the sauce. I pureed mine, but it's completely optional.

This was great with some fresh bread to spread the garlic over and dip in the sauce.

Reliable, Homemade Bread (adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day)

Making bread is easy, especially on Sunday. The rising times can be adapted to suit your needs--if you have to be gone all day, just put the dough in the fridge for the first rise. A long, slower rise will actually make the bread even better. This recipe makes four small loves, which are an ideal size for two. I baked two (one for the neighbors) and put the others in the freezer. To bake the frozen dough, thaw it overnight or all day and then proceed to step 5. Please don't be intimidated by the number of steps! Most of this is inactive time, and really, there's only about five minutes of kneading in the whole thing.

-6 1/2 cups flour

-2 3/4 cups water, at "body temperature" (I always microwave bread water for 20 seconds)

-1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

-1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

-1 tablespoon salt

1. Combine water, yeast, salt, and sugar in a large bowl, and add flour a cup at a time. If your dough seems too wet to work with (mine often does), add another cup of flour by half-cups.

2. Stir/knead until the dough in moist throughout and completely uniform. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 2 to 5 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.

3. Punch down the dough and knead it a few times, then divide into three or four portions. To freeze some, form into balls and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.

4. Form the dough into loaves, and let rise another 40 minutes, or an hour if using frozen dough. If making pan loaves (my preference), roll the dough out to a large rectangle, and roll the rectangle up into the shape of the pan. Pinch all the seams, and tuck the ends under.

5. Let rise another 40 minutes to an hour, and turn the oven on to 450 degrees.

6. Here's the trick. A few minutes before you are ready to put the bread in the oven, place a roasting pan on the bottom rack. After you put the bread it, pour a good cup of cold water into the hot pan (which should be below the bread), and immediately shut the oven door. The steam helps a good crust to form.

7. Bake for 30 minutes or so. Check halfway through--if the crust is already browning, lower the temperature to 350 degrees for the duration of baking. The bread is done when the bottom sounds hollow when tapped (I grab it with an oven mitt and tap it with a wooden spoon).

Austrian Raspberry Shortbread Bars

The only change I made to this recipe was halving it (which I'm now regretting), so I'll just link you to the original post by the fantastic Smitten Kitchen. All of her cookie recipes are great.

Coming up on The Off-Campus Gourmet:

-Finals week! Finals are coming, but, hopefully, the blog won't go silent. I intend to share some of my most trusted (and FAST) last-minute recipes, as well as one or two huge dishes that can be frozen in anticipation of a busy stretch.

-More in organization and time management. I have a few days between the end of finals and a trip to New York, in which I hope to share more about my kitchen, the way that I plan meals and organize a pantry, and my general approach to cooking.

-Some recipes with these exciting new ingredients! Thanks, Mom & Tim.