To be traditional for New Year's Day, we had lentils and greens for dinner, and while it doesn't sound all that exciting, it was actually outrageously delicious. The lentils were tiny Umbrian ones, with slow-cooked onions and red peppers and plenty of olive oil, ground pepper, and a splash of good sherry vinegar. The greens were mixed spinach and kale, with garlic and again not shy with the olive oil. The results were surprisingly pretty -- the red pepper made the lentils an attractive golden brown that looked very nice against the dark green of the greens -- and very good to eat. I should have taken a photo, but it just smelled too good to wait. We ate every scrap.

It's hardly a recipe, but the description above should give you the general idea, should you (or I) want to reproduce it. Just between us, I also included a tiny pinch of MSG in the lentils. I'd do it again, too!

I notice that this is yet another entry in the growing list of roughage-laden, post-feasting meals I've been posting about a lot lately. We've just been out of town for well over a week, and the last four days of that featured nothing but hotel and restaurant food. It was generally very good, but I have a hard time resisting the siren call of fried-by-someone-else options, even though I know full well that I will be left feeling something like a lump of suet. Almost as soon as we were unpacked, I went to the grocery store and piled my cart with all the dark green and orange vegetables I could get my hands on. It makes me feel secure to know the house is well supplied. I think I'll start a spa! Roughisch Baden, we could call it.