Compliments from the chef

If you live in the Washington, DC area and happen to find yourself on Rockville Pike take it all the way to The Lemon Tree Mediterranean Market and Gourmet Cafe (http://www.lemontreemarket.com/) and get comfortable for a bit. There's a lot of wonderful meals to sample. We've had great luck there both food and service-wise. A little while ago I was having lunch there with my friend and her baby girl. I soaked in (though thankfully didn't spill a precious drop) their red lentil soup. I went so nuts for it, that for the first time in my life I asked if I could have the recipe. Pretty brazen of me, eh?

About ten minutes later, a lovely man in his seventies came to our table and carefully explained all of the steps for his treasured red lentil soup. He spent thirty minutes with us to make sure I had the recipe down pat. I was blown away by his generosity and kindness. A few minutes later, we received a plate of grape leaves. Compliments from the chef. They were outstanding.

With that in mind, I decided to use the remaining spinach from my CSA box this week to make something similar.

Thank you to Ricki at Diet, Dessert And Dogs for this fantastic recipe for Dolmade Casserole.

Go straight here, do not pass go or collect $200 for Ricki's take on a deconstructed stuffed grape leaves:

http://dietdessertndogs.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/dolmades-deconstructed-mediterranean-rice-casserole/

Hey that's my wedding china that dolmade casserole is on! I took it out last week for a Mother's Day lunch and haven't put it back yet. Guess I better do that before our puppy Sami decides to make us register for one last place setting. Yeah, right.