Slow-Cooker Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup

So what does a "Mother of the Bride" do when it is approximately six months before her daughter's wedding and she is not happy with her appearance?  She joins a gym to workout a couple of hours every day and she goes on a low fat diet consisting primarily of vegetables.  At least that is what I am doing, and why I was happy to see this recipe for Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup in the December, 2011 issue of the Food Network Magazine. The ingredients of sweet potatoes, carrots, leeks, and red lentils, seasoned with fresh ginger and curry, sounded very appealing to me, and the approximate 257 calories a serving was a definite plus!

Best of all, it is a slow cooker recipe!

Perfect for this busy holiday season, when there is so much to do!

The most labor intensive part of making this soup is chopping all the vegetables into small pieces. I happen to enjoy chopping vegetables as I find it a meditative experience.  If I know I am going out for the day I will do this preperation the night before, so that all I have to do in the morning is add the ingredients into the slow cooker and turn it on.  Since this recipe is set to cook for eight hours on low heat, it's perfect for a very busy day.

How nice to come home to a bowl of wonderfully fragrant, hot soup!

  The recipe as it appears in the Food Network Magazine:

Slow-Cooker Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup

Total Time: 8 hr 25 min.

Prep: 25 min.

Cook:  8 hr 0 min.

Yield:4 servings

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 leeks, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (white and light green parts only)

3/4 cup dried yellow or red lentils

1 4-inch piece ginger, peeled and finely grated

1 teaspoon curry powder

Kosher salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus lemon wedges for serving (optional)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro


Directions

Combine the sweet potato, carrots, celery, leeks, lentils, ginger, 3/4 teaspoon curry powder and 1 teaspoon salt in a 4-to-6-quart slow cooker. Add 6 cups water and stir, then cover and cook on low, undisturbed, 8 hours.

Stir the soup vigorously with a whisk to make a rough puree. Thin with hot water, if desired.

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon curry powder and cook until the curry powder is slightly toasted, about 1 minute. Stir the curry mixture into the soup and add the lemon juice, cilantro, and salt to taste. Serve with lemon wedges.

Per serving: Calories 257; Fat 4 g (Saturated 2 g); Cholesterol 8 mg; Sodium 580 mg; Carbohydrate 45 g; Fiber 10 g; Protein 12 g

 
Did you watch the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on TV last night? This photo is of  last year's beautiful tree (view more photos here)  I contemplated going to the ceremony but when I heard that President Obama was also in mid town Manhattan last evening, attending another event, I decided to wait another year.  I knew all the added security would make a very crowded event even more difficult to see.  I'll visit this year's tree as soon as I can -- I never miss seeing it!  Happy December 1st!
 
I'm adding this post to "Alphabe" Thursday on Jenny Matlock's blog -- the letter this week is "D" -- December's perfect soup! I'm also joining in on Foodie Friday on Designs By Gollum. Thanks to both blog hosts!

Did Shahrukh Khan quite get smudged for ‘Don 2′?

Did Shahrukh Khan quite get smudged for ‘Don 2′?: Obviously King Khan smilingly hopped into dirty waters and stayed in grimy environs in a prison for a vital succession for Don 2. While the picture's group is charmingly amazed with the superstar's graciousness,we think its no whoop dee doo!

The throws and group of Farhan Akhtar's Don 2 can’t quit spouting over Shahrukh Khan's unselfish state of mind. No, its not due to any demonstration of generosity on his part, but the effortless actuality that he affirmed every last trace of the pains that went together with his cool scalawag part with grace.

To start with, he developed a dingy whiskers and wore tousled bear-length hair for the picture. Incidentally, the superstar has expressed in discussions that developing facial hair is one of the toughest things to do for him. Second, King Khan bounced into sloppy waters, thought about messy stuns and shot in a veritable jail in the middle of legitimate-existence detainees for an imperative prison arrangement.

And then even then he didn’t whine, something that stars are generally known to do. From the get go, we too united the group of Don 2 in lauding the superstar's quietude and readiness to do afar with luxuries. Nonetheless, we updated our brains when we found out genuine truth.

Farhan shot at the decently-looked after Malacca jail on Malaysian soil, we found out the actual truth. Since you look at the promos, you will acknowledge that the Malaysian jail looks as excellent as an Indian mid-extend inn.

Had Farhan preferred to get his superstar to shoot in the dull, grimy and rat-invaded penitentiaries of a Third World nation, we could regard it a great deed! By the method aren’t tons of money worth a small grime? Anyway don’t you concur there is nothing to rave about in this matter?

Katrina Kaif playing item number Chikni Chameli

Katrina Kaif playing item number Chikni Chameli: Performer Katrina Kaif is situated to make hearts dribble with her move moves yet again.

This time, she could be perceived doing Marathi folkdance lavni in Karan Johar's following film Agneepath moving to the tune of article number Chikni Chameli.


Agneepath will have a remixed form of several Marathi lavni hymns--Mungda and Dhaga Laga.

Helen gave lavni an entire unique implication moving to the tune of Mungda tune. However film Sailaab did not do well at the container office, but Madhuri Dixit without a doubt made heads turn with her lavni move moves.

Trust, Katrina moreover makes the same buzz like Madhuri did. In this way, the creators of Agneepath are taking advantage of gritty move frame. But also, Katrina could unquestionably not baffle as she has been practising hard for it.

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, California

When my husband and I drove into the town of San Luis Obispo, California, on our trip north along the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to San Francisco, we immediately headed over to the Mission San Luis Obsipo de Tolosa.  We had enjoyed seeing other historical Missions along the coast, and we wanted to also visit this Mission which is often called the "Prince of Missions."  The Mission is located in the middle of downtown San Luis Obispo, at the corner of Monterey and Chorro Streets.

As the fifth California Mission founded by Father Junipero Serra, on Sept. 1, 1772, it was named after Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, France; a 14th century Franciscan. The Mission is located in a spacious valley along the central coast which the Spanish named "La Cañada de los Osos" (Valley of the Bears) when they discovered many grizzly bears living there. 

The Mission church is unusual in its design. it has a combination of belfry and vestibule and a long secondary nave to the right of the altar which forms an L-shaped church plan. It is a design not found in any of the other California Missions.

The interior of the Mission was restored back to it's original state in 1934, and it is still used as an active parish church.

The San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Mission has a museum that features a rare collection of early California photographs, authentic Serra relics and specimens of Chumash Indian craftsmanship.

I found this collage of early 1900's photographs of all the 21 California Missions very interesting. Notice how many were in rural locations and now those same Missions have had cities grow up around them. 

The San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Mission grounds were beautiful.  Notice the red tile roofs and the long grape arbor. Under the three bells that were on display (upper left corner of the collage) was a commemorative plaque explaining that the Mission's original bells were lost to time, but these bells were two second and one third generation of bells, called "Joy," "Gloria" and "Sorrow." All of the Mission's bronze bells were usually made in Lima, Peru. Being a bell ringer at the Mission was an honor and it took up to two years to learn the bell ringing craft, as there were complicated bell patterns used to wake the mission inhabitants in the morning, call them to mass and announce the beginning of the siesta. The last two bell ringers at San Luis Obispo did this job for over 60 years each!

The photo on the left of Ah Louis (Wong On), 1840 -1936 - a prominent historical figure who helped to build the town of San Luis Obispo, was in the Mission's museum.  His store is now a historical landmark. The bell located next to the store was donated by Howard Wong Louis, his son, in memory of his father.  Ah Louis was a Chinese American pioneer who founded his store in 1874 to serve as a grocery and merchandise store, employment office, bank post office and pharmacy.  The store was used by the Chinese laborers that were living in the area and working to dig the eight tunnels through the mountains of Cuesta for the Southern Pacific Railroad, from 1884 to 1894.

Our next stop was the third largest wine growing region of California, beautiful Paso Robles, where I was surprised again to be greeted by a statue that I have been fortunate enough to see in Florence, Italy, in Sonoma, California and in Sydney, Australia. Can you guess what it is? If not, I'll be showing it in an upcoming post. It definitely seems to be an unusual "good luck" charm for me!


I'm linking this post to the "Outdoor Wednesday" event on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer. Thank you, Susan!

Bigg Boss 5 Exclusive: Sunny Leone would like to close Katrina Kaif's rule?

Bigg Boss 5 Exclusive: Sunny Leone would like to close Katrina Kaif's rule?: Sunny Leone, the porn star has been making waves with her stint in Bigg Boss house. When she dropped in the house, the detainees had hundred issues in their brains, about who she was. Yet, the stunner figured out how to hold her legitimate character under the wraps and constructed a place for herself in folks' hearts.

Sunny has done porn pictures with the greatest flags in the USA, but she didn’t would like to disclose her personality to the Bigg Boss detainees. Thus, does this mean that the porn star is no more intrigued by her porn picture? Well, it appears that Sunny would like to dispose of her porn star picture at long last and cravings to work in respectable silver screen.

A greatly put root discloses, “The offices and supervisors of Sunny have begun funneled for respectable generation houses and makers, who make hybrid pictures. She feels a distinct desire to work in pictures which are shot in UK and have Asians in it like ‘Speedy Singh’s' and others.” The origin joins, “If Mahesh Bhatt is enthusiastic about throwing the character in ‘Jism 2’ or ‘Murder 3’, then she could elegantly receive the proposition and begin her profession with an A+ Bollywood picture.”

Sunny has a colossal fan taking after on the net and is confident that she has made enough fans in India simultaneously. The root joins, “Sunny knows that she has a considerable measure of fans in India. She is positive that in the event that she unites the industry, then she would effectively be able to overpower the topmost character from UK, who has constructed a huge name in Bollywood and is managing the case office." Apparently, the performer being referred to is none different than Katrina Kaif and figure Sunny is working hard towards close Katrina's superhit innings in Bollywood!

The origin facilitate unveils, “She moreover would like to be a part of actuality indicates and could adoration to accommodate young turned indicates on adolescent stations prefer MTV, Channel V, UTV Bindass and so forth.”

Sunny is a porn star and absolutely fixated on her look s and presence. Concerning the same, the causes explains, “Sunny would like to look after her figure, for which she has been keeping away from nourishment cooked in the Bigg Boss house. She has moved colossal product of makeup and gels to look great on TV.”

Well, it appears that Sunny has great arrangements to drop in B’town and is positively working difficult to compose her dreams work out.

Shahrukh and Katrina cast to hit stuns in Jan

Shahrukh and Katrina cast to hit stuns in Jan: Shah Rukh Khan is en route back home to invest time jokes when a marathon voyage timetable. Right now on a promotional spree for his upcoming picture, Don 2, the character vows he’ll come back to the studios in January following year to begin recording Yash Chopra's yet-to-be titled sentimental motion picture, which likewise offers Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma as spearheading women.

“When a mammoth promotional action for RA.One, I required the break to invest time jokes at home and doze in peace. Anyhow as the days go by, I’m reminded that I need to come back to the studios soon,” he grins. “It's not the embodiment of a undertaking if the chief is someone like Yash Chopra. It's a relentless sentimental film. We ought to be on floors by the second or third week of January, confidently. Yashji had truly easily told me, “Tu kuch dates January ki de pehle, phir aage ka arrangement karte hain. (Give us a few dates in January to begin with, then we’ll arrangement ahead)”

The character will first face the zoom lens with Katrina Kaif, and later be united in April by performing artist Anushka Sharma, who's right now advancing her fourth YRF motion picture Ladies V/s Ricky Bahl.

Soon following Yash Chopra advertised his come back to bearing at 79, his ensemble declared that the picture could be 2012's Diwali discharge.

Following RA.One, it will be SRK's second Diwali discharge in prolongation.

“I don’t mark a picture feeling that it will discharge on Diwali as well as on Christmas. In the event that my picture is worthy, it will have a heavenly box-office run, even depending on if it doesn’t open in the midst of a celebration. As filmmakers and actors, we target a celebration resulting from the fact that its in addition the siesta flavor and we would be able to have more clans dropping in film lobbies than on an expected weekend,” contends Shah Rukh. “Diwali has never baffled me.”

Don 2 sold for Rs 30 crore?

Accept it or not, simply a month before its discharge, SRK's sequel to his 2006 Don, has found a purchaser for its TV rights in Zee Network. The bargain, overall-put industry roots demonstrate, was fixed on Wednesday night amidst makers Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar and the bosses of Zee. Buzz is that SRK was the impetus for the bargain amidst the gatherings. The makers and the channel are supposedly seting the groundwork to maintain a figure amidst Rs 42 and 45 crore as the cost for the TV rights. Yet, our origin expresss the true figure paid is more or less Rs 30 crore just.

Vanessa Hudgens: Venice With Austin!

Vanessa Hudgens was spotted out in Venice, California.

The actress was joined by boyfriend, Austin Butler, for lunch at 26 Beach and a bike ride.

One Direction: "X Factor" Charity Single!

Hilary Duff's Day With Mike Comrie

Hilary Duff was spotted in Los Angeles, California.

The expecting actress was joined by her husband, Mike Comrie, for a day at the park.

Tweets from Amitabh & Abhishek for Aishwarya Rai's Baby

Tweets from Amitabh & Abhishek for Aishwarya Rai's Baby: The last Aishwarya Rai toddler news has more Twitter tweets reaching from Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan. They've newly tweeted about Beti B's name thoughts and the delights of being a guardian.

The Aishwarya Rai infant story has been practically larger than Bollywood recently. One of its extremely popular actors and the late pleased granddad, Amitabh Bachchan, has been tweeting up a storm on different kinds of points, with an incidental tribute to Beti B tossed in there. He freshly tweeted to the planet:

T 570-A host of guests for the child and the euphoria and favors they abandon ... much obliged to you. The name prescriptions continue going in ..

Then, Abhishek is in addition tweeting to fans and partners on Twitter. Newly, Uday Chopra of Maharashtra, India tweeted an enthralling inquiry to Abhishek:

@juniorbachchan braz! I'm gonna pose you a particularly Uday concern on twitter...Who do you adore more, Beti B or Ash?

This sounds such as a troublesome one to response, in light of the fact that it includes a spouse and father preferring betwixt wife or girl. Abhishek gave the politically shrewd response, tweeting back:

@udaychopra brada! I cherish Beti B in Aishwarya's arms the most.

Rai liquefy and the infant, once its more senior, likewise fondness her father considerably more. It's obvious that there is a great deal of bliss and fondness running around with the clan. There's moreover a mess of names spilling in on Twitter. Which name could be presented on Beti B? The Bollywood universe and rest of the universe endure to identify following month!

Aishwarya Rai's infant is most incredibly desired!

Aishwarya Rai's infant is most incredibly desired!: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has united the ranks of Hollywood famous people like Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez, whose infants were on the catalogue of the most exceptionally desired pictures by American tabloids and show biz star week by week magazines.

Indeed, there is buzz that a heading tabloid called the National Enquirer would like to get its active the initially, restrictive funneled of Beti B.

The Madonna Inn--It's All About PINK!

When I am on the road on a vacation I bring my laptop along to stay in touch as much as possible with my favorite blogs and to answer comments. Sometimes my computer time is limited, or Internet connections are slow, so I fall a little behind.  Luckily, I decided to catch up with Susan's Branch's wonderful blog the evening before my husband and I were going to drive up to the San Luis Obsipo. While browsing a few back posts on her blog, I came upon her description of the Madonna Inn on her "We Love Pink" blog post.  What a exceptionally fun place this is for anyone that loves the color pink!

The Madonna Inn, located at 100 Madonna Road, San Luis Obispo, opened for business in 1958. It quickly became a landmark on US Highway 101 in the Central Coast of California.  The Inn was created by Alex Madonna, a successful construction magnate and entrepreneur, with and his wife Phyllis.

The pink begins outside the inn, but it can hardly prepare you....

 ...for all the pink inside!

According to Susan Branch, "Mr. Madonna made the whole thing pink because he thought Mrs. Madonna 'looked good in pink.' "

The banquets are pink....

...the tables and chairs are pink...

 ...parts of the bar are pink

...the carpet and decorations are pink!

Almost everything is pink!

As Susan said in her blog post: "the men’s room downstairs is so interesting, there’s always a line of women waiting to get in to see it!"  No photo here, as I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, but it is one of the fun, quirky features of the inn you would want to see!

The fun does not end in the inn's lobby, men's room, Copper Cafe, Silver Bar, The Gold Rush Steak House Restaurant, or the attached bakery and pastry shop.  There are also 110 rooms, each decorated with a special theme.  If you go to this link you can see the whimsical names of the suites and a photo of how they are decorated. To continue the all pink theme, the room "Carin" was the one to choose, but there are many rooms in other colors available. One room, called "What's Left," is a patchwork of fabrics, carpet and wallpaper collected from other rooms.  If I had to chose, I thought Yosemite Rock was one of the nicest of the unusual rooms.  Which one would you chose?

Thanks, Susan, for letting us all know about the wonderful Madonna Inn!  I really enjoyed my visit!

I'm linking this post to:

 Pink Saturday 

 Mosaic Monday

Our World Tuesday

Many thanks to all the blog hosts!

Justin Bieber Films Christmas Special!

Justin Bieber was spotted at the Rockefeller Center in New York City.

The singer was joined by Usher & Busta Ryhmes while filming "Christmas In Rockefeller Center.

Robert & Kristen: Concert Couple

Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart were spotted out in London, England.

The "Breaking Dawn" couple headed to Dingwell's for a Marcus Foster concert.