35 days in europe and all i got is a bowl full of lentils

It's pretty difficult to recap such a tremendous vacation...a very incredible, exciting and best-vacation-ever kind of vacation (35 days worth of photos have been uploaded onto flickr, in case you are interested) into some kind of meaningful post. I'm afraid I can't do it justice. Cologne was great, as were Brussles and Brugges. Rotterdam was cool to the max and London was uber expensive but wonderful and I was so thankful to discover that all the major galleries and museums were free! We stayed 8 nights in Berlin and had a blast...it was our last stop on our European Vacation® that it was so hard to leave. Foodwise, the butter in Europe is amazing and I wished I could have smuggled over a pound or two...no wonder the babies in Europe seem so creamy! Favorite country? Hands down, Lithuania. Who knew? I mean it's my fatherland but I wasn't expecting too much. How wrong I was. The food was of the hearty peasant variety and I loved almost everything I put into my mouth. Really, how can you go wrong with bacon, sour cream, meaty dumplings, potato pancakes, and well, more bacon? Actually, not all the food we ate was traditional...we had some pretty wonderful international fare too. If I fell in love with a country on this trip, it was Lithuania that stole my heart. The photo above? From a bridge in the capital city of Lithuania, in the arty 'hood of Uzupis, where young lovers lock padlocks on the bridge and throw away the key into the river below as a symbol of their undying love. Romantic, no?


Now, with that teeny-tiny recap, it's on to the present. Well, last weekend to be exact. On Saturday I whipped together this plain ol' lentil salad to take over to a friend's house. Based on the recipe, I knew it would be good, but I didn't think it would be over-the-top wow. I was wrong. This is the kind of salad that I could eat for days on end and not get sick of. I made a few changes from Clotide's recipe, choosing to use canned lentils to save time and adding in some red onion and red peppers for extra crunch. Don't forget to add the red onion as it works so well with the crunch of the tart Granny Smith. All my friends raved. Enjoy!

apple, red onion and lentil salad
1 can of lentils, drained
1/4 red onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 Granny Smith apple, diced

dressing:
1 t ground cumin
1 t garlic powder
1 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste

In a medium sized bowl, gently toss together salad ingredients. Mix dressing and add over top salad. Gently toss and refrigerate for 2 hours to let flavours meld. Serve and eat.