soup in a big, pretty pot.

Recently, with the holidays approaching, I've become obsessed with making everything pretty. And without giving too much of my holiday gift-giving away, I've become equally obsessed with the Japanese art of furoshiki, in which you wrap something in a reusable cloth (tea towels are perfect for this!) instead of gift wrap. It's so wabi-sabi, so ordinary but extraordinary all at once.

All that to say, I love tea towels. Somehow, tea towels make everything more beautiful. This amazingly gorgeous pot of mine is made more lovely just with the simple (and extremely useful) addition of a tea towel. Quick note: this trick is great for transporting any hot dish with handles! Just thread the towel through each handle, and you've got built-in heat protection with a touch of charm.

I had promised a homemade dinner to my grandmother, and when I told her I'd be bringing "super-healthy lentil soup," she may or may not have mentioned that she could order pizza.

Since we've recently converted to health nuts at our house, I decided to try this lentil soup recipe from Heidi Swanson over at 101 Cookbooks. Her recipes always incorporate whole eating, and as she says in her post about this particular soup, it's chock-full of veggie protein, a little dairy, healthy greens, and tomatoes. Indeed, super healthy. It was unbelievably easy to whip up on a weeknight and, with the tea towel lending a hand, made for safe travel over to my grandma's house.

This makes enough to feed 8; surprisingly, after doling out seconds and leftovers to my sister and aunt, the soup was all gone. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I had to use spinach as the green (forgot to buy kale or chard and the garden hasn't grown anything just yet) and served it with a little bit of sauteed butternut squash, which rounded it out for a lovely winter meal.

Yeah. Stay tuned next week when I tell you about the split pea soup extravaganza. I know you're excited! (And I promise to tell you about the season's best beer bread, too.)