Her passions lie elsewhere, in her music. You’ll have to excuse a little proud mama moment, but Cole had an opportunity a few months ago to record two of the (many) songs she has written over the past year at Robert Lang Studios. This all came about because her vocal coach, Andrew Vait, was able to get her studio time & some studio musicians to sit in with her. What an amazing experience it was to watch her in the studio (the same studio that Death Cab for Cutie was recording in the night before). This week, we got the tracks back from the studio. Cole has posted them to her MySpace Music page, along with some of her other home-recorded work. She’d love it if you took a listen!

Anyway, back to the food. We made a delicious lentils salad (recipe below) which couldn’t be simpler, along with my family’s marinara sauce, Italian bread, chicken cacciatore, Nancy’s pasta, “Carli” cake and butter tarts. Simple and delicious food that was so fun to share with her.

Quick Lentil Salad

Boil lentils (I like to use the small French lentils) in salted water (about a 1:4 ratio of lentils to water) for about 20 minutes or until they are just tender. You may need to keep adding water so the pot doesn’t go dry.

While those are cooking, make a fine dice of carrot, green pepper, celery and shallot. Fresh herbs if you have any.

Make a quick viniagrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar (or champagne vinegar), 2:1 ratio, with a little salt and pepper and maybe a pinch of dijon mustard if you’d like. Mix well.

Drain the lentils, and rinse in cool water briefly. Drain again. Dump in the veggies and dressing, and then add a bit more salt and pepper to taste.