Lentil & Quinoa Soup

Rich, warm, and so delicious you’ll be fighting for seconds

I don’t care! Take me to the recipe! 

Winter is firmly here now, at least according to the calendar, so we’re dreaming of soups. Maybe not a super hearty soup though, since the weather is all over the place? Fortunately, we have this Moroccan-inspired lentil & quinoa soup to hit the spot. 

Ingredients: 

1 yellow onion

2 Tbsp roasted garlic paste

3 carrots

6 Tbsp  unsalted butter

2 ½ tsp sweet basil 

1 tsp cumin 

3 plum tomatoes

1 ¾ cup dried brown lentils

½ cup tri colored quinoa (or just  straight quinoa, but this adds flavor) 

3 cloves of garlic

½ cup full fat plain Greek yogurt 

Tools: 

Food processor

Chef’s knife

Cutting board

6-quart pot

-Grab your onion and chop it into rough dice.  Pop that into your food processor and give it a few pulses, until the pieces are roughly the size of your pinkie nail. 

-Set your stove to medium heat, put in 4 Tbsp of butter and allow that to melt. Once that’s done, toss in 2 Tbsp of roasted garlic paste (an example is Better Than Bullion) allow that to melt and disperse into the butter. Once that’s done, add your onion and allow that to begin cooking. You’re not looking for them just to turn transparent, you want them to actually soften during this process so that the flavor isn’t overwhelming later. 

-While your onion is cooking, grab your carrots and chop them up into large rounds, then toss them into the food processor. You want your carrot to be the same size as your onion, roughly. When that’s done, scrape the carrots into the pot, give it a few cracks of pepper, and a ¼ cup of water.  

-Mix together your sweet basil and cumin and stir into the pot.

- Back to the chopping block, grab your plum tomatoes and slice them into (roughly) 8 pieces. Toss them straight into the pot and stir occasionally as things cook for the next 5 minutes.  You’re looking for the tomatoes to being to lose their shape, and for the carrots and onions to soften.

-Add 7 cups of water to the pot, along with your lentils, quinoa, and a few cracks of pepper and 1 tsp of salt.  Add a lid to the pot and let it come up to a boil.  Once that’s done, uncover the pot and turn down the heat until it’s just at a gentle simmer. 

- Allow the pot to continue simmering until the lentils are tender, roughly 25 minutes, although it might be longer. 

- After roughly 15 minutes have passed, grab your garlic and mince it. Put that into a fresh frying pan with 2 Tbsp of butter on medium heat. Stir the mixture constantly. You want the outside of the garlic to begin to blacken, without it actually smelling or tasting burnt. It’s a really fine line, and we understand if you want to stop just when the garlic gets to a nice golden brown. At this point you can also add in a little bit of red pepper flakes, more sweet basil or white pepper. When the garlic is at your preferred stage of ‘done’, pull it from the heat and set it to the side. You don’t want it to continue cooking. 

-Once your lentils are soft, turn off the heat and dish up the soup. Add a dollop of Greek yogurt to each dish and some of the garlic butter on top. Mix everything together and enjoy for a delicious meal. 

-Even with the garlic paste added, it doesn’t have a ton of depth or texture, until you add in the yogurt and garlic and mix it all together. It’s when all the pieces are together that you get the magic. 

What did you think? Do you have a way to make the recipe even better? Did your family love it? (Ours did, we were shocked!) Did they hate it? (We’ve all got recipes like that.) Let us know over on our Facebook page, as always, we love to hear from you about how your adventures in the kitchen turn out. 

If you’re wondering what an appliance repair company is doing talking about soups and recipes, don’t worry, you didn’t land on an alternate blog. Appliance Rescue Service is still here to fix your appliances and make them as good as new. Whether it’s your dishwasher or your dryer, your stove or your ice maker, we’re here to help. Just give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or set up an appointment on our page, and we’ll work with you to get your home running again. 

Additional Reading:

Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup - If you need something a little heartier, this is just as easy to make, and just as delicious.

5 Must Have Kitchen Essentials for Fall

5 Kitchen Tools From The Future

What Food Engineers Are Coming Up With Today Can Be In Your Kitchen Tomorrow

Table of Contents:

Fromaggio Smart Cheesemaker

CocoTerra Tabletop Chocolatier

Barsys 2.0 Cocktail Machine

LG Snow White Ice Cream

Mycusini Chocolate 3D printer 

kitchen. We’ve got all sorts of fun food and drink based tools that you might see in your home kitchen over the next few years. From chocolates, to drinks, to ice cream and cheese, we’re taking a look into the future to see what food engineers are coming up with. 

Fromaggio Smart Cheesemaker 

Say you have a dinner coming up, and you want to offer up baked brie and fresh mozzarella to your guests. You’re also thinking about some chevre for a salad that you want to serve. Unfortunately for you, your local shop doesn’t carry any brands that you like. What’s worse, it’s difficult to ship cheese, especially when you’re trying to get it to Texas in the summer. You don’t want to go without the cheese course, so what about making your own? The Fromaggio Smart Cheesemaker connects to an app to create almost any type of cheese you can request. It sits on your table and works away while you go on with your life. You can make everything from chevre to yogurt, and many other cow and goat milk cheeses as well. Some cheeses are even able to be made within an hour. According to Fromaggio, the machine is capable of making up to 2lbs of soft cheese or 1lb of hard cheese in a single cycle, for less than it would cost you at the store. 

If you’re interested in purchasing your own, Fromaggio is taking pre-orders now, with it estimated to ship in April of 2022. 

CocoTerra Tabletop Chocolatier

Not interested in cheeses? What about chocolates? Then you might be interested in the CocoTerra Tabletop Chocolatier. This wonderful tool handles all of the steps needed to make chocolate using the connected mobile app. Whether you’re looking to make specific shapes, or you want to blend your own chocolates, it’s possible with the CocoTerra. The app has many different recipes available for you to begin to learn how to make chocolates, allowing you to exclude ingredients for those with allergies, or to emphasize flavors. In two hours you can make any type of chocolate you can dream up. What’s better is that although the company does offer ingredients and even decorations, you’re not restricted to shopping through them. You can purchase materials from anywhere to make your chocolates.  Roughly half a pound of chocolate can be made at one time, which with custom chocolates would be a wonderful night’s feast. 

Although we’re note certain when CocoTerra is going to move to mass production, they are offering pre-orders right now hoping to deliver in the Winter of 2022.

Barsys 2.0 Cocktail Machine

It’s been a long day, and all you want is a Negroni. It’s been one of those days. You don’t want to mix it yourself, you really just want it ready for you when you walk in the door. Fortunately, you know that you set up your Barsys Cocktail Machine earlier that day. All you have to do is pull up the Barsys app on your phone and tell it to make it for you when you park in the drive and it will be ready by the time you get inside.
The Barsys is an alternative to having to memorize tons of different recipes, or being uncertain of how much you need of this or that. You can put in up to 5 bottles of liquor and 3 different mixers to create all sorts of drinks in 15 to 30 seconds. 

In the interests of full disclosure, we do have to talk a bit about some of the flaws with the Barsys. According to many different sources the Barsys app is buggy and lags when processing requests. It’s also been said that the machine does leak during the mixing process. While these are problems that might deter you from purchasing right now we would still suggest keeping an eye on the company. 

If you’re interested in purchasing it you can grab it here from Barsys. 

LG Snow White Ice Cream 

Think about your friend’s Keurig machine. You insert a pod, and out comes coffee. Now imagine if you will that it’s summer, and you can press a button and get ice cream instead. Insert any combination of flavor and ice cream pods into the LG Snow White and get back a dizzying array of ice cream options. Currently, the flavor pods are expected to include a wide range of common ice cream flavors, and the pods for type will feature ordinary soft-serve, alongside more uncommon types such as gelato and custard.  Although we don’t currently have pre-order possibilities or even a launch date, we do know that the testing is going very well and we should see more news as the next year or two goes on. 

Mycusini Chocolate 3D printer 

Rounding out our list, we’re taking a very different look at chocolates in comparison to the CoCoTerra. This offering from Mycusini allows you to build complicated, edible structures in your own kitchen. Want to make that wonderful chocolate peacock you saw in a magazine? You can. 

In contrast to the CoCoTerra, the Mycusini only works with specific types of chocolate, so your ability to use it is limited to the availability of the Mycusini chocolate. The machine does come preloaded with several designs, but they do offer the ability to design and load even more through their Mycusini club. 

There are two different versions of the Mycusini, as of writing. The Mycusini 1.0 features a 105mm by 80mm printing area with a maximum height of 50mm (4.1in by 3.1in, 1.9in height)

The Mycusini 2.0 features a 90mm by 90mm square printing area, and updates the original design by having a more robust, enclosed build, and a larger and more user-friendly touch screen display.

Both of them have the ability to use SD cards to download new designs and templates. 

If you’re interested in getting a Mycusini for your home to experiment with you can get them here, along with supplies, and other accessories. 

The future is full of interesting and surprising possibilities, including the future of your kitchen. Some of these are already available, while others are still in the testing phases and will hopefully come in the near future. All of them are likely to get better with each new iteration. Which kitchen tool of the future are you most excited by? Which one do you think is a bad idea? Let us know over on our Facebook page, we’d love to hear from you. 

If on the other hand, you’re dealing with the very real present where you’ve got issues with your current kitchen appliances, we can help! Give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or set up an appointment on our webpage and we can help you, no need to wait for the distant future.  At Appliance Rescue Service we’re here to help you, now and in the future. 

Additional Reading: 

Cutting Edge Appliance Concepts of the Future

Top 5 Craziest Smartphone Capable Appliances

9 Kitchen Gadgets You Don’t Need

Very Peri - The Color of 2022

Red & blue, bright and soothing, a color of contradictions.

Welcome to 2022 everyone! We’re taking a look at Pantone’s Color of the Year and how you can bring it into your home.

 This year’s color is a first for Pantone in their 28-year run. Instead of going with already existing colors, they created a new one. The color of the year for 2022 is Very Peri “Very Peri is a  new red-violet infused blue hue.” Pantone said that they created the color because “Creating a new color for the first time in the history of our Pantone Color of the Year educational color program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place. As society continues to recognize color as a critical form of communication, and a way to express and affect ideas and emotions and engage and connect, the complexity of this new red-violet-infused blue hue highlights the expansive possibilities that lay before us”.” We think it’s going a bit much for the color terms, but it’s a beautiful color. A beautiful mix between red and blue, and it’s surprisingly soothing, while also making us feel rather playful? It’s a confusing color, but pleasing. We can see it being used almost anywhere, primarily in terms of fabrics and accent walls. We could even see it in a child’s playroom or nursery. 

Pantone

What about the colors that Very Peri pairs with though? No color exists by itself, so what does VP pair with? Fortunately, Pantone has given us several very different palettes. 

The first one, Balancing act, is a very aptly named palette. It’s a balanced palette with both cool tones and warm tones, making each one pop in different ways. There are four neutral roses in the palette that we can see being used for carpets and furniture, with the two greens, very peri and the clay color, being used for different pops of color in a room. Alternatively, we could see the walls being painted in the different roses, with very peri being used for an accent wall. 

Pantone

Our next palette is called Wellspring. This one is full of lush greens, blues, and purples, with the wild card “dirty chai’ thrown into the mix. This one we see not so much for a living room, but for a personal office, although we would say to stick to neutrals for your flooring. Unless you want to do one of these strong colors? Then we say go for it, but we’ll leave it to you.  We love this rich mix of colors, very reminiscent of a day in the garden, which is why we could see it working in a personal office. Use the different colors and their vibrancy to encourage you to reach your max every day. 

Pantone

Our third palette is Star of the Show, and that is exactly what very peri is in this palette. This time we’re looking at a mix of different true neutrals, creams, browns, greys, and black. This palette would work almost anywhere. You would end up using the neutrals of the palette over everything, from the wall, to the floor, to the furniture. Then you bring back in very peri to make everything pop. That color could be used anywhere you wanted to bring interest. A doorway, behind a picture gallery, highlighting the prime focus of the room, whatever. 

Pantone

Our final palette, at least directly from Pantone, is called Amusements. This one is full of bright, eye-popping colors that we think (hope?) is really going to be left to the clothing industry. These colors are so bright that we can see how people are going to love them, but we also are uncertain how many companies will put out items in these colors. (Although we will include a link to our article involving vinyl wraps for your appliances down below.) 

Pantone

So that’s the color of the year for 2022! What do you think? Where do you plan to use it in your homes? Do you like the color at all? We’re still trying to figure it out for ourselves, but we want to hear from you. Let us know your thoughts on the color and its coordinating color palettes over on our Facebook page. As usual, we’d love to hear from you! 

If on the other hand you got lost on our page because you were looking for help with your appliances, you are actually in the right space. We can help you whether you’re looking for someone to fix your washing machine or your dishwasher, your stove, or your refrigerator, we can help. You can set up an appointment on our webpage or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055). 

Comparing 3 Different Leaf Blowers

How do you best deal with the leaf invasion?

With winter just now coming into season, many people are finally getting to rest, not having to rake up piles upon piles of fall leaves. No matter how much fun the piles of leaves are to fall into, they can be a hassle to clean up. Thankfully for those with a variety of trees in their yards, there’s a wide variety of leaf blowers for almost any budget, and a few different types to suit your individual needs.

Generally, there are three types of leaf blower: Plug-in, battery powered, and gas-powered.

Plug-in leaf blowers tend to be the smallest and least powerful options, but are also the most budget friendly by far, with many good options coming in below one hundred dollars in price. That being said, they do come with the issue of cord length limitations. But, for the budget, they’re hard to beat.

Battery powered models are the next step up in size, power, and price, and have free reign to go wherever you do with no worries about cords. Now, don’t worry about spending a fortune on D batteries for these - new models are designed by power tool companies to take the same rechargeable batteries used for things like hand drills!

The final, and largest, type of leaf blower is gas-powered. They tend to weigh the most, but have the absolute most power compared to other models. These are very common options for professional landscapers, but are also a very popular choice for those with larger properties to clean up. Excellent for dealing with large amounts of leaves, but with a hefty price point - not factoring in the cost of gasoline and oil for it. 

An additional consideration is the configuration of your leaf blower. Generally, the most common option is a handheld leaf blower, and for most people, this option will do just fine. However, some very large models come in a backpack configuration, allowing more comfortable shouldering of the weight while offering more power than their handheld counterparts, albeit at a higher price.

First - Plug-in model -

Black & Decker 7 amp 180mph corded leaf blower

Price at time of writing - $30.00

Our first recommendation is a small four and a half pound machine produced by black and decker at a nigh on unbeatable price point for the quality. Pretty serious power for its size and price, this is a great choice for homes that don’t need a large leaf blower to handle things come fall.

WRITER'S CHOICE OPTION

Second - Battery powered model

Greenworks 24V 90/130 MPH Dual Speed Cordless Leaf Blower

Price at time of writing - $80.00

Our next pick is a bit more pricey but comes with quite a bit of extra utility. While it isn’t quite as fast as the corded model, this is a far more mobile option, and best of all comes with a rechargeable battery capable of being used with any other GreenWorks power tools and garden tools! This is an excellent choice for those of you making use of GreenWorks tools, and for those of you with a larger area to go over without necessarily needing something gas-powered to handle things.

Third - Gas-powered model

Husqvarna 125B handheld leaf blower

Price at time of writing - $180.00

The third recommendation we have, for a bit of a larger budget, is one made by a company most well known today for their motorcycles. That being said, the 28cc gasoline engine in this handheld leaf blower delivers excellent power and solid mobility for the size. Overall, a very impressive leaf blower, and an excellent choice for those needing power to handle a very large area. Now, we must warn you - The cost of this option is not just upfront with the leaf blower itself, but also with the cost of gasoline and oil to mix in for its tiny two-stroke engine. That being said, the power can’t be beaten.

Fourth - Backpack leaf blower

Husqvarna 150BT backpack leaf blower

Price at time of writing - $300.00

Our largest and most expensive option on this list, another offering from Husqvarna. Backpack leaf blowers are more common to see in the hands of professional landscaping crews for businesses and people’s homes, but they’re an excellent option for people with massive areas to de-leaf every fall. These provide the absolute most power, but are also the absolute priciest, and for smaller properties, can really be overkill. 

These are the general types of leaf blower, and a few good examples of each. Options range well with price as well as size, to suit whatever needs your home has. Of course, any option works for any size property, but it is never a bad idea to consider your needs versus what options you have. We would love to hear what choice you made, as well as what comments you have on these offerings. Feel free to comment here, or go over to our Facebook page to talk to us about it, and if you notice any problems with your appliances, feel free to give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or schedule an appointment here on our website!

Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup

Warming, delicious and surprisingly easy to put together!

I don’t care! Take me to the recipe!

Few things can help warm someone up in winter like a nice hot soup, and rarely will anyone object to soup, even with the veggies in it. That is exactly why we chose it for this week’s recipe. With a delightful vegetable stock and some baked chicken to complement it, this makes an excellent choice for a medium effort meal for lunch or dinner.

Some recipes take a little bit of work to get just right, and bouncing ideas off of other cooks is never a bad idea. That certainly happened with this recipe, where different ways to get the vegetable stock just right were debated with our not-so-resident cooking friend until we settled on this particular version. The biggest question was whether to blend everything, or only the broccoli and cauliflower. We hope all the conversation has produced something quite delicious for you to enjoy.

Things you'll need:

Ingredients

• Broccoli 

• Cauliflower 

• Carrots

• Celery

• White Onion

• 3 Tbsp Butter

• Roasted garlic bullion (or similar)

• One rotisserie chicken

Equipment: 

• Vegetable knife

• Cutting board(s)

• Chef's Knife

• Large Pot

• Blender

You will want to start off by chopping up your carrots, celery, and onion. For the carrots and celery, aim to do smaller pieces, maybe one to two centimeters in size. For your onion, go ahead and mince it and aim for a roughly similar size, if possible. Place these into a bowl separate from the other ingredients, and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Moving on to the broccoli, you will want to hold it upside down and chop off the florets a few pieces at a time. You’re aiming for pieces roughly an inch and a half long. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be left with a fairly long and bare stem. Go ahead and chop the stem into pieces roughly half an inch long. Now, repeat the same general process with your cauliflower. Once that has been completed, go ahead and place them into a separate bowl from your other vegetables, sprinkle in any salt and pepper you deem necessary, and give them a toss to help more evenly mix and spice everything.

Next, get your pot and put it on medium heat on the stove. Put in your butter and allow it to melt. Once it is melted, put in the garlic bullion and thoroughly mix it until it is a single, smooth texture. Once that has been done, add in the celery, carrots, and onion, allowing them to become softened. The biggest thing you’re looking for is when the onions begin to turn clear.

Once your onions have become transparent, add in the broccoli and cauliflower, along with a cup of water, and turn the heat down to a nice simmer. You want the broccoli and cauliflower to become soft, easy to push a fork into, but not squishy and “dead” feeling.

Now, strain out all of your vegetables and put them into your blender, adding in a cup of the broth they were in. Next, add in an additional five cups of water to your pot, and mix up the remaining stock.

Start pulsing your vegetables, slowly working your way up until you have a puree. You want a smooth consistency at this stage. Once you’ve done that, you will want to mix the puree back into the pot. From there, go ahead and give it a quick taste to see how you like it. Add spices as needed, or, leave it alone if you think it’s already good to go.

Next, take out your rotisserie chicken, and cut off whatever sections you think would be best with this soup. Our recommendation is to cut the meat off of the breast, since it tends to provide some excellently tender meat. An additional area to consider would be the thigh, as it tends to provide a similar quality of meat, but may take a little more work to cut off of the bird. We chose to chop this chicken up into strips, but cubes of meat would also work very well. Put this in with your soup, and it is ready to serve.

We hope you find this to be quite a delectable soup. While this recipe calls for chicken, the vegetable stock could be paired with other things, and we would love to hear about any ideas you have with this recipe! Feel free to tell us about your opinion of this recipe, and any modifications you make, in the comment section here, or over on our Facebook page! We’d love to hear from you, and if you have any issues with your appliances while cooking, feel free to give us a call or hop over to our appointments page.