Cumin-Scented Samosas with Mint Raita

Yes, while the rest of the country cooked burgers on the grill, I made Indian food. I can't help but feel that a true foodie would have done the burgers, but perhaps used Kobe beef and put something unexpected in the potato salad... It was the wrap-up to a surpassingly gorgeous day, hot and clear, the sort of weather event planners pray for. We went to Elm Park in the morning, put on the year's first sunscreen, and spent a pleasant hour and a half there. A couple of herons ignored us magnificently, and I actually saw one catch a fish. There were surprisingly few people, but perhaps things livened up in the afternoon.

L.'s very big on water right now, and mostly what she wanted to do was sit by the pond and throw gravel into it, or get a stick and pretend to be fishing. Eventually we tired ourselves out and went home to relax for a while. JJ made this difficult; he has a bit of a cold and is having a hard time getting down to sleep, making for an intermittently cranky baby. I made bread, D and L went out to run errands, I leafed through recipes, and eventually it was time to start dinner. Since it was supposed to be warm, and I was figuring on having a fair amount of time to muck around in the kitchen, I'd settled on a couple of new recipes.

I love samosas, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure since I'm sure that they're just plain terrible for me. I had never made them at home, either, assuming them to be difficult. The recipe from last night deals handily with both of those by using phyllo dough for a wrapper, and the results are baked rather than fried - a handy little package to fold up and to eat, the filling so good that I was eating it out of the bowl for a good part of the afternoon. I'd really be tempted to make a smaller version of these for a party, since they're easy to eat out of hand. I've never used phyllo before, but it turned out to be quite easy to work with.

Cumin-Scented Samosas with Mint Raita

I made them without the raita because there was no mint to be had, and as a side dish for a curried pea frittata with fresh tomato chutney (Bon Appetit). I didn't want to have two menu items that included peas, so for the frittata I used some sweet peppers I needed to use up instead. The chutney made what would otherwise have been a so-so egg dish (partly because I overcooked it, admittedly) a standout.