The past two days were less about vacationing (as intended) than about taking a break from my routine and working from home. Still, it was pleasant enough to sleep in a little and not deal with a hellish commute.
Ugh, I sound like such a Pollyanna.
On Day 2 of my “vacation,” I decided a little cooking was in order and gave the Feisty Green Beans from 101 Cookbooks a whirl — with substitutions, of course. Since the main ingredient is out of season, I swapped in a head of cauliflower. Tofu was nixed because I just don’t keep it in the house if I’m not planning to make a specific recipe (usually from Simple Chinese Cooking).
Made according to the recipe otherwise, this dish was spicy enough for me to take notice, which was a very pleasant surprise. But the flavors reminded me enough of my chickpea and spinach curry to realize I’d probably prefer the more aggressive tang of the greek yogurt in that dish to the creme fraiche in this one. (Can’t say I’m anything less than thrilled to have a container of creme fraiche in the fridge now for snacking or dessert purposes, though. We’ll just see what the weekend brings on that front.)
The Saints game is about to start. As such, I have no time nor the presence of mind to write a real post, so I’ll leave you with a few pictures and a promise to do better next weekend. I’ve been creatively moribund since the holidays, but hope it’ll pass soon.
Got my gris-gris going first thing this morning with shrimp & grits. I hope the spirits aren’t too upset that my coffee lacked chicory.
And since it’s old home day, why not have a little old-fashioned banana pudding with Nilla Wafers? (I’ve been playing with the recipe I got from my mom, who got it at her wedding shower, but it’s not quiiiiite there yet. Will post it once it is.)
And on the topic of comfort foods, all I wanted last weekend was graham crackers and milk.
It’s been a pretty low-key weekend around here. I treated Gil to a birthday dinner at Marea Saturday night, but apart from that wonderful (fantastic! amazing! delightful!) experience, we’ve done a lot of lounging. (Which has been wonderful, etc. in itself, only in sweats, and with football.)
Ordinarily, we don’t let the guys on the furniture, but Otis adopted the fainting couch early on and really…how could we say no?
Ru, on the other hand, wouldn’t dream of setting paw to furniture (while we’re home), but prefers to use Otis as a pillow.
So…food. After such an exceptional dinner, I could barely consider cooking today and didn’t have the heart to attempt anything challenging. What would be the point? But still in need of sustenance as lunchtime rolled around, I made a vegetarian chili loosely based on Heidi’s Pierce Street Chili, adapting it to use ingredients already in my pantry. This turned out to be the perfect dish for our loungey weekend. I highly recommend the original recipe; it was probably the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever made.
Hope you all had a great weekend and managed to stay warm!
