fuel for more work

Ooh, my sister just came back from the grocery store. That means I have capers for the dip, so I should get back to work. But since I’m not entirely sure if my legs will put up with me standing more, I guess I’ll consider this being “productive”. Oooh yay someone’s vacuuming the stairs, that means I’m trapped up here!

Before hosting a big event, there is usually a point where “meals” ends and “foraging” begins. Last night’s dinner was likely the last hurrah of meals, and it was a good one.

The setup: I have a recipe for pumpkin and spinach stew in Oriental Basics that I sort-of made once before and I sort-of made last night.

My fridge-cleaning ingredients:

1/2 onion, chopped
1.5 lb kabocha squash, peeled and chopped
1 tsp. berbere spice mix (leftover from the other week’s sambusas, where you can find a link to the spice recipe)
8 pitted dates, chopped
2 T or so tomato paste (finally finished the flippin’ jar- I wish my grocery store carried those wonderful, smart, tomato paste tubes! Who ever, EVER, needs a whole jar of tomato paste?!)
2 c or so frozen spinach

I sauteed the onions in olive oil until soft, then added the berbere and kabocha and sauteed a bit longer.

At which point I added the dates, tomato paste, spinach, and a cup or so of water. Brought everyone to a boil, covered, reduced heat, and let simmer for about 25 minutes until the squash was tender.

 

Fueled us through two and a half hours of church. I had never been to the Holy Thursday service, and it was gorgey and dramatic (and it was so long because they read all the gospels- it was like The Passion of the Christ without the Mel Gibson-ness) but man oh man had I mentioned I am BEAT?!

It was nice having leftovers, first because I got to photograph it in natural light:

And second because by the time I made this I wasn’t “I want delicious food in my mouth” hungry, I was “If I don’t get some glucose to my brain soon I’m going to pass out” hungry.

Normal people don’t pause at this point to photograph their food, but of course I am not normal people.

Along with:

  

Yogurt, apples, pecans, and cinnamon.

God I’m tired.

And yet this taco salad was quite possibly the best I’ve ever had and deserves documentation.

Greens, the last of the black bean taco filling, salsa, and SOY CRISPS!

Fellow soy crisps fans: my favorite part is on the ones where they have the little crunchy bits at the edge- yknow, where it’s not puffy but it’s sort of darker and crispier? Ohhhh yesss.

 

I mixed everything up, which made it hella ugly but ohhhh soooooo deliiiiiicious. The soy crisps and the salsa and the beans? Omgomgomg.

With the not at all matching but yummy sides of a date-nut muffin and a yogurt.

  

Part of what has caused this flurry of productiveness and wildly ambitious plans for the party and insane quantity of churchgoing is that my hardworking mama took the whole week off. Yay! We’ve been enjoying lunches parkside.