Split Pea: The Sequel

Evening, friends!  Hope your Saturday was a great one! 

This afternoon, the weather was just TOO beautiful to ignore, so I downloaded a Compassionate Cook podcast and headed out for a nice, long walk.  I walked for about an hour.  It was a wonderful, sunny day!  If all of January and February were like today, I’d be a happy chicken.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be the case.

Around five, Ryan and I had “happy hour,” aka white wine and Somersaults.  I am really digging these little crackers…I’ll be sad when I’m out, because I haven’t seen them anywhere else!

Around 6:15, we headed into the kitchen to “make” some dinner…aka, reheat the leftover split pea soup from Thursday night!  Like most soups, this one seemed to have gotten even better over time.  With the soup, we had a few big, crusty pieces of a loaf of whole wheat bread that Ryan picked up while he was out.  Perfection!

The bread was perfect for dipping!

I went back for seconds on both!

We just finished watching Far From Heaven—have you seen this movie?  I really enjoyed it.  It was very sad…but the visual elements, especially the colors used in the film, were just striking.  I remember wanting to see it when it first came out (2002), but it was one of those movies that I just kept forgetting about.  We finally added it to our Netflix queue a few weeks ago, and I’m really glad we did!  I love the suburban culture of the 1950’s and 60’s, and I even teach a unit on suburbia in my class.  In the past, I’ve shown Pleasantville or American Beauty during the unit, but this one would be a great portrayal of suburbia as well.

Anyway…sorry for the boring repeat meal tonight!  To make it up to you, I’ll share a recipe that my friend Elyssa (of Fancy Pantalons) shared with me a few days ago:

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Hi Anna,

I just whipped up my lunch/dinner for today, and it was so easy (with such a great payoff) that I wanted to share it with you.

1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I use freeze dried garlic)
3 Tb. red curry paste
1 can sweet potato or pumpkin puree
1 can coconut milk
1 bag fresh baby spinach (any greens would work here)
1 can Great Northern beans (another type of bean would work, too)
salt, to taste
ground cayenne (optional)
ground cloves (optional)

Sautee onion and garlic in butter or olive oil and red curry paste in large wok for several minutes. Add sweet potato/pumpkin puree and coconut milk and mix. Add spinach and beans. Simmer for 15 minutes until liquid reduces slightly. Add 1 pinch of cayenne, ground cloves, and salt to taste. Serve over rice or pasta.

Yields: a LOT! I have enough for several meals, as it made enough to go with a whole package of pasta.

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Yum!  I can’t wait to make this myself…thanks for sharing, Elyssa!

For full disclosure, you should know that I watched Far From Heaven while eating a large bowl of coconut milk cookie dough ice cream…which is exactly why we can’t keep stuff like that in the house!  NO will power when it comes to ice cream!

Hope you’re having a good night.  We’re going over to our friends’ house tomorrow for a pancake breakfast…yum!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Night!