a peek inside the fishbowl

I am not artful when it comes to spreading the cilantro, but it still looks pretty.

 This is a great recipe for fall lunches! It’s one of those imprecise, fly-by-the-seat of your pants kind of recipes, but don’t let that scare you.

You will need:

• a splash of oil
• an onion
• a couple of garlic cloves, minced
• a knob of ginger, chopped into bitty pieces
• a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
• a can of chickpeas
• tumeric
• ground coriander seed
• curry paste
• lemon juice
• garam masala
• cilantro (optional)

Heat up some oil in a large pot. Chop a mid-large onion in chunk-ish pieces and put it in the pot. Add your chopped knob or two of ginger and add to the pot too.

Add garlic, and sprinkle in enough turmeric to thoroughly coat. Cook until onion is softened, about five minutes. Add a 28oz can of diced tomatoes and 2tb of ground coriander seed. Simmer for 7-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain and rinse a can of chickpeas (I used a 14oz can for this batch). Once tomatoes are cooked, add drained chickpeas, a cup of water, and a couple of spoonfuls of Pataks Mild Curry Paste (to taste). Cook for about 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add another 1/2 cup of water if desired, to get the consistency you prefer. Remove from heat and add 2-3tb lemon juice, 2tb garam masala, and as much fresh cilantro as you like. Serve with rice. Or not.

The blog has been down since at least 2:30 this morning.*

I don’t know what happened. Perhaps it was a contest-related traffic overload? :)

I do know that I’m finally up and running again, and I am once again reminded that I need to figure out how to make a backup of this site in case something goes really wrong.

* Why was I trying to log in here at 2:30 a.m.? I was up with Sarah, that’s why. At around 2 a.m. I was woken up by someone in bathroom. This in itself is highly unusual. No one in the family is in the bathroom at that hour. I didn’t know who it was until I saw Sarah float by my door with her little blue SPÖKA. (It paid for itself right there.) Twenty minutes later she called me. She was burning up. I stayed with her until she fell asleep, but then I wasn’t able to fall back asleep until around 4:00.

I figure it will hit me around 3:00 this afternoon. As for Sarah, she’s home with me today. Poor thing. She’s so unhappy.

As I mentioned in the last post, I decided to do a random draw for the winner of the HP printer/scanner instead of collecting a group of judges and trying to decide which we liked best.

There were so many sweet photos – so many sweet faces. Thanks you everyone for submitting your photos!

The winner is ….

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