Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Three Beautiful Things 03/03/15: Kidney Day Off, Calm Beltway, West African Peanut Stew

1.  I took it easy today.  I decided to go a couple of days before returning to the kidney stuff.  I need to make some calls, do some organizing and filing, get some things straight, but not today.  Yes, my kidney disease continues, but I took a day off from it, aside from enjoying and feeling grateful for the many messages I've received giving me encouragement about my visit to Baltimore yesterday.

2.  It was time for the dogs to come back home.  Molly and Hiram generously let Charly and Maggie stay with them while we went went to Baltimore and the drive down to Groveton and back on the Capital Beltway was really easy.  Traffic was steady, without incident or delay, and it was as if all of us out there had agreed to a pact that no one needed to get aggressive, we would let each other move to new lanes when need be, and we would keep things calm.  This general attitude prevails much more often than not on the Beltway and I'm very grateful.

3.  The Deke found a recipe called "West African Peanut Stew" and it looked like a good one for a sleetly, gray, late wintry day so I went to the Co-op and picked up a few things and made this stew. All I had to do was sautee some onion, garlic, and ginger, make five cups of chicken broth, season it with red pepper flakes, pour it over the stuff I just sauteed and boil and simmer the chunks of three sweet potatoes.  About ten or so minutes later I added a can of diced tomatoes, a cup of chunky peanut butter, and collard greens along with some leftover spinach leaves I had on hand.  Chicken was an option, but I kept it vegetarian.  The soup was out of sight.  We both loved the peanuty broth, the slight heat of the pepper flakes, and the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and the way certain bites reminded us more strongly than others that ginger had come to town.

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