Pi Date

We talked about making pie today, in fact, we talked about making two - one dinner pie, and one dessert pie, and then we completely forgot, even though James remembered that it was March 14 - pie (pi) day (3.14). I had already picked out a recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and James had bought the ingredients, so I just went ahead and made the Chickpeas with Potatoes and Tomatoes. The dish was cooked, and served, in our indespensible cast-iron skillet, so at least it was pie-shaped. The name of the dish leaves little room for surprise as to the main ingredients (2 cans rinsed garbanzo beans, 3 red potatoes, and a cup of diced tomato) but there is a bit more to this tasty, high fiber meal. I started by chopping one onion to sautee. To this I added two peeled and diced carrots, and 3 peeled and diced red potatoes and cooked for about 10 minutes. I added some red pepper flakes and 1 very large minced garlic clove, and sprinkled in some dried cilantro. The tomatoes and chickpeas were added along with a dash or salt and a twist of pepper from my pepper mill. Just before covering to simmer, I added a few splashes of water. It took about 20-25 minutes of simmering before the potatoes were fully cooked. Fresh parsley was thrown on top at serving time. This was pleasing to look at, hot and spicy to the taste, as well as satisfying. We paired this with some of our rye homebrew - a fine choice.

To top off the evening we re-watched a movie we saw for the first time about 13 years ago: Pi -a creepy black and white film about obession, numbers, the Torah, and insanity.