Chickpea Curry

You know those recipes that you try once and keep making year after year? This chickpea curry is one of those recipes for me. I recently came across it in the very back of my recipe folder and couldn't believe that I had totally forgotten about it! I hadn't made this curry in forever, so I quickly remedied that by cooking up a batch over the weekend.

Chickpea Curry
Slightly adapted from The Kitchn
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 clove of garlic
1/2 t peppercorns
1/2 t whole coriander seeds
2 T vegetable oil
1 T red curry powder
2 cups sliced potatoes (sweet potatoes work also)
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups water (or stock)
2 cups cauliflower florets
14 oz can fire roasted chopped tomatoes
14 oz can full-fat coconut milk
14 oz can chickpeas
2 T tamari (or soy sauce)
1 T fish sauce (optional)
1 T honey or agave
2 cups cooked brown rice

Directions:
1) With a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic, peppercorns, and coriander seeds into a paste. Heat the oil in a dutch oven on medium high to high heat (you want the oil very hot when you add in the paste). Fry the garlic mixture and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add curry powder and fry another 30 seconds.
2) Add the potatoes and carrots and stir to combine with the spices. Pour in the water and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cauliflower, tomatoes, coconut milk, chickpeas, tamari, fish sauce, and honey.
3) Bring mixture to a simmer and continue cooking until the vegetables are done, about 15 minutes. Serve the curry over brown rice with a good bit of Sriracha on top for added heat.

The balance of sweet and heat in this dish is what makes it so delicious and interesting. If you can handle it, I suggest adding plenty of Sriracha on top for even more heat! Even more than the flavor, what I love best about this curry is that there are plenty of leftovers to eat for lunch the rest of the week. The mixture gets even better as it sits, so the curry tastes great for up to five days after it is cooked. I haven't frozen it before, but I think it would freeze well. Such a versatile dish!

And a side note - do you have a rice cooker? I have always botched rice when cooking it on the stovetop (too sticky and gummy - yuck!) so I decided to get a rice cooker and I love it! The brown rice for this dish was cooked perfectly and I didn't have to mess with another pot on the stove. I'm hooked!

~Tammy

Frugal-ish Finds

Last week on my birthday, David said we could do whatever I wanted. I thought about some of my favorite things and decided I wanted to get sushi for lunch then hit up an antique shop. I could spend hours browsing thrift stores and antique shops, so I was happy that David indulged me a bit. I normally keep it pretty frugal, but since I had some birthday money from my generous mother-in-law I splurged ever so slightly.

My most expensive item was the set of pink bowls from the 1950s. Last time we were at the antique shop I noticed them, but the $15 price tag stopped me from picking them up. It was a little more than I wanted to spend. But this time since I had some extra money and they were still there, I went for it! I tried to get the clerk down to $10 for the set, but he wouldn't budge. So I happily handed over the $15.

My glass jelly jar was $5, and each small jello mold tin was $1. The ice cream scoops were $3 each and I just had to pick them up because I have had ice cream on the brain recently! I can't wait to make some and scoop it into my pretty pink bowls. I basically got each of these items because of how well I thought they would photograph with food!

I am always on the lookout for anything chicken related, so I was excited to find this sweet little figurine for $2. It does have a hole in top that would probably fit a tapered candle, so it also serves a practical purpose as well as just being so darn cute.

As was the case last time I brought home some frugal finds, Gizmo couldn't wait to see what I picked up.

I think he approves!

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday: Beautiful Light

Welcome to our "Feathered Friend Friday" series. Each Friday I write a post with facts, photos, or stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the FFF posts here.  

In the summertime, I am constantly taking photos of our chickens. Bright green grass and colorful flowers provide such a gorgeous backdrop to all my pictures. And the chickens just look so darn pretty in the middle of a lush summertime landscape!

This winter has been so stark that I have struggled with taking my camera out to the coop. The past few weeks I've just felt completely uninspired by the lack of color and freezing temperatures. I really missed snapping shots of my girls and boys, so I was searching for any bit of inspiration when this happened.

I noticed the most beautiful light streaming in through the "hay room" where everyone gathered to get a drink and bite to eat early one morning after being let out of the coop. I immediately sprinted back inside the house (careful not to slip on the ice) and grabbed my camera so I could get a couple shots.

One of my favorite things about photography is how I've learned to see things differently and take time to notice what I used to just glance over in my haste. Now I am constantly finding beauty in unexpected places and I feel such a rush when I can capture something in a way that makes others see the beauty in it as well.

So in the dead of winter I may not have a colorful landscape to inspire me, but now I know that if I just keep my eyes and mind open, the light will always find its way back in.

~Tammy

Shared with Maple Hill Hop 

The Perfect Chocolate Birthday Cake

Someone around here has a milestone birthday this week (it's me!) so over the weekend we had some of our best friends over to celebrate. It was my kind of celebration - yummy snacks, good friends, delicious cake, and some awesome gifts. I even got a happy birthday serenade accompanied by David on the ukulele.

The centerpiece of any good birthday celebration is the cake, and I knew exactly which cake I wanted for my birthday. We've always celebrated birthdays in my family with chocolate cake, and this is the absolute best recipe I've found for the perfect chocolate birthday cake.

Perfectly Chocolate Birthday Cake
Recipe slightly adapted from Hershey's

Ingredients:
For the cake -
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 1/2 t instant espresso powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I use soy or almond milk)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 t vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

For the frosting -
1 stick of butter
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk (I use soy or almond milk here as well)
1 t vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour your baking pan of choice (I used a 13x9x2" glass cake pan).
2) Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.
3) Bake 35 - 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely.
4) For the frosting, melt butter and stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add vanilla and additional milk if needed.
5) Spread frosting over cake evenly and top with rainbow sprinkles.

The amazing thing about this cake is that it actually gets better the longer it sits. The chocolate flavor intensifies and the cake gets even more moist as time goes on. I think I've eaten this cake up to a week after it was baked and it was still delicious. Keeping it tightly covered at room temperature does the trick.

What is your favorite birthday cake?

~Tammy