January 18

Monday: we ate at Venus for breakfast. Since it's MLK day, the place was packed and they were serving the expanded weekend brunch menu - bonus! I ordered the Indian Brunch, which I've never had for fear of disappointment, and was: deeply delighted!  There were two "pancakes" of grated carrots, zucchini, and parsnip, that reminded me of light fritters or latkes (not deep fried), with a delicious spicy mango sauce. I devoured them! [I remember a recipe for something similar (zucchini pancakes) in Moosewood Cookbook that I am inspired to play around with for breakfast. I love veggies for breakfast!]  An egg scramble with tomatoes, chiles, and cilantro, two small chipatis that were like yummy handmade whole wheat tortillas (good for slathering with melting butter!), and then a banana raita ~ yogurt with chunks of banana, and many mustard seeds so that it had a crunch. Anjali kept dipping her finger in the mango sauce, making a pained face as she stuck out her tongue, then dipping it in again. I felt her pain. ; )
It poured rain today! Downpours like I've never seen here!  And Papi had an evening shift.
For dinner Anjali and I had a Fearless Frank hotdog (she ate more than half!!! Next time she gets her own damn dog!) and a big mess of greens. I sauteed the greens in bacon grease and lard, with several crushed garlic cloves, and then at the end poured probably 2 tbsp of cream on them for some good comfort food. They did indeed remind me of creamed spinach. Yum. Eating at the coffee table, Anjali pulled over the Wassail Kraut jar so that it spilled a puddle of juice on the table. Not wanting to waste the goodness, I leaned over and started slurping. She thought it was so funny, she tried it.  We took turns. After she licked and slurped, she would push my head down to do it again. We sucked it all up and poured more on our plate to slurp.  It was a great mommy-daughter bonding moment.  ; )