Food Coma

Our second shift had a potluck luncheon tonight, and since I'm the firsunsecon supervisor I came back for it. In case you aren't familiar with that, that's a first shift supervisor who has to stay late and help take care of second shift issues until our new supervisor comes onboard. One of our guys is from Utah and had never had Southern food before. So we decided it would be a bring your favorite Southern dish potluck. I made a pot of black-eyed peas, some fried potatoes and a pan of cornbread. It turned out pretty good, and I thought I was doing good to stay awake for the drive home. But since my mind is always on either eating food, planning on what I'm going to eat for the next meal, plotting out what I'm going to cook the next day, and making menu plans for weeks in advance I decided to get a headstart on tomorrow.

I've seen some Ethopian recipes that intrigued me, but for most of them you need two particular ingredients: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbere and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niter_kibbeh. So tonight when I got home and my latest order from http://www.penzeys.com/ was here, I got on the ball to make some. Berbere is the spice mix, and you are supposed to toast the spices after you mix them. Let me tell you, that's a good way to clear out your sinuses. I didn't even make it as hot as they call for in the recipe I used. The niter kibbeh is heating on the stove right now. Tomorrow I'm going to be making my first Ethopian dish, a recipe called Yetakelt Wat which is a cabbage stew. I'm hoping that it turns out okay, because I bought black cardamom seeds instead of the green pods. Somehow it reminds me of smoke and cough syrup. :)