Mmmmm....

With Mark gone home for the weekend, I decided to make the 'most' of my Saturday. I'd planned on getting up early - maybe I'd go to the gym, get some work done for school, pot a houseplant, etc etc etc. While I only managed to do one of those things (potting the aloe plant, which took me all of three minutes), I did succeed in not being lazy, a rare feat for me on a Saturday! Ok... I started off lazy, sleeping in till 11:30 and then reading the New York Times over an entire pot of coffee (earlier this week, Mark roasted the beans himself!)

An hour or so later, I decided to walk down to the Chinese grocery and get some ingredients for soup, so that I could finally use up the chicken in my fridge. It was an unsuccessful trip - aside from finding some great-looking chilies and eggplants, I wasn't able to get much for the soup. On my way home, however, I decided to stop in at the newish African food store and check it out. Mark had been there in the past, and told me that it was worth checking out, but I hadn't gotten around to going in until today. It was so exciting! Not only was it an African shop, it was mainly Ghanaian! And the first thing I noticed? Shito!!!

(and what is shito you ask? it is simply the most delicious dried-shrimp-based-spicy-condiment-with-a-vaguely-dirty-name that you will ever taste, my friends)

After convincing the owners that I could handle the shito, I reworked dinner plans. The five minute walk to the grocery because a 3 hour odyssey as I walked around town, gathering more ingredients (and a couple of movie rentals too, movie night tonight!). Chicken soup became chicken stiry fry with a heaping forkful of shito mixed in. I made soup too, a delicious, simple mushroom soup with some of those awesome chilies. I even had enough rice left over to make rice pudding (white chocolate coconut!). So, despite knowing nothing new about kidneys (the school stuff that I could have worked on), I managed to fill my belly with loads of delicious, cheap, healthy food, and have a fridge full of leftovers!

Ps: here is my soup!