it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

at the mall that is. I worked for 8.5 hours today and it was disgustingly busy. See our hourly report - four $250 hours in a row. I feel like my legs might fall off or at the very least have been run over by a bus. I really hope the company gets their act together and hires some extra people soon. When it finally slowed down for a minute I ran downstairs to grab dinner. As I approached the top of the escalators I could smell the delicious brown sugar coated nuts. I thought I was going crazy or maybe one of the bath and body stores had a new scent out, but as I got closer to the food court I saw a "Roasted Nut" seller. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I have no pictures for you (mostly because I consumed the two "snack packs" before I even left work). This may be very dangerous for me through the rest of the holiday season.

This morning, I managed to get myself out of bed with the promise of Mulligatawny for my belly later. I started chopping onions. I kept chopping onions. I chopped a little bit of my thumb nail and then chopped still more onions. Lots of onions, but I love onions, so it's all good. They were sauteed and got all golden brown. Then I added all the spices, at which point, the whole apartment smelled delicious. I think garam masala might be the best spice ever and I don't know how I hadn't discovered it until yesterday. Then add red lentils and chicken broth and let simmer. Then comes the real interesting part. After the lentils have gotten tender, the soup is still chunky. So what do you do? You blend it! So I got out the blender that was an X-mas gift last year and opened the box. It's super nice wish I'd gotten it out sooner but haven't really had much to blend I guess. You can kinda see the chunkiness in the picture before the blender got turned on. When I took the first batch from the blender and poured it into a bowl, I got so excited - it looked almost exactly like what I get at restaurants. I got it all blended added the chicken. Then cooked a little rice up and poured myself a bowl for lunch. It is sooooo delicious. It's a little different than the one from Mother India and I didn't have any cilantro to throw on top. I think I'll stop at the store tomorrow for cilantro and see if I can place my finger on what else is missing. I definitely think I'll be making this again though.


Sorry still no pattern review for my socks. I'm behind in studying and physically exhausted. I work 6 hours tomorrow and then have to be at work 2 hours after I get off for a staff meeting, so I really need to get some studying done before I crash tonight.