Curried Vegetable + Chickpea Stew

Another soup? Yes, I am an inveterate soup eater, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I've even been known to eat soup in the heat of summer. You can ask my friends. But especially during the winter months, I crave the comfort of warm soup. The Kitchn (adapted from Cooking Light) is responsible for this crockpot recipe for curried vegetable and chickpea soup, and I absolutely love it. (Thanks to the Daleys again for giving me their old crockpot. It's well-used and well-loved.)

I've been eating this all week, and I'm still not sick of it. I left out the coconut milk and substituted kale for spinach because I have a ginormous bag of it in the freezer from Costco. What else? I didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, but if I had, I definitely would've added it.

Fighting Bob Fest + Willy St. Fair

Bernie Sanders

In mid-September, a few of us hopped on over to Fighting Bob Fest at the Alliant Energy Center. We had great seats to hear Cornel West, Bernie Sanders, Thomas Hartmann, and Greg Palast speak.

Cornel West

Later that day, we moseyed around the Willy St. Fair eating, listening to music, and meeting some extraordinary stilt walkers from the World Music Festival.

Dragons and dragonflies at the Willy St. Fair

After hearing rave reviews, I tried the pork curry from The Corner Store's stand. My assessment: just ok. Although it was billed as pork curry, I was hoping that it would also boast some veggies. I hoped in vain. It consisted solely of large chunks of meat in a diluted curry sauce. And instead of brown or jasmine rice, plain white rice was the base. It was a little disappointing, but I might try again, just to be sure.