pilaf recipe & passover recap

Here's the Armenian pilaf I served at Passover last night: ( Pilafian's Pilaf. )

anglepoiselamp, shiroi_chi, lexandros and bluesbell lent us their presence and we went through my family's slightly typoed, slightly irreligious shortened seder with four times as much food as we could eat, Norwegian rye flat bread instead of matza, two bottles of red wine, and the Panic at the Disco puzzle that came in the special vinyl album wax_jism for some utterly baffling reason bought even though we don't have a record player. I didn't get to help with the puzzle, though. It got tangled with the dessert on the table and the people at the other end hogged it. Lex hid the half-a-rye-flatbread so well that nobody could find it and she had to come show that she'd slipped it on top of the wings of one of the paper cranes in the chain dangling in the window. The prophet Elijah scaled the apartment building and oozed over the chicken wire on our fourth-floor balcony to sneak in the door and drink his glass of wine, served in a glögg mug because we only have 6 wineglasses, and stealthily crept back out again before the searchers could return, so alas, only Lex and I were graced with his presence.

We were also all graced with (1) these flowers that look so much like orange and yellow roses, but aren't. What are they? and (2) this incredibly delicious Caribbean-tasting chili-curry-sweet potato dish made by shiroi_chi. Thanks, guys. ♥ My childhood has been reenacted with extra wine and I feel as stuffed with emotional well-being as I was last night with food.

BURN