Fried Chickpea Stew

I made something like this dish from Mark Bittman today: pan-fried chickpeas.
I added some diced onion, green bell pepper and a tiny bit of chopped chipotle peppers instead of the chorizo, and it was very good. I didn't fry the beans enough by themselves because I was impatient, so the result wasn't quite the same as what he describes, but it was still very good (even though I generally stay away from anything with garbonzos just because my Dad always made me eat them) and very easy to make, and probably super healthy. We ate ours today with manitaropita, or fillo triangles filled with mushrooms; the two things on the plate looked super Mediterranean.

Now I have to figure out something to do with the rest of the can of chipotle peppers. Any ideas?

The place I will take you for breakfast if you come and visit me

We just discovered this bakery in Pacific Grove called Pavel's Backerei, and I think it is the best bakery I have ever been to. That chocolate-filled croissant was like heaven! The donuts are humongous! Just look at these monsters!

They also had the best danishes I have ever eaten. Better than anything I had even imagined. Right now they have hot cross buns with Easter coming up, my Lovemuffin says that these are the bestest hot cross buns he's ever had,  I've never had them before, but I thought they were delightful! We've gone there three times now and it is becoming our new Saturday morning tradition to ride our bikes out there, grab two or three delectables, eat them down by Lover's Point, then pretend like we're burning off all of the calories on our bike right home. Next time I want to get a loaf of bread, but it's going to be hard to move away from the sweets. I feel totally inspired now to start my baking experiments again. I've been slacking off in that department lately, and it's places like this that make me want to do a baking a pastry program and open my own place.

My Babies

I planted some plants, aren't they cute? I have a tomato, yellow bell pepper, zucchini and oregano. I'm especially excited about the tomatoes, they are a French heirloom called Jaune Flamme that is supposed to be good for drying as well as just eating, of course. Sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil are one of my favorite things. Speaking of my favorite things, Lovemuffin told me that I look like Julie Andrews. I can't see it.

try this:

Get some fresh shitake mushrooms.
Remove the stems, disard.
Brush caps lightly with olive oil.
Grill. (Or throw under the broiler, if you can't grill it)
Enjoy.

Seriously, this is my new favorite thing. I got goosebumps when I tasted it. It was delightful. This mushroom farm is what I need, because buying those shitakes once a week at the farmers market is going to add up pretty quick. I would have taken a picture, but it doesn't look like much, also I was too busy tasting, and tasting and tasting.....