If you tell a kid you're taking them out for ice cream, then decide not to go, you're pretty much the grinch. If you tell your friend you're meeting them at Beyond Sushi Friday afternoon, then cancel, you're the worst friend ever. It'll take weeks for sushi to leave the brain. But worst of all, if you plan to make Injera crepes with your injera starter this weekend along with an Ethiopian feast, and then your starter fails??? That is suffering. You pretty much have to make it anyway. I can't see how you could come back from such a hardship without a substantial substitute for injera and tons of WAT.

I kept thinking I was only going to make 4 stews. I had a stockpile of cabbage shreds from golabkis last week, so it was clear I was to make Tikil Gomen with it. I've been wanting to make shiro for a while, so I thought I would make that too, along with Atkilt Alecha, because Alex loves green beans. At the farmers market I found this little awesome sugar pumpkin! I thought it could rock the house if it got roasted and mashed with berbere and simmered in the best apple cider in the world, also found at my local farmers market too. And it did, folks. The house was rocked.

While I was cooking the Tikil Gomen and Atkilt Alecha, I was like... how are you gonna leave off the lentils. Lentils are everyone's fav. So I simmered them too. Then I thought about that awesome Avocado salad we had at the last few Ethiopian places we've been to in the city, and I thought it would be easy enough to make too. Then I thought we needed another cold dish, and Butecha is so fun to make, and so I made that too. Then I thought of how much I miss mushrooms and never make them anymore because Alex doesn't like them. I love mushrooms, guys. I can't live without them. So I made Ingudai tibs too. Then I forgot about my pumpkin in the oven, and mashed it up with a ton of berbere and niter kibbe, and simmered it in my awesome apple cider I got. I toasted the seeds up in my skillet while it simmered, and noticed that when the seeds get really hot, they start to spin SO FAST! Then they pop and fly out of your pan and at your face, so be careful. Cool, though. This morning I found one on my floor and thought it was a bedbug. Nope. Just a pumpkin seed. Phew. So yeah, that's the story of how I went from making 4 dishes to 8. They ruled though, you gotta believe me.