Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!

And please accept my apology for not blogging in a couple of weeks. LeeLee and I jetted off for our much-needed annual respite in Key West, and this past week has been filled with getting used to working again (and not drinking frosty beverages with umbrellas sticking out of them). I’m sure you can understand that it’s been a bit of a readjustment!

But readjust we have – we must, in fact – and tonight in our post-vacation, post-return state we sat down to a Valentine’s feast of epic proportions. It was in fact my gift to LeeLee! One of his very favorite cuisines is Ethiopian – I think he’d eat it every night if he could – and once a new little Ethiopian shop opened up around the corner here in Old Town, I knew we’d have to progress with an attempt at making the cuisine at home.

And so it came to pass that I found myself armed tonight with yellow lentils, collard greens, and a passel of injera – the bread one uses to sop up the meal – and just enough gumption to give two dishes a try at home. So I pulled out my largest cast iron skillet, my Le Creuset French oven, and my biggest stockpot, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work.

This was no time for going rogue, so after careful consideration I selected two recipes to help me along on my journey: One for kik alicha and one for gomen wat. We’ve enjoyed both of these dishes in many an Ethiopian restaurant in our time, so I felt good about the possibility of making them successfully at home. When we were about an hour out from dinnertime, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work!

I began with the yellow peas, and as they boiled I pureed four onions (four!!) in the food processor for later use in both recipes. I double-dipped with these onions, using three-quarters of a cup for the collards recipe as well, but neither meal was hurt by the double-teaming.

Once I’d prepped all my veggies for both dishes, it was just a matter of switching back and forth between them to help each one progress in the proper time. I’d spend a few minutes draining the collards and sautéing the onions; then I’d get the cast iron skillet into the act to work on Phase 2 of the yellow peas. Then back to the collards. Then back to the peas. And so on, and so forth, until they were both almost finished! At which time I heated up a frozen store-bought package of samosas, which I figured were close enough to sambussas for government work on such short notice.

Soon it was time for finishing touches. Ethiopian food is generally served communally, so I brought out my best large plate and arranged two rounds of injera on it, then folded more injera for both LeeLee and me to use as utensils. Then I spooned a hearty amount of the lentils and collards onto the communal plate and LeeLee and I scooched close to each other at the dinner table to dig in!

Let’s get one thing straight: These recipes make a TON of food. I feel sure we’ll be munching on lentils and collards well into midweek (and we’re both fine with that!). So when we finished off one full helping of each dish on our communal plate, we were stuffed indeed. The injera tends to help with the feeling of satiety, we’ve found – and that’s a good thing too!

We were both very happy with how the meal turned out. The lentils tasted almost like the restaurant version (I think they would be spot-on with a little more oil, which I admittedly skimped on), and the collards were just as tangy and flavorful as their restaurant counterpart. As the lentils are my favorite Ethiopian dish, they had big shoes to fill (so to speak), but they did the trick incredibly well! And the collards are one of LeeLee’s very favorites, and he was very pleased with the outcome tonight.

Next up in our Ethiopian adventures: Shiro, I think! And perhaps some red lentils or fitfit to round out the plate. I can’t wait!

:)