And so, like in days of old, before it was even called "date night" because we didn't have children and pretty much every night was date night, we went for dinner and then grocery shopping! (Usually, we would've done the bookstore, too, but we were ready to go home.) Dinner was Indian: masala dosa (this great potato-and-pea-filled crunchy rice crepe) and shaam savera (spinach/cheese dumpling in sweet-tangy tomato sauce), my beloved mango lassi, followed by chole peshwari (chickpeas and tomato in tangy sauce, a lot like chana masala, in the packages at the grocery) and paneer hare pyaza (paneer cooked in creamy tomato sauce with spring onions), plus lots of rice, chapati and poori breads (the poori reminded me of unsweet fried beignets! Boy, how I wanted powdered sugar). AND we ended with our favorite "squeaky cheese dumplings in creamy rose-pisatchio sauce." It was happy birthday, happy 2nd wedding anniversary, and happy new year all in one!
Then, surely not disposed to make unwarranted purchases, we headed to the special grocery store. "Let's get what's on our list first," I remarked, causing a man next to me to laugh. And while it's true that we always buy off-list at this store more than any other, I was more concerned that my grocery app hadn't uploaded my latest list yet. It did but the store was out of black-eyed peas!!!! A helpful clerk steered me to canned, at which I audibly balked. "See, I'm from Texas and I make my own black-eyes." He was from Alabama and understood, having mistaken me for a canned-pea-eating Yankee. But we did get some heirloom bean mixtures, a bag of farro, a few pomegranates, some funky museli, and a rose syrup, which rang up free, a nice little present.
The babysitters reported an easy and fun evening, offering to do it again in 6 weeks or so, a fantastic gift, to borrow Bud's evaluation of the evening, that keeps on giving!
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