Curried Potato, Spinach, and Chickpea Soup

Thanksgiving is upon me, and I am stressing out because for the first time ever, I am cooking and Thanksgiving is going to be at my house. This calls for easy, fast, no-brainer comfort food so that I can figure out what I am going to do for Thursday and scour my house so that guests don't get covered with the ever-present Ralphy-shed, even though they have a 160-lb Great Dane that sheds just as much.

I made this soup from epicurious a few months ago at Z's house and it was simple and delicious. I made it again tonight, adding some celery that I had left over in my fridge, and it wasn't quite as good - I think the Trader Joe's curry powder has a bit more kick than the Whole Foods brand. (The same can be said about their dark chocolate, by the way - the Whole Foods dark chocolate actually verges on being... crunchy. Uck.) Still, it's a quick dish and it's really hard to mess up to the point of being bad, so give it a whirl and use your favorite curry powder.

Quick leftover report: the polenta-kale-mushroom stuff from last week makes for fantastic leftovers! I reconstituted the polenta with some chicken stock over the stovetop, then nuked it with the kale and mushroom on top. Definitely will be making that again.

Okay, back to cleaning and Thanksgiving brainstorming. I want to make a pie but I've never made a pie before and making my first pie ever for Thanksgiving sounds like a Bad Idea. Maybe some Indian Pudding is in order instead. Also, I don't like how as soon as I rid my house of fur and dust it comes back within two days. Sigh.