Hello from weather that practically feels like fall in South Carolina!
...Family
Happy Birthday Jay!
Today is Jay's birthday, and to celebrate he slept through the night in our bed all by himself, lucky duck, and then left for a work trip this morning. He also forgot it was his birthday until I said something to him. 
Pros and cons to that one, tbh. Two nights in a hotel room alone sounds AMAZING. Two days of PowerPoints and projections...yawn. Hopefully the food will be good.
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For Granny B
Today is my mom's birthday. Sometimes as we age birthdays come and go with little fanfare, with a lot of fanfare, or hardly noticed because so many other things are going on. We have a lot going on, so this is a little bit of fanfare for you, Mama. 
I also have come to realize that some people don't like pictures of themselves splashed all over the internet, so instead, for visual appeal, we have pictures of Beck In Glasses, which I find very appealing. Yep, I'm biased, and this is my site, so look or don't at the cute kid. I dare you not to smile a little bit.
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Friendsgiving.
ONE WEEK TO THANKSGIVING! 
This isn't about that, though. There are definitely some links below on what you should definitely absolutely cook, but this is mainly a gush-fest about the best.weekend.ever that I had a few days ago.
I've talked about this before, but my a cappella work now stems from my a cappella group in college, think Andy from The Office meets the cast of pitch perfect but with no autotune and more legit problems. Same adoration for each other, same adoration for the music.
So a bunch of us got together last weekend! Six from my old group, one fiancee, and one baby. It was the best ever, and I came back so refreshed and reminded of how much I love those women, how lucky we are to have each other, how stupid we are to not see each other more.
I was also lucky enough to cook a lot of the food, including a big Friendsgiving spread with my friend Lexy, and a soup on Friday night that I'm going to show you very soon. It's perfect for the come-and-go crazy holiday weeks we're entering into right now.
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Ruby's Potato and Beef Curry
I'm like a damn broken record with the "it's finally cold, need cozy food" repetition, but heartier foods all of a sudden taste so much more satisfying, comforting, necessary. Speaking of comforting, this dish finds a way to cram potatoes, naan, and rice into a single meal without it feeling terribly indulgent (Jay is like, yes it does please stop), and I'm not mad about it one little bit. 
This curry is a total knockoff of my brother in law Joe's mother Ruby's standard, this-is-what-we-always-eat curry. Jay's sister Elizabeth and Joe have been together since long before I was around and got married just a few months before we did, so I've been lucky enough to eat Ruby's curry on several occasions. I'm not going to talk about what type of curry this is, because Ruby is Indian (but I don't know where in India she is from and there are a gazillion regions of cuisine to factor in here) AND has lived many places in her life, so I'm calling this a fusion curry. For the purpose of using actual words to describe food, it is a Madras curry, very mild but very flavorful, stewed for several hours with tomato paste until beef chunks fall apart like any good stewed beef does.
So, you'll imagine my disappointment when I made the plan to cook this and discovered that I had used all of my Madras curry powder but also the time to cook was NOW because of nap time and daylight. So I improvised, making this an even more fusiony curry than the usual fusion Ruby rocks. The spice blend that I used is an equal combination of garam masala and yellow curry powder, and I alllllmost couldn't tell a difference besides obviously that I'm not an Indian mom and my curry will never be as good as one.
But, I've learned a few tips and tricks from my sister in law and Joe, who blessedly texted me through this whole process, and the approximation we're left with here is still damn good. So let's curry!
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