We had such a nice break. The boys had two weeks off school. Paul managed to take the whole time off too. I lined up activities and pals to play with for every minute of it, and then on approximately the first second of vacation Desmond came down with a cold. And then the next day, of course, so did Felix. So I called the pals. Cancelled plans. And it was just the four of us.
It was so nice. The colds were minor. For the first time in our lives we somehow wound up without any holiday obligations whatsoever. We went on hikes. Desmond and Felix were excellent hiker dudes at both Cherry Canyon in La Canada and Monrovia Canyon. (Less so on the nice paved path along the L.A. River in Atwater Village.) We went to LACMA and the Getty. We went to the beach on Christmas Eve and New Year's Day. We came home and made our feast of black-eyed peas and greens and corn bread and rice.
And then, you know what? We were left with a staggering quantity of leftovers. This is a meal I usually make to share with friends.
After that restorative exile, we are ready to return to society, and we come bearing leftovers. I had planned on making the black-eyed pea croquettes from Vegan with a Vengeance 
I had completely forgotten about it. Thank goodness for friends. We're so happy to be here with you in 2012.
Southern Shepherd's Pie
Today I have less of a recipe for you and more of a vague technique to repurpose your leftover beans.
- Cook (Wash, poke, hot oven or fast microwave until soft.) and mash some sweet potatoes with a little soy milk, non-dairy butter, brown sugar, and a tiny pinch of salt.
- Put whatever quantity of leftover black-eyed peas in the bottom of a casserole dish. It should fill it slightly more than half-way. Tonight I used individual ramekins, but I also had out a loaf pan as a potential vessel. And originally I had planned on using a 9 x 9 baking dish. It depends on how many beans you have left over. Also, the small pans allowed me to pre-hot sauce the grown-up portions.
- Spread a layer of mashed sweet potatoes over the top of your beans.
- Put your casserole on a cookie sheet in case it bubbles over. Bake at 400 degrees until the beans are bubbling hot and the sweet potatoes are browned. You can run it under the broiler at the end if you like. My individual servings were done in about 20 minutes. If I had been baking the 9 x 9 inch casserole, I would have left it in for about 40.
Potential variations:
- Mix other leftovers into the beans. Greens, corn, smoky tempeh, seitan are all delicious. I had nothing to contribute so I quickly cooked some collards and added them to the beans before hiding them under the sweet potatoes. Surely the two-year-old wouldn't notice. He assiduosly picked out every tiny shred of collards while singing, yes singing, "I don't like this."
- I considered taking this in a slightly Caribbean direction with the coconut mashed sweet potatoes on top and adding some curry powder and lime juice to the beans. I love making leftovers taste entirely different, but I was afraid that my curry powder might be too spicy for the kids, so I stuck to basic.
