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A hurricane of flavor

So Hurricane Fuckyourself hit Louisiana yesterday, which means Memphis got to have storms all day. It was a blast. I love driving in the rain. I love wondering if I'll have power when I get to the house. It's just the best. 
I'm starting to run out of the groceries I bought last weekend, so I decided to have a little fun tonight. I managed to find a couple purple sweet potatoes to go along with some red bell pepper, my last three tomatoes, a little bit of red onion, some garlic, and kale. I also cooked up some jasmine rice with split green peas in the rice cooker, but that was boring. 
I started off by peeling and cubing up the potato. I started boiling a pot of water, threw in some salt, and then added the potato cubes. I just let those cook while I prepped and started everything else.
I minced up the red onion, crushed and sliced three of the garlic cloves, and quartered the tomatoes, which I lightly salted and let sit for a few minutes before I used them. I melted some vegan butter, added a little olive oil, and sautéed the onion and garlic until the garlic was just starting to get crispy around the edges. Then I added in some red pepper flakes, let it go for another minute, and added in the tomatoes peel side down.
While that cooked, the sweet potato finished boiling. I don't really remember how long it took, but I knew it was done by pulling a chunk out with a spoon and stabbing it with a fork. When it's soft, it's cooked. I drained the water, then tossed the chunks back into the pan, where I added two minced garlic cloves, a scoop of vegan butter, and a little bit of vegan cream. I used my masher to mash and mix all that shit together.
After the potato was mashed, I went back to my other pan. Once the tomato skins were starting to wrinkle, I knew it was time to pull them off. I just used my tongs to grab the wrinkled section and the peels came off quite easily.
With the peels gone, I was able to smash the tomatoes down, at which point I added in my diced red bell pepper and just let it all simmer until the pepper started to soften. I then added in the chopped kale and let it just start wilting before I poured in maybe a quarter cup of pinot noir and a dash of salt. When the liquid began to reduce again, I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top to finish it off.
For plating, I used my 3" PVC to stack some of the rice and peas on top of some of the mashed potato. Yes, yes, I know, I used two starches, but, since they were stacked, it only counts as 1. Honestly? I don't give a shit. I wanted potato and I wanted rice, so I had potato and rice, so you can fuck yourself if you have a problem with it.
I spooned some of my veggie sauce-ish mixture around one side of the tower and let the liquid surround it some. I really enjoyed seeing all of the colors together, to be honest. I also thought the positioning of the veggies kind of concentrated on one side had a nice look to it. I'm doing my best not to make everything symmetrical. It's hard as hell for my engineering brain.
Bonus shot from above. I think the look of having the liquid slowly surrounding the central pillar was a cool touch, too.
Flavor-wise, this was a tour de force. There was cohesion between the different items, but, at the same time, the earthiness of the potato contrasted with the boldness of the veggie sauce with the rice and peas helping to tie them together. This is getting made again soon.
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