Root Vegetable Gratin

I wrote a story on root vegetables for the December issue of EatingWell and accompanying recipes. One of my favorites--and most challenging to develop--was Root Vegetable Gratin. It was one of my favorite recipes once I finished it, but even though I've had a plethora of roots from my CSA all winter, I didn't actually make it at home until last night.

Dan has a love-hate relationship with roots, as in he loves carrots and beets and hates parsnips, turnips, celeriac and rutabaga. So I thought he might not like it since I used celeriac, beets and turnips. But he did and enthusiastically dug into a second piece. I didn't have Gruyere but had Parmesan, so I used that instead. My sauce was a bit too thick, probably because I didn't accurately measure my flour (ahem) so I thinned it with a bit more milk. I served it with a salad made with our spicy sprouts, julienned red bell pepper and grapefruit tossed with grapefruit juice and evoo. Delish. And so were the leftovers today!

what an awesome evening

we had such a great evening. dan's been SLAVING away at his 2 final take-home exams but we still had some friends over for dinner tonight. was probably a great break for him--he's been locked in his office since noon, with barely a break (i finally made him take kayla for a very short walk before dinner). anyway, it was really great to hang out with pj & katy tonight and i was able to make an amazing dinner with many of our CSA goodies.

*salad of claytonia & spinach w/ pomegranate seeds, toasted pine nuts, salad turnips & champagne vinaigrette
*red wine braised roots over barley
*homemade pumpkin pie with rum-scented whipped cream--i roasted the pie pumpkin we got a few weeks ago and followed the JoC recipe with an all-butter crust and threw in a slug of appleton reserve rum and cinnamon when i was whipping the cream

i'm not a pumpkin pie fan, but apparently mine was good--dan said he could never go back to canned pumpkin and provided me with this analogy: it was like always eating the peanut butter you find in reese's peanut butter cups, then eating REAL peanut butter for the 1st time--you could never go back to eating the reese's peanut butter.

my only beef was that the crust was sog-o-rama--but apparently that's normal? i can't even tell you one time that i've ever had pumpkin pie so i wasn't prepared for taht. i didn't blind bake the crust but it said not to. maybe i will next time?

i was so excited too--my friend/coworker nicci has been using all the root vegetable recipes i developed for my last feature to use her bounty of roots she's been getting from her csa. i have been getting tons of roots as well, but haven't been using my recipes--not sure WHY i haven't, but pulling out that braise tonight was perfect--especially because i was cooking for a couple with one vegetarian and the other who wasn't eating cheese or spicy food (there went my trademark mexican night!) but i'm glad i had those contraints because dinner was delish!

and the company was even better :) we rocked out to hendrix, drank wine and enjoyed a good meal--to me, there isn't much better in life.

Week 1--Winter CSA

so we took the plunge and got the winter csa from pete's greens. it's a little pricey, but the first week's pick-up was well worth it!

our booty:

Fennel; Bunch Sweet Salad Turnips; Mixed Sweet Peppers; Walla Walla (Sweet Onions); Bunch Mizuna; Green and/or Purple Pac Choi; Delicata Squash; Bunch Curley Parsley; Red Norland Potatoes; Shallots; Vermont Cranberry Company Dried Cranberries; Maplebrook Farm Ricotta Cheese; and Elmore Mountain Pain au Levain bread.

we had leftovers to consume last night, so we didn't cook anything up yet. i'm not worried about using anything, except maybe the parsley. that's the one herb i don't do much yet. seems to cold to make tabbouleh (and i much prefer to make it with flat-leaf parsley) so i don't know if i'll use it. SO EXCITED about the ricotta! i can't decide if i should eat it with poached figs or make lasagna....

Taking the plunge

Man, have I been horrible about updating this!

The Eat Local challenge totally fizzled--it was 2 weeks before our wedding and I wasn't prepared and had too many things going on that week to really commit. I'll be ready next year though!

Today, karma hit—I've been waffling about getting a Pete's Greens CSA—I participated the first time they did a winter share and I was really disappointed. BUT I think kinks have been worked out so I'm trying again! I emailed to see if they had any spots left and lo and behold, they had 2--and I know the woman who's in charge so she said she'd hold one for me. I'm warily excited :) Starts on Wednesday!

I've been going through the last of my CSA produce the past few days. Last night I made one of my favorite soups—so easy and vegan as well. I cooked a peeled cubed acorn squash and red kuri in water. When it was really tender, I put it through a food mill and put it back on the stove with fresh lime juice, red Thai curry paste, coconut milk, brown sugar and salt--DELICIOUS!

I have a few delicata calling my name too—want to save those for just roasting later this week.