what IS for dinner?

Am I late posing this? Yes. Am I caught up on recipes? Also, Yes. This was a few weeks ago, cause vacation got in the way...but here's recipe number two! 

Gimme Some Oven's Roasted Butternut Squash, Kale and Cranberry Couscous, landed in my lap thanks to Pinterest. I love that it used normal ingredients that I could find at my local ShopRite, farmstands, and even free from the farming co-op.(I am not a brand specific person, sorry)

Look at that beautiful salad!  It had been a minute since making pearl couscous, and I forgot that I even liked it. It reminds me of boba!  The tri-color one looked fun, so I used it to give a confetti color effect. it didn't translate well in the pictures, but there are a few orange-spheres there.  

This was so good, like good enough to make it two weeks in a row. The goat cheese was on the side, because not everyone here for dinner that night eats cheese.

My orange slice twist was not very pretty, but it felt like a waste not to use it. Once again, Thanks to my dad for the vibrant Pyrex bowl he found in Texarkana, Arkansas, while visiting my brother. The best I can tell, it's part of  either an "Oven" or "Casserole" set, both are Hostess Sets. I also have in yellow, and someday I'll find the lids.

Vacation involved eating some great food back in Grand Rapids, driving my dad around in his very big pick-up truck, buying some yarn, fabric, Pyrex, and visiting a friends that I haven't seen in almost a decade. And one really weird moment where I forgot that I was wearing a Philadelphia Eagles beanie, and a lady at the grocery store came up and said "Go Birds" about 15 minutes before the game started. The Eagles won, and we made it home before the game.  But I'm home, have tried another new recipe, washed all the fabric, and made the my 2025 valentines.  

The Staleness of My Kitchen

During the summer of 2009 I read Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia: 3625 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment", then after being released, I went to see the movie. That book made we want to learn to cook, which I eventually did, in my own vegetarian way. It also made me collect cookbooks, Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is not one of them.

So here I am, sixteen years later, realizing the cooking got stuck, and it makes my kitchen feel stale. This is the year I'll try 52 new recipes. They don't have to all be from one cookbook, like in Julie Powell's blog and book. And anything goes. A dessert? Yep. A main course? Sure. A snack? Of course. A dressing or condiment? Hell yes, that will count. 52 seems do-able, it's one a week, but more is okay too. They just have to be new to me.

I'm kicking it off with Sift & Simmer's Earl Grey Bergamot Loaf, because I love earl grey tea. 

Was it easy to make? Separating eggs is not my favorite task, and making meringue can be my kryptonite, but it wasn't "hard". Was it fun to make? I had kitchen dance party, so yes. 

It gave me a chance to use some of the great items my friends and family have gifted me over the years. The end of the loose leaf tea from my Danielle was used for steeping. I broke out the kitchen scale from Cathy.  And best of all, it was the perfect reason to use the Crazy Daisy Spring Blossom loaf pan from one of the many assortments of Pyrex my dad found for me. 

Bergamot oil might be my favorite ingredient, because I LOVE that smell and flavor. Mine was bought online from from Viva Doria. The only real change I made was using almond milk instead of regular, because it's what my household drinks. The lemon slices on top were my own addition, I didn't want them to go to waste.

So the real questions. Will I make this again? Absolutely. It tasted best warm, and felt lighter than air. It felt very fancy.

The winter weather should be hitting my area around 4am, so I'm thinking next might need to be a soup.