Who is over this ridiculous winter we are having? I know that I certainly am! I guess I could be slightly optimistic and say at least it didn't snow all day, it only rained, but yet it was still godawfully cold! Boo!!! Well it is the end of February, so maybe, just maybe we have a bit of a respite aka otherwise known as Spring, coming up?
Fingers crossed ladies and gents!
I wish that I could do a "rain dance" to make winter go away...unfortunately I can't! But I can however celebrate, winter's root vegetables and celebrate is what I did tonight for my mother's birthday. It was a joint effort getting dinner on the table tonight, but such a nice celebratory thing to do. To celebrate our dear friend, Mr. winter, I made a big roast, now now guys, I am not saying I took a big piece of meat and served that, I took:
6 parsnips
1 rutabega
1 purple top turnip
1/2 goldball turnip
1 celeriac
a variety of mini roasting potatoes (purple, fingerlings, etc)
1/2 a butternut squash
1 small scallion
2 smalll cloves of garlic
olive oil
Joe's Dairy special Parmesan
and a variety of herbs - thyme, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, basil, and bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
After the incredibly time consuming exercise of chopping all of those winter root veggies, throw them in a big pan with the chopped aromatics (garlic and shallots), olive oil, parmesan, and herbs, and roast till golden brown. I am a bit fan of low heat roasting but if you want to eat before tomorrow morning, you might not want to follow my dfirection in relation to this...I like to bake at 275 to 300 for anywhere between 35 and 50 minutes, but again, as the broken record player says, it depends on your oven.
Soooooo with the roasted veggies we had Amy's Whole Wheat Walnu loaf with four cheeses:
1. Belgian Goat cheese with honey, a fresh young creamy mini tower of goat cheese goodness, great with the bread.
2. Brigid's Abbey - a Cato corner cheese I believe previously mentioned on the blog but this superstar is a semi soft cheese made in the trappist monk style aged for two to four months, a delicate, easily approachable but grassy, flavorful and dynamic cheese, an addition to any cheese plate.
3. Womanchego - Cato corner's play on the classic Spanish sheep's milk cheese, manchego. This baby is made from cow milk and is firmer than its Spanish sibling, but definitely a distinct cousin. This cheese has dried fruit and marcona almond flavors mixed with a hint of butterstochness.
4. Joe's Dairy Gorgonzola - enough said, a big girl blue with complex blue flavors that are definitely worth overcoming, if you are one of those people who are afraid of blue mold and consequently blue cheese.
Then we had a salad with mixed greens, walnuts, alouette goat cheese, carrots for color and a homemade balsamic vinegrette dressing.
Lastly we had my mother's homemade oatmeal crisp with an antioxidant rich bottom layer of blueberries, topped with oats, various nuts, cinnamon, and other spices..On top of the oatmeal crisp, was a genius idea -- blended montrachet goat cheese with a dollop of goat milk so that it becomes almost milk/syrup like, the perfect counterpart to the oats, not too heavy like ice cream or whipped cream, great concept on her part!!!!
Good night folks, lets look forward to spring!
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