Mr. Zucchini Mama is working on some braised bison shortribs for tonight. He's also baking bread and making up a batch of his granola. I am cuddled under a patchwork blanket with a cup of Shaktea's Five O' Clock Blend, which is my current favorite. This year I'm going to be doing a lot of ingredient-based research. I've decided that my approach to cooking is based on my love of key ingredients so I want to organize and focus my seasonal meal planning to try to stay inspired. These last few days, lunches have been tuna melts with tomato miso soup and perogies with winter salad. I bought some fresh walnuts from the Farmer's Market so I am researching walnut recipes. California Walnuts has a really good website with a ton of recipes. Savory scones, maple walnut pots de creme and banana caramel walnut squares are a few that captured my fancy.
I made a ginger pumpkin custard for Christmas Eve from Canadian Living. It's made with coconut milk, so Peter can eat it. I was very happy with the recipe except it has a creme caramel sauce base which I thought was finicky and not needed. I also want to cut back on the sugar in the recipe and try it again. It was delish, and we had leftovers for breakfast, of course! I'm not a big fan of baking in a water bath, but it's all right to do it for a special occasion. My three key words for the next year are Simple, Seasonal, and Sustainable. One of my favorite gifts was my friend's dried pear slices and toasted almonds. I've been snacking on them in between cookies and chocolate and I appreciate the healthy alternative at this time of the year. Next year's plan is to really get into dehydrating food.
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