roots

"Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, it's not separate from your life.  It grows right up out of it."

"So you think we all just have animal dreams.  We can't think of anything to dream about except our ordinary lives."

"Only if you have an ordinary life.  If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life."

Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

I found myself with roots I'd never used before.  Some I had to google to identify.  And then google for prep methods.
This is me reminding myself that new things are not scary.  And can be conquered.
Okay that's kind of aggressive, but I'm having aggressive feelings towards figuring out this new method in lab.

Celery root inspired by here. With grated apples, spicy brown mustard, distilled vinegar, and lime juice.  Eaten atop some salad.
Celery root feels like a Top Chef buzz ingredient. Everything is always on top of a celery root puree. The root itself is kind of creepy looking. Sort of mangled and wild. Hard to miss now that I know what to look for.

Rutabaga inspired by here.  With lots of dried dill.
Super addictive breakfast because eggs... and caramelized onions... all it needs is a giant pile of parmesan.
Definitely the prettier of the two roots (would be three but I never utilized the radish). I like to think of it as dramatic ombre. A quick search on Food Gawker convinced me that it's pretty much a potato substitute, but cubing it and roasting it seemed too boring. 

I also found myself with two pounds of carrots from fridge clean out in the department. Not gonna say no to that.
But after having made carrot cake cookies to excess, I needed something new. Something different. Something not so sweet... 

savory carrot butter

roasted carrots

almond milk (or any milk)

butter

sage

cardamom

salt and peppa
-toss carrots in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast until soft... 350F for 30-40 min ish... our oven is pretty finicky
-blend with milk of choice until smooth paste, thin out with more milk as needed
-cook on stove with butter, sage, cardamom, S&P

The original plan was to slather it on or roll it in some preparation of beef tenderloin (idea not off the table), but I don't allow much wiggle room for meat purchases in my budget especially during periods of excessive restaurant going. And then I was graced with this amazingly flakey, fluffy, puffy honey roll - leftovers from the roomies' Friendsgiving. Delicious for all bread lovers and bread non lovers alike on it's own in all it's croissant-like glory. But with a little savory carrot butter...

mmm yes.