Now that January is here, I'm happy for the clean start to the year...but the weather turns unbearably gray and drizzly (well...actually that's been a little snowy lately...no, make that alot snowy...for us here in the Pacific NW!) All I feel like doing is staying inside...working...or reading...or cooking...
I just finished reading Gabrielle Hamilton's autobiography, Blood, Bones and Butter. It was a fascinating read...and not sugar-coated in the least. In the same vein as Anthony Bourdain's books, you might sometimes think twice about your restaurant meal and what it went through before it arrived at your table...but Hamilton's book also inspired me to go into the kitchen and cook...preparing heart-warming and soul-stirring food...or at least, give it my best shot!
We had a ton of carrots leftover from our annual New Year's Day open house...and there's only so many carrots I can chomp on during the day...I thought I would roast them until they were sweet, soft, caramelized, melt in your mouth nuggets...
raw carrots with garlic cloves, sea salt and cracked pepper...
I added chopped red onion, parsley and green olives to the roasted carrots...tossed the carrots with olive oil, a handful of roasted sunflower seeds and a pinch of red pepper flakes along with some rotini pasta...
with a glass of rough red wine, it provided plenty of cold comfort on a chilly January night...
