As I am sitting here in the DC Court House, I thought to myself that this would be a great opportunity to FINALLY catch up on my blogging. Sorry to my avid readers, but I completely fell off the wagon this fall. But, I wanted to start the New Year, and New DECADE off right.
So, while I haven't been blogging, I have still been cooking, and I have been conjuring up new recipes. Years ago, I was working at this amazing restaurant where we used only organic ingredients. We would have a new soup every night, and one of my favorite soups was a butternut squash soup. What made this butternut squash soup so special was the addition of coconut milk. It added a subtle sweetness, and a richness, without the addition of dairy. It was a way to keep the soup vegan, but also get the creamier consistency that the addition of heavy cream would have yielded.
Every once in a while, I divert my carnivorous taste buds to savor the flavor or vegetables for a while. Since I was having friends over for dinner at this time in my life, they were subjected to a meat free dinner as well. But guess what? No one really missed the meat!
In addition to my Butternut Squash Soup, I made a salad of Butter Lettuce, Marinated Roasted Beets, Blue Cheese, and Toasted Walnuts. I originally was going to candy my walnuts, and had this grand idea to try caramelizing Brown Sugar. From past experience I knew that brown sugar needed to be dried out a bit before the attempt in caramelization.
So, I proceeded to caramelize the Brown Sugar in a small pan. This was just a plain disaster! I added some of my walnuts into the pan to become coated in the liquid golden sugar. The color turned quickly from golden, to dark amber, to BURNT! I decided right then and there that I was simply going to add toasted walnuts to the salad.
Sometimes these kinds of mistakes in the kitchen open my eyes to the notion that less is more. With the marriage of the slightly tart Marinated Beets, the creamy Blue Cheese, and the richness of toasted Walnuts, I had a harmonious combination of ingredients atop my favorite salad green-Butter Lettuce. I didn't really need the addition of caramelized sugar. I just thought I did.
With a hearty loaf of homemade bread, it was a truly Autumnal inspired meal.
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