Five-in-one

Somewhere after blackberry swirl cheesecake and the end of summer, I lost my blogging zeal. It's kind of hard to talk about food and share recipes when some pretty horrific things are happening in the world all around us and it can feel almost impossible to find the right words to talk about them, especially in the limited context of a food blog. Also, according to several sources blogging is dead. So that didn't help with my bad case of blog neglect. And the truth is, much of my old recipe-sharing and food-rambling energy now goes to my Facebook and Instagram feeds, not to mention the PBS blog. So for a girl who tries to not overdo the social media thing, it can all get to be a bit much. When I started this blog just over 4 years ago, I didn't have any of those other outlets. But this is where it all started, and it is always nice to meander back and dangle my legs from this exact place and dispatch a long-overdue greeting and some recipes. So. Hello! How have you been? And does anyone else out there also feel like crawling into a full body cloak these days and not coming out again until spring? Because that's kind of where I'm at right now. 

(Found on Facebook, if you know who created this, let me know so I can credit them, it's brilliant)

Yep. Once the trees are bare and the temperature begins to dip below zero, there's a strange growl from deep within that urges me to go into hiding. It's the sword-wielding winter beast. She really, really likes wood stoves. And blankets. A friend just posted this article about how the colder weather makes us want to sleep more. What if instead of fighting it, we indulged our inclination to lay down our weary little heads and sleep for just a bit longer in the winter months? Bears do it. Skunks do it. And bats and snakes and groundhogs. It seems only normal that we should at the very least, relent our frenzy of activities. I loved this excerpt from the article:

Villages and even small towns were silent, with barely a column of smoke to reveal a human presence.  As soon as the weather turned cold, people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.

This year, I plan to embrace my inner bear. Though in the last few months since I last wrote, I've been anything but hibernating. On the recipe front, I've got a backlog of new recipes to share with you, so I figured I should do a little round-up here, a little five-in-one if you don't mind, to get us all caught up and up-to-date.

The first one is this Rye Berry Salad which features red cabbage, feta, and dill. I love the chew of shiny rye berries, but you can use pretty much any whole grain to make this dish. They turn this into a wholesome salad, perfect for wintery days.

The second is a beloved Italian recipe for Pickled Eggplant in Olive Oil, one of the most delicious things I've ever learned to make. There are a hundred different ways to make this recipe in Italy and each family has their own treasured recipe. In this video, I share the way I was taught to make it.




Next up are my mom's Maple Walnut Stuffed Baked Apples, an easy seasonal favourite. And the ultimate healthy comfort food.



Then there was this Roasted Red Pepper Pesto, a fun one to make, eat, and shoot.




And finally, a very seasonal Pumpkin Maple Flan (or Crème Caramel). And an appropriate pre-hibernation food. 

There. That brings us at least somewhat up to date with the recipes. I'll be back with more recipes soon and perhaps even find the words to say some of the things that have been on my mind that are not always food-related. Until then, may your sleeps be a tiny bit longer.