Holiday Gift Guide!

I'm always late to the game when it comes to Christmas shopping.  Time slips by me and before I know it it's the week of Christmas and I'm scrambling to get the perfect gifts.  Don't get me wrong, I love gift giving - especially Christmas gifts.  There is more room for creativity with Christmas gifts than birthday presents or other holidays, but I tend to obsess and agonize over what is the most perfect, unique, and personal gift I give each person on my list.  So I wait and wait for a grand idea to come to me or until I see something that just screams "this is for Mom!" or "this is for a best friend who has everything!" and since that seems to never happen, I wake up one day and realize Christmas is just a few days around the corner and I have no gift buying accomplished.  So, in keeping with my procrastinator spirit... here is my Holiday Gift Guide... a little bit late... but just in case you are still doing (or just starting) your holiday shopping - like me.

For the Chef in Your Family... who may happen to love salt... like me...

{Himalayan Salt Plate}

{Salted - A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes}

For the One with a Sweet Tooth...

{Culinary Institute of America 30 piece Decorating Set}

{Tartine Cookbook}

For the Fashionista with a Hippie Twist...

{Moccasins!}

{Recycled T-Shirt Scarf}

peace, love, and happy gifting!

Welcome Winter Dinner

The cold has come and with it my desire to eat warm foods has amplified itself, especially since I have to fight to keep warm in our house which may or may not have insulation.  (I'm leaning towards not.)  To welcome winter I decided to pick up some grocery items that seemed wintery to me - a butternut squash (a whole one - not the pre-peeled and diced cubes in a bag that I normally buy), pears, walnuts, and filet mignon (steaks aren't just for summer BBQ's as far as I'm concerned, and it was on sale).

{Curried Butternut Squash Soup, Garlic crusted Filet, and Warm Pear and Walnut Salad}

The Curried Butternut Squash was simple and easy to make but packed a lot of flavor.  And when I say simple, I mean simple after the peeling, coring, and cutting battle was won with the squash.  

{squash simmering}

I used Ellie Krieger's recipe from Food Network and to be honest I probably wouldn't change much - it was really delicious.

For the Warm Pear and Walnut Salad I toasted walnuts in a pan with some maple syrup and added the sliced pears and cooked them for about 2 to 3 minutes each side.  I added the walnuts and pears to chopped butter lettuce and topped it with gorgonzola cheese crumbles and a simple balsamic vinaigrette (I like Trader Joe's low fat balsamic dressing).

{walnuts and pears with maple syrup}

{finished salad}

For the filet, which doesn't need much at all, I like to rub it with fresh chopped garlic, salt and pepper -  and that's it.  Then I leave it up to the bf to grill it just right... which he seems to be getting better at (thank goodness!).

{Filet}

It was the perfect dinner to get me in the winter mood and ready for some warm, seasonal, delicious cooking.

Happy Winter Everyone! Stay warm!

peace, love, warmth, and happiness!