Update on mystery root vegetable:

     I was wrong.  Boy, was I wrong.  It was taro.  Repeat: taro.

     That is all.

Today is significant, food-wise.

     I will tell you why.  First things first, I'm roasting beets.  Not significant, you say?  Well, it is when you've never worked with fresh beets before.  Not sure why, just never have.  So I'm slightly excited, even with my hands hopelessly dyed red.
     I will tell you another reason that today is special (culinarily speaking.  Otherwise today is blah).  Let me ask you this: have you ever had a certain food or ingredient within a certain food that you can't quite identify, but wind up craving at random intervals that can last days?  Have you ever, then, stumbled across this food right at your fingertips, right at the perfect moment, without warning? You see, there's this root vegetable.  I've had it in Trader Joe's Root Vegetable Chips, in tempura, and I'm sure elsewhere.  I never gave it much thought, always forgetting to look further into identifying it.  It's a funny, speckly, potato-like thing, but with a slightly more complex flavor.  I assumed it was just one of those root vegetables I always hear and read about, but have never bought.  I've been thinking about it for days. 
     The other day at H-mart (see last post), I bought a purple yam out of curiosity.  Today I cut it up to roast with the beets.  Imagine my delight when I find that the inside contains that same (I THINK) speckly flesh that's been on my mind.  I always pictured the inside of purple yams to be a more solid purple, but nope- it looks just like my beloved mystery tuber. Guardian [food] Angel? 
     I'll letcha know how it comes out.

Over-toasted sesame seeds. I don't like 'em.

     Just thought I'd throw that out there.  And somehow, I always manage to overtoast them.  I had to waste a couple of teaspoons of them just now and start over, because I'm adding some crushed sesame seeds to this weird, experimental stuffing I'm throwing together for some mushrooms, and gross over-toasted sesame seeds could ruin the whole thing. 
     I had a very long night last night and slept away today, only to wake up feeling crappy and blah and discontent with nothing to do for distraction.  So, naturally, I'm spending hours and hours in the kitchen.  I'm making said mushrooms, stuffing them with some...breadcrumb-goatcheese-sesameseed-parsley-egg-whatever else I feel like throwing in...mixture.  I'm also gonna make these eggplant roll-ups with mozzarella and tomatoes I found the recipe for in one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks (remind me to rant another time about my suspicion that all of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks are British).  I'm making these because they remind me of this awesome fried green tomato/mozzarella dish I had at Galaxy66 in Ocean City, and I don't exactly have any green tomatoes on hand, seeing that it is February.......anyway..

     Along with that, I'm trying these sweet potato gnocci I found at Trader Joe's.  They come with sage butter.  They sound badass. Meanwhile, I'm watching a Saturday Night Live special until like 11.  Yes.
     Today is fat, blah day.

Hmm..fake tabbouleh?

     Today it's really warm. Like 75 degrees. And it's February.  I spent a lot of the day outside, which was awwwesoooome..anyway, I'm in the mood for food that reminds me of warm weather.  I've really wanted to make tabbouleh lately, even though I've never tried.  However, probably because I haven't looked hard enough, I haven't come across any bulgur anywhere, sooo I'm substituting quinao. I know. Me and quinao.  It's ridiculous. Oh, well..
     I think I'm also gonna throw together a nice Three Color Salad with some tomatoes and mozzarella I picked up yesterday, and an avocado I HOPE is still good. mouthwatermouthwatermouthwater.
     Oh, by the way, got an 'A' on my paper on Food Network Magazine. Win.

Sheesh.

     It's been too long. I know. I'm sorry. Haven't been cooking too much over the past month what with a couple of bouts of mystery-sickness and school starting back up and everything.  Speaking of school, I'm taking a journalism class and I did my first assignment on Food Network Magazine. It was an oddly easy assignment. I should post it on here.
     I'll be posting more regularly soon, promise! Oh, by the way, I recently found meyer lemons for the first time. They are lovely things.

      (These are not my meyer lemons.  But aren't they cute?)