The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

It was just one of those weekends. One that called for a lot of distractions, as many as I could find. The Vaisakhi Parade in all of its chaos and deep fried glory, followed by an incredibly above our means Saturday night dinner that still illicit feelings of guilt for the pleasures it brought me, and a quieter yet equally indulgent Sunday home cooked dinner for two, I surrounded myself with my favorite things and decided I would just forget for a while.

I’ve always had an interesting relationship with food where comfort is concerned. I’ve felt grief and food has been the only thing that seems to calm me. During other equally trying times I’ve found it nearly impossible to eat. It’s always been a draw. During times of sadness I never quite know where my appetite will land.

Knowing this, I was intent on finding something on the lighter side, but was not willing to compromise any of those distinguishing qualities that make certain foods more comforting to me than others. I’ve been interested in turnips lately as they’ve always been an under used root vegetable in my family’s cooking. I’m not sure what initially sparked my interest in them, but I have been using them in the place of potatoes here and there for a while now. One particular turnip recipe I love are baked Turnip fries. They crisp up just the way a good oven fry should, and stay nice and soft in the center and are a definite favorite in my house.

Turnips are lighter and less starchy but can be equally as satisfying as a potato or yam when done right. I’ve been wanting to make Julia Childs Potatoes Dauphinoise before it gets to warm to justify such things, but rather than weigh us down late on a Sunday night I decided to put the turnips I bought to use and give this recipe a bit of a spin. There is after all plenty of cream and butter to add in the richness where it needs to be.

Alright I give up. After many many months of resistance to writing about baked kale chips, I finally decided that enough was enough. To tell you the truth, I’m getting increasingly frustrated with my own stubbornness, which extends well past the world of Kale and deep into the depths of macaroons and gluten free puff pastry, all extremely well covered topics among food bloggers, all topics that interest me, all topics which I had until now decided I would not cover.

I have to give credit for the new found inspiration, at least in the Kale chips department, to my farmers market in Vancouver. While I’m easily inspired by such things, there was something different about this weekend. The beautiful spring temperature, with the cherry blossoms in full bloom and a weekend dedicated entirely to my kitchen, a place I wish I could spend every hour of every day, was enough to appease even the most stubborn aspects of my personality. And once I laid my eyes on the beautiful basket of mixed baby kales of one vendor, I knew I was completely defeated.

I have an addiction. No, it’s not cheesecake, chocolate or a certain muffin at a certain favorite coffee shop, it’s much more serious than that. For the past I don’t know how long, at lunch time, when most people I know grab a sandwich or a salad, I can only think of one thing I would like for lunch and its always the same: Pho.

I’m not sure exactly when this started but it’s safe to assume that it’s been many years. I would say at least 5. What’s even more serious about this addiction is it knows no bounds: it’s in no way seasonal. Yes that’s right, it could be 95 degrees outside and I would still want Pho for lunch over a salad any day of the week, rain or shine, arctic weather or extreme heat.

Ridiculous I know.

I started making these stuffed bell peppers last night with the idea that I would pull out the contents of my refrigerator, which I would quickly transform into something pretty amazing before my internal starvation alarms started to sound. It’s funny how delusional I can be at times. They tasted great but took a good hour longer than my after work patience allowed for, which resulted in about three pre dinner snack courses and an unusually large packed lunch today.

Note to self to improve speed of execution: minimally have some cooked rice on hand.

The good news is they keep well and are probably one of those things that benefit from a bit of sitting around as they seemed to taste better today as a lunch than yesterday as dinner. This could have been a result of the snacking though. They tasted great last night too, I just felt that the flavor settled in a bit better as a next day meal. Not a bad thing if you’re a person who fancies making things ahead.

I’ve been really into raw beets lately and its fitting for this to be the first documentation of that here, as I have served various dips with raw sliced yellow and red beets at least 3 times in the past 2 months. There’s just something so pretty about them as they can easily dress up your average everyday crudites platter and the taste and texture of a raw beet is something that pairs so nicely with my favorite dips.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always loved cooked beets in almost every way, including some of those questionable way-too-many-things-going-on soaked in miso gravy ways I come across so often in vegan restaurants. Not that I’m a huge fan of this sort of establishment, but I do find myself eating at one on occasion. Needless to say, I am a huge beet fan. So much that sometimes it’s hard to completely dislike a dish that clearly doesn’t work solely because there are beets in it. It’s almost like my subconscious wants to give bonus points just for including them, despite how badly the dish failed on a whole.