winter jump-start

Well when it looks like this outside and you've just spent days cooped up at home recovering from one of these, I don't know about you but I start to feel like I need a proper kick start to get me back on track. And when I've been deliberately bored out of my mind for a couple days (oh recovery mode) and am just on the mend nothing makes me feel quite as good as firing up the stove on all cylinders to produce a great meal. This one doubled as choc-a-bloc full of flu fighters (garlic, ginger, vitamins) while also being sufficiently pan fried and saucified to pass as comfort food.



Thank you Smitten kitchen for providing the inspiration for this meal consisting of Scallion Meat-balls with ginger-soy glaze, Parsnip (& Sweet potato, my modification) latkes with apple sauce, and Carrot Soup with miso & sesame. And because I broke out the food processor to do all of these dishes, I was done faster than I would have expected. Some people like to get all cleaned up and dressed nice to feel back to normal after getting off track, me: I like to set the table and set out a handful of multi-step made-from-scratch dishes.



This step outside my normal one-pot-meals served with water (no napkin) for me heralds "you still got it, babe! welcome back". "Aha!" you might say, suddenly understanding why I was cooking like a fiend when I got laid off. Mind you the oodles of free time on EI didn't hurt either.

What's your go to pick-me-up?