52 recipes down, 182 days to go

Sunday, November 29th.

I was exhausted today. I took a nap this afternoon, and when my timer went off after 30 minutes I just rolled over, turned the beeping off, and slept some more. Another hour, to be specific. The only reason why I finally had to get up was in order to make "a special cool weather dinner."

That's right. My brother was having friends over this afternoon/evening and my dad was picking up Domino's Pizza. I was sooo tempted to just eat some pizza and call it a day. But I didn't. There was no other time I could make this. All the ingredients were sitting in the fridge. It was the seven day mark. Now or never. Plus I am trying to stick to my plans with more firm resolve.

Tonight was my second time using celery root. Laura Wright says it's her favorite vegetable because of its "diamond-in-the-rough vibe." It certainly has a gnarly appearance if that's what she means. This makes for difficult peeling. Peeling the four celery roots took 10 minutes.

Otherwise the prep tonight was a relief. I sliced an onion which has become second nature, and incredibly fast by now. Then I sliced a leek. My first time using leeks. The recipe called for two, but for some reason I only got one, hmm...

It was similar to a green onion, only on a gargantuan scale. I sliced it the same way, using only the white and light-green parts. Last thing for prep was thinly slicing an apple.

What was nice was that I did all the prep work at the beginning of the recipe this time! It eased the pressure enormously. A good chunk of 25 minutes passed by and I was ready to start the looong cooking process.

To be honest, I did eat one piece of cheesy bread. I'm only human, what can I say? The pot-roast had to cook in the oven for 1 hour and then simmer on the stove-top for another 25 minutes. It would be a little while.

One other thing that is nice about this recipe is that everything cooks in one hunking large pot. With the celery roots nestled into the vegetable and covered by 2 cups of apple cider. I got a bottle of apple cider just for this recipe.

I almost forgot to toast the hazelnuts. Glad I remembered. In my opinion, hazelnuts only taste good toasted. I tried one plain once. It wasn't good. At all. Toasted nuts are bomb, I can't believe I didn't discover them until this challenge.

Well, everything turned out, finally, and four prettily arranged bowls were on the counter ready to eat at 7:30pm. Pretty darn good.

Pot-Roasted Celery Root with Horseradish Cream

The First Mess

The horseradish cream was actually not super spicy, like my dad mentioned. It had two tablespoons of horseradish in it. I was particularly excited about this because I still had an almost full jar of prepared horseradish in the fridge from the potato salad—my first recipe of this challenge. It wasn't going to last forever.

There was also cashew butter in the dressing which gave it a nice nutty flavor. I love nut butter. I had never eaten cashew butter before, actually. I had gotten a jar of it for the first time for the cauliflower steak sauce from last night. It is a little thicker consistency than almond butter and peanut butter—the sole two nut butters I have been using. Pretty good.

I decided to top the dishes with a sprinkling of chopped parsley per the recipe. I still have a bunch of it left in the fridge from the butternut squash dish I made Friday. I didn't add that much. Just a little.

The flavors came together quite nicely. The slow-cooked onion, and apple in the apple cider was delicious. I got a spoon so I could slurp up the remaining liquid. Good thing I won't be making dinner again until Thursday. My mom and dad tried a bite to be polite, but everyone was full from pizza, cheesy bread and cupcakes. I ate dinner alone. So much for a nice family dinner. This served four, and quite generous servings at that. I left two pieces of celery root in my bowl. I am full and full. Through and through. No pumpkin pie tonight. There are now three bowl of this in the fridge. I know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow...

I enjoyed this much better tonight. I wasn't so wearied down afterwards. One recipe is a good number. I was also kind to everyone in the kitchen tonight! And there wasn't that big of a mess. Progress.

School starts back up again tomorrow. First class at 8am, bright and early (gulp).

I'm going to stretch now and then go to bed.

Goodnight (yawn).