January in Review

While the month of January is not quite over, the 27th is close enough for me.  I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite recipes and book reviews from this month.  (Because I realized that I am the boss of this blog, I can do whatever I want!)

January Foods:
Since Rob and I are both part of the CSA here in Bend (Community Supported Agriculture), we get weekly supplies of produce from around Oregon.  Being winter, we are stuck in root vegetable and apple season.

Below are some the meals we've been having this month:

Potato and leek frittata:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/potato-leek-frittata
We use 6 whole eggs, top with white cheddar, and serve with side salad.  An easy week night meal.

Butternut squash and sage pasta:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/food/2012/02/22/penne-with-butternut-squash-and-sage.html
This is from my favorite cookbook: America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.  I like to throw in a cup of peas.

Greens and garbanzo bean soup:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/garbanzo-beans-greens-50400000109639/
We get an abundance of kale and chard every week that I get overwhelmed with.  These kinds of recipes always work great for using whatever I have in the fridge.  I also never remember to get 2 cans of beans, so 1 always seems to work fine for us.  We splurged and got a fancy loaf of bread from the market too.

Pork chops and roasted vegetables:
On the weekends I like to go to our local butcher to get inspiration.  This week, he talked me into pork chops, cooked on the stove with a little butter.  Who could resist?  I roasted some brussel sprouts, potatoes, and some of that pesky leftover butternut squash with rosemary, salt, and oil.  Yum!

Jessica's Book Review for January:
Ahab's Wife.  Ugh.  (Can that one word be my review?)
At 650 pages, it's intimidating, but Goodreads recommended it based on my review of The Red Tent, so I gave it a shot. The first 1/3 flies by, I would even call it enthralling.  Then it bottoms out.  To provide a brief plot summary (no spoilers involved), it's supposed to be the untold story from the wife of Ahab (from Moby Dick).  She disguises herself as a boy and runs away on a whaling ship early on.  The story abroad is great, interesting.  Then she decides to be a woman, have babies, cry to the earth, mourn death, talk to the moon.  The story continues on for years, randomly hopping from one life event to the next with little continuity or reason to care.

I will give it 3 stars on Goodreads simply because I believe 2 stars is mean.

Rob's Book Review:
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.
A cheesy romance movie starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz?  I think not!  I never saw the movie and probably never will, but this book is perhaps one of the greatest american novels of our generation.  Written with the straightforward, no non-sense style of a Hemingway novel, this book tells the captivating story of two friends traveling by horseback into Mexico.  This is their tale and it's one of brotherhood, adventure, love, and murder.  I highly recommend having a look - but you don't have to take my word for it.