You read it right, meat-free Friday is back!! And this time around I'm going to do my best to really keep it meat-free - including no seafood. Vegetarian recipes will, as always, continue to be tagged as bothvegetarian and as lent.

Have you ever wished that you could eat apple pie for dinner? This galette stuffed with sauteed apples and fennel, caramelized onions, and blue cheese is pretty close! Just like apple pie, this dish is great either warm or at room temperature; just be sure to store any leftovers in the fridge.

I don't know where the idea came from, but while I was doing my weekly menu-planning, I decided that I wanted to make an apple and blue cheese galette. Thinking about it more I decided that, while it sounded great, it needed more - both to add bulk and make it filling as well as to add some sharpness to the flavor. I decided that caramelized onions would be perfect. Then I saw fennel while I was shopping and decided to grab that too. Apples and fennel pair perfectly, and together, the onions and fennel moved this dish squarely from the dessert column to the dinner column. [....]

I've never been a vegetable person. I have my favorites (ahem... brussels sprouts), but in general they aren't something that I get excited about. Especially when it comes to vegetable side dishes, where they don't get to hide behind other flavors. But these maple-glazed root vegetables are another story: they can be enjoyed just as much by the veggie-hater as the veggie-lover. I made these to go along with steak and french fries - at the end of dinner, my plate still had steak and french fries on it, but there were no vegetables left. I was so excited about them that I made them again right away, to bring for lunch the next day. It's amazing what a little bit of maple syrup can do.

That's not to say that these vegetables are super sticky sweet - the syrup really only forms a light glaze that imparts a hint of maple flavor while keeping the vegetables from drying out while they roast. You also want to be sure to use real maple syrup on these, rather than "maple flavored syrup" (like Aunt Jemima and the other popular brands) that have corn syrup as their first ingredient. Real maple syrup has a lot less sugar, and a slightly bitter taste that takes some getting used to on your pancakes, but it a perfect foil to the natural sweetness of the root vegetables and to the peppery flavor of the parsnip and turnip.

You can use whatever winter root vegetables are available, and whatever you like. I used sweet potato, carrots, parsnip, and turnip - but you can feel free to leave any one of those out or add another vegetable of your choice. When I make these again I want to try adding fennel, which I think will be fabulous. I also want to play around with adding some beets (probably not with the carrots and sweet potato though). It's all about figuring out which vegetables you like best and going with it. [....]

Daring cooks make me do it. I know that it was only yesterday that I was complaining about eating to many fried, cheesy, en croute type dishes. But somehow, I totally forgot about this month's Daring Cooks! They made me do it! I don't know what happened, but for some reason I had the reveal date marked on my calendar as today, so I'm a day late. But I started making this wellington over the weekend and was planning to have it last night for dinner anyway so, for the most part it, worked out ok.

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternate recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good FoodOnline. When I first read what the challenge was going to be, I was really excited. I was all set to make Lamb Wellington - something I've been dying to make ever since they kept making it that one season on Hell's Kitchen. But when the time came, I just wasn't feeling it. You see... in addition to being sick of fried, greasy foods we're also sick of meat. I know! Crazy right? We've actually eaten very little meat in the past few months and we're not really missing it. Once a week or so seems like the perfect amount. So I thought of what else I could fill these with, and finally settles on mushrooms and blue cheese. Which was AWESOME. The flavors were simple, but so so so good. [....]

(Before I start talking about these cookies, I'll let you know that there's a great giveaway at the end of this post. Including FREE CHEESE!)

Ok, now that that's out of the way.....

I'm not going to go on and on about how these are the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I promise. Everyone thinks they're recipe is the best and, honestly, few stand up to the one that printed on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. But sometimes you're looking for something different. Something... crispier! Soft, gooey cookies have their place but sometimes I just want a little bit of crunch. They're great for dunking in eggnog (I don't like dunking soft cookies - they get too soggy) and they keep really well. They best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever? I'll leave that up for debate. But let's just say if I was Santa, whatever kid left me a plate of these would be written on the "nice" list in permanent marker. [....]

Well, well, what do we have here? That's right - a meal centered around vegetables! I feel like its been a while, but its just so hard for me to get inspired by veggies this time of year. This dish makes the best of what's in season with cauliflower and chard. Yes, cauliflower. I know what you're thinking, but trust me - that cauliflower is getting mixed with cheese and cream sauce. Because cheese and cream sauce can make just about anything taste good.

I'll admit, I was a littler nervous about how this was going to come out: I figured it would either be totally gross or totally awesome. It was way better than I ever imagined it could be! We both loved it, and I happily gobbled it down while already looking forward to the leftovers. The cauliflower was tender without being mushy, and the chard was slightly bitter in a way that cut through the creamy sauce very nicely (it reminded me of the Brussels sprouts in this dish). If you must, think of this as a grown-up version of macaroni and cheese with cauliflower standing in for the pasta. You wont be disappointed. This is definitely a dish that I'll be making again and again all winter.[....]

Shepherd's Pie. Soup, Lasagna, Soup, Stew, Soup, Soup, Soup. That's been what dinner here has looked like the past few weeks. The colder weather just has me craving comfort foods, most of which are pretty boring and not worth posting about. But this pot pie is another story. For some reason puff pastry comes in packages of two so I had some left after making that baked brie. I'm not normally a pot pie fan, but I remembered seeing a recipe for beef and guinness baked under puff pastry when I was looking at Jamie Oliver's web site not to long ago, and I liked the general idea. I'm sure his recipe is good, but it looked kind of boring to me so I took mine up a few notches by playing around with the cooking technique and adding lots of vegetables and more seasonings. The result is a stew of tender beef and potatoes swimming in a rich and flavorful broth that has just the slightest bit of bitterness (in a good way!) from the beer, all tucked nicely beneath a buttery crust. It was warm and comforting - exactly what I was looking for on a cold winter day. [....]

Since my mom always hosts Thanksgiving, I'm not stuck trying to get rid of leftovers all week. No turkey sandwiches here! I'm focused on more important things. Like soup. This time of year, there is very little that appeals to me more than a nice, warm bowl of soup. This bean soup is a great way to get back on track after the Thanksgiving weekend - it's vegetarian (vegan if you skip the sour cream on top), full of wholesome vegetables and fiber, and extremely soul-satisfying. Adding your own toppings also makes the soup fun, and allows you to switch it up a little bit so that the leftovers don't all taste exactly the same. [....]

Nothing beats a good pork chop. For a long time, I forgot that they existed. I must have gone years without eating a pork chop! I'm really glad that I rediscovered them though, because they're a really easy weeknight option. In this preparation, the chops are beautifully browned before being glazed with a luscious balsamic reduction. I'm not normally the kid of girl who will happily gnaw on a bone, but I'll admit that I picked these up and made sure I nibbled off every delicious morsel that was to be had. [....]