Vertical Pear Walnut & Gorgonzola Salad

Winter, you have very much overstayed your welcome! Three weeks ago, I spend over an hour digging my car out from shoulder-high snow drifts and two weeks ago I got to celebrate my 25th birthday with a little frostbite, thanks to the -15º temperatures (not windchill, but temperatures!). In past years, once my birthday has come and gone, I'm about done with February and winter in general, but this year I had to stick with winter at least week longer for Valentine's Day. Previous Valentine's Days were observed with eating chocolate, drinking wine and watching Blade:Trinity with my girlfriends, but being in a new relationship meant this was the year to actually embrace the gooey-ness of the day. Being only a week after my birthday, for which I was spoiled for an entire week, I decided to tackle the V-day plans with a go big or go home attitude!

Now, of course I wouldn't be content with either making reservations at a restaurant or cooking up some heart-shaped mac-n-cheese. Nope, after a few weeks of searching through recipes and every romantic menu I could find on a food-related website, I finally nailed down my menu the morning of: this salad, steak and salmon with roasted potatoes and a raspberry-chocolate truffle tart. Cue panic! After an amusing trip to the grocery store (lots of frantic and confused looking guys wandering around with what was left of the chocolate and roses selection), I spent the afternoon spinning around my kitchen like a crazy person. Luckily everything turned out well and dinner went off without too much of a problem, save for a dessert that was delicious but managed to be an aesthetic mess! This salad, however, was definitely the most impressive looking of the courses.

Peperoni Arrostiti all'Acciughe (Roast Peppers with Anchovies)

Okay, so major fail on my part on the whole "I'm gonna post more often this summer" thing. Turns out my summer didn't have as much free time as I thought it would, and I kept forgetting to take pictures when I cooked. But as a nice break from studying bacteria, viruses, and parasites (second year has started off at a grueling pace), I thought I'd post this recipe, because it's really easy and delicious.

I have to say that fall is my favorite season because I have a thing for squash, cold air, fire-colored trees, and the smell of wood smoke. I also associate fall with beginnings - it's the start of the academic year, and I'm always doing really cool (read "disgusting") stuff and haven't gotten burnt out with it yet. That being said, the produce at the end of summer is without parallel. Cherry tomatoes, summer squash, berries of various sorts, etc. etc.

This recipe is the perfect thing for an end-of-summer antipasto, or, if you choose to add the fish, main course for those who don't have a whole lot of time on their hands. The peppers can be used for any number of things, and are light-years better than the canned roasted peppers you can get at the grocery store.