Aren't they gorgeous? So, I had invited about ten friends over for a potluck last Saturday, and wanted to make dishes that really showed off the flavor of these carrots. I tried a bit raw before I started cooking and they were delightfully fresh, and much sweeter and more delicate than supermarket carrots. I decided to make carrot-cake cupcakes and a pasta with carrot ribbons and a lemon/ginger sauce. Word to the wise: do NOT make both of these dishes in the same night. I literally spent an hour grating and making carrot ribbons. First my wrist cramped up. Then my wonderful roommate took over. Then her wrist cramped. This had better be good, we 
thought. And it was: Basically, all you do is saute some ginger and lemon zest in butter (or olive oil, which is what I did to for some vegan guests) add the carrots and some yellow pepper (which I'd actually leave out next time), and mix it with linguini and freshly grated parmesan. The full recipe is here. The cupcakes got snatched up so fast I only got a chance to take a picture of the very last one ;) The recipe wasn't vegan, but I veganized it by subbing vegan margarine for butter and soy yogurt for eggs. As far as vegan egg substitutes to, I'm not a fan of the powdered egg replacer stuff, since I try to avoid processed foods as much as possible. Soy yogurt makes baked goods taste so moist and rich. The mascarpone/orange zest frosting I made was (obviously) non-vegan, so my vegan friends really had muffins rather than cupcakes. Hence the name "mupcakes," which stuck.
Other delectable dishes included Roomie's roasted butternut squash with sage
and a dish my boyfriend invented that prominently features sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, and crunchy potato chips on top. It was quite the hit and provided a nice counterpoint to my "healthy" cooking.
The full spread:
And, last but not least, I tried out this bottle of wine: 2008 Falernia Pedro Ximenez (11.95) from the Elqui Valley in Chile. The Pedro Ximenez grape is usually used to make sherry and other 
fortified dessert wines, but in this case it was a nice white table wine with almond flavors and good, crisp minerality that complemented the carrots' sweetness.Tonight, I'm cooking a pre-theater dinner for my darling sister. It's going to feature these beautiful radishes from this
morning's farmer's market:
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