eating my way through January

This weekend was chock full of tasty things, as all weekends should be.
I went to a really nice potluck at the frat haus on Saturday night, and there were many other guests who brought a nice variety of dishes and booze and good company. I was a little stressed out that day because I decided at the last minute to make falafel again, having made it the previous night with the intention of bringing it to the potluck. I was worried that it wouldn't be as delicious the 2nd day, so I rushed to the store at 7pm (potluck started at 8), and ran around my kitchen chopping, blending, and frying things, but the falafel turned out really well and I was pleased with it. I got to the potluck just in time to dish up a plate full of exciting things like macaroni and cheese (which I am pretty sure was made with beecher's cheese), tabouleh, chickpea & spinach curry, roasted sesame eggplant, falafel, veggie tart, and vegetarian chili. I think I actually ate more things than that, but there were so many dishes that looked good, I was overwhelmed and had a hard time deciding. Also available at this party were a number of different caramels from Theo's chocolates, which is where Becca works. I ate many different kinds of caramels, and was really into the sage caramel.
Sunday night I made a vegetable stirfry, and was going to concoct an almond sauce (like peanut sauce... but with almonds) in order to not kill my roommate, who is allergic to peanuts, but ended up making a while new sauce instead. I juiced two oranges (minneola I think), zested them, added sweet chili sauce and fish sauce, and then grated a ton of fresh ginger into that and gave it a good stir. I used onion, garlic, broccoli, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, carrot, and red bell pepper as my veggies, which didn't leave any room in my pan for tofu, so I opted to just leave it out. I sauteed everything in a little bit of canola oil and a bunch of sesame oil, which I am very into right now because I love the flavor it lends to vegetables that cook in it. The stirfry ended up being very tasty, and VERY gingery, which is great because I adore ginger, especially in the winter. It was just what we needed, a huge helping of fresh vegetables, and tons of cold-fighting vitamin C.