2012 - The Year of The Vegetable

Christmas was brilliant this year. And not just because of the over-zealous LED fairy lights that lit up our Christmas tree. We had an idyllic time with family and friends, but after 10 days of over-indulgence, I'm kind of glad it's over.
With Mr McDonald back at work, and the food in the fridge back to its normal spartan self, it's goodbye to mince pies for breakfast, Christmas pudding for lunch (as a main course), and well, we still have loads of chocolate, so I won't rule it out as a staple for tea.
January is traditionally the month when you decide to give up all the things which make life worth living, such as booze, decent food etc. But I have never really felt the urge, always figuring that January is so drear anyway, why make it worse? But Christmas this year was so decadent, so fuelled by booze and rich food, that for the first time ever I feel the urge to detox.
So January 2012 heralds in a new, abstemious era, which, knowing me, will be heralded out again in a couple of days. So far: no alcohol has passed my lips for TWO days! I know. That's pretty much a record. And I may manage a third, but I don't want to push myself too hard. And while looking at the blog's stats *pushes glasses up nose to read clipboard better* I notice that one of our most read stories is a piece on non-alcoholic drinks for grown ups, so I reckon you lot may be on the wagon too.
I haven't eaten much meat since New Year's Eve either. Except some liver which is less meat and more medicine (bloody delicious medicine at that, chicken liver parfait, so yum and bursting with iron). And that leads me to make a Crumbs announcement. This month we are all about The Vegetable (that's a romanesco cauliflower pictured above). Lucy grandly declared at Christmas, with her mouth stuffed full of turkey, that "2012 will be the year of the vegetable". And at this time of year it seems a very sensible option, in terms of health, wealth, and the environment. So all our January recipes are going to be delicious vegetarian recipes.
But, as ever, we don't know all the answers. If you've got a great veggie recipe you're dying to share, just whack your blog post's url in our linky below(I know, I know, we've got a linky! Who'd have thunk it?) and spread the word. If you don't have a blog, just a stonking veggie recipe, send it to me (claire.m.mcdonald@hotmail.co.uk) and if I can I'll make it and blog about it.