food > fertility, second edition

Welcome to today’s better-late-than-never edition of "what I cooked while trying oh-my-god-actually-getting-pregnant" closely followed by "oops-wait-never mind." As I’ve mentioned here, here and here, my ever changing hormones insist, no, command, that I feed them – and often. So, while a fertility blog doesn’t exactly scream "recipe share," I’ve never been one for conformity. Plus, with snowpocalypse-2013 fast approaching, what better way to spend your snow day than eating brownies and watching the Bachelor cooking and catching up on household chores. Without further adieu, the second edition of food > fertility (recipes and irreverent commentary after the jump):

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette

Kale Market Salad

Blood Orange Upside Down Cake

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette

Because this is a Smitten Kitchen find, I’m going to let Deb show the way, as always, but just a few words before we part. First, I used pecorino instead of fontina. I’m fairly lactose intolerant – but willing to play with fire for the sake of good food – and find that sheep’s milk cheese is a little easier on the digestive tract. I reduced the salt slightly to compensate for the super-saltiness of the cheese. And Deb is good on her word – I used fresh dough once and sat-in-the-fridge-for-36-hour-dough once and each time, the crust was rich and flaky. Finally, because we had leftover rosemary, I subbed rosemary for sage and it was still delicious. Bottom line: whatever way you do it, there is nothing better than the combination of roasted butternut squash and caramelized onions on a cozy winter evening. Find out for yourself:

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette

Kale Market Salad

A couple months ago, two dear friends were visiting from New York and introduced us to this unbelievable (and unbelievably easy) kale salad from 101cookbooks. While it doesn't make for the most flattering of photos, the dressing is divine, without being overbearing, and the additions – toasted almonds and faro – are just right. The trick to eating (and enjoying) raw kale? Massage it! Hands and all. I’ve used both lacinato and purple kale and was satisfied with both, with a slight preference for the former. (And, by the way, if you’ve never cooked faro before, treat it like pasta - boil water, add faro, cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you've never heard of faro before, don't despair - I still barely know how to pronounce it. Long "a"? Or, dear god, rhymes with sparrow? The mystery continues). Recipe found here:

Kale Market Salad

Blood Orange Upside Down Cake

And finally, blood orange upside down cake. Because you might have some leftover blood oranges, so, why not? This recipe was recently featured in the NY Times dining section and because there's no way that fruit + cornmeal can't be healthy except of course with the addition of copious amounts of sugar, eggs and butter, we decided to give it a go. The only change we made was substituting fat free greek yogurt for sour cream because seriously, sour cream is gross we didn't have any. This cake is best in the 24 hours immediately after baking but will keep for a few days if tightly covered. Because it's a cake, well, yes, dessert, maybe a dollop of ice cream, etc. but it's also entirely possible we ate it for breakfast.

You can too: Blood Orange Upside Down Cake

What are you guys cooking these days? Any snow day baking extravaganzas?