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I made my first rolled cake this weekend - excitement!! A bourbon-banana cake with cream cheese/buttercream frosting. So much fun, and it actually came out looking like it was supposed to. I got the recipe from Deb Perelman's new Smitten Kitchen cookbook; she is my go-to recipe source, always so easy and tasty, and this did not disappoint. Best thing is the trick about not needing to separate the eggs, just beat the heck out of them for ten minutes. Worked like a champ, all soft and springy. The frosting also you beat for quite a while, so it too was much less rich than I expected. I wanted to do a bittersweet chocolate glaze but Mr Psmith is a banana purist and lodged a protest :)

Next time: chocolate with coffee filling. Because chocolate.

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One of my goals this year was to get out of the usual menu items that we have in regular rotation and try some new things. The best so far have been sweet potato-green onion pancakes with eggs, ham and pepper jam and Smitten Kitchen's crispy broccoli with lemon and garlic. Tonight I thought I'd try roasting some carrots and parsnips tossed with olive oil, sea salt, fresh-ground pepper, and herbs. I was pretty sure I'd had parsnips at some point in my life, and how bad could a root vegetable be?

Nowhere did any of the recipes I consulted warn me that for the first ten minutes roasting parsnips smell like melting plastic. Ugh ugh ugh.

We soldiered on, however, and in the end they...weren't bad. They needed butter (which is unusual, in my experiene, for roasted veg; perhaps I went too light on the olive oil?) and more seasoning. I also grated a little manchego on top because cheese, you know? The first bite was meh but then they rather grew on me, though I admit that could have been the butter, salt and cheese.

So all I can say is that where parsnips are concerned, I remain uncommitted.