January...it's cold, it's grey most of the time, it's Winter, it's how it's supposed to be here in the
Northeast.  Our 3 1/2 foot Christmas Blizzard fast forwarded how I usually feel by February, really
ready for something called warm weather, sunny skies, shorts, flip flops, etc.  Overnight we were
hit with another storm, only barely a foot ( how insane that I really mean that) of snow this time, and
it's bitterly cold, temperatures under 30, like into the low 20's, lower overnight.  For someone who
like to cook seasonally, I'm done with roasts, and stews, and simmered soups for now.  I need a
bright sunny light dish to keep me going. 
Well this a.m. as I stepped out of the house to survey the overnight snowfall, I did get the sun-
shine I was longing for.  However, the beauty of the morning was tempered by the frigid chill.
Makes for nice pictures though.  As I looked out the back door, while the snow from the last
storm was down a good 2 ft (do the math, it left almost a foot and a half on the ground) every-
thing was reburied in the new frozen white blanket Mother Nature decided to cover us with.
   The screensaver in my head though was not
registering these pixels of winter beauty.  Instead I had this vision, warm and full of sun...



That's it!  Walking with my kids to the beach!  Since this was completely impossible I turned to my kitchen
for comfort and solace.  A bright lunch of crisp and refreshing licorice flavored fennel with a sweet sunny
mandarin orange would be the prescription for the winter blues.  This is a many varied salad that is
made in Sicily.  Some variations have olives, some are just orange and red onion or garlic, and the
dressing is always a really good Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  You can find fennel bulbs, which look like a
smaller, odd shaped celery, with whispy fronds of green in the winter months in most produce sections
of the supermarket. 
Cut the stalks off the bulb, trim the bottom (no pix of this process because I was hungry!) and remove
the core.  Then slice the white greenish bulb into 1/8 slices.  Place in a bowl.  Add 2 tsp. of finely diced
red onion, a good grinding of black pepper, sea salt, the juice of 1/2 a mandarin orange, and chop 1 tsp.
of the fennel fronds.  Add 1 1/2 tbs. of good Extra Virgin Olive oil and toss well.  Let this sit for 20 minutes.
Then serve over a bed of Baby Spinach, garnish with mandarin slices, more black pepper, sea salt, and
1/2 tsp.of finely diced red onion.  Salad for 3 or 4.  Bright, refreshing, and...loaded with health and sun.
Perfect antidote for Mid Winter.  It gave me the boost I needed to shovel the driveway out!
Stay warm, stay safe, stay happy.