Lanier wrote a beautiful post about how she makes her Winter Vegetable Pie. This kind of narrative writing makes me want to head to the store and look for those parsnips.

She writes:

This pie is made with a lovely assortment of roasted root vegetables and mushrooms. I even love buying the ingredients–how few recipes in our American repertoire call for parsnips! I always feel so ‘Mr. MacGregor-ish’…The whole process of this dish is delightsome. The rhythmic peeling and chopping and piling; the subtle sizzle coming from the oven as the vegetables roast and the intoxicating aroma that fills the house as the flavors intensify. Even the walk down to the hen house to toss out the trimmings as a special treat to the girls, and the happy, chuckling clucks of pleasure with the carrot peels and mushroom ends disappear before my very eyes.

That just makes me smile reading it. Even the hens get to partake in the pleasures of this pie. I think I’m feeling more inspired as I imagine the sounds of happy clucking. (I wonder if the next day’s eggs are a bit more tasty.)