As someone who loves to cook and loves to experiment with new recipes and different ingredients, getting what I need for a new dish is not always easy. Even though the Hispanic and Indian populations in Vermont have been growing in recent years, there are many ingredients we still can't find locally for really great curries or amazing south-of-the-border meals.

Needless to say, finding the Indian soft cheese, paneer, isn't as easy as finding Cabot's Extra Sharp cheddar at the grocery store. (Although I am going to make paneer from scratch this winter.) And years ago, I read that substituting pan-fried ricotta would have the same flavor profile as paneer. So, I started making it regularly. It's incredibly delicious and remarkably simple to make. The curry itself is spicy, with a bright flavor that makes it a happy dinner for two while the temperature falls outside.

A gratin doesn't have to be just potatoes and cream, it can also be filled with delicious turnip slices too. Some friends of ours recently gave us some itty-bitty turnips, that were the size of radishes. At first, because they were so small, I thought I might showcase them by roasting them. But, then I decided that they could hold their own in a lovely gratin of potatoes, cheddar, onions, thyme and bacon. Amazingly, the turnip helped to make the velvety dish even more creamy. Pure deliciousness.

Ah, it's still cold and gray. So, combining my need for beauty with my need for warmth, I decided to use the beautiful, locally-grown apples Jedd found recently in a soup along with a leftover Butternut squash. And what would make the soup even more gorgeous? Some curry and some chili powder.

The soup was sweet, spicy hot and pretty. There's not a whole lot more you can ask of a February meal.

One of the things I asked for this year for Christmas was caper berries. Jedd hit every store in the area until he finally found a store 30 miles south that carried some. So far we've just been snacking on them, but when we found some tilapia on sale this week it dawned on me that this mild, flaky fish would be fantastic as the main protein for a piccata. And we had beet greens too. The combination of lovely, lemony tilapia and beet greens seemed to impossible to resist.

Still, I was nervous at first that the caper berries would overpower the gentle flavor of the fish. No need to worry. The tang and zip of the capers really rounded out the mild brightness and thin, crisp crust of our tilapia piccata. This classic combination of flavors translates perfectly into the realm of fish.