food ramblings

I made my first sojourn to Le Petit Paris yesterday for a couple of macarons.  The one in front is pistachio and the one in back is apricot lavendar.  They were tasty.  I preferred the apricot lavender.  The filling was intensely apricot-y with that pleasantly soapy taste that lavender can confer on food.  Yes, I said pleasantly soapy.  Le Petit Paris seems cool.  Anyone had the sandwiches?
I think I've extolled The Greens Cookbook on this blog before, but I am going to highly recommend it again.  This is a celery salad from the cookbook.  Organic celery, of course, cuz I guess that celery soaks up more pesticide than many other vegetables.  It's just celery, apples, raisins, walnuts, a little olive oil and, s and p, and champagne vinegar.  I loved it.
The new Food and Wine (OK, it's kind of a sucky magazine but I got a subscription for like 5 bucks) had a red quinoa recipe, and I've had some red quinoa sitting in my pantry forever, so I tried it.  Have you every seen a watermelon radish?  They're hecka good and pretty.  Like a combo radish and turnip.
Guess what?  Red quinoa is not as good as regular.  Don't fall for the hype!  I put tahini (Natalie's trick), olive oil, sunchokes,  and green onions in here.  It was pretty good.  Do you guys eat quinoa? What do you do to it?  Any polenta suggestions?
Your eyes are surely glazing over by now, but I'll press on.  I am constantly reading in cookbooks and mags that you can make shortcut ravioli with wonton wrappers, so I decided to try it.  This is butternut squash with goat cheese, shallots and oregano sauteed in butter, s and p, and chopped roasted hazelnuts.
It was fun to make them, although nervewracking because I thought they would fall apart upon contact with water.
Here is the unlovely, lumpen result.  The wonton wrapper def tastes like a like a...wonton wrapper. Not like pasta.  It made me want to make dumplings.  They needed some garlicky pork inside, not squash.  However, they did stay together quite nicely.