roasted asparagus and beet salad with smoked salmon and goat cheese coulis: skipping through the day.

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It is November. Yes, the cold month. The month where the ski hills open and Christmas decorations show up abnormally early in stores. Yet yesterday due to, of all things, weather, I felt the urge to make a warm salad. 

There is something about the air in Autumn. It is crisp, clear, and seems to enhance colours in a way that warm hazy summer never can.It is well-timed air, for when will you see more colour than in the fall?

A beautiful, warm, November day -- seems like an oxymoron doesn't it? Yet the clear air enhanced the way light played off buildings downtown, creating a warmth throughout the man-made buildings, making them almost organic, almost . . . natural. There is an ethereal beauty from the light reflecting off of glass structures -- whether windows are blue, black, green, or brown tinges, they cast a glow throughout streets, making normally dour pavement gloriously beautiful.

Do you ever just feel like running? Not for exercise, heart health or any of those other things, but for happiness, for pure joy? I do. And why not act on it? So I picked up my feet to feel as if I was flying across the Cambie Street Bridge. Glorious.

As I ambled home through dappled streets I decided I wanted something West Coast for dinner to celebrate the fact that only in BC (out of all of Canada) would I experience 18 degree temperatures in November.

Roasted Asparagus and Beet Salad with Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Coulis

1/4 c. crumbled goats cheese
1 tbs. honey
2 tbs. white balsalmic vinegar
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

1 beet, roasted for 45 mins in the oven with olive oil
8 stalks of asparagus, roasted for 10 minutes in the oven with olive oil
1 red onion, roasted for 30 mins in the oven with olive oil

1 small smoked salmon fillet, sliced
Red leaf lettuce

1. While the vegetables are roasting, blend together the first five ingredients until smooth.

2. Arrange the salad with the lettuce on the bottom, then the roasted red onion, asparagus, beets, salmon and finally dressing drizzled over.

4. Pray. Eat. Enjoy. Run, skip, hop for joy.