A wee experiment.

Upon the completion of the holiday season, most of us are typically left feeling a bit bloated, over-extended, exhausted, and, let's face it: kinda gross. And so when my friend Richard suggested Queenie take on a winter meatless week to get over the New Year's food and booze coma, I decided he was a genius.

My meatless week kicks off today. I laid in a huge supply of winter greens (mainly escarole) and root vegetables (celeriac, potatoes, beets, carrots), and plan to feast on them all week long. Beets will make several appearances, as will some out-of-season delights from the depth of my freezer, including corn and sweet peas. (The latter are pretty much always better frozen, and the former are a decent substitute for the in-season delights of Jersey corn.)

My summer meatless week went by in a free and easy blur of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and fresh herbs; I'm anticipating that this one will be a bit more of a challenge. I just don't crave winter's vegetables the way I do summer's bounty. Never fear, though - I will stick to it, even if it means breaking halfway through for French fries and salted peanut butter hot chocolate at Shake Shack.

To get you started, here are a few of things I plan to try this week...I'd love it if you played along!

- Beets With Garlic-Walnut Sauce
- Gratin Dauphinois
- Escarole with Red Onion, Pecorino and Walnuts
- Orecchiette with Corn and Basil Tarragon
- Celeriac Remoulade
- Orange-Honey Glazed Carrots
- Peas with Ramp Compound Butter
- Butternut Squash Galette

Also, I'd love to hear if you have any suggestions for me! I'm dying for recommendations...