Two veggie options, and a Completely Random Challenge

 Vegetarian week follows veganish week, in one of the only recognisable calendars I go by these days.* And okay, it genuinely is more fun cooking for these in the autumn. Roots and nuts and being glad the oven's on. All good. 

The first dish was for the end of last week, the kind of thing that recipe books call cupboard cookery, for a very particular kind of poshed up cupboard-holding that I am fully a part of. Pecorino, spaghetti, pul biber, walnuts, garlic, anchovies? Didn't even need to check I had them. Just a bit of parsley for the week and you're done. It's very nice and it feels slightly thrifty that I could have cooked it pretty much any day this year, but if I actually tot up the cost, it isn't. Delicious, though.

[Of course, anchovies and pecorino aren't vegan, but they fall well within my veganish rules. Don't quibble]

The second one is based on roasted carrots, something I'm a massive fan of. These ones are simply roasted in oil and seasoning and cumin seed, then a honey/lemon mix is added for the last 10 minutes cooking, which makes them sticky but not burny. Serve with goat cheese, dill, and in this case some random sorrel and small jacket potatoes for a maximal autumn dinner. 

I think the only downside is I forgot about the extra honey-lemon when I warmed it up today and slightly carbonised the leftovers. But the smoke alarm didn't go off, so let's call it a win.

Now, about that challenge... I haven't really been posting challenges, because who needs one more thing in a crowded head? But they are *quite* fun and we've all been self-catering mostly for well over half a year now, and there is definitely more to come. Besides, Sharon invented it, accidentally!

So: welcome to Confined A to Z, a complicated but flexible challenge for when you just need a clue, a theme or an idea. You can take this in a lot of ways. You could try to cook through the alphabet over a period, for a really full-on option. Call it an ABCD meal and go as far as you can up the sequence? For a simpler version, you could do as Kate did in the post that inspired this: loads of cooking with one letter. Carrots, cumin and cheese above, with, um, chips and coriander would have worked.

I'm not really expecting anyone to do this, but it would be so fun if you felt like it - do come back and share if this sparked anything in your increasingly prolonged menu planning.  Thank you, Sharon, for random brilliance and something else to have fun with!

*The other, of course, is the French Republican calendar. It's aubergine day shortly, if you wanted to start with an A.