Eating over break

I see a startling trend here: I'm eating vegetable soups only to chase it with sugar-chocolate laden baked doughy things.

I was put in charge of family Christmas dinner this year with only one order: lots of vegetables.  So I did some cookbook reading and came up with:

1) Yellow split pea soup with sprouts (from the ever so reliable Sprouted Kitchen)
2) Roasted acorn squash with a thai curry glaze, filled with an arugula/quinoa/feta salad (not pictured)
3) Chocolate chip scones

Surprisingly the scones were both easy and fun to make.  They key was to use pastry flour which has a low protein content, along with being mindful to not overwork the dough.  The crumb content was beautiful once baked. 

The last two pictures are of a (3)Red Indian Carrot Soup I made from the cookbook I managed to smuggle among in my carry on suitcase (yes, I read cookbooks as novels).  It was surprisingly not too carroty.  The last, just happens to be the best (4) chocolate chip cookie ever to exist.  I used the best bittersweet chocolate I could get my hands on and let the dough refrigerate for 24 hours which gave me it a more complex toffee flavor.  I will never try another chocolate chip cookie recipe.