Roasted beet, apple and goat cheese salad with walnuts & the Friday link round-up {GF}

Most years, I am not one to make a fuss about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year's celebration. But this year, at the start of a new life chapter in Montreal, Quebec, I wanted to welcome it in the right way: with a week's worth of apple recipes. The last recipe in the series is a beautiful salad of roasted beets, apples, goat cheese, and toasted walnuts, arranged on a bed of lettuce and drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.  Happy Friday, friends. If you have celebrated Rosh Hashanah, I hope it was a festive and joyous occasion. My own holiday dinner is actually taking place tonight, so I will have to report later about how it all went - keep your fingers crossed for me! In the meantime, I wanted to launch a couple of new weekly features on the blog: a round-up of some of the best links The Internet has to offer, alongside a recipe that will take you less than 30 minutes to assemble - because Friday should be full of whatever makes you happy, and not elaborate meal-making. This means that from now on, this little place will be updated three times a week, instead of two. Ah, the joys of unemployment. A little bit about this roasted beet, apple and goat cheese salad, though... First off, I have to admit it's a bit of a cheat, in the sense that it will take about 10 minutes to assemble... But only if you have already diligently roasted and frozen those beets like I instructed you to last week! Once you have roasted beets in your freezer, you're never too far from a delicious, simple salad. This one is creamy from the goat cheese, sweet from the beets and apples, nutritious from the walnuts, and bright with citrus. It made G, who was sick and had no appetite, do a double take and finish a whole bowl, exclaiming, "this salad is amazing!". If that's not a raving endorsement, I don't know what is. So pour yourself a nice, big glass of grape "juice", throw together this salad, and sit back to browse some internet links. Meanwhile, I'm going to put together a festive dinner for seven - no big deal.

Looking for Rosh Hashana Recipes and Inspiration?

Here are a few of my favourites:

• The best vegetarian Rosh Hashanah recipes
• Rosh Hashana menu, and my thoughts for the Jewish New Year
• How to decorate an intimate holiday table for a memorable experience
• Any of the 11 recipes in my Middle Eastern Small Plates E-book
• Almond apple cake with apple roses
• Enchanted rice with grapes, feta and pistachios, or the taste of teenage love
• Black eyed peas masabacha with tahini, tomatoes, garlic and hot peppers
• Roasted beet, apple and goat cheese salad with walnuts

• Turning encounters with strangers into a beautiful meditation on human connections.
• While The Internet is going crazy over pumpkin spice lattes, I'll be making my own pumpkin spice syrup, thank you very much.
• Reading [amazon text=this&asin=067697936X] and [amazon text=this&asin=B00AW0DM8K].
• Just finished obsessively watching this. Any other dance show recommendations?
• Cooking from [amazon text=this&asin=B005CRY2O6]. I have to say, I think I prefer [amazon text=Jerusalem&asin=B00A1OI3Y0] - the recipes were less involved and, forgive my blasphemy, less contrived at times.
• Hemp seeds on pizza? Why not!
• Inspired by The Denizen Co.
• So, this blogger surveyed some friends and found that fridge pickles are actually superior to hot water bath canning. Who'da thunk?
• Are we over-glorifying the home-cooked meal?
• Ways to make your office lunch a bit more inspiring. Would you ever cook an egg in an office kettle?

Have a lovely weekend!