Roasted Root Vegetables - pg. 116
Dear friends Wayne and Scott stopped for dinner Monday night on their way from home base in Berkeley to San Diego where they will spend Christmas with Wayne's mom. Another excuse to cook, and an opportunity to test the "entertain" waters.
Since I still had nearly all the ingredients, I reprised the Ina Garten wild rice salad. Just had to buy some more wild rice which, as things turned out, was on sale at New Frontiers. Being fresher, it cooked up a little better. I also just happened to have exactly 8 stilton and walnut crackers left. So much for the 1st course.
For the second course, I took liberties with 2 Alice recipes. I braised a pork shoulder roast, but used leftover Trader Joe's carrot/ginger soup for most of the braising liquid, adding a little water just at the very end. One of the chilis was the prescribed dried chipotle, but lord knows what the other 2 were. The whole thing was very good in any event. Nice "piquent" sauce to pour over the rather dull (IMHO) meat.
I have become quite a fan of oven roasted vegetables. Very quick. Very easy. Dependably wonderful. At last, I'm checking off "Roasted Root Vegetables" on pg. 116. Alice's offering calls for carrots, celery root, and parsnips. Celery root just can't be found around here. The only ones I've come across were in Berkeley. OTOH I've now made other medleys of oven-roasted veggies at least a dozen times, so I'm going to call the technique mastered. Monday night's offering included carrots, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, golden beets and brussels sprouts. Oh yum!
(I'm becoming so much more confident in my cooking skills. I'm even willing to take some liberties with TAOSF, especially if it involves using leftovers from the frig or ancient things from the pantry.)
Dessert was way too simple-- Tom's wonderful cookies and candies that he sent home with us last Thursday. He did all the work and got all the credit. Oh yum, again.
86 recipes completed; 219 to go
4 comments:
I read this earlier and wasn't going to comment. It's been rattling around in my head most of the day, though, and I have to. I regret to inform you that there is nothing, I repeat, nothing even remotely "Oh, yum!" about Brussels sprouts. Not. A. Thing. I'm sure of it because I've done my due diligence and tried them ever-so-many different ways, cooked by ever-so-many different cooks. Nope. Not a thing even palatable, let alone "Oh, yum!", about the miserable little things. Otherwise everything sounds quite delicious. :-]
You're allowed, Dear Heart. It's like liver. You either love it or hate it. Okra? Same thing. I don't mind. The roasted veggies needed something green. Hence the brussels sprouts. Which really aren't bad roasted. Well, I like 'em. And you do NOT have to eat 'em. How's that??
I've had the MLTs (that would be Miserable Little Things) roasted. No go. I still think you're delusional. But, as long as it's your delusion, and I don't have to eat 'em, it's fine.
BTW, the word verifications are quite entertaining. This time it's "terst". I'm wondering if that's terst as in, "She was quite terst in her response." Or terst as in, "There will be a terst on this material tomorrow."
Nice! Happy new year to everyone, and a great 2011!
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