delighted to be

Recipe: Roasted Root Vegetables / september 17, 2011

I’ve always been so terrified of root vegetables. They are dirty. And hairy. Don’t they look scary? See for yourself:

Gross, right? I don’t even know what type of vegetables the first and last ones were (the middle was celery root). I just grabbed three or four root vegetables from our local farmer’s market and we were set to go. Until we got to the checkout, where the cashier didn’t have any idea what they were either.

Hmm. This presented a predicament, but we eventually got it all figured out. Apparently not many people venture off into the “root vegetables” section.

But after tonight’s successful side dish, I’d say we’ll be making a regular habit of taking these root babies home.

Below is the recipe for the most delicious vegetables you’ve ever tasted, but in all reality you don’t even need a recipe for this one. It’s that easy. And the best part? THEY TASTE LIKE CANDY.

No, really. Something magical happens when these guys go into the oven, and they come out tasting sweet and candied. I know, I know, I didn’t believe it either til I tried it.

Roasted Root Vegetables

1. Gather up all of your root veggies: turnips, radishes, celery root, carrots (the least terrifying of the bunch), sweet potatoes, and whatever else looks good in the root section

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel and dice the veggies into uniform chunks

3. Toss them in a large bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread onto sheet pans and bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes.

4. Savor the sweetness. Mmmm.

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Recipe: Sweet Potato Fries / september 8, 2011

Did anyone else watch The Next Food Network Star and fall in love with “Sandwich King” Jeff? Tyler and I picked him out from the very beginning because of his quirky personality. His new show, Sandwich King, aired a few weeks ago. This last week’s episode he made sweet potato fries, and man did they look good! I already had Juicy Lucy burgers on the menu for this week, so naturally sweet potato fries were a great side dish!

But ever wonder how they get all crispy and have that slight “breaded” look when you buy them in a restaurant? It turns out they are really easy to duplicate at home. Here’s all you need:

2 lb. sweet potatoes*

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/3 c. club soda

oil for frying

1/4 t. chili powder (or less)

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. cayenne pepper (or less)

Heat oil in a large skillet or deep fryer (depending on your perspective, I got lucky/not-so-lucky that Tyler brought one into our marriage) to 375 degrees. Cut up your potatoes into thin wedges. Combine corn starch and club soda, and dredge half of the potato wedges in it, shaking off the excess. Fry half of your potatoes at a time, 6-8 minutes. Drain onto a paper towel and shake in a bowl with salt, cayenne, and chili powder. Serve warm.

*I picked them out at the store, and when I got home, realized they were white instead of orange. Hmmm. Did I get regular potatoes instead? Upon further investigation, it turns out we used the O’Henry variety instead of the classic Convington variety. They still tasted like sweet potatoes!

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Recipe: Chicken & Dumplings / june 10, 2011

This recipe is adapted from Rachael Ray (see original here). It is one of my favorites because it’s got lots of veggies and whips up in less than 30 minutes. The parsley really adds a lot of flavor to the biscuits. Last night I made it with green onions chopped into the biscuits instead, and there wasn’t nearly as much flavor.

Chicken & Dumplings

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast tenders
1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
2 tablespoons butter
1 russet potato, peeled and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced or thinly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, diced
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon season-all, 1/3 palm full
2 tablespoons flour, a handful
1 quart chicken broth
1 biscuit mix (see recipe below)
2/3 cup warm water
Handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup frozen green peas

Dice tenders into bite size pieces.

Place a large pot on stove over medium high heat. Add oil, butter, vegetables, chicken, and bay leaf and cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season mixture with salt, pepper and season-all. Add flour to the pan and cook 2 minutes. Stir broth to the pot and bring to a boil.

Make biscuit mix, combining with 1/2 cup warm water and parsley. Drop tablespoonfuls of prepared mix into the pot, spacing dumplings evenly. Cover pot tightly and reduce heat to medium low. Steam dumplings 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cover and stir chicken and dumplings to thicken sauce a bit. Stir peas into the pan, remove chicken and dumplings from heat and serve in shallow bowls.

Biscuit Mix:

2/3 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. whole wheat flour
3 t. baking powder
2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 T. butter or margarine

Mix together by hand or with fork, until butter is evenly distributed throughout in small pea-sized clumps.

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The Good, the “Eh”, and the Ugly / may 30, 2011

Turns out not everything I cook is NOT knock-your-socks-off delicious. Surprised? I’m not and neither is my mom.

The good this week: homemade taquitos (see recipe at bottom of post). Much, much cheaper than the frozen kind, pretty easy to make, and I suspect if I got the rolling down-to-a-T I could freeze them just like the store-bought kind. And save lots and lots of money. (Did you know the store-bought kind range from 30-50 cents each? These ones were more in the 15-20 cents range. And if you made a HUGE batch they’d be even cheaper.)

The “eh” on the menu this week: last night’s breakfast for dinner. Read the “ugly” to find out why we ended up having breakfast for dinner. We made scrambled eggs with hashbrowns. Not exactly glorious, but we weren’t going for anything fancy here. (Do you know how easy it is to peel & shred a potato and fry it in the pan? I may never buy frozen hashbrowns again!)

The ugly this week: crockpot macaroni and cheese. I bet it was supposed to be delicious. Someone should try it and let me know. From the pictures it sure looked good. But when you accidentally forget to turn the crockpot on before you leave for your 3+ hour block of church, the noodles soak up all that milk and get soggy and pasty. Ew. We wanted to throw up just looking at it. I tried to salvage it but it was deemed unsalvageable. Sad. So we laughed about it and ate our “eh” meal.

Here’s my homemade taquito recipe:

Corn tortillas (it’s easiest if they are fresh)
Grated mild cheddar cheese
1 pound ground beef, turkey or chicken (we used beef)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (use 1/2 jalapeno if you don’t want it super spicy)
2-3 drops hot sauce, optional
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
freshly ground pepper
bit of salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
olive oil

Cook onion in a bit of olive oil until tender. Add ground beef and jalapeno, cook until browned. Add cumin, coriander, s&p, and hot sauce. Spoon into warm corn tortillas, sprinkle with cheese, and roll up. Place in greased pan with seam-side down. Drizzle/brush a bit a of olive oil on the tops and pop them into the oven (400?) for 15 min. I turned on the broiler the last three minutes or so to make them nice and crispy.

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