Roasted Summer Squash & Caramelized Onions

Summer is most definitely here - as are my parents' summer squash from the garden. My mom gets tired of sauteed squash, grilled squash, and just...well...squash in general. But, she roasted some and said it was a delicious new twist on squash! (One that she promptly added to her list of summer squash recipes)

Luckily, mom and dad brought some of their tasty summer squash here to our house in Kathleen this past weekend - so I could try roasting some!

Roasted Summer Squash

4-5 summer squash

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. allspice

Preheat the oven to 345 degrees F. Chop the squash into a-little-bit-bigger-than-bite-sized pieces.


Cut the garlic cloves in half, and then half again. Put the squash and garlic onto a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Toss with your hands so that the yumminess coats the squash. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and allspice.

Put the little buggers in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes is up, check them - they should be soft, but firm (you know what I mean...). If they are to your liking, turn the broiler on and leave them in the oven for another 5-6 minutes (until the squash is browned on the edges.

Just to add a sweet element, I tossed the squash with some onions that I caramelized. Mmmmmm! (P.S. if you're not sure how to caramelize onions, I could do a post on that... yes? no? suggestions?)

Enjoy!

~ Mari

Ridiculously Easy (and Tasty) Roasted Veggies

In my book, one never needs an excuse to eat broccoli or Brussels sprouts. But, I know plenty of people who would beg to differ. Whether you're a die-hard broccoli/B. sprouts fan, or you hate the thought of their green grossness, I think you'll like this dish. (But, if you still hate them after this, you can use almost any hard veggie - beets, carrots, parsnips, etc.)

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then take your broccoli stalks and chop them up - I cut the bushy part of the broccoli from the stalk, peel the stalk & slice it into discs, and separate the broccoli florets. Then I take the fresh B. sprouts and lop (I love that word) the brownish little ends off, peel off the ugly outer leaves, and slice the little buggers in half. Next, peel some whole garlic cloves (can you ever have too much garlic?). Throw all of your goodies onto a pan (with an edge), douse with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with your hands.


Stick your pan of yummies into the oven and let roast (tossing with a spoon every so often) for 20-30 minutes or until the tips of the broccoli are brown, the B. sprouts are crunchy and browned, and the garlic is smooshy and soft.

Now get out some parmesan cheese and a lemon. Zest the lemon (about 1 Tbsp.) and grate some cheese (about 1 Tbsp.) into a serving bowl.

When your veggies are done, dump them into the bowl and toss with the zest and cheese. Squeeze about 2 Tbsp. of fresh lemon juice on top and grate some more cheese over top of your masterpiece.

Eat and enjoy! If that doesn't make a broccoli/Brussels sprout believer out of you then I don't know what will!

~ Mari

Offaly Good

Last Wednesday I had one of those moments when I knew I was doing the right thing - what I was supposed to be doing.

Las Wednesday was meat and poultry fabrication. Yep. We cut up raw meat and poultry. Most of the girls in the class were grossed out... and let everyone know about it. Not me! Lanna and I dove into that little chicken carcass like there was no tomorrow. I now know how to take a whole raw chicken and turn it into pieces that people might want to eat.

Justin and I made a whole roasted chicken and some smoked chicken breasts. They were delicious. One trick we learned, was that you don't have to roast an entire chicken on a rack. You can make your own rack from large-cut mirepoix (2 parts onion, 1 part celery, 1 part carrots). Just put a pile underneath the chicken, and let it cook. That way, it gets all that flavor, and air can still get up into the chicken. I thought it was quite fascinating.

Why is this post "Offaly Good," you might ask? Well, offal are all of the little bits and pieces that are a little, well, awful. Offal refers to the hearts, kidneys, sweetbreads, intestines, etc. from animals. The halloween Iron Chef was on the other night and it was "Battle Offal" in kitchen stadium. I thought it was pretty cool. One guy even made calf liver truffles. Yummmm.... We didn't get to do anything with offal in class, but we did get to talk about it a bit. In the end, it might have been better the way it was...

Sadly, no pictures today. I would have taken pictures of our beautifully roasted chicken, but my camera was dead. I'll do better next time. We'll be doing sandwiches and salads this coming Wednesday, so that should allow for some pretty pictures.

Carb-tastic!

Today was a day o' carbs (not that I'm complaining...). My group was assigned Tuscan Roasted Potatoes, Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Polenta, and Rice Pilaf. It was quite hectic at times, but (as you can see in the photo), we pulled through and came out with some very tasty, starchy foods.


We did make a few mistakes, though...

1. We over-boiled the Russet potatoes before roasting them, so they kinda fell apart in the oven. That's what happens when you are trying to worry about the three other dishes you are working on.
2. Before making the sweet potato dish, we had to bake them. I completely forgot to poke holes in the little devils and they exploded in the oven. Not very pretty. That didn't affect the taste or what the finished product looked like, but we sure felt stupid.
3. The rice pilaf actually went pretty well. We almost burned it, but ALMOST doesn't count.
4. Ahhhh the polenta... polenta, in case you didn't know, is basically yellow grits. You can serve it like grits, or you can spread it in a sheet pan, chill it, cut it into shapes, and grill/saute it. We wanted to do the latter. So, we made the polenta, added some reconstituted sundried tomatoes, rosemary, and garlic, and spread it into the sheet pan. Our sheet pan, however, was too large. So, when we pulled our polenta out of the fridge, we noticed it was about as even as the Smoky Mountains. Drat. We also ran out of time, so I cut them into uneven squares... not the most attractive polenta shape out there, I might add. But, they tasted great and had the right consistency. If only they weren't square...

So, all-in-all it was a sucessful day. We made the four dishes we were assigned, they tasted delicious, and we got to eat LOTS of carbs at the end of class. What could be better?