Rooting It

The parsnips don't look as pale in this picture.

I sauteed the onions in butter for 10 and then cooked them on low for another 20...and finally simmered them in the broth for at least two hours...and they're STILL crispy!

September 26, 2010

Today I used my new (and free!) cookbook by Brenda Roscher for cooking for IBD's (Irritable Bowel Diseases: Crohn's and Colitis), and made homemade French onion soup and roasted root vegetables. I found it a little odd that so many onion recipes were in the cookbook because, well, you know.

I still don't know how the onions are STILL crispy after simmering for hours...and I did probably put a touch too much of wine...but the soup was delish.

But the vegetables were truly the best part! I could go on and on about my love for roasted potatoes and carrots--especially when they are sprinkled with rosemary. (I really need to mix up some herbes de Provence to make it really special.) These were wonderful, and I discovered a new vegetable I enjoy: parsnips.

They're a relative of the carrot, appearing just like your average carrot with a much paler skin. I think they have a stronger carrot flavor, though I read they sometimes taste like a mixture of carrots and sweet potatoes. Either way, they were yummy in this dish of carrots, potatoes, and celery! (I omitted the onion as I pretty much used all the onion in the state for the soup. ;)

I regret I didn't have the nerve to try a bite of the parsnips raw...
Thank goodness I chose these over the rutabagas!

My Infamous Pasta Primavera

[photo courtesy http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/pasta-primavera-recipe/index.html]

August 30, 2010

Tonight I made my famous...er, infamous...pasta primavera. This is a picture of the original recipe I use, which I first saw on Giada De Laurentiis' show "Everyday Italian" six or seven years ago. I have altered it over the years to suit my tastes and cooking needs.

SIDE ALBEIT RELATED NOTE: When you type in "pasta primavera" into Google for images, it's amazing how different each one looks.

I usually boil whatever small pasta is on hand; I can't remember ever making it with spaghetti or fettuccine noodles. That doesn't seem right in my book. Farfalle pasta (bowties) is especially nice because "farfalle" means "butterfly" in Italian, so it is perfecto for a "primavera" (i.e. spring) dish. :)

Zach doesn't really care for the zucchini, and, as we did not have any, I substituted it with a bag of frozen peas.
(I did, however, make a trip to Harvest Foods for a green bell pepper because I HAD to have at least one bell pepper, and the green is the cheapest. Using twice as many carrots made up for the other pepper.)
Normally I do not like peas, but these. were. great.
(Roasted carrots are still my favorite.)

The problem with cutting all the vegetables into thin strips is that they do not cook at the same rate. The carrots tend to take longer while the squash and zucchini get mushy, and the onions burn, which I don't really mind at all. :) I looked up how to roast squash and found a different way of doing it: this time I cut it lengthwise after chopping the necks off and into halves. It turned out so much better.

I never have used cherry tomatoes in my recipe because Idon'tlikeem. : (~ Instead I usually add a can of chopped tomatoes or tomato sauce. : )~ Plus this gives it a bit more moisture.

I just realized I didn't put any Parmesan or any kind of cheese on it.
This memory slip probably occurred because I had the peppers & peas and squash & onions in the oven for twenty or so minutes before I realized that the oven had gotten turned off in taking out the carrots. *lol*
To get everything evenly cooked, I kept the veggies on separate cookie sheets, coating them with a little oil FIRST and THEN sprinkling them with a BIT of Italian herbs, salt, and pepper. Then I started cooking them in stages while making frying some chicken, boiling the pasta, and buttering breadsticks. (Thank you, Zach, for always helping me!!!!!) By the time I realized my last two cookie sheets of veggies weren't cooking, everything was nearly ready. *le sigh* In my mind, it was all supposed to come out at the same time. I really thought we were going to eat until 9 'o clock after I had started cooking at 5. ; )

(I get REALLY mad at myself when I am cooking. At least I don't get mad at everyone else, right?)

Fortunately EVERYTHING turned out all right. Once I did get the vegetables fairly browned, I reheated the carrots...and the chicken, and all was well.

Speaking of the chicken, I used a new marinade that worked perfectly when I sauteed/fried the chicken in it. I don't always add chicken, meat, and/or seafood, and if I do, I usually take a shortcut and buy the precooked packets of Tyson chicken and/or steak strips. (Canned chicken freaks me out.) Today I mixed a 1/4 cup of olive oil with a 1/4 cup of lemon plus a dash of lime juice and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. I marinaded the chicken breasts in that for 5-6 hours. When it came time to cook the chicken, I poured the marinade into the pan, added a little more oil, and threw those chicks in! Though rather lemony, they turned out amazing and complemented the pasta well.

It seems I always end up with some kind of tale of woe when I make pasta primavera. (One time when I was making it, our neighbors came over to tell me that my car was broken, and then I got into a fight with a friend.) But it is definitely worth it...the house still smells like the inside of an Italian's mouth. : O