The Humble Parsnip (plus bonus glaze link!)

You know those vegetables that looks like creepy albino carrots? Well they are PARSNIPS and they are DELICIOUS!

Tender sweet starchy goodness. They also have this lovely clove-y taste to them.

Here is a super simple recipe to showcase my new favorite vegetable:

Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

Ingredients:

• Carrots, cut up into large-ish chunks
• Parsnips, cut up into large-ish chunks. (Slightly larger than the carrots, because they cook a little faster)
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Dried Rosemary (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400. Put veggies in a baking dish. Glass, metal, ceramic. Whatever. Just not a cookie sheet, since it would leave an oily mess in your oven.

Add a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary to taste. You should salt rather generously. Toss to coat.

Roast in the oven for around an hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so. When the veggies are done, they'll be tender and just a bit charred.

EAT

Orrrrrrr, if you're feeling fancy you can make this simple honey-balsamic glaze for the veggies, as can be found here.

AND, just for the record, roasted veggies are just as delicious at room temp as they are piping hot, so they're a good option for pot lucks, barbeques, fancy pants dinner parties--whatever.

Authentic Chickpea Curry

http://indianfood.about.com/od/vegetarianrecipes/r/chole.htm

This is delicious. But do NOT quadruple the amount of chilli flakes. Not even on ACCIDENT.

If this minor catastrophe does occur, just add a little sour cream or plain yogurt. It will make you cry less while you eat the curry, not that I would know.

Another note, I used tomato paste rather than fresh tomatoes. I also used fresh ginger and garlic rather than pastes. Use a blender to make the tomato/ginger/garlic paste if you have one. If not, just grate the pieces of garlic and ginger into a bowl. It works just about as well. This paste also freezes quite well. You can make a double batch and then save half for a quick curry prep later.

I've also made this without cardamom and cloves because I don't usually have those on hand.

Another another note, you can buy garam masala in the normal spice section. It's a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, coriander, black pepper, and I think cloves. It's also AMAZING on fresh pears sauteed in butter.

Oh yeah, you can also add some parboiled potatoes to the curry!

Nina's Spanish Chickpea Thingy

This is so ridiculously good. As with pretty much every recipe I post, the amounts are flexible. Adjust to your taste. I've provided amounts to give a guideline, but whipping out the measuring cups would probably be a waste of dishes.

This dish is actually pretty quick if the potatoes are already boiled. If you're going to boil potatoes, always throw in a few extra to make into hash browns, add to omelets, or throw into dishes like this one. It takes a little bit of planning ahead, but it's pretty brainless. "Put potato in boiling water. Boil. Poke with fork. Boil longer if too hard. Poke with fork. Take potato out of boiling water. The end."

Ingredients:

• 1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 can of chickpeas or around two cups of cooked chickpeas. (Rinse if using canned)
• About a 1/2 cup of salami all cut up. I bought a 150 gram package of salami sliced lunchmeat style and then cut it into smaller pieces. Think 1/4 in. squares, roughly. Salami with a bit more fat and pepper is a good idea, flavor-wise.
• 2-3 medium sized boiled, peeled potatoes, cut into bit size cubes.
• 1-2 cups of cut up mushrooms. (Use fresh for this recipe. The canned ones won't taste right).
• A few sundried tomatoes (the kind packed in oil) if desired
• 1/2 cup or so of fresh sugar snap peas, cut into bite size pieces.
• Salt and pepper
• A bit of cayenne or chili flakes
• Some smokey paprika (optional)

Instructions:

Put chickpeas and salami in a bowl with olive oil. Stir to coat and allow the ingredients to marinate in the oil for 20-60 minutes.

Cut mushrooms, potatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and snap peas into bite sized pieces.

Place a large, heavy skillet over medium or medium-high heat. Let it warm up. Add chickpeas, salami, sun dried tomatoes (if using), cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to prevent burning. Let it sautee until it becomes warm and aromatic.

Add the mushrooms. Continue stirring periodically. Let it go until the mushrooms are cooked. They'll be dark and tender.

Add the potatoes and sautee until they're warmed up. Add snap peas at the end and cook until they're just crisp tender.

Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.

EAT.

This keeps in the fridge quite well, so make a lot. In fact, it just tastes better as it sits in the fridge longer (though I wouldn't freeze it).

Nina's dad eats this with ketchup... don't know that I'd recommend that one, but I thought ketchup junkies might like to know about it anyway. Just throwing it out there.

Creamy Potato Spinach Chicken Skillet

Another example of lazy cooking. I'm using amounts in this recipe just so you know how much I used. That being said, the amounts are entirely unimportant. Just combine things however you want. The only thing to think about is seasoning amount, but, as usual, just start with a little and add more to taste. Potatoes and chicken are optional, but recommended because they taste good.

I'm proving two sets of directions. Both are delicious and pretty easy, although the second takes a bit longer. If you go by the second set of directions, the onions will be sweeter and more tender and the potatoes will be crispier. Just go with your preference.

Ingredients:

• Enough olive oil to film the bottom of the skillet
• 1 diced or thin sliced onion
• Dash of red chili flakes
• About a 1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach, mostly thawed. (You could also use fresh chopped spinach, but you'll need something like 1.5 cups or more)
• 1 pre-boiled or baked potato, cut into small cubes
• 1 clove of garlic, grated. (Or 1/4 tsp jarred minced garlic. Or just a bit of garlic powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Around 3 TBSP of white wine, broth, milk, or water
• Some cooked shredded chicken (1/3 cup?)
• 1 heaped tablespoon of cream cheese.
• Optional squeeze of lemon

Directions I (Simple):

• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and sautee until tender and translucent. Add little tiny dash of chilli flakes.
• Add potatoes and sautee for a few minutes to let them heat up a bit.
• Add spinach, chicken, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper.
• Add a bit of wine/broth/milk/water to keep things from drying out. Continue sauteeing until ingredients are heated and liquid is reduced to almost nothing.
• Just before serving, dot cream cheese over the top and stir in to make it all melty and creamy. (Optional, use a bit of cream if you don't have cream cheese).
• (Optional, add a tiny squeeze of lemon right before serving.)
• Eat.

Directions II (Also Easy, but Takes Longer):

• Heat oil in a skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Add onions and slowly sautee until tender and brown. (Carmelized. Yum).
• Set onions aside. Add a bit more oil to the skillet and raise the heat to med-high. Add potatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, and chilli. Toss a bit to distribute seasoning, then press down into the pan a bit with your spatula. Let potatoes hang out for a good two minutes or so to let them get really brown. Flip or toss. Let hang out longer to brown on other sides.
• Reduce heat to med-low or medium and add spinach, chicken, a bit more salt and pepper, and grated garlic. (You could also add a bit more cumin and coriander if you like)
• Add liquid and continue sauteeing until ingredients are heated and liquid is reduced to almost nothing.
• Dot cream cheese over the top and mix in until creamy and melty. (Note, use a bit of cream if you don't have cream cheese).
• Optional squeeze of lemon.
• Eat.

Wait... this can go over PASTA???

Yes. In fact it can. Leave out the potatoes and do the following:

• Boil pasta while you're making spinach stuff. Some stumpy kind of pasta would probably work well...whatever you don't have to twirl.
• At the end, add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water to your skillet. Simmer and reduce a bit.
• Add cooked pasta to the skillet and continue cooking over med for just a few minutes, so that the pasta absorbs some of the sauce.
• Eat.

Mexican Bean-tato skillet

Better that it sounds. Seriously. I was inspired by laziness, abundance of potatoes, a desire for melted cheese, and a vague memory that Mexican people sometimes make potato tacos to stretch the meat.

How much seasoning you use depends on how much food you use... it's super flexible. Just mix to your liking. Start with a bit of seasoning (about what I recommended), taste along the way, and add more as needed.

Ingredients:

• 1 chopped onion (optional)
• 2 cloves of grated or diced garlic (optional)
• A couple of boiled potatoes, diced.
• A goodly amount of cooked black beans.
• Enough olive oil to "film" the bottom of the skillet
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 -1 tsp cumin
• 1/2-1 tsp coriander
• Pepper flakes to taste (or just use a diced jalapeno...)
• A delicious hunk of cheese which melts deliciously. Colby or dubiously titled "Mexican Cheese" would work well. Anything you'd put on a taco.

Directions:

• Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium- med-high heat. Add onions (and/or diced bell pepper) and sautee until tender and translucent. Add jalapeno if using and continue to sautee.
• Add potatoes. Season them up and let them hang out in the pan a bit so that they start to brown. Or just so that they heat up, if you're hungry and don't want to wait for them to brown. Tastes good either way).
• Add beans and optional garlic somewhere in this warming process. Mix around and add more seasoning if you so desire.
• When everything is done to your satisfaction, grate cheese over the top/put shredded cheese on top. Let it melt.
• You can either eat this plain (like I did), or you can put it in tortillas with salsa or guacamole. I assume that would be tasty, though I haven't tried it myself.
• Watch marathon of The Sopranos while munching and enjoying starchy goodness.

The Art of Making Things Ahead: Potatoes, Chicken, and Veggies

I ended up eating out for almost a week due to pure hatred of all of the food I usually make and lack of desire to eat anything I usually make. This was not good. I figured the solution was to make a bunch of no-effort food in one day and then have massive quantities in the fridge for the rest of the week. This was successful, which is good since I got this damn cold. This is a mix and match menu of roasted and/or boiled things. If you want to make your life easy, just pick a saturday to do some big old batch of make ahead. Eat off of it for the next couple of days.

Boiled Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Water

(hahahaha)

Directions:

Wash the potatoes and put them in a pot of water. (No need to peel. You could have guessed that by now...) Bring to a boil. Boil for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size and number of potatoes. Poke the biggest potato with a fork. If it is basically tender, but just slightly resistant, then you're good.

Ideas:

Stick in fridge and cut up for hash browns. Throw in chicken broth along with spinach/leftover bits of chicken/whatever for a quick soup. Cut up, throw into a pot over medium heat, and mash with butter and milk (and cheese! because you can!). Cut into pieces and fry in a skillet with bacon, peppers, onions or what have you. Scramble in a few eggs (and cheese!) at the end. Put in an omelete. There's really no limit to what you can do with pre-boiled potatoes. Plus preparing them takes little to no effort.

Roasted Chicken

I know, this may seem a bit more involved, but really, it's nearly as brainless as the boiled potatoes.

Ingredients:

• A 3-4 pound chicken, not frozen at the beginning of cooking.
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• An onion (optional)
• Rosemary (optional)
• A lemon (optional)
• chunked potatoes and carrots (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450.
• If using, put chopped root veggies into a medium to deep roasting pan. Drizzle in some olive oil and add salt and pepper. Toss with your hands to distribute oil and whatnot.
• Rinse chicken and pat dry. Optional: cut an onion in half and put it in the cavity of the chicken. Optional: fork holes in a lemon and stick it in the chicken. Put chicken in the roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, and add salt, pepper, (and rosemary, if using). Rub oil and seasoning into the chicken with your hands.
• NOTE- if you're not roasting any veggies with the chicken, you may want to add a smidgen of water/wine/broth/juice to the bottom of the pan to prevent things like burning and sticking.
• Put pan in the oven and immediately turn heat back to 400.
• Roast for about 80 minutes. Check on the chicken at the half way point to make sure nothing is burning or drying out. If the veggies are drying out, add a bit of liquid. If the chicken is getting too brown, tent some foil over the chicken.
• To check for doneness, cut in between the thigh and the body. (If you have a hard time finding this point, pull on the drumstick. That will make the leg joints more apparent) If the juices run pink, it's not done yet. Put it back in the oven for five more minutes or so and check again. When the juices run clear, you're good to go.
• Take chicken out of oven. Tent foil over chicken and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
• Cut up chicken like so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msscPphcLyo The guy who makes the video is French. This makes it legit.

Ideas: Shoot... you can use cooked chicken in practically ANYTHING, or just eat it alone. The sky's the limit on this one. I'll post more specific recipes later.

The George Foreman Chicken Breast is always convenient, but whole chickens are cheap and they taste good, so you might as well have a good recipe for them. You can alter the seasoning anyway you want, too. Roasting a chicken can be somewhat intimidating the first time you do it, but after you've done it twice, you're home free. Just roast it up some Friday or Saturday and you've got meat for the week.

Miscellaneous Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:

• Any vegetable[s] you want
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Cut chosen vegetable into something like big bite size chunks. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tender and delicious. Stir them around every 10 minutes or so.

Time tips--carrots will take 45 min. to an hour, depending on how big you cut them. Same for hard squashes. Beets will take at least an hour. (If using beets, peel them beforehand. Or roast them whole and slough the skins off afterward. Either way is fine, but beetskins are kind of bitter, so you'll want to get rid of them). Potatoes 30-40 minutes, things like asparagus and zucchini 15-20 minutes. Roasting time really depends on density and water content. You can certainly roast mixed vegetables, but DON'T try to roast potatoes and zucchini together, for instance. Pick veggies with similar constitution and roasting time. Or just use separate roasting pans and take the little wussy vegetables out of the oven sooner. Your call.

Ideas:

Snack. Omeletes. Skillet thingies. Again, very flexible stuff here. Roasted vegetables reheat in a medium skillet or a 350 oven quite well. Microwaving works too, you just won't get the crispy roasty effect. Most roasted veggies are good cold too.

BEAN BONUS!!!!

So dried beans are cheaper than canned, and they don't have the creepy bean juice, but they're also more annoying to prepare. What to do?

Ingredients:

• Almost unreasonaby large quantity of dried beans.
• Water.
• Smidge of vinegar or lemon (optional).

Directions:

• Soak beans in water for 12 hours or overnight. Adding a little bit of acid at this stage improves the beans' digestibility.
• Drain and rinse beans. Put in giant pot with water. Simmer for about an hour (or more, depending on how stubborn the darn things are.)
• Drain.
• Portion into ziploc baggies and freeze or refrigerate.
• Use exactly as you would use canned beans.

Potato Soup

Beth and Nina love this soup. When Beth compliments someone else's potato preparation it's a big deal, so this recipe is definitely a keeper. It's also cheap and super easy.

It's also quite forgiving, so don't stress too much about exact amounts. Once you've made it a few times you'll have a feel for you just thick and/or potatoey you like it.

Also, I think it's worth saying that I guess rather conservatively on seasoning amounts. Always taste as you're going along and add more spices if necessary.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 small to medium red potatoes, diced. No need to peel unless you're using a thick skinned potato like a russet or you just really want to.
• 1 small onion, somewhat finely chopped
• 1-2 TBSP butter or olive oil
• 2-3 TBSP all purpose flour
• 2-3 cups of chicken broth
• 1-2 cups of milk (not skim)
• salt and pepper
• 1-2 tsp dried rosemary. You can add more if you're a rosemary freak like me.

Directions:

Heat butter or oil in soup pot over medium to medium-high heat. Sautee onion until tender and translucent. Add flour (and more oil/butter if needed). Stir with a wooden spoon for a minute or two to make something like a golden, oniony paste. (It's a roux!)
Add potatoes, broth, milk, and seasonings. The pot should be
Simmer until potatoes are quite tender. Mash up some of the potatoes with a potato masher. You're not aiming for a puree, just a nice thick soup.
Eat.