Roasted Vegetables

This recipe is great for the winter when you're looking for a warm, healthy side dish to accompany a roast or other meat. It's quick and easy and has both your starch and vegetables combined. Can be made a day ahead of time too - just reheat before serving!

Preparation Time: 15 minutes to cut the vegetables

Ingredients:
1 small butternut squash, cubed

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

3 Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed

5 carrots, cut in 2-inch lengths

2 red bell peppers, seeded and diced into large pieces

1 red onion, quartered

1 pint grape/cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (cut in 1/2 for dried)

2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (cut in 1/2 for dried)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine the squash, sweet potato, Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots and red bell peppers. Separate the red onion quarters into pieces, and add them to the mixture.

3. In a small bowl, stir together thyme, rosemary, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss with vegetables until they are coated. Spread evenly on a large roasting pan.

4. Roast for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring gently every 10 minutes.

5. Add the grape tomatoes to the pan, stirring gently as not to break them. Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked through and browned.

*Cooking times may vary. If you think the vegetables will burn if they're in for the full 45 minutes, cut the cooking time down and add the tomatoes sooner. Also great without the thyme and rosemary!

Source: My revised version from allrecipes.com
Servings: 12

Bernie's Baked Beans

These are almost a full meal.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound bacon (browned and drained)
1/2 pound hamburger (browned and drained)
1 small onion
1 large can pork and beans (fat can) (not drained)
1 can butter beans (drained)
1 can red beans (drained)
1/4 cup catsup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees, or cook in crock pot on low 3-4 hours.

Source: Bernie Culver
Servings: 8-10

Squash and Bell Pepper Pilaf

This is tasty as a side dish or filling enough to be dinner (in a family that doesn't require meat.)

Preparation Time: 20 minutes prep  - 30 minutes cooking

Ingredients:
¾ lbs. butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces (2 cups)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (1 cup)
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped onion
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 cups water
¼ cup raw green (hulled) pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted

Directions:
Cook squash, bell pepper, onion, and bay leaf in oil with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to brown, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add rice and stir until well coated, then add water and bring to a vigorous boil. Reduce heat to low and cook, tightly covered with lid, until vegetables and rice are tender and liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with seeds.

Source: Gourmet
Servings: 6

Notes:
I made up brown rice ahead of time instead of using the white.  And instead of salt, pepper, and a bay leaf, I used chili powder and cinnamon.  I tired leaving the skin on the squash but it was a bit tough.  In the future, I might toss the squash into the oven and then cube it, because peeling a raw squash is unpleasant.

Tomato Fennel Soup

I concocted this after reading several recipes. I'd never cooked using fennel. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. It has a light sourness that aged very well. I thought it was a really tasty soup

Ingredients:
1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
2 bulbs of fennel
2 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 15 oz can of stock (I used chicken a good vegetable stock would work well)
4 tsp of minced garlic
1 bay leaf
pinch of red pepper flakes
sugar to taste
red wine vinegar to taste (about 1-2 Tbs)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Chop the fennel:
http://www.cookthink.com/reference/129/How_to_prep_fennel

2. In a very large pot saute the onions and the fennel until they are soft and clear. When they look close to done add in the garlic.

3. Add in the tomatoes, stock, and bay leaf. Gently simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.

4. Add in salt. If the tomatoes need a little sweentess add a little sugar. If the soup is a little bland add a small splash of vinegar. Sprinkle in a few hot pepper flakes.
You can use some of the fennel leaves as garnish.

Source: Me
Servings: 4 as a side

Suggested Reading

 http://simpleorganic.net/fruits-and-veggies-when-to-buy-organic/
A look at the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen.  Where to spend your organic dollars and what you can buy non-organic

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
Explains Community Supported Agriculture and allows you to find one near you.  Buying local is usually as good as buying organic.  Most CSAs can't afford to go through organic licensing,  but don't spray pest/herbicides unnecessarily.  Still giving them a call and asking is always worthwhile.

Add any vegetable related article you like to the comments.

Formatting and Such

One more bit of housekeeping....  Some of you may have noticed that I have edited your posts.  I am only doing that to try and get them more uniform and I hope I am not offending anyone.  Since there are currently 13 authors, I don't want there to be 13 formats.  Too confusing.  As I see people adding extra information, I am including it into the template.  I welcome comments on the general format of the posts as well as the layout of the blog.  I am by no means a design genius.

Also, when you go to add your labels please click the "Show all" link next to the label box so that you can make sure and include everything that fits your recipe.  Feel free to add new labels as well, when appropriate.  Obviously the recipes we've added so far don't cover every category in the world of cooking :)    I'm trying to keep the labels capitalized as well, but it is not a big deal for me to fix that either.

Thanks everyone for participating in my crazy idea!  I'm really looking forward to more recipes as the weeks go on.  If you have any topic suggestions you can add them as comments to any of the housekeeping posts.

Cabbage Strata

This is the only casserole I make, and I particularly like it when making meals for new moms. I use the healthier version (but will put the less healthy version in parenthesis). The recipe recommends an 8"X 8" glass dish, but I've used lots of different sizes, and the recipe scales nicely.

Ingredients:
Cabbage mixture:
3 Cups chopped cabbage, cooked and drained
1/4 Cup mayonnaise--it's best if you make the mayonnaise yourself, and then you can mess with the recipe a little. (Mom uses Miracle Whip :/)
3 Tablespoons minced onion. [I usually mince and sweat them on the stove, but if you're in a hurry, use minced onion from the spice aisle. If you use dried minced onions, use only 1 Tablespoon]
1 teaspoon prepared mustard

Bread:
Seven slices of bread of your choice, quartered (or just a fluffy white Wonderbread-like monster.) [I've used lots of bread. Homemade is best. Grainy breads make it taste a little funny. Wheat is g$

Cheese:
1 Cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 Cup grated Swiss cheese

Dairy mixture, well combined:
2 eggs
2 1/4 Cups skim milk (whole milk)

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
Layer half each of the bread, cabbage mixture and cheese. Add half the salt and half the pepper. Repeat.

At this point, you can refrigerate the whole thing for a day or two, or freeze it for several weeks. When you're ready to bake it, pour the dairy mixture overtop. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes$

Source: My mother
Servings: Eight (?) Twelve (?) It depends on whether you're using it as a side dish or main course.

Korean Seasoned Eggplant

I made this tonight. You can use "american" red pepper if you don't have korean red pepper. Toasting the sesame seeds (if they are not already roasted) doesn't take much time and makes a big difference. I used two baby eggplants and did not peel the skin, but maybe next time I'll take a few strips of skin off. It's a tasty side dish and also does not mind being left to the side while I tend other dishes -- or a baby.

Prep + Cook time: 30 minutes, most of it chopping eggplant, onion, and garlic and waiting for eggplant to cool.

Ingredients:
about 1 lb of eggplant

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp chopped green onion

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1 tsp red pepper flakes (korean red pepper if you've got it. "american" red pepper works too)

1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds (sometimes the ones in the asian market are already roasted. this is great, but you can also roast regular sesame seeds in a pan for about a minutes)

1 tbsp dark sesame oil

salt

Directions:
- cut eggplant into 1/2" by 1-2 " strips.

- put water in a pot. bring to a boil. add eggplant and steam until soft (about 3 minutes)

- let eggplant cool, then squeeze out moisture

- toss cooled, sqeezed eggplant with onion, garlic, red pepper, sesame seeds, oil, salt

Serve either room temperature or cool. Keeps in refrigerator 2-3 days.

Source: chung and samuels, "The Korean Table"
Servings: 4