About Me

I'm a full-time working mom of 3 in the IT industry, with a great husband. When not spending time with the family, I like to spend my time in the kitchen. I like to cook. I love to eat. I adore entertaining people. I prefer not to go by any particular recipe, but experiment on my own. I'm not professionally trained in any way and I don't claim to be correct on anything I might post. Meals are often tossed together at the last minute. Sometimes I think about them during the day, sometimes I browse my cook book library and compare ingredients of great chefs before me. Sometimes I scour the internet, and sometimes they are literally pulled from the freezer and tossed into a pan.

I also used to dabble in cake decorating. {shameless plug: Cakes By Jenn Facebook}

These are those stories. I play with my food.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Roasted Veggies a Go-Go

Apparently, I have a problem.  An addiction really.  Some might just call it an obsession.  A need to always be doing something.  A need to always be planning something.  A requirement to provide food, drink and good company to a crowd.  That's right, I LOVE to throw parties!  If something's not on the horizon, I feel empty.

At work, I am the lead planner for a Halloween party we have for the employee kids; it's called Trunk or Treat.  (ToT)  At the ToT event I provide pizza, salad, chicken nuggets, drinks and desserts for about 850 people, plus activities and trick or treating.  I am also on the holiday party planning committee for the employees that sit in my building, it's called Festivus.  This party serves up 350 people, we have it catered, it's potluck dessert, and oh yeah, there's a 40+ participant Yankee Swap and a 9 hole mini golf course setup by departments in the building.

At home, I have a Luau every year in my back yard.  Fully decked out and themed, I provide most of the food, people bring sides, we've had a live band a few years now; a guest list of 40-150 depending on the year.  I've been known to throw a "Last Holiday Party of the Year" party the end of January and open my house to 100 people.  Oh yeah, and one more, my husband has lots of 1st cousins, so we open our doors to a potluck that hosts 30 people in February.  And I love it.  I don't typically stress about it.  Key word there being "typically" because there's always something to stress about.  And not to mention the occasional family birthday or anniversary party I get to dig into from time to time.


 
But anyhow, I threw yet another party this past weekend.  Menu included pulled pork, baked macaroni & cheese.... and.... yep, you guessed it, roasted veggies.  Now, roasted veggies can come in all shapes, sizes and varieties.  Everyone has their own mantra on how they should be roasted, and what they should be roasted with.  I've roasted veggies on the grill, in the oven, on the stove-top.  Inside tin-foil, on the broiler pan, over a hot fire, on the grill.  And I always experiment with different flavors, oils and spices.  But this weekend, yeah, this weekend, I hit the mark.  These veggies were awesome!  And I loved my variety.  They were so colorful.  So let's play.
 


Select Your Veggies:


I went with the following:
  • Carrots, shaved, rough chop into same sizes
  • Turnip, shaved, rough chop into same sizes
  • Baby Redskin Potatoes, diced to match the carrot sizes
  • Baby Portabella Mushrooms, diced to match the carrot sized
  • Broccoli, chopped to match the carot size, roughly
  • 1 Red Onion, nice big pieces
  • 8 gloves whole garlic, peeled
Place in baking dish.  Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees

Now your flavorings:
  • Olive Oil, very generous drizzle
  • Basil, even sprinkle
  • Oregano, even sprinkle
  • Salt, generous
  • Pepper, generous
Put on center rack in your oven, roast for 30 minutes.  Toss veggies around, return to oven for another 15 minutes.  Remove, cover with tin foil and let sit for another 10 minutes.

Voila!