Of marshmallows and such Monday, October 16, 2006

I'm on sort of food kick. Which might sound odd, but recently my culinary escapades had pretty much ground to a halt. I think it was a combination of exhaustion, traveling and just plain having too much to do in other areas.

But I've seemed to have remedied that situation in the last week and half. In the last week I've made not one but two batches of the delectable fried green tomatoes, 4 batches of marshmallows (two lemon and two traditional vanilla flavored), roasted vegetables, and full sunday dinner of pot roast, potatoes and the darkest gravy known to man.

That might not sound like an awful lot but really it has been about all I've been able to fit into my schedule. The marshmallow thing is a new obsession of mine, it began when I made a batch back in June- then they fell by the wayside for a couple of months. But last weekend I made a batch of the softest lemon scented marshmallows ever. They were quite a hit, and several folks told me I should be selling them. I scoff at that idea simply because there is no way I could fit another job into my lifestyle right now. But I have been daydreaming a bit about what it would be like to be surrounded up to my elbows in pillowy marshmallow fluffiness.

Yesterday evening was a flurry of marshmallow making, and thus the new recipe I was going to try for dinner was cast off to the wayside. Roasted vegetables with basil sauce and goat cheese had been the plan, but at 7:30 after having been making marshmallows for over 2+ hours I pretty much said "fuck-it". Instead opting for a light meal of roasted vegetables dressed with olive oil, salt, thyme and lemon. It is one of those go-to dishes that I think every cook should have. It is a play on one my most favorite dishes, Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken. And the quantities can be adjusted up or down to suit the number of people it would be serving and changed according to the produce one has on hand. In fact it is so simple I really do hate to post the recipe here, since really it isn't much of a recipe at all.

Lemon Roasted Vegetables

1 red pepper
1 yellow squash
4 fingerling potatoes
3/4 head of garlic
1 lemon
white wine
olive oil
thyme

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Chop all the vegetables into smaller pieces if you need faster cooking (like I did last night). Pull apart the cloves from the head, but leave them in their papery skin so they get especially sweet and caramelized. Dump them into your roasting tin and douse with olive oil (I tend not to go too overboard on oil), several good splashes of the white wine, and a palmful of thyme (fresh is best but all I had on hand was dried and it worked just fine). Squeeze the lemon into the pan with everything else and then pop the spent carcases into the pan as well, they add a lovely depth of lemoniness to the dish.

Squwidge everything around in the pan and top with the lid. Roast in the oven for about 40-60 minutes, and then pop under the broiler so everything gets a bit of blistery darkness to it.

Skeezix  Monday, October 16, 2006

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