Look at all the vegetables! So pretty! I came home the other day determined to eat something besides cereal or pasta for dinner. You know, put a little effort into a meal. Ok, just a little. So I picked up some of my favorite fall vegetables and went nuts. Like, seriously, nuts.
It started innocently enough, with a few potatoes. Well, maybe more than a few. I figured I would cut them up, toss them with a little olive oil, a dash of salt and pepper (I used freshly ground black pepper, and freshly ground sea salt, yeah, I’m classy), and maybe some rosemary for good measure. So that’s what I did.
I cut the potatoes in about 1/2 inch pieces, seasoned them, and spread them on an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet in a single layer. I roasted them in the oven for about 35 minutes at 400º, turning them over once after about 20 minutes. They came out warm, delicious, and satisfying.
I ate like a quarter of that bowl 2 minutes after the potatoes came out of the oven. And then I remembered I had lots of squash to cut up.
While walking through the store I got a little carried away and picked up a small pumpkin, a butternut squash, and an acorn squash. We can forget about when I picked up one acorn squash which then led to more acorn squash tumbling to the ground and rolling around on the floor in the middle of the produce section only to be rescued by a nice old lady.
And while squash is lovely, tasty, and orange, it’s kind of a pain to cut up. I managed to cut up almost all of the squash into 1/2″ pieces before my shoulders and arms gave out. I found that poking the pumpkin and butternut squash with a fork a few times and microwaving for about 20 seconds first made it a lot easier to cut them up. Getting all of the skin off..well that just took patience.
I tossed all of the squash in some more olive oil, ground pepper, and ground sea salt. Then, for a sweet twist, I drizzled on about a teaspoon of honey and sprinkled them with a bit of brown sugar. They went into the 400º oven for about 20 minutes until soft. The honey glaze and the salt is one of those combinations that just works.
A little apple, chardonnay, chicken sausage rounded out my meal. It was warm and filling and if you decide to not cut up enough vegetables for 10 people on a Tuesday night, it really doesn’t take that long.
