Veggies

I've never been a great vegetable eater. I love raw veggies, but that's about it. A crudite table at a wedding, or any big salad ~ no problem. Load it up with all the raw veggies you can shake a stick at and I'm happy happy happy.

I think my aversion to cooked vegetables goes back to staying at my aunt's house every summer. She had the most amazing garden, and I would sit in it, among the huge flowering plants, and eat snap peas and green beans straight off the vine and rinse carrots, which I had dug up from the patch, under her garden hose and generally make myself sick eating tomatoes straight off the plant. But then at night, when it was time for dinner, those same luscious veggies were turned into bland, mushy, overcooked piles on our plates and I just about gagged trying to force them down.

Now I have a very few tricks because I'm starting to LOVE veggies, as long as I cook them because they've got to have crunch and they've got to have snap and they've got to be easy to cook.

Easy Asparagus

Asparagus, I've learned, is better with thicker stalks for a reason. Those thicker ones were among the first harvested. As the stalks regrow on the same plants, they get thinner each time. Those anorectic sticks are just not as tasty because they are further into the harvest season. But, if you've got a bunch of the thick ones, here's a super easy and yummy way to eat them.

Lay them flat on a cooking sheet, not piled on top of each other.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil across them. Don't worry about coating it all and don't use a lot.
Sprinkle paprika across them.
Cook at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes. DO NOT OVERCOOK! I've got a kickass stove and it only takes 10 minutes. (You can cook the skinny ones like this too, but adjust the time down)


Here they are, before the oven, and you can see the oil is mostly on the pan, even.

Super yummy, couldn't be easier. When they are done properly, there is absolutely no wilt and they turn bright green. Yay. If you overcook them they turn reddish (from the paprika bleed) and they wilt. Boo.


Here they are when I pulled them out of the oven. Are you thinking they look almost identical? That's how you know you did it right!

Easy Carrots

I made hamburger patties tonight for dinner, and instead of french fries I made these carrots. Really good!

Take about 1 pound or 1.5 pounds of carrots, peel and slice into "coins".
Dump into a skillet on the stove top with some butter (about a tblspn, but less if you want to watch cals) and a cup or so of chicken broth.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 8 or 10 minutes.
Cook additional 5 minutes without lid.
Salt to taste (pepper too, if that's what you like)

So. Good. And you can't screw them up. Believe me.