Vegetable Deliciousness

Here we have my Sunday post, but it has less info about my week because I blogged once already this week. Except I worked on Bets' party invites and cupcake toppers and drew this little mermaid girl, who I swear looks like the girl who's having the party... and since the fish needed some ambiance, I made a copy of the mermaid to stick on the back of the tank for a while.

And thank you Bets for the comment discussion on that last post about everybody crappin' in the big potty because I laughed out loud.

Okay so for an abrupt change from fish decor and crapping,  here's the deal on tasty veggies. Some people, I know, you like your vegetables and all and you might not need this recipe. Contrary to popular belief, yes, some people do enjoy vegetables. I like them. But there's always something missing. I like to cook things and have them taste really good, and that's what I feel is satisfying. I do not enjoy chain restaurants for the most part because there's usually only one thing on any menu I like. Example, I do like the pulled pork won ton tacos at Applebees, and not much else, and I can totally make better pulled pork at home in my slow cooker. Subway does not thrill me, I make a better sandwich. Olive Garden generally fails, except for that salad, I can cook whatever they offer. I don't ever want the soups, I think the bread sticks are just so-so. But the salad is good. Local places are better sometimes, but still, I can cook it better at my house.

Oh, this is what made me think about vegetables. If you find guns offensive, I dunno what to tell you. Last night we went to an NRA banquet, which let me say, it was my first one and really quite fascinating in a people-watching sort of way. It was a fund raising auction and they had raffles for stuff too. We didn't see anything we wanted, except I guess there was a little target thing I wouldn't have minded getting. The boys like to go target shooting and it's like, a quartet of identical metal stamped out critter shaped thingies, joined at the center in a tri-pod concept, where the top sticks up, you shoot it, and then that causes it to flip over and then your target is set up for you already because each part has the little target top. I think they're made in South Dakota too, which I like, because I like the local businesses.



They had a catered dinner and I was really disappointed to find no green vegetables.There were two varieties of creamed white meat (pork and chicken, both tasty) white macaroni salad, pink fluff (I don't do fluff) and white dinner rolls which were bleh, some baby canned new potatoes in a slightly cheesy sauce, which J. got really excited about. Also. Corn. They had corn. Doesn't count as a vegetable, people.

But I wasn't surprised. I don't think lots of people like vegetables. For one thing, nobody wants to eat the cheese sauced broccoli, who knows what's in it? (I am aware the things I'm saying are not true... I know other people eat that stuff, because I also know they commonly eat macaroni salads.) The green bean casserole is just not that good either. I mean, I made a recipe of it for Christmas last year and there was a ton of leftovers and it just got grosser and grosser. Cream of mushroom soup is just a travesty. So how are human adults getting all their servings of vegetables? I think they're not.

Here's my thought, then. I made this sauce from Holly Clegg's cookbook the other day to go with pasta for dinner, but it's really a grown-up sauce. I changed it up a little. I threw some other veggies and tomato stuff in with the pasta for the kids, and J & I used the grown-up sauce to season our servings of pasta, and I saved a bunch of the sauce for later. I don't eat a lot of pasta. I added it to my veggies for two lunches at school and maybe another meal, and it was delicious. This next paragraph is not in the recipe, because Holly meant for us to use the sauce with penne.

First, on your back burner, in a 2 quart pot, place about 3.5 or 4 cups of water, a Knorr broth gelatin blob, and as much frozen whole green beans and frozen "stir fry" vegetable mix as you can fit in the pot without overflowing the water. Let that simmer so the gelatin dissolves and the veggies get hot. If you don't do meat, you can use whatever broth/vegetable stock item you so desire, I don't think it will matter. Also, I realize not everyone likes cooked vegetables, but I do cook mine because things like broccoli are goitrogens and I try not to piss off my thyroid too much. If you start with frozen and bring them up to temperature in the broth, but don't boil the flavor out of them, I'm sure you will be okay.

Next make the sauce. In a metal skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil. The recipe called for 1/4 cup but that much oil is just not necessary. Add a chopped onion and let it begin to saute'. Holly thinks 1.5 cups of chopped red onion. I say, whatever onion you have is fine. I have a bunch of those little white ones in the blue mesh sack hanging around right now, and occasionally when I'm feeling very inept, I buy the pre-chopped frozen onion and also there's a chopped frozen seasoning mix which would also work splendidly. On top of the onion, add a tablespoon minced garlic. This is so the garlic won't burn. Hopefully your skillet isn't that hot yet but it pays to be safe.

Drain a jar of water-packed roasted red peppers which may or may not require slicing. You can buy the pre-sliced, or else if they are whole, plop them out on your cutting board. Three black-flecked, slimy, flaccid  peppers. Slice them yourself. Slice across so they sort of form rounds (except not, because they're slit up one side prior to canning) and then slice through those rounds to give yourself some nice 1/4" x 2" slices. Throw them in the pan with the onions. Here you have a choice. You can let the onions get really hot and caramelize, and then throw in the roasted pepper, and let it do the same, which is delicious and creates a stronger flavor, or for a "fresher" flavor just cook the onions through for about 5 minutes and proceed with the rest of the recipe. I did it both ways and I like the caramelized better.

With a tiny spoon, measure out 2 tablespoons of capers from the tiny bottle (tube? it's like the most narrow jar imaginable) and throw them in too. If you enjoy the flavor of capers straight out of the bottle,  just toss them in after you cook the rest of the stuff, but I like the way they taste warmed up. I think they add their flavor to the rest of the recipe, plus the way they smell right out of the bottle reminds me of something, and I'm not sure what it is. Add a teaspoon or so of dried basil, or lots of fresh basil, and one teaspoon dried oregano, or fresh if you have it.

Next, the spinach. The recipe says to thaw and drain and cook a 10 oz package of frozen leaf spinach. If, like me, you have some spinach hanging around for salads, throw that on top and let it wilt. I also squeezed on some lemon juice and lime juice and threw in a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes as well, and since my broth was there on the back burner, I spooned a few tablespoons of the broth over the spinach for more steam to help it wilt.

Now, there you have a fantastic sauce for your veggies and you totally do not need the pasta. You can eat as much of the vegetables as you want for dinner, there's no way to go overboard on vegetables. I did not salt the sauce or the veggies, but the broth provides some salty flavor and the chicken does too. Before I started the veggies and sauce, I also started baking a bunch of (seven) chicken breasts (thighs are also fabulous as well as being less expensive and more flavorful) which I sprinkled both sides with Butt Rub and baked at 350 for one hour, at which point, when inserted into the biggest thickest portion of the breast, my digital thermometer read 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

I weighed them all with the digital scale because I'm just not sure what 4 oz. of chicken looks like. Most of the breasts were about 5 oz. I chopped one up for my meal. In a huge bowl I spooned out a lot of the vegetables which had been cooking in the broth. I spooned some of the roasted pepper sauce over the top of that, which adds a great seasoned flavor to the veggies.

Place the rest of your chicken in a container or portion into lunch containers and refrigerate if you are planning for the week's meals. Put the rest of the veggies in a different container and place the roasted pepper sauce on top of that. (I have about 12 round screw-top plastic containers which say they are microwave safe, except I hate to microwave plastic, and usually I set out four of those, and portion out the veggies and the chicken so I have several lunches covered for the week.) Reserve the broth in a container, and refrigerate it for next time you need some tasty frozen veggies cooked (like tomorrow night.) I promise, this is way tastier than putting them in the microwave. This whole process took about an hour.