Tuesday, March 29, 2011

YUM VEGGIES!

On Sunday we had Jim over for dinner and I decided to get creative with some veggies.

Sautéed Carrots with Feta
Ingredients:
3-4 long carrots or 2-3 cups mini carrots
1 tbl or less olive oil
1/3-1/2 cup feta cheese or goat cheese


I sliced up carrots lengthwise in varying shapes and and threw them into a saute pan with a little bit of olive oil. (I actually used too much and recommend only using about 1 Tbl or less of olive oil depending on the amount of carrots you are making). The goal is to caramelize them but you have to be careful because they might start to smoke up your house! Watch them closely and stir them up every 30 seconds or so until they are softened and really sweet. Take them off the heat and add about 1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese. Allow the feta to get soft (it's ok to let them brown then it is even better!). Serve while warm!



Grilled Zippy Asparagus
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
Fresh Ground Pepper
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 bunch of asapargus


Combine all incredients except asparagus. Cut ends off the asparagus and put into ziploc bag. Pour ingredients over asparagus and marinate as long as possible (15mins-several hours depending on your schedule). Take the asapargus out of the bag and place in a folded pouch of tin foil. Grill next to whatever meat you are eating for dinner. Serve on a plate and leave in the pouch until ready to eat so they stay warm!
 First of all I need you to know one key thing: I LOVE garlic, onions, and feta. So those will always be some of my frequent ingredients!

Carrots with feta are like candy! Also, I think that the best flavor to pair with green vegetables is often lemon because it can take the place of salt and pairs with veggies really well. I used to hate vegetables...in fact, while I was in Spain in 2007 my Skype status said "Not eating vegetables!" and I am pretty sure it still says that. HOWEVER, now that I have 'grown up' a bit (and married a veggie lover) I am finding that I really enjoy some veggies such as fresh carrots, beans, asparagus, broccoli, corn, sweet potatoes/yams, cauliflower, and some others. It is such a shocking transition...right Mom?! In fact I liked them so much that I was too much in a rush to eat them so I forgot to take a picture first!

As far as knitting goes, I just finished a project for someone and I will put some pictures of that up once I have delivered the gift! I am also working on a headband right now and hope to have pictures up soon!

Gardening/growing... it has been a very exciting series of 3 days watering because the sprouts started to grow some green stuff and become visible! 3 out of 20 look like this:
 
Also, thank goodness that the gatos have been prevented from attacking the little cups off the window sill by a strip of plastic wrap run from one end to the other. The purpose is two fold, 1-keep the cats away, 2-try to create a "green house" like environment for the little sunlight we will get here each day. We pull some more tomato seeds out from the paper towel bags and they look like this:

I completely forgot about growing garlic by the way! While I was at work on Monday a friendly conference room guy told me about how easy it is to grow and how it is super pretty!

4 comments:

  1. That was the best dinner! So good in fact that I decided to go to the store Monday, buy carrots and feta to make it for myself again! It was not as good as yours though....I wonder what I did wrong. Maybe it was the type of feta cheese.....regardless, I am hooked.
    Thanks again Brooke!

    ~ Jim

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  2. Love it! We grew garlic at my nursery school and it was easy. I don't remember doing anything to it, except watering, once we planted it. It is fun to read your comments about vegetables. You've added quite a few to your list since soy beans! :)

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  3. Nice job on the posts, Brooke! Keep them coming! How about the carrots and asparagus for the next Girl's Weekend?

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  4. My favorite way to do asparagus is to roast it. :) I also try to avoid the larger (thicker) stalks of asparagus as I think that they can be too tough sometimes! Next time you should just throw them on a backing sheet and toss them together with about a tablespoon of olive oil and season with, salt, pepper, and thyme to taste. Roast them at 350 for 7-9 minutes. YUM! :)

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