The Family Table: Mix-n-match veggies
Sunday morning was the one day I could’ve slept in. My eyes, of course, popped open way earlier than I’d have liked.
Mercifully, it was only 71 degrees as I went out to water the garden. It was a nice break from the oppressive heat.
I’ve mentioned before, I try to cook twice a week: Sunday for the first part of the week, Wednesday for the second.
The Sunday cook is my biggest, in part because it’s the day I typically have the most time. During the summer months, I often grab the vegetable portions of our meals directly from the garden.
We start in May, turning up soil, filling in where we need to and deciding what should be planted together as we learn lessons from year to year.
We’ve been pretty successful with squash, tomatoes, carrots, beets, peppers and kale. Come fall, I’m going to be begging people to take Brussels sprouts, as we weren’t sure what would take, and wound up with about 20 hearty plants.
The great part of being successful with the garden is knowing exactly what went into growing the food — the labor, the soil, the choice of plant food.
If there’s one small downside, it’s figuring out how to make a set number of vegetables into something new and fresh. I don’t want to inspire choruses of “that again?”
One of my favorite ways to do that with veggies is to adjust the herbs and seasonings I use to make the same food taste completely different.
Since it was so nice Sunday morning, I brought my cutting board, foil, seasonings and oil outside to do my prep and grill my veggies.
It’s such a convenient way to cook — especially when you’re trying to avoid adding extra heat to the house.
The method is simple, and the combinations are endless: uniformly slice the vegetables, add a little fat (I like olive oil or real butter), some acid, and whatever seasoning strikes your fancy.
I packed carrots with thyme, oil and lemon juice. The beets and fennel got my homemade rosemary salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, butter and a splash of balsamic.
For the squash and eggplant, I used berbere, an Ethiopian spice blend.
I double wrap them all, sealing the packet as tightly as I can to avoid leaks and toss them on the grill over medium low heat for about 15-20 mins per side. Much like roasting, they’re done when the veggies are fork tender.
By 8:30 a.m., I’d grilled enough food (vegetables and chicken) to sustain us for lunch and dinner over the next few days.
For more than a year, I’ve been faithfully pre-cooking twice a week. With five people, and very few “do nothing” days, it’s the only way we can eat well, and resist the ever-present temptation to hit up a drive-thru window.
It doesn’t have to be complicated — believe me, mine isn’t. Use what you have (or buy what’s in season). Season with what you have. When you remove the thinking that it has to be difficult, it really is a simple way to work ahead and remove (some of) life’s stress.
Jennifer Garofalo is the 蘑菇视频’s news managing editor. 蘑菇视频 her at jgarofalo@heraldstandard.com.