Favorite Thanksgiving Side

I cannot believe how crazy my life has been these last couple of weeks. With our car breaking down, our laptop breaking - then getting a new one, finals approaching with papers galore and my second internship wrapping up I've hardly had time to sleep. Even though my family and I weren't able to make it to our annual Patz family reunion this year, we tried to gather whatever we had at home to put some form of Thanksgiving on the table. When you think of Thanksgiving, probably a lot of rich, fatty foods come to mind, however, this could not be further from the truth. If you ask me I think this is the one time of year when everyday American cooks strive to cook foods from scratch. My personal favorite side is simple and straight forward roasted brussel sprouts, carrots, and parsnips. I know what you must be thinking, out of all the foods to choose from on Thanksgiving I pick boring old vegetables? Believe me, try this recipe and you will have a whole new appreciation. If you really don't like the sprouts (it's okay, I forgive you) then you could always substitute russet potatoes or any other vegetable you fancy.

If you've never handled brussel sprouts before, just cut the ends of and peel back the dirty layers (remember they're just small cabbages).

Parsnips (the white things) are an extremely underestimated vegetable. They have a very unique sweet nutty flavor which is brought out through the roasting process. They're also really well pureed in soups! Just peel them like you would a carrot.


Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:
1 package of fresh brussel sprouts (believe me, you want fresh)
4 carrots
4 parsnips
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
2 TBS sugar
2 TBS Olive oil (or enough to coat veggies)

The sugar helps to caramelize the vegetable so they get those delicious burnt bits.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. mix everything in a roasting pan.
3. cover and bake for 15 min. uncover - then bake another 15 min.


* I always start with the cover on to steam the veggies then take the cover off to brown them.

This is a simple yet delicious recipe that you won't feel guilty about the following morning.