Roasted Haricots Verts

Do you ever just get really, really, really sick of veggies? I’ll be honest: I do. Consequently, I’m always trying to prepare them in new and different ways. One of my favorite tricks to reinvent a tired old standard is roasting. Sunday night I whipped up these French green beans to serve alongside pasta. I was floored at how scrumptious they were. S actually described them as “desserty”! G and Q? Wouldn’t touch them. C’est la vie.

Roasted Haricots Verts

1 lb haricots verts

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

½ teaspoon onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste

½ tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

1. 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. 2. Clean haricots verts, removing ends. Dry thoroughly and place in a roasting pan.

3. 3. Drizzle beans with the sunflower oil, then sprinkle with the salt, pepper, and onion powder. Toss to coat.

4. 4. Roast for approximately 15 minutes or until slightly golden (and a little wrinkled!) and fork tender.

5. 5. Remove the beans from the oven and toss with the butter, nutritional yeast and flax seeds.

Enjoy!

Rockie Road Brownies

While I claim to be a super-healthy eater, the fact is I've got a serious sweet tooth. I eat something desserty every day. But these brownies? They are not an everyday dessert. They are so rich, so ridiculously decadent, that they are a once-every-couple-of-years dessert. Or, as was the case this past Saturday, a "I'm hormonal and hated today" dessert.

Rockie Road Brownies
Serves 12

1/2 c. butter
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 c. flour
3/4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla

Topping:
1/2 c. chopped peanuts
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2/ c. mini marshmallows

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9" square pan.
2. In a sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Set aside to cool.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
4. Beat eggs until light; add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until mixture is thick. Add vanilla.
5. Gradually add chocolate mixture to eggs, then stir in dry ingredients.
6. Spread mixture evenly in the buttered pan, and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the edges pull away from the side of the pan.
7. Remove the brownies from the oven and sprinkle peanuts, chocolate chips, and marshmallows over the top. Bake 8 - 10 minutes more until marshmallows are lightly browned (if you like your marshmallows on the darker side, try turning on the broiler for the last minute or so).

Enjoy!

CSA Supper: Zucchini & Tomato Pie

For the last month our kitchen has been overrun with tomatoes and zucchini. I've frozen I don't know how many loaves of zucchini bread, and we've canned at least three dozen jars of tomatoes, pasta sauce, etc. But those darned zucchinis and tomatoes just keep coming via our weekly farm share and our own garden. In the spirit of 'waste not, want not', I'm trying my best to use them up...but my enthusiasm and creativity are waning.

This zucchini and tomato pie is always my end-of-summer savior. It's dead easy (as Jamie O. would say) and super-fast to throw together. Plus, it always yields leftovers. I even baked this one over the weekend, then just reheated it (which was extra nice since I've been waist-deep in baby food and laundry for the last three days...CANNOT get caught up on either). Throw in a simple salad and frosty beer, and my day just got a whole lot better.

Zucchini and Tomato Pie
Serves 6

2 cups zucchini, diced
1 cup tomato, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 organic baking mix (or Bisquick)
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup Parmesan
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees; grease a 10" pie plate.
2. Spread diced zucchini, tomato, and onion in the bottom of the pie plate.
   
3. Beat remaining ingredients until smooth, then pour into pie plate.
4. Bake until knife comes out clean (about 30 minutes), then remove from oven and top pie with the two cheeses.
   
5. Turn on the broiler; place pie under the broiler until cheese is melted and golden brown.
6. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

(Recipe adapted from an ancient Bisquick recipe book that my mom probably pulled out of the Good Housekeeping back in the '80s. If you can get your hands on one, it's a treasure trove of deliciousness!)

Reading List

I haven't really read at all for the last six weeks. Now that I'm "working" (ha!ha!) again, the little bit of free time I previously had to read is now spent on Stella & Dot stuff. But when I'm not reading I get cranky. I feel like it's so important to continue to make time for the things that are really, really important to me--that really define who I am (cooking, reading)--despite how crazy it gets around here so that I don't lose myself. So my goal is to finish this stack of books by then end of October:

• On my Kindle...I must finish Misguided Angel, the fifth installment of the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz, because the sixth, and final book, comes out TOMORROW! If you haven't read this series, but dig the vampire/YA genre like I do, I highly recommend it. It's really the smartest, most well-written of the bunch (more on that to come).
  
• Hardy Boys #1...I'm in the mood for a serial mystery, and I've read all my Nancy Drews. Now that I'm collecting HB for G/Q, I figure I may as check them out.
• The Poe Shadow, by Matthew Pearl...set around the suspicious demise of Edgar Allen Poe, this book seems like a perfect Halloween-y read.
• Birth Matters, by Ina May Gaskin...no, I'm not pregnant again--just chronically interested in the subject. My neighbor lent me this book last week after a convo about her upcoming book of poetry segued into me telling her about my birth experience (it made sense at the time, trust me). I know this book will only fuel the murderous fire of rage I already feel about the maternity system in this country, but c'est la vie.

What's on your nightstand?