Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables

This one’s short and sweet. I’ve made 4-34: Italian Roasted Vegetables a few times before, once as part of a big dinner party I cooked for when I was about 13 (6-22: Crispy Chicken Drumsticks and 9-20: Meat Roly-Poly were part of that as well) and Thanksgiving 2000 based on my mother’s notations on the back of the card. I know I’ve used the concept multiple times in other instances, even if I wasn’t following this exact recipe.

This is more a method than a particular recipe–you can use pretty much whatever vegetables you want with this one. Now’s a perfect time for this recipe–farmer’s markets are open and there’s lots of good stuff out there to roast. ?

Late March/early April is right around the time asparagus begins its short season, so if you happen to find yourself with some in the near future, here’s a recipe for you: 4-9: Asparagus with Italian Butter Sauce. I served this as a side dish along with 8-20: Juicy Steak with Garlic Topping.

There’s such a short window of time when asparagus is in season–you start seeing it around March-April, and it’s done around early summer, in June-July. We’ve recently signed back up for our CSA box after a break, and asparagus was waiting for us in the first one.

Here’s one I’ve been meaning to make for a while. As I mentioned in 9-12: Shepherd’s Pie and 6-30: Scottish Chicken Casserole, I had too many potatoes after a Costco shopping trip, so I’ve been burning off potato recipes.

Potato pancakes have been done before, along with a zucchini version as well. So what’s different about this one? For one, this one features an umlaut. ?

4-4: Scalloped Parsley Potatoes is the third of my recent 3-recipes-at-1-time attempt–the others being 4-2: Green Beans with Hazelnut Butter and 7-55: Sunday Pork Stew.

I think I’ve made these before, despite the lack of notations. These were really easy and pretty good–very mild yet still flavorful.

This recipe, 4-2: Green Beans with Hazelnut Butter along with 7-55: Sunday Pork Stew and 4-4: Scalloped Parsley Potatoes were my first attempt at trying to do 3 of these entry recipes at once. It ended up being harder to do than I thought.

One I’ve made before, about 6 years ago along with 6-40: Peppercorn Chicken Breasts and some other ones. I really like this technique/flavor profile–I use it a lot, even when I’m not documenting it for the Internet.

While I was cooking 4-12: Cheesy Sliced Baked Potatoes, I also was working on this recipe–however be careful with this one: it takes a WHILE to make. ?

This recipe takes 2+ hours–most of which is just it baking in the oven. Just an FYI. 🙂

Here’s a yummy take on baked potatoes. These have been done before, but I’ve seen them referred to as hasselback potatoes.

Most of the hasselback potato recipes you’ll find don’t have cheese on top, so props to Simply Delicious for thinking outside the potato box. Or bag, as it were.

This one…was challenging. And it seemed so simple! 4-30: Cheese-Stuffed Potato Croquettes are essentially mozzarella sticks with a mashed potato/panko coating. These turned from a quick snack into a multi-day attempt.

Now, before I scare you off this recipe: it was 100% my fault it went south. I tried to improvise in several places, and it proved to be my downfall each time. Sometimes you can take liberties, and sometimes you can’t.

Here’s how you learn those lessons.

In 13-10: Zucchini Piccata, I had mentioned that I ended up with more zucchini than I could use in that recipe. Here’s what I did with the rest: I made 4-22: Zucchini Pancakes. I’ve made recipes similar to this before, but this one’s pretty standard.

These things are pretty good even if you’re not that into vegetables. Think of it as a healthier version of 4-17: Crispy Potato Pancakes.

Making 4-8: Roasted Peppers with Dressing arose more out of a need to use up peppers more so than a desire to eat the recipe itself. However, that being said–it wasn’t terrible.

The recipe card uses multi-colored peppers, and I used monochromatic ones. While the taste doesn’t vary much, the more colors you use, the more visually appealing it may be.

Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

4-34: Italian Roasted Vegetables

4-9: Asparagus with Italian Butter Sauce

4-6: Rösti

4-4: Scalloped Parsley Potatoes

4-2: Green Beans with Hazelnut Butter

4-1: Eggplant, Onion and Tomato Bake

4-12: Cheesy Sliced Baked Potatoes

4-30: Cheese-Stuffed Potato Croquettes

4-22: Zucchini Pancakes

4-8: Roasted Peppers with Dressing