11/25/2020

This morning has been a whirl of wind in preparation for Thanksgiving.

Picked up these adorable floral arrangements at the local farm store, potted in pumpkins. They used decorative cabbage, roses, alstroemeria, in these lovely purples, yellows, oranges. It is a fresh feeling I get when flower watching, I could just get lost in them. They clear my mind, until I am fresh and new again.

Listening to a new record, I just heard “drinking Coca Cola and red wine”. I wonder if this is an adaptation like rosè and Sprite, or if this is my mind playing tricks on me again. Sometimes I like to live in a world as if there were no google. It’s similar to how I felt as a kid I think, where I could with impunity believe things and just explore the world. I can remember times when I’d take closed containers of spices, a wooden spoon, and a bowl and pretend to mix the ingredients. I have a vivid memory of climbing into kitchen cabinets and holding my breath as long as I could. I must have watched an episode of Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers that talked about it. But I felt so free in that moment, I knew I could hold my breath just as long as those oyster divers would.

Waiting on a batch of three pumpkin pies to cook, I set up green bean casserole. Earlier this week, I looked online for the original green bean casserole, the one they used to put on either the can of mushroom soup or the can of Durkee fried crispy onions. This version was transcribed by a family member long ago and it now belongs to my sister. I recall looking at it a time or two as an adult, the neat handwriting on the index card. Yesterday, as I browsed YouTube, I could not find the original recipe. Many of the new renditions have sliced mushrooms, bacon, fresh sliced onion, even cheese. The only one I have ever eaten has soy sauce, I know that for sure.

I dumped them all into a pyrex dish:

1 can Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup

1 16 oz frozen French cut green beans,

1/2 Cup heavy cream

1 tsp soy sauce

handful of French’s crispy fried onions

Stir it all together

Bake 350 degrees F for 25 minutes

Add the rest of the fried onion toppings on top

Bake 10 minutes

Let cool 30 minutes, then serve

Advertisement

Root vegetables

I love food, so much so that I tend to have a strained relationship with it. Not that I always use food to problem solve, but I eat when I’m bored, nervous, or otherwise unoccupied.

I consider a scene in the TV show 30 Rock where Alec Baldwin’s character, Jack Donaghy, attempts to quit drinking. So instead of drinking, he knit a sweater.

I often defer to this mantra when changing my habits. Lately I have been eating more vegetables and when I am watching TV instead of sitting down I’ll paint at my easel. I don’t know if the art is that good, but it makes me happy and it is an activity that I lose myself in entirely.

The following recipe is something I tried today. I hope you enjoy it.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Equipment:

1 Butcher knife

1 pairing knife

1 peeler

1 spoon

1 9″ x 11″ Pyrex dish

1 small bowl for optional sauce

Ingredients:

4 orange beets, peeled of blemishes, cut into four chunks

handful of rainbow carrots, scrubbed

1 butternut squash

1 bunch scallions

1 bunch basil

4 cloves garlic

1-2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut oil

1 spoon

Optional Sriracha Greek yogurt sauce:

1 Tbsp Sriracha sauce

4 Tbsp Greek yogurt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400ºF

Prepare vegetables:

Peel and chop butternut squash into 2″ x 3″ blocks. Set aside in Pyrex dish.

Wash four orange beets.  Scrub and peel blemishes off. Cut and quarter beets. Set aside in Pyrex dish.

Wash rainbow carrots. Peel if desired. Cut off root and end tips. Set aside in Pyrex dish.

Wash scallions. Pat dry. Finely slice. Distribute evenly over vegetables in Pyrex dish.

Crush and finely chop garlic cloves. Sprinkle evenly over in Pyrex dish.

Pour coconut oil evenly over vegetables in Pyrex dish.

Cook in preheated oven at 400°F for one hour.

When finished cooking, let sit for five minutes.

Optional Sriracha and Greek yogurt sauce:

Mix Sriracha and Greek yogurt together until blended in small bowl. Scoop desired amount on top of vegetables.