Roasted Carrots

Short version: everything tastes better roasted. I wish I'd known this 35 years sooner.

Longer version:
Last week, one of the local farms had some baby carrots that they'd kept over the winter. They weren't so baby any more, but I bought them anyway. They were cheap and lovely to look at. And I thought I'd see if I liked them roasted. Growing up, I was forced to eat carrots whole and raw. Those were the days before baby carrots and I absolutely hated that bitter center of an "adult" carrot. Just one of a number of ways my mom made me think I hated vegetables. Anyhoo...

I got them home and stuck them in a Ziploc bag so they wouldn't dry out. What I did not know is that I should have cut the greenery off first. Apparently, the greens steal water from the carrots and dry them out. Luckily, I didn't have them around that long.

Then, I set about finding a way to prepare them. On the first page of results, I saw a link for The Pioneer Woman. She'd visited Nashville recently and a bunch of local foodie friends were excited, so I checked out the recipe. It was simple, promised to be delicious, and included thyme. Full of win! I have thyme in the herb garden and rarely have use for it, so this was exciting!

So here's the recipe for roasted carrots. And here's the Cliff's version:

1. Remove any greenery
2. Cut the carrots in half length-wise
3. Coat in extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and fresh thyme leaves (and pepper, if you like)
4. Arrange in a single layer in your roasting pan
5. Cook for 35-40 minutes at 400 degrees (they should be wrinkly in appearance and you should be able to spear them easily with a fork)
6. Eat these freaking delicious carrots

The Pioneer Woman's post (actually, Pastor Ryan) is more eloquent, but above is all you need to know. And that you will love these carrots even if you think you hate carrots.

The worst thing ever produced in my kitchen...

...not including what the cat has coughed up, of course. The cornbread I made last night. Terrible. Embarrassingly terrible.

As I've mentioned before, I usually make cornbread from Weisenberger's mix. I add a little more milk and a little more cornmeal to stretch it out a bit. It's always been good. But I recently received a copy of The Cornbread Gospels and felt like I should make my own.

First, let me say that this book is very interesting. It's first neatly divided among regions here in the States and followed by global versions as well as all sorts of other cornmeal breads and sidedishes that are traditionally eaten with cornbreads. It's got notes on the various types of meal as well as stories to go with each recipe. Unfortunately, there was not a recipe for sweet potato cornbread like I had at Food For Thought in Williamsburg. There is a recipe for (sweet) sweet potato muffins, however.

I couldn't find a recipe that was quite like my mother's, though. And as much as I love her cornbread, it's generally pretty dry grainy. Usually around bite two or three, a little will get caught in my throat and make me cough. So I was hoping for a more moist version. So I came up with my own recipe that was a combination of several recipes (with my mom's as a base). Usually, this works out great for me. Not this time.

I used two eggs in my version. Well, not eggs per se, but the generic version of Egg Beaters. This was my first mistake. And maybe my baking powder was past its prime? I do keep it in the freezer, but that stuff doesn't stay good forever. And I added soda despite the fact that I wasn't using buttermilk, but I don't think that was a problem (I used just a teaspoon each of soda and powder). I also cooked it at 400 degrees instead of 450.

The result was a dense, spongy, oily, dark mustard colored hunk of nastiness. I couldn't even distinguish the feel of the grain. I didn't use very much oil, so I think the egg products were a huge part of the problem. The SO actually ate some of it, saying that "it wasn't bad," but I wouldn't let him eat much. The texture was so incredibly foul.

On the upside, I didn't take a shortcut with the black-eyed peas; I started with dry peas, did the quick soak (actually soaked a few hours) and then simmered them for an hour and a half. They were quite good.

I also roasted some (organic) carrots. These actually turned out quite good. I got the idea from some carrots I had at Whole Foods. I sliced them on the bias, thinly coated them in olive oil, drizzled on some lemon juice and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. I roasted them for about 20 minutes at the aforementioned 400 degrees in a glass baking dish. Anything that will make a carrot more palatable to me is a good thing.

I will try cornbread again at some point. But not soon.

UPDATE: I neglected to write that right after I ate the edible portions of my meal, I called my mother to tell her about the cornpucks. She was kind but said, "If you want to make my cornbread, you have to make it my way." That's a mother for you.