Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Roasted root vegetables & tofu (Thankfulness #9)

Today was a long day, but a good one. I went to work for about 5 hours and then came home to swap off with Josh so he could go in a bit. (The Emperor is home today with the pink eye.) Half a work day + almost a full day of the Emperor = whoooooo eee, I am a little bit tired. But happy tired.

Josh came home a bit late (having gone in late) and brought home the most wonderful thing from the farmer's market! Are you ready for it?

Thing I'm thankful for #9: Black Twig apples!!!

Black Twigs are here!

When I was growing up, I don't think I even really realized that there were *types* of apples. Well, Red Delicious and Yellow Delicious-- my grandfather was a Red Delicious man and extolled their virtues often while disparaging their yellow counterparts-- and Granny Smith, which I knew from pies. Imagine how my mind was blown when I reached adulthood and started shopping for apples on my own and realized there are about six million different types.

To this day, I mostly cannot keep apple names straight. I like almost all of them. There are some that I think get too mushy too fast, and some that I think just aren't that flavorful or good (aforementioned Delicious apples are in here), but overall, I'm easy to please. Usually I just buy whatever smells good at the apple lady's stand.

But Black Twigs are another story. They are tart... but not too tart. Not super sweet. They're almost cider-y in flavor. And they stay crisp even if you don't eat them for some time. No mushy mealy apple flesh here. I bought one on a whim a couple of years ago because I liked the name (and they smelled good). Changed my apple life. Not only do I know what they're called, I know when they're in season here (usually mid October through Novemberish) and I stalk them. I am SO excited that they are finally here this year!

I did manage to not eat my first one until after dinner. Which was hard, because Josh went to the market today and brought home a ton of them and they were calling my name. Here they are with our other market stuff for today:

Farmer's market 11/9/11 pt 1Farmer's market 11/9/11 pt 2

We had an incredibly lazy dinner... one of my favorite throw it together quickly things. Roasted root vegetables and tofu. Based loosely off of a recipe in Joanna Vaught's zine Potluck Mania #1. I've made this about three thousand times over the past couple of years... you basically chop up whatever root (or other) vegetables you have on hand, cube your tofu, toss it with some olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and whatever herbs you have on hand, and roast for an hour. Bam! It's dinner!

Roasted root veg & tofu

Today's version had carrots, parsnip, celery, potatoes, onion, tofu, rosemary, sage, thyme, and parsley in it. Very tasty, I thought. In fact, I am going to go back and eat a second helping of it when I am done typing this because that's just the way I roll.

The Emperor ate some tofu out of his (like 2 cubes) and one small piece each of potato and parsnip, by merit of him thinking they were more tofu. He was really in a crummy mood this evening (after having a great day) so I just didn't push it with him. Not worth the fight.

Here's a picture of him walking in the park this afternoon/evening, before the cranky monster struck:

Into the woods

5 comments:

GiGi said...

Ooooh I even love the name "Black Twig" apples. So cool that they taste cidery. Photo of you being mesmerized by said fruit is great!

Shannon said...

I've never heard of black twig! I love finding out about new apples! I'm kind of obsessed with the super sweet honeycrisp lately. Can't get them at the farmers market so far here in CA so I pay out the nose. And you know what? I'm okay with that!

Kenike said...

I've never heard of the black twigs either! Sound interesting.

coldandsleepy said...

It sounds really crazy, but I don't think I've ever had a honeycrisp.

So many people talked about them during Vegan MoFo that I almost bought some at Whole Foods the other day but they were a) really expensive (compared to farmer's market apples, which have spoiled me) and b) all had mushy spots. What gives, Whole Foods?!

Anonymous said...

I am so impressed with you!! You are still going strong! Keep going because I love reading your posts. And I don' think I have ever heard of a black twig though. Unless we are talking about charred sticks from a tree :)