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!!!



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:



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!



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: