Good news, everyone! (I mean that in the Professor Farnsworth sense, for any Futurama fans.) The imaginatively-titled The Cook Book by the Vanderburgh Southwestern Medical Auxiliary (1967) has me covered for winter vegetable recipes.
Say I want summery strawberry shortcake but know the wan, whitish fruits that show up to my supermarket in the middle of February will not really fit the bill. Betty Newnum (who is apparently not bothered by dessert names on main dishes) has a suggestion:
Fried onions and sour cream over packaged biscuits will stop me from thinking about summer in no time (mainly because I'll be running for my toothbrush).
Maybe it's best not to think of a summery dish and to just embrace the season for what it is. Brussels sprouts are wintery, so they might be a good starting point. They usually need a little work to dress them up and make them feel like they're worth eating and not just the sad result of neutering a cabbage. (Try to get rid of that mental picture!) Lois Bender has a sure way to dress them up:
Add a cup of diced celery per pound of Brussels sprouts because celery really adds a spark to any dish it graces with its presence. I like that this also presumes everyone cooks Brussels sprouts the same way: "Cook together as you would ordinarily prepare Brussels sprouts." Since the next step is draining, I guess we all boil them. (Roasting vegetables was not a thing then.... And neither was flavor. Are the two connected?)
Sorry, but I am not convinced boiled celery will really make boiled Brussels sprouts much better (or even worthy of the title "Medley." Shouldn't we at least have three veggies? And shouldn't at least one of them be more interesting?).
Forget it. Maybe it would be better just to pick out a nice summer vegetable and find a new way to fix it with widely-available foods so the fact that it is off-season won't be so noticeable. Alberta Dodd has a suggestion:
These cucumbers are not cool! That's because they're baked in two full cups of catsup with some onions.
Now I can't tell whether I'm shivering from the cold or shuddering from the recipes, so that's it for today's winter veggie roundup.
I'd be more likely to be shuddering at the thought of any of these recipes, Poppy. I've been doing a lot of roasting these days. Winter veggies take kindly to roasting especially the sprouts!
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I'm not familar with Professor Farnsworth from Futurama, however, I once had a pet rooster and I named him Farnsworth. I think the name came from a game back in the 80s, lol...
Thanks for sharing, Poppy...Stay warm:)
Ha! I like the thought of a rooster named Farnsworth. Professor Farnsworth is known for yelling "Good news, everyone!" and then giving everyone news that any sane person would consider to be bad news. He's not being sarcastic. He just genuinely seems not to have any idea of what other people might think about the news...
DeleteHa! I like the thought of a rooster named Farnsworth. Professor Farnsworth is known for yelling "Good news, everyone!" and then giving everyone news that any sane person would consider to be bad news. He's not being sarcastic. He just genuinely seems not to have any idea of what other people might think about the news...
DeleteI guess you could say my Farnsworth was a news cyer too. He loved to crow in the morning, afternoon and sometimes in the evenings. The neighbors didn't find it amusing, lol...He aslo use to peck on the door in search of sunflower seeds that he use to eat out of my hands. One night the raccoons put an end to his newscast.
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