I have been remiss with my blogging recently and I am glad to be back! I moved and started a new job so not only have I been really busy but for a decent part of my absence my cooking utensils were wrapped in newspaper and boxed away. So now that I am almost fully moved into my new apartment, my kitchen is fully unpacked and I have found time to start cooking again I am happy to be back blogging about my food finds, formulas and faux pas.
Tuesday is my normal day off so I will probably be cooking and blogging that day from now on and this past Tuesday I decided to make a run to TJMaxx and found an amazing orange Le Creuset baking dish and was really excited to use it. So I went to the Farmers’ Market and bought some squash, zucchini, green peppers and tomatoes to make a veggie bake.
I’ve never roasted a conglomeration of veggies before so this was a definite learning experience. I basically layered the zucchini, yellow squash, green peppers and tomatoes with garlic powder, onions and olive oil between all layers. I also added some dried basil to the top of the entire dish because basil goes really well with tomatoes! I wanted to add some substance to a completely veggie dish so I put some lentils in. This was almost a mistake because I forgot to soak them overnight so they wouldn’t have to cook so long but it ended up working out in the end.
After about an hour in a 350 degree oven I took the dish out, added some water and garlic vinegar, covered it with aluminum foil, dropped the oven down to 250 degrees and baked it for another 2 hours so the lentils would cook up.
Since I had forgotten to soak the lentils the dish didn’t finish cooking until around 10pm so I put it in the refrigerator to eat another day. Then tonight I heated up some of the veggies, make a salmon fillet (just cooked it up in a saute pan with some olive oil) and added some aged cheddar cheese from Nasonville Dairy (back home in Central Wisconsin!) to the top for some real Wisconsin flavor!
The dish: The veggies cooked up very nicely and in the end, the lentils added a nice texture to the whole thing! Plus, lentils are an easy and healthy addition to most veggie dishes. I am also excited to use my Le Creuset for some more yummy oven-cooked meals!
Lesson learned: remember to soak any dried bean or grain before adding it to most dishes with a cook time of less than 3 hours!
Small Town Tourist 