Roasted Root Vegetables

I have been trying a new diet for the past few weeks. A friend of mine recently got diagnosed with a variety of food allergies and since she knows I love, love, love to cook, she asked me to help her find recipes that were palatable, allergen free, and easy to prepare. I assured her I would go on the same diet, experiment, and get back to her. And I'm slightly pissed. Because frankly? Even though I don't have as severe symptoms as she does, I feel so incredibly better after cutting certain things out of my diet, I could cry. Cheese, people. Cheese. Have I mentioned how much I adore cheese? Fucking cheese. I LOVE CHEESE. And I'm SO not interested in being allergic to cheese. However, I am willing to try just a little bit harder to cut some of the things that make me feel so disgusting - out of my diet. Which includes cheese (Holy cow. I LOVE CHEESE! How can cheese make me feel bad?! It is my destiny! Cheese!) gluten, nightshade vegetables (Hello? Tomatoes? That SUCKS!) But I am interested in expanding my diet so that the lack of cheese doesn't make me want to slit my wrists.

And on that note, I shop mostly at the food coop. If I can avoid the chain grocery store, I do. And in that manner, I found this. A bag of root vegetables. Destined for roasting or soup. So I roasted them. I've never, ever! Had sunchokes, celeriac, turnips or parsnips. I'm 37. I blame my mother. And so far, my favorite (which means it will be in my garden this summer) are the turnips. They are like a mild radish. And almost creamy in taste. I can't even describe them. But they were oh-so-yummy!
I cut about half the bag into bite sized pieces and squished them in a ziplock bag with olive oil, pepper, sea salt, rosemary, oregano and garlic salt. Oh! And I added a chopped onion as well. What are roasted vegetables without onion? Nothing, I tell you. Nothing.
I baked them for 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven, stirring them on occasion.
And then I served them with brown rice. Dax was pretty sure there was something there for him. But no luck. He doesn't like vegetables. Sorry, buddy.
And if you haven't cooked brown rice by this tutorial, (Click on it. I'm serious.) you haven't eaten decent brown rice. I was totally blow away by how light and fluffy it was. I am not joking. It was superb!

Baked Donuts

I not only made cheese this weekend, I made homemade donuts. I don't know if The Crazy has anything to do with the cooking, but it made me happy. I used a recipe from The Good Cook. And I made some substitutions, because I'm lazy and don't like to go to the store if I don't have to. You can make buttermilk by combining a cup of milk with a Tablespoon of vinegar and letting it sit for a few minutes. And if you only have lime juice, I'd say it's a good substitute for the lemon. Oh, and I had no lemon peel, so I just left that out. And as you can see, I used an egg instead of 1/4 c. of egg substitute. See? Lazy. Either that or "creative and make do."

Mise en place, because The Good Cook told me to. That silver thing looks like something I possibly stole from a restaurant. And the clear glass thing? It's a votive candle holder.

The dry ingredients! And if you don't read the recipe clear through before you start, you are liable to put the dry yeast into the bowl without prepping it. And then you read the directions and understand that you're supposed to prep it with 1/4 c. of warm water. So I dug it out and did it. Sigh.
Then, you're supposed to knead the dough for a good 8-10 minutes. It needed a BUNCH of flour to make that happen. I don't have a bread machine, and I'm not sure a bread machine would have made it better, but it was super sticky. Add as much as you need to make it kneadable.

Then you separate it into 10 balls and make 10 donuts and put them on a greased baking sheet.
Cover them and raise them for 45 minutes. And I will RAAAIIISSE YOU UP! AND I WILL RAAAA IIIISSEE YOU UP! AND I WILL RAAAIIISE YOU UP, ON THE LAAAASSST DAY! Bonus points if you know where that comes from.
They are squishy and plush.
Bake them for 8 minutes and then put on a lemon (lime) glaze. They are not like donuts at all. They are ALL like bagels and bread. And they were super yummy. You either like them or you don't. Tiny hated them. But Other Boy wanted to gobble them ALL up. Yum.
There you go. Donuts. Yeah for me!