she cooks…he cleans

The last week has been blessedly fall-like with cooler temperatures.  Time to start thinking about all the wonderful meals of the harvest season!  Roasting vegetables in the oven is one of my favorite cooking methods – because it’s easy, sure, but also because the high heat caramelizes whatever natural sugars are present and transforms about anything into tender morsels of sweet and savory goodness.

I wanted to try something a little different than my usual mixture of carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes, so I picked up some fennel.  I also had some figs that I intended to grill, but decided to throw them in the roasting pan to add more sweetness and a little color.  Now I wasn’t sure I would like this; raw fennel has a licorice taste and I’m not a fan.  However, once it was cooked, there was no licorice taste at all!  I wished I had doubled the recipe (and next time I will).

Ingredients:

• 2 fennel bulbs, sliced into eighths
• 1/2 sweet onion, sliced lengthwise into strips
• 6-7 fresh figs, halved
• olive oil
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.  Place fennel, onion, and figs into shallow roasting pan.  Toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat pan and vegetables.  Season with salt and pepper.

Roast covered with foil for 15 minutes; remove foil.  Roast for an additional 20-30 minutes, with occasional stirring to allow even roasting.  Fennel is done when it’s tender and lightly caramelized around the edges.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

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How about we get a bit funky in here? New Orleans has always been about the funk, and one reason is examined here, The Cosimo Matassa Story. Cosimo produced everyone- Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Little Richard and more. This set gets you four cds, and boy, does it sizzle!

And now, the genius of P-Funk, with One Nation Under a Groove from Funkadelic. No matter what combination you find him- Parliament, Funkadelic, P-Funk Allstars or solo, George Clinton is the baddest purveyor of the funk. Any record that proclaims “Think! It ain’t illegal yet!” gets my vote!