Parsnips

Sometimes I tend to get stuck on certain foods. I go to the grocery and tell myself I'll get something different but there I am, picking up the same thing. This last month it's been parsnips and edamame.

'What are these?' Bob said the first couple of times we had something with parsnips in them. And then the next couple of times, 'You're really into parsnips, aren't you?' Luckily, he doesn't mind.

Parsnips are kind of like carrots only white and more woody. I'm sure you could eat them raw, but I like them braised or roasted. Like carrots, when you roast them they get sweeter. I toss them with a little olive oil and salt and stick them in the bottom of roaster and let them cook in the oven until they are, well, cooked. I roasted a chicken and put them in the roaster under it with some onions and turnips and potatoes. I thought maybe I would get all excited about root vegetables. The turnips were okay, but I'm not all excited about root vegetables. I just like parsnips. They make me feel like I'm doing something interesting with dinner. Although actually they are really old fashioned. Not some new johnny come lately vegetable like tomatoes or really faddy like celery.


(Celery has been around since ancient Greece but it was sort of re-discovered in Victorian times when they created special celery holders to show it off at table.)

The other neat thing about parsnips is that a few people have been eating them steadily so I can find them in the grocery. Not like galangal, another obsession of mine, which I can only find online. And edamame? Some other time maybe I'll talk about edamame.