Twelve Days of Cooking: Days 7-10

               Hey! I'm so sorry that I haven't posted since Tuesday - on Wednesday I went to a concert, on Thursday I had a ton of homework, and on Friday I got sick. I'm still sick, but I'm feeling good enough to be productive and make a blog post.


               A couple days ago, I tested out my new recipe for root vegetables. My idea was to make a "stack" of sorts. The first layer would be mashed butternut squash, then roasted root vegetable of your choice, then mashed sweet potatoes or potatoes, and then roasted golden beets. However, my experiment kind of failed. I definitely won't be saving this recipe.

              The first thing that made this recipe a failure was the butternut squash. I roasted the beets and other vegetable at the same time as the squash, which meant that the squash had to go on the bottom rack of the oven. Because of this, it didn't get soft enough. I concluded that next time I'd have to make a butternut squash puree, but I didn't have time to roast it more and puree it so I just put the mostly-roasted squash in the fridge. Secondly, the root vegetable of my choice was... interesting. I found this root called a scarlet root at Whole Foods (picture below). It looked pretty and was grown in Washington so I bought it. When I tasted it raw, it tasted exactly like a radish, which worried me. After it was roasted it tasted pretty good, but still had a little bit of that radish-y bite to it. Once I put the veggie stack together, it was just weird. If you see a scarlet root anywhere, don't roast it! It's like a radish and I think it's meant for snacking on raw instead of being paired with beets and squash.



                What I learned from this experience are three valuable lessons. One: don't buy something at the store unless you know what it is. If something intrigues you, ask an employee to tell you about it before you purchase it! Two: If you have a bunch of homework but want to cook something, homework should come first. I had two quizzes to study for and an essay to finish writing when I made this, and I took up a lot of time making this that I could've used to prepare for my quizzes. Three: Always test a recipe before making it for a party, dinner with friends, etc. I was going to make this dish for Christmas Eve dinner for my extended family. If I hadn't tested it before, I would've made something weird that no one would've liked. I'm so glad I tested it.


                Christmas Eve is so soon and I'm so excited! I have to come up with another recipe very soon to make. My mom is making a spiral ham and a vegetarian entree for me and my cousin. I've never liked ham and my cousin won't eat red meat, so we're serving a vegetarian entree, but everyone else will probably want to eat it with their ham, too. I'm pretty sure it's a polenta dish but my mom may have changed her mind.

                Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow this blog, follow me on Twitter and email me! All my information is in the sidebar. I'm hopefully going to post a new video either tomorrow or on Christmas Eve, so check YouTube! Stay healthy and happy holidays!