Please Pass the Parsnips

Monday Night's Supper:
Beef Steak with Carrots and Parsnips
Broccoli Slaw
Homemade Biscuits

Those things that look like white carrots are parsnips.  Have you ever had them?  I don't know if my mother prepared them when my sister and I still sat at her table -- apparently not often if she did or I would remember.  

The Food Network Magazine is featuring root vegetables in its current October issue.  The instructions lean heavily on oven-roasting, which in my opinion, improves just about anything. Although I did not recognize the names and the pictures of some of the edible roots featured on pages 54 and 55, I thought it would be good to give them a try, to expand our gastronomical horizons, so to speak.  

What I did not realize is that some of them would be hard to find in my local grocery store.  I guess I'll need to check out a farmer's market.  Salsify and celery root  will require a deeper search.  

Parsnips, on the other hand, are an easy find.  They are the white carrots on the top shelf of the produce area, and truth be told, I seldom see them in anybody's grocery cart.  Yesterday while Beloved was in outpatient physical therapy, I visited the grocery store next door and purchased 2 of these albino carrots.  

After washing them well and chopping off the two ends, I sliced them thick and tossed them with baby carrots, olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh Rosemary leaves.  They roasted for 25 minutes at 425 degrees on a shallow metal pan.  I stirred them around about half-way through.  The outcome was a sweet-spicey flavor with a texture much like the carrots roasted with them.  Beloved ate all of his, being a good sport about eating just about whatever I serve to him.  They made a pleasant side offering on a plate with steak and broccoli slaw.  

With that said, they won't be added to the list of veggies I like to serve at least once a week, but a couple of times a year -- probably.

Autumn colors on Snow Bunny Blvd.
Photo taken of my back yard by Girlfriend-Next-Door