Sunday Dinner

I've always had a love for unusual vegetables...My Mom and both Grandmas cooked all different kinds of vegetables and I was introduced to them early on. The meat was never the most important part of the meal. Vegetables and other side dishes were the stars. Grandma could make a meal out of scraps from the refrigerator. She always said that she could live on what some people throw away. I think this came from raising a family of six children, basically alone. She had to "make do." Meat had to be stretched to feed all those hungry mouths and vegetables were grown in the garden and were cheap at the stores. I'll bet she bought things that were marked down, because of their age too. So my Mom followed her Mother and prepared every vegetable there was. Dad's favorite were the little peas in cans, tomatoes and asparagus in season. He had those and Mom and I had parsnips, rutabaga, squashes, turnips, carrots, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower... everything you could imagine. I loved meals that included a cruciferous vegetable. Of all the unusual vegetables... parsnips had to be my favorite. My daughter is a vegetarian and she loves them too. I was talking to her on the phone yesterday and told her that I was fixing them for dinner. She said that she hadn't had them since I fixed them for her before. That was quite a while ago. I don't know why people don't fix them...they are easy to prepare.I put them in soups, stews, roasted, in mashed potatoes. I sneak them in so many places. This time of year I think that parsnips move in the grocery store. Early in the summer they can be rubbery and are so old they just bend. I never buy them when they are like that. Small stores don't sell many, so I go to the big stores to buy them. I've had a taste for them lately, so I waited till I was roasting a loin of pork...I thought that they would taste good. They have a waxy coating on them...this is to preserve them while in storage. It doesn't harm them in the least. Just take a veg peeler and peel them like a carrot. Then cut them into strips. I wash them and put them on a plate..wet... and pour seasoned flour over them. I let them sit while a mixture of butter and oil (more butter than oil ) are heating in a cast iron skillet. I take them out of the flour and shake them to get rid of the excess flour. Nestle them into the bubbling butter and fry until golden brown. Some will get a little more brown...this is good. I season them again in the pan.

Don't they look good? Almost like a fried potato...only sweet and salty and chewy. There is a lot of fiber in parsnips. They get sweeter as they age.

Well, I had to have meat for Joe. Meat is the highlight of his meal. No parsnips for him...just meat and common vegetables. I had him fillet a pork loin and I laid it out on the board and wiped the moisture off. I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and turned it down to 350 when I put the roast in. I seasoned it with garlic salt, and coarse pepper. I made a simple sage dressing with cranberries and put it all over the flattened roast. Rolled it up and tied it. Put it in my favorite stone pan and roasted it for about 1 1/4 hrs. It smelled so good. With parsnips frying in the pan and a stuffed pork loin in the oven...we were both in hog heaven :) I took it out of the oven when the temp registered at 155 degrees, tented it with foil while I made a sauce to pour over it. That way it came up to 160...ready to eat. We had mashed Yukon gold potatoes, sliced tomatoes, frozen green peas, parsnips, and the roast. It sliced into perfect slices about 3/4 in thick. I poured the pan sauce over the slices and the potatoes. (Is your mouth watering yet?) It was a great fall Sunday dinner. I love to cook, but would love it more if the maid would come in and clean the kitchen afterward :)

Balisha