Roasted Broccoli and Carrots

This one is short and sweet.  It's one of my new favorite side dishes.  The other day my mom was making the standard steamed broccoli when I suggested we roast it.  "Roasted broccoli!??" was the reaction I got.  As incredulous as she was at first, she's now made it 3 times for dinner.  I think I won that debate.

You'll need:

- 1 head of broccoli
- about 10 baby carrots
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- a teaspoon of seasoned salt
- a dash of pepper
- zest from one lemon, and about a tablespoon of lemon juice
- grated parmesan cheese (too taste)

Ok! Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cut up your carrots into fourths lengthwise, and break apart your broccoli until you have decent sized florets.  Should look like this.

Place onto a cookie sheet and drizzle with your olive oil, and salt and pepper.  I've also added some parsley here because I am a rebel, feel free to experiment!  Toss everything together and spread everything out so it's in one layer.  Throw it in the oven for approximately 25 minutes.

While the veggies are roasting, I get prepared with the cheese, and zest the lemon ahead of time.  Make sure not to grate your thumb while zesting like I did.  Courtzilla STRIKES AGAIN.

After 25 minutes or until the broccoli has started to brown up at the edges, remove and grate the fresh parmesan over the warm broccoli and carrots.  Add the zest and lemon juice at this time as well, and give it a toss.  Serve with your favorite comfort food!

Meatloaf meatball recipe is coming up next.... EVERYONE IS EXCITED.

Enjoy!

Courtzilla

Spring Cranberry Salad

Want to impress your friends?  Want to say, "Yo, check out this complicated and fancy lookin' salad?"  I mean, who doesn't want to say that, really.  This is your salad.  It's deceivingly simple, but your friends will think you're a bona fide Martha Stewart.

You'll need:

- 1 head of romaine, or a spring greens mix
- a handful of dried cranberries
- some chopped up celery, about 1 or 2 stalks
- 2 shallots
- some crumbled goat cheese
- poppy seed dressing, the creamier, the better

First, wash and tear up your romaine into bite sized pieces.  Or dump a bag of spring mix in a bowl.  Do you enjoy how I give you options?

Now we want to caramelize the shallots to make them really sweet.  Saute them up into smallish pieces, and put them in a saute pan over medium heat.  They don't need any oil or anything, their natural sugars will start to sweat out and make everything realll tasty like.

While those are browning up nicely, we can start assembling the salad.  You'll want to add the celery, and the goat cheese for some tang.

Couple of handfuls of cranberries right on top...

And now add the caramelized shallots...

If you want at this point you can add some DELICIOUS candied walnuts or pecans, but who has time to candy their own pecans?  Plus, those suckers are EXPENSIVE.

Pour on some scrumptious poppy seed dressing...

And bada boom bada bing you're in business.  Not too shabby for about 10 minutes work, eh?

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

French Onion Soup

Have you ever smelled heaven? How about love?

No? Well get ready to experience it, all you have to do is make a big pot of French Onion Soup. I got this recipe from my girl, Pioneer Woman. Holy cow. HOLY. COW. Make some. Your lives will be changed. Your nose will rejoice. Your roommate Drew will walk in and ask who made Hamburger Helper.

...er...

Ok, that really happened, but then he tried the soup. AND THEN HE FELL IN LOVE. He fell in love with the soup, not me. Don't get too excited.

Let's get 'er started.


You will need:
- 3/4 stick of butter
- 6 small onions, or 4 bigguns
- 1 cup of dry white wine
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 4 cups of beef broth
- pack of onion soup mix (optional)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce (interesting fact, I still can not say that word)
- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large oven-safe pot. You may recognize my glorious pot from it's roast beef days. Ahhh those were the days.

While the pan/butter/oven is heating up, slice your onions very thinly. Basically you'll want to cut the onions from root to tip, then cut off the tips from the onion halves. Place them flat side down, and slice thinly in the same direction you used to cut off the tip of the onion. Discard the root at the end. The onion's natural shape will break it apart further when it starts cooking.


Phew I'm out of breath. Just learn how to cut onions, okay? PLEASE?

Alrighty, now throw the onions in your pot with the butter, and cook them with the lid on for about 20 minutes.


Make sure you stir every so often so they don't get stuck to the bottom. They'll look soft, like this when they're done:


It means they're full of buttery love.

Now here's a trick ol' Pioneer Woman taught me. Put your pot in the oven, with the lid slightly cracked open. Leave it in there for about an hour, stiring once or twice to move around the onions. This makes them brown a lot nicer. Seriously, this is what it looks like after a half hour:


And now an hour.


UHHH YUM.

Don't worry about the black bits either, that just translates to flavor in the end product.

Ok, stir around the onions, scraping the brown and black bits off the side. Pour in your cup of wine and stir for 5 minutes. This is called deglazing the pan.

Once your flavor has been sucked up from the pan, add the beef broth, chicken broth, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce.


Let that simmer at a medium to medium low heat for about 40 minutes.

End product will look like this.


Wam, bam, thank you 'mam.

Load up a bowl with some of this fragrant, delicious, hearty stuff.


Drunk a parmesan roll into it.


And all is right with the world. Seriously, try this. SO GOOD.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla