Kitchen Neglect

This morning's posting is a monster edition of what I've made this month. I have not been updating since I've been so crazy busy with other projects. This also means I have been cooking less than usual and what's worse, I have not been all that creative. I've mostly been working from recipes, which is fine, but I like to come up with ideas of my own too. Friday night Matt and I stayed in and I made dinner. I made roasted root vegetable stacks with a tahini, honey and white balsamic dressing. I paired the veggies with broiled large white button mushrooms stuffed with a sauté of spicy veg Italian sausage and Braeburn apples. I topped my dish with fresh thyme leaves. The dish turned out really well, like the taste of fall in your mouth. Recipe follows...



Tahini Honey Balsamic Sauce:
3 Tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons white balsamic
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sace
Whisk these ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Slice a large turnip, a large beet, and slice and peel a parsnip. The slices should be about 1/4" thick. Grease a baking sheet or pan with olive oil, put the turnips in the pan and brush them with more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Cook them in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until soft. Turn them over half way through the cooking for even cooking. Repeat this with the beet and parsnips. While the veggies cook shave some carrots for garnish using a vegetable y-peeler with micro blades.

To assemble:
Place some of the tahini sauce on the plate, then place a large slice of turnip on top, top the turnip with a beet slice and top the beet with a parsnip slice. Drizzle more sauce on top and garnish the the shaved carrots. Top that with some fresh thyme leaves.

The mushrooms:
Clean about 6 large white button mushrooms and pull out the stems so there's a hollow cavity. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, place the mushrooms on the sheet and then brush mushrooms with olive oil on both top and bottoms. Cook the mushrooms under a broiler set on high until they are softened and cooked through, flip the mushrooms half way through cooking to get them cooked evenly.

Meanwhile, chop up a large spicy vegetarian Italian Sausage link into a fine dice(or not vegetarian if you prefer but I do not know the cook time or instructions for that so you will have to wing it there). Also chop half of a crisp apple such as a Macintosh or Braeburn. Combine the apple and sausage in a sauté pan with some vegetable oil and cook over medium high heat until the apple is tender crisp.

Stuff the sausage mixture into the cooked mushrooms and top with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (we used soy cheese but regular cheese is also fine).