A Day Late...

...but not a dollar short. I actually made my recipe last night, but due to a few missteps after eating it, and then a night of fun, I wasn't able to update until today.

I made another dish from "Everyday Contorni" last night called Herb-Roasted Root Vegetables. It was basically what I make as a side dish to my meals every night. Super easy, simple, and probably not nearly as interesting as what followed it. But I'll go over it anyway.

I started by preheating the toaster oven to 400 degrees and covering the tray with foil as usual. I then cut up some carrots, Brussels sprouts, and a sweet potato. The recipe called for parsnips as well, but it turns out that both Wal-Mart and Hannaford didn't have any at all. It would've made my search a little easier if I had known what a parsnip looked like, but I didn't. And I still don't.

I sprayed down the veggies with some EVOO and added some dried oregano and basil. I also chopped some fresh rosemary and threw that it with some salt and pepper. I then placed them evenly on the tray and allowed them to roast for about 35 minutes (stirring them occasionally).

Yup, that's all there was to it. an easy side dish (or big veggie meal) for any night of the week. Did I mention that the potatoes were actually cooked through this time? Anyhow, before taking on this recipe, I was invited over to my best friend's house for dinner. I explained to her that I was scheduled (yes, I do schedule when I make these recipes) to cook for the blog tonight and told her I would be over after. She was having a rough couple of days and wanted to make some comfort food, so I thought why not bring her something comforting for dessert?

I had two overly ripe bananas in my kitchen and decided that my semi-famous banana bread would be the way to go. However, I would need to use the actual oven upstairs, and the recipe takes over an hour to bake. I had a "brilliant" idea as I usually do, but this time it got me a one-way ticket on the fail boat.

I made my banana bread batter and poured a bit of it into my little ramekins (see Individual Vegetarian Lasagna pictures). Once my veggies were done, I placed the ramekins in the toaster oven...without turning down the temperature. It was at 400, but my banana bread needed to be at 325. Having it higher would just cook it faster, right? I was so very, very wrong. It turns out they put oven temperatures on recipes for a reason.

When one of the mini breads appeared to be nice and brown on the top, I removed it from the oven and let it sit. Honestly, it looked completely done, but when I flipped it out onto a plate, it went EVERYWHERE. The very top of it was bread-like, but the rest was just raw batter. At this point, I was more than a hour late to my best friend's, and decided to nix the whole idea. I even threw out the extra batter (after indulging in some, of course. I have no will power around raw batter).

I went over to my friend's, talked for awhile, tried some okra for the first time in the gumbo she made, and played the Game of Things. I highly recommend it.

So that was my night! I won't be cooking for the next couple of days. Sunday is the Super Bowl meaning I'll be making some dips, and then hopefully Tuesday I'll be back at it. Come back soon!