Surprise!

I told you I had quite a few tricks up my sleeve for the weekend. Well, the vegetarian potluck I was attending was a actually a surprise 60th birthday party for Isaac’s mom. She is vegetarian and it was a potluck so I wasn’t being all that sneaky. I had been planning and coordinating the party with the help of many others for over a month. She ended up being so surprised, everyone brought lovely dishes to share and we all had a fabulous time celebrating her 60 years of life.

Thanks to everyone who left comments on my last post with ideas of what I could make for the potluck. I will keep those all in mind as I have a few veggie potlucks coming up in the near future. I decided to go with something autumnal and absolutely delicious- roasted root veggies. I looked up recipes online for ideas but ended up using my own.

Before the roast

After the roast

Roasted Root Vegetables (semi adapted from this recipe)

3-4 tbsp. canola oil, olive oil, or coconut oil

2 tbsp. fresh oregano (chopped)

4 medium red skinned sweet potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1 1/4- to 1 1/2- inch pieces

1 pound carrots, peeled, cut into 3/4 inch thick rounds (about 4 cups)

1 pound parsnips, peeled, cut into 3/4 inch thick rounds (about 4 cups)

2 medium red onions (about 1 pound), peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch thick wedges

sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray (rimmed sheets would be best, but I don’t have rimmed sheets). Stir the oil and oregano in a large bowl. add yams, carrots, parsnips, and onions and toss to coat. Sprinkle vegetables generously with sea salt and pepper and divide between prepared baking sheets. Roast veggies until tender and brown in spots, turning occasionally, for about 50 minutes. This dish can be made up to 4 hours ahead. Let it stand at room temperature. If desired, rewarm in 350ºF oven for about 15 minutes, or serve at room temperature.

I served the dish at room temperature so I didn’t have to bother the hosts of the party to warm the dish up in their oven and it was fantastic. I LOVE roasted veggies, particularly those of the root variety!

Everyone ended up bringing such delicious food. I didn’t get a photo of the whole line up but I remember that there was spinach salad with cranberries and mandarin oranges, fruit salad, eggplant parm, mushroom polenta, Mexican bean dip, lentil soup, pasta with mozzarella and tomatoes, crackers and hummus, and a barley and corn dish. YUM!

Desserts were abundant as well. I deemed Isaac in charge of the cake and he ordered one from a local pastry shop, West Hampton Bakery aka Donut Squad headquarters. This bakery is known for it’s donuts and they sell out so quickly you have to reserve the amount you want the day before. Isaac is in love with their donuts so he decided to order the cake from there.

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To be honest, I’m not a huge donut fan (gasp!?!) so I have yet to try their apparently amazing donuts but I did have a small piece of the cake and it was rich, moist and quite delicious. Of course there was a ton of left over cake and we now have 1/2 of the cake sitting on our counter… Isaac is in 7th heaven. I’m more like, ugh…who are giving all this cake to and when?

Because I knew Isaac’s mom probably wouldn’t be interested in eating the rich cake (she’s not a huge fan) I got her one of her favorite cookies (Vegan Oatmeal Raisin) from our local organic market.

She was very excited that I thought to get her the cookie and enjoyed a few bites after blowing out her candle.

In other exciting news, Isaac and I bought a new couch this weekend from World Market.

It was on sale and we also had a friend and fam coupon for an extra 25% off! The cool part is that the couch folds down into a sleeper sofa and it’s much comfier than the traditional pull out sofas.

We also got a rug for our bedroom. It really ties the room together. (Big Leboski anyone?)

What’s awesome is that we have been on the hunt for new rugs and a new sofa for a while now. The stars aligned this weekend and we got excellent deals on both. This rug was only $30 bucks at a nearby yard sale. I hadn’t been yardsaling on a Saturday morning in quite some time but after Isaac’s friend told us about www.yardsaletreasuremap.com we couldn’t resist. You simply type in your zip code and the distance you are willing to travel and it shows you on a map what yard sales are close to you and gives a description of what’s being sold. There were 17 within 5 miles from us on Saturday morning. We only ended up going to 2 but we got the rug and Isaac got some good deals on teaching supplies including whole bag of Sculpey for only .50 cents. I must admit that f you’re into hitting up yard sales the site is awesome. Woo-hoo for yard sale finds.

Back to the grind- Happy Monday ladies and gents!

- Brittany

Tagged as: new couch, Oatmeal, roasted root vegetables, rug, Surprise birthday party