Last weekend was a family birthday weekend. I wanted the menu to focus on the flavors of fall. I had been reading through my Ina Garten cookbook, “Back to Basics”. There are quite a few recipes in it that I’ve been wanting to try, especially the side dishes.
The finished product!
I knew early on we were having a baked salmon for the main course. What I needed were the sides. I went with a pan-roasted root vegetable recipe in the “Back to Basics” book. It included parsnips, turnips, and celery root; all veggies we hadn’t tried before. Plus, it had brussel sprouts which are probably my most favorite winter veggie. I love them! In addition, I had roasted assorted baby potatoes. I just spray them with olive oil, add a sprinkling of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper and bake till tender.
The star of this meal though, surprisingly, was the Autumn Tossed Salad. It was awesome! So awesome that I’ve already made it again this week for dinner. I found it in one of my past Taste of Home Halloween magazines. The recipe called for romaine, but I used spinach. Plus, it had pears, apples, dried cranberries, shredded swiss, and cashews. I used my own vinaigrette recipe with poppy seeds.
This salad was super simple to make, especially with my Genius Salad Chopper. This thing rocks! Everything is easily sliced into bite size pieces. If you haven’t seen one of these before go check it out. You will love it. Kudos to my mother-in-law on this gift!
Using the Genius to chop the salad.
Here’s the lowdown on the full menu.
Appetizers: Shrimp Puffs (another great recipe), hot crab dip, and assorted munchies and candies.
Main Meal: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (Back to Basics), Autumn Tossed Salad, Roasted Root Vegetables, Roasted Baby Potatoes, and Roasted Salmon.
Dessert: Cake and ice cream
My Holiday Kitchen 