In Practice - Larger Wedges

  What a steep learning curve there is when you've never had any culinary instruction!  Fortunately, I am determined to stick through and get better at this for the health of my family.  In the past I would have given up by now and made a quesadilla. 

  Not that I don't still make quesadillas - we actually had them for dinner tonight.  But now instead of just tortilla and cheese, they usually contain some source of protein and a vegetable, tonight ground beef and corn.  But I did roast some larger vegetables for J today.  My 'note to self' about larger wedges was right on for the yellow squash and zucchini!  I am pretty shocked at the amount they shrank, actually.  I cut pieces a little larger than my fingers and now I know not to cut them any smaller than that!  I also cut a sweet potato into larger chunks, but those didn't shrink as much.  They were actually harder for her to grab, and slipped out of her hand more easily.  I could go smaller on those, but not much.

I cut most of the skins off of the zucchini and squash, but left them on the sweet potato.  This worked pretty well; the little bit of skin held the mushy zucchini and squash together.  The skins of the sweet potato are really easy to peel off when cooked.  After cutting, I tossed all the wedges in some vegetable oil and baked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, flipping them every 10 minutes to avoid any one side getting too browned.  The squash and zucchini could have used less time.  They were VERY squishy.  But J liked them!



To try and help with the avocado, I mashed some and put it on toast.  This backfired, making the whole thing harder to grab, slipping out of her hand very easily.  She was also very tired tonight, so this may have contributed to her difficulties. She still enjoyed sitting at the dinner table with us and participating!