me+vegetables=GASP

Mom found this recipe in a magazine and for unknown reasons decided to pursue it--I say that her reasons are unknown because personally I cannot fathom why you would actively pursue the creation of a dish called "Roasted Root Vegetable Salad with Fancy Schmancy Almonds"but something about that sounded appealing I guess. BUT it turned out that in this case was on ME and my prejudices and cynical nature because in fact it turned out to be pretty good! Anyway I decided to collect extensive photographic proof of this historic event because let's face it probably I will never eat this many vegetables again in my life!

This is the huge pile of veg before we started peeling and chopping the crap out of it. Notice the wide array of autumnal delights, including things as alarming as celery root and parsnips. Also pictured: a butter nut squash, an acorn squash, some shallots, a sweet potato, a turnip, a whole mess of red and golden beets, and also a pumpkin that did not actually go into the recipe but was purely for show.

Here is a picture of the veg after being peeled and chopped the crap out of:

And here it is after being olive oil'd and salted and roasted for half an hour and then carefully plated to hide all the forky stab marks (because if I have learned anything from Top Chef:Just Desserts yet it is that plating is EVERYTHING--fun fact, what I have actually learned from that show so far is hey try not to have hysterical outbursts and then act like a total jacktard because people watching at home WILL judge you for it, GOSH)

ANYWAY here is that final picture I was talking about:

So, after careful veg sampling I have determined that I actually am a pretty decently big fan of butternut squash and sweet potato, a somewhat lesser fan of beets (both golden and red) and acorn squash, and an all around reviler of celery root.

Addendum: Mom is sad that I didn't get a picture of our dish in it's final FINAL state when it had been drizzled with browned sage butter and pine nuts, because she thinks it looked more impressive that way. But I sort of think pine nuts are little jerks, so I am just as glad to stick it to em. Cuz seriously when have they ever done me any favors? Jerks.