Creamy Vegetable Medley Au Gratin

Garden grown broccoli, celery root,
Wilson St. Sweet Pepper, garden grown swiss chard

My vegetable crisper is filled with oddball veggies. One or two, not enough of each to make a single side dish. So what to do?

I dug out my husband's over forty year old copy of Joy of Cooking and while flipping through the vegetable recipes, saw the au gratin page.

Since he seemed eager to help, I gave my step-son the recipe and ingredients to make the crumbly au gratin while I prepped the veggies.

I cut all of the vegetables into small bite sized pieces and layered them in a glass oven safe bowl.


In a medium saucepan, I made a brown butter roux, whipping in cream and water to create a thin sauce. Then I added grated Parmesan Reggiano, paprika, garlic powder. The cream sauce was then poured all over the vegetables.

Devin blended together 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup cooking sherry, 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 cup grated parmesan, and 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs. He fluffed the mix together and then sprinkled it on top of the vegetables. 

It went into, covered, a pre-heated oven, set at 400 degrees. It was done after about thirty-five minutes and was excellent with the balsamic roasted hen and rye bread I made to go along with this.

Lemon Garlic Chicken, Wilted Ruby Swiss Chard and Arugula Wild Herb Salad

Most of the herbs in the garden have come in thick enough to start harvesting regularly. The arugula has come in all wild and woodsy and covered in flowers.

It's sharp astringent, nut flavor is an excellent addition to our herb salads. The chard too is coming in fast, so that we have to harvest handfuls every week.

My youngest can't get enough of it's bright flavor. Marinated organic chicken breast from Wegmans. Bake, with 5 tbls of water, covered, at 400 degrees for 15 min. Internal temp. should read 165 degrees.

English sage leaves. Some for our salad and some left out to dry. Will be making more sage ghee later this week.

Wooly oregano, drying on the counter. Will be used in meat balls and an Italian meatloaf I'll be making on Tuesday.

The salad was a blend of arugula, wild herbs, romaine, avocado, fruit salad and heirloom tomatoes.

This was served with a very tasty Santa Cruz Raspberry Lemonade and crusty Lexi co-op bread.