Best Vegetable Recipes of 2011

The best vegetable recipes of 2011 from A Veggie Venture, just one per month, all in one handy spot for easy reference.

It's that time of year, the week when we food bloggers look back over a year's worth of recipes and pick our favorites!

I love-love-love this process! It really helps us hone our recipe collections, highlighting the best of the already very good, especially for sites like A Veggie Venture and my food column Kitchen Parade which by design, already post only really good recipes, the ones that work, the ones that are special or especially useful.

But I also love all the many sources of "best of the year" lists for movies, books, gadgets, etc. So this year, I'm collecting "best of the year" lists on Pinterest. (Food bloggers, be sure to let me know when you post your own best of 2011 list.) Follow me there and you'll see all the new entries over the next couple of weeks. And hey! Follow me on Pinterest and I'd love to follow you, too! Need an invitation? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. All I need to know is which e-mail address you'd like to use for Pinterest.

But okay, here you go, my favorite recipes for 2011. Do we share a favorite? Have I missed one you loved? Let me know in the comments!

Of Favorite Cookies & Cookbooks: A Christmas Special

For cookie bakers, No-Roll Christmas Sugar Cookies aren't to be missed, they're the best chewy and butter sugar cookies you might have ever tasted but without all the fuss and muss of rolling and decorating. I'm making them for my cookie swap next week, the - get this! - 19th annual.

For home cooks, savory and sweet both, the Food52 Cookbook isn't to be missed either, it's one of two favorite new cookbooks in 2011. It's a collection of "best of the best" recipes from home cooks -- I think it's fabulous and am giving away a copy!

Head on over to Kitchen Parade, No-Roll Christmas Sugar Cookies (or click the photo) for the cookie recipe and cookbook giveaway. It's easy to enter to win -- US and Canadian residents for this giveaway, please, through December 14th.

MORE GIVEAWAYS? I've started posting giveaways (mine and other food bloggers') on a special bulletin board on Pinterest. Follow me there for the latest! And it's Christmas -- right now there are a BUNCH of giveaways going on, including for wonderful LeCreuset Dutch ovens and other cooking gear.

WHERE IN HECK ARE THE VEGETABLE RECIPES? So isn't A Veggie Venture the food blog about vegetables? Yep, it is, except in December when our interest in vegetables falls to the wayside in favor of, well, Christmas cookies, holiday parties, picking out just the right gifts, decorating the tree, sitting by the fire with a hot mug of Scandinavian mulled wine (my recipe is fruity, not sweet and by the way, made for a much-lively Scandinavian dinner party weekend before last) or passing along along family traditions like making Swedish Potato Sausage. Here's my promise, made on a stack of sliced beets: Come January, A Veggie Venture will return to its usual programming, all vegetables, all the time.

Can't wait? Here are vegetable recipes I've featured during December in prior years:

Holiday Baking Tips + A Cookbook Giveaway ♥

Hello Vegetable Lovers!

Anyone gearing up for Christmas baking will definitely want to check out Holiday Baking Tips from a Certifiable Cookie-Baking Fiend. That "fiend" would be me: during December, your 'veggie evangelist' is turning into a part-time 'cookie evangelist'.

Plus I'm giving away a copy of Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies, the award-winning cookie cookbook by Alice Medrich.

Contest open through December 8, 2011 to readers from across the world - hello, Canadian readers! : - ) To enter, click the photo >>>>>>>

Happy Baking!

Sweet Potato Recipes – Alphabet of Vegetables (Yam Recipes)

SWEET POTATOES: THE BASICS
Sweet potatoes are a "root vegetable". Only two varieties are widely grown, the Beauregard and the garnet. The Beauregard can be stored for long periods and so is less expensive, usually these are labeled "sweet potatoes". The garnet is more perishable and more expensive but it's my favorite, the flesh is more orange, the flavor more sweet. In the U.S., chances are that what people call "yams" and even what supermarkets label "yams" are really sweet potatoes. A nearby international grocery carries real yams from Africa, a staple food there; one year I cooked them side by side, just for fun, see Food Experiments: Meet the Yam Man. But farmers markets and CSAs are bringing new sweet potatoes to the market. Saveur has a great photo gallery of different varieties, you might enjoy Sixteen Shades of Sweet.

How to cook sweet potatoes in the microwave
How to bake sweet potatoes in the oven
How to cook sweet potatoes in a slow cooker
How to make a Sweet Potato Casserole
How to make a Savory Sweet Potato Casserole (no marshmallows!)
How to stir-fry sweet potatoes
Analysis Frozen Sweet Potato Fries: Are They Worth the Price? the Calories?

SWEET POTATO NUTRITION ESTIMATE

Per 1/4 pound: 102 Calories; 0g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 40mg Sodium; 23g Carb; 4g Fiber; 7g Sugar; 2g Protein; Weight Watchers Old Points 1 & PointsPlus 1

PERSONAL FAVORITES
My Favorite Sweet Potato Recipes (with photos, all in one place)