Rooting Around in Gardens

Back in the West Virginia years, my family owned a small video collection of made-for-TV specials and (once my dad splurged on the second machine) dubbed video rentals. I watched certain videos in this collection until I wore them out.

There was the "Wizard of Oz" phase, which was accompanied by the "fear of tornadoes" phase. Somewhat later, there was the "Desperately Seeking Susan" phase, which ushered in the "Mom, can I please buy this Madonna tape, please?" phase, and which coincided with the slightly embarrassing "Miss America 1989" phase. In this period, I obsessively watched the grainy recording I had made of Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson playing her violin so hard that her hair ornament fell off, and later donning the crown in a flood of mascara. [I just googled her name to make sure I had remembered it correctly, and--who knew?--she's working as a Fox news anchor.]

But between the stretches of time I spent marveling at the gowns of Glenda the Good Witch and Miss Minnesota, there was the "Secret Garden" phase circa 1987. This phase involved lots of hunting around in the forest and practicing my English accent by reciting lines from the movie.

Orphan Mary: "Could I have a bit of earth...to make a gah-den? I love gah-dens."

Volatile Guardian: "There was once someone...someone very, very dear to me, who loved gah-dens too. [Cue dramatic music; then, emotionally:] Take your bit of earth wheh-eveh you may find it, and do with it what you please...Leave me now!"

All of this is leading, oh-so-circuitously, to the announcement of a new phase, one that has its roots in 1987:

I have a bit of earth, and I love gah-dens. With some luck and some good manure, I'll soon have herbs, a lettuce bed, tomatoes, and a row of root vegetables where now I have scraggly bushes and brownish clumps of grass. I've sketched out a plan. I've ordered the seeds. I've interviewed my mother (who has at least three green thumbs), and taken copious notes. Now, I foresee in 2007 a raking, weeding, and watering phase, to be followed by a rooting, pinching, and picking phase.

Unless I manage to kill everything, I'll eventually be making a certain root mash with parsnips and carrots dug up from my own little backyard row instead of hermetically sealed Trader Joe's bags. And I'll be making this mash a lot, as this is, to date, my favorite parsnip recipe. With hardly any effort, especially if you have a good vegetable peeler, it can be yours too.

You can substitute any combination of rutabagas, sweet potatoes, celery root, or turnips for the parsnips, carrots, and baking potatoes to create your own signature root mash. It's a good idea to throw in a few potatoes of some sort, though, to keep the mash from becoming gloopy. Parsnips and carrots make a sweetish mash, but the garlic, which takes on an almost roasted flavor, mellows it out. Blended with a bit of herb-infused cream, humble root vegetables suddenly become, well...sexy. And because mashed parsnips are naturally silky, they don't require a lot of fat. Sexy and healthy: a bit of Madonna and Glenda the Good Witch. What you get is a rich-tasting, comfy, vitamin-packed dish good enough to edge mashed potatoes out of their Sunday-side-dish monopoly.

Any sort of roasted or grilled meats, including this chicken, would do well by this vegetable dish. I can attest to its goodness when spooned alongside barbecued short ribs, and so can my table-mate, who will never outgrow his rib phase.


Herb Infused Root Mash
Serves 4-6. Adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe.



1/2 pound carrots
1/2 pound parsnips
2 large baking potatoes (Russet, Idaho, Yukon Gold)
4 cloves garlic
coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup cream or half and half
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
two bunches fresh thyme
2 fresh sage leaves
dash of nutmeg

1. Peel vegetables and chop into 1- to 2- inch pieces. Place them (including garlic) in a pot, cover with cool water. Add 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

2. While vegetables are boiling, place butter, cream (or half and half), and herbs in a small pot and warm over low heat. Before mixture begins to boil, turn off heat and cover pot. Allow the herbs to infuse the cream mixture while you finish preparing the vegetables.

3. Drain vegetables, and return them to the same pot. Mash with a large fork or potato masher until there are no longer any big clumps.

4. Remove the herbs from the cream mixture, and pour it over the mash. Add a dash of nutmeg. Stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.