Rutabaga Home Fries

I found this recipe In Sheri Castle’s book “”The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers’ Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes” (University of North Carolina Press, $35). This is a recipe she wrote for sweet potatoes – but could be adapted for parsnips, carrots, pumpkin or winter squash as well as for rutabagas. Rosemary is winter hardy and your rutabagas will keep, wrapped in plastic, in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, so you can enjoy this dish later this month or perhaps even in January.

Vegetable Mafé

Finally I offer this recipe for an African-inspired stew. It was wonderful, even better the next day as most stews are. I still have a few hot peppers which are basically just drying out in the refrigerator, so I used them in place of the serranos this recipe calls for. The cabbage was the quarter head still in the vegetable crisper. No butternut squash still in your pantry? Just add more rutabagas or sweet potatoes. And maybe you’re one of those brilliant souls who took Suzanne’s suggestion and canned your own tomatoes this summer when they were in such abundance. The perfect accompaniment? MB cornbread or corn muffins.

Adapted from a recipe in “The Cornbread Gospels” by Crescent Dragonwagon (Workman, $14.95).