Winter Harvest Comfort Food

Tonight, we feasted on the first to ripen of our broccoli and cauliflower. Have I mentioned how much I love the winter garden?

Broccoli-Cauliflower Cheesy Casserole

First, preheat the oven to 400F.

Then,
-cut 1 head broccoli, soak it briefly in vinegar water to get the slugs to escape, then rinse, and chopp into florets, which you rinse again
-1 head cauliflower, treated exactly like the broccoli
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1.5 rounds of bread left over from middle eastern dinner, chopped into crouton size chunks

Layer all of the above ingredients in a 9X13 inch baking dish. Bake at 400F, while you do the next steps:

-melt 2 T butter in a saucepan over medium heat
-add 1/2 C milk, bring to a simmer
-add 1 C cheddar cheese chunks, stir and melt
-add 2-3 T flour, stir briskly, remove from heat, add additional milk and stir briskly if necessary until a nice creamy consistency

Open the oven, pull out the casserole dish, which smells of heavenly roasted garlic and the nutty smell of cooked cauliflower. Pour the cheese sauce over the casserole dish and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool. Serve immediately on 2 plates, topped with black pepper.

Mmmmmm... it's childlike in its flavorful simplicity and deliciousness. Fresh roasted vegetables. Croutons. Cheese sauce. What's not to like?