Maple-Mustard Roasted Veggies + a post-Thanksgiving playlist

THE DISH
Maple roasted carrots, butternut squash and Brussels sprouts

THE INSPIRATION
I’ve said this before, but it certainly bears repeating: I am obsessed with the circle of friends I’ve found myself in in New York. And I was thrilled to learn that most of them — all of us transplants to the city, mostly from Michigan — would also be in town for Thanksgiving weekend, because obviously that meant it was yet another excuse to spend time together, making tons of food and eating (and drinking) ourselves silly. I’ll save my ramblings about how much I love them for a post I have coming up in a couple weeks, and instead I’ll share my contribution to our Thanksgiving feast: a simple mix of roasted veggies that, of course, I made way too much of. It has absolutely nothing to do with music, but I’m giving it to you anyway, along with a playlist of some songs I’m thankful for this year — not a best of 2011, as a few of them aren’t from the past 11 months, but songs that, for various reasons, have made my life just a little bit better this year.

THE PLAYLIST
Listen on Spotify here; tracklisting (and recipe) below!

1. Wild Flag, “Romance”
2. LCD Soundsystem, “All My Friends”
3. Tune-Yards, “Es-so”
4. Kathleen Edwards, “The Cheapest Key”
5. Fleet Foxes, “Helplessness Blues”
6. The Antlers, “I Don’t Want Love”
7. The Weather Station, “Came So Easy”
8. Youth Lagoon, “17”
9. Red House Painters, “Michigan”
10. Patty Griffin, “Heavenly Day”

THE RECIPE
I scaled this down, as the amount I actually made was about enough food to feed a small army.

Ingredients:

1 lb. carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally
1 lb. Brussels sprouts with the ends cut off and sliced in half
1 lb. butternut squash, cut into about 1-inch pieces (I used pre-cut squash from Trader Joe’s)
1 red onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons brown mustard

Directions:

Fill baking dish with vegetables. In a small bowl, whisk together syrup, olive oil and mustard. Pour over vegetables and toss to coat. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, mixing vegetables about every 20 minutes, until vegetables are soft and easily pierced with a fork (about an hour).