I know some of you can relate.  Maybe you had braces on your teeth.  Maybe you were a little too nerdy.  Maybe you didn’t wear the right cool clothes.  And maybe you didn’t get invited to the cool kids’ parties.  I didn’t.

Since then I’ve lost the braces, found people who think nerdy can be employable, and still don’t wear cool clothes.  I was lulled into the feeling of being accepted as a grown-up.  Then I found out about the Virtual Vegan Potluck.  On November 1st lots of food bloggers post their best vegan recipes in a virtual potluck event celebrating everything wonderful that is vegan food.  I’m not actually vegan, but I really like cooking and make some great vegan dishes, and I wanted to join so I clicked “How To Join”–

The good news is: We’ve reached 100+ participants for the November 1 event!   The bad news is: we are no longer accepting new blogs.

This time there’s no TGIF on ABC to comfort me through a lonely weekend…

The Virtual Vegan Potluck will happen again, and maybe I need another 6 months to hone the perfect, original, scrumptious recipe to share.  In the meantime, I can choose how to respond to this rejection.  I could be my stubborn self and obstinately post a recipe for a delicious recipe with cheese, eggs, honey, butter and anything else vegetarian but not vegan.  Then everyone who is tired of vegetables and beans will be so tempted by my recipe they flock to my blog and gobble up my food.  Or I could be a gracious loser and post my own vegan recipe with a link to the real virtual vegan potluck to support the spirit of the event.  (If any of my siblings are reading this, they know which one is more like my true nature.)

Since I’m almost a grown-up now, I will take the mature, high road.

So here’s a vegan recipe that is simple, delicious, and a crowd pleaser.  I can’t take credit for this one, so I give due diligence and site my source, Summertomato.com.  I came across this recipe because I made a dish with delicata squash, and had some left over that I wasn’t keen on just shoving in the fridge to be forgotten and lost to the slime monster.  So I quickly searched for a simple recipe that could make use of an odd amount of squash.  If you like sweet potato fries, you will love these.  By the way, it’s kind of a miracle that I caught a photo of these things, because they disappeared as soon as they were not burning our mouths.

Roasted Delicata Squash

Ingredients

• Delicata squash
• Olive oil
• Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 425.

2. Clean the squash thoroughly with warm water.  This squash doesn’t require peeling, so you want it to be really clean since you will be eating the skin.

3. With a sharp knife, cut the squash in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and cut the squash into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.

4. Put the squash in a bowl and drizzle olive oil over the slices (doesn’t take much) and toss to coat.

5. Lay the slices out on a metal baking sheet without pieces touching if possible.  Sprinkle with salt.  Roast in the oven for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn each piece carefully.

6. Put the squash back in the oven and roast for about another 8-10 minutes.  After 20 minutes total, my squash was perfect, but the original author recommends a total of 25-30 minutes.  Use your judgement and perhaps a taste test to see who you think is right.