My brother had never seen blue potatoes before. Funny. I could have sworn.. well, i guess he'd know.

So we got some and made roasted root vegetables. They came out colorfully.

We used:              If you've got them, you could also use:
   carrots         |     sweet potato
   potatoes        |     parsnip
   blue potatoes   |     celeriac
   one big beet    |     you get the idea... roots.
We also made an onion-type topping, with one thinly sliced large yellow onion and one thinly sliced large red onion.

In a large skillet, add the onions to a small amount of oil over low heat. Stir them occasionally.

Cut the roots into similar-sized chunks as best you can and spread them in a baking tray (with sides). Drizzle them with oil and add minced garlic, salt, marjoram, and a little bit of cider vinegar. Mix them up well and lay flat (should be one layer). Cover tightly with aluminum foil and put in a 375o oven. (Yeah, that's oF. Sylvar says that's close to 190oC... exactness is not required here. Thanks Sylvar!)

When the onions are pretty much wilted, add a little tiny bit of molasses, salt, and a handful of flour. Stir it up well and cover it, still over low heat.

While i'm cooking, my brother and his wife are giggling and cooing in the next room.. it sounds almost as if they're singing to the music but i know they don't know the words. They're just happy. You can use this time to make a salad: i discovered we didn't have much in the way of salad makin's, so i arranged what lettuce there was in three bowls, and soaked matchsticks of carrot and cucumber in a mix of sesame oil, cider vinegar, salt and a pinch of sugar, then laid that on top of the lettuce.

Keep the onions stirred. They should get a bit saucy. This is good. Saucy is good.

Test the roots. When they're forkable, take off the foil and stir them up. This is where the technicolor becomes a bloodbath, when the beets get all over everything (unless you use yellow beets, of course). It's really quite pretty, even though it does look like something in a bad slasher movie. Put them back in the oven to get a little crusty, then serve them with the onions on top.

It's interesting cooking in other people's kitchens. Things you're used to having are not there, or are there in different varieties. The pans are unfamiliar, the stove works differently, you may be told the oven may run hotter but not how much hotter: keeps you on your toes. There's also the experience of taking control of someone else's space. They may bow to it graciously, or even be thankful, but the space still knows what's going on. It yields its secrets one at a time.