Lovely Roasted Vegetables

P made roasted vegetables for us tonight.  They smelled delicious while they were cooking, but I was not enthusiastic about actually eating them, since they included a number of vegetables that I generally push to the side of the plate:  red onions, roasted garlic, capers, cherry tomatoes.  I could not imagine chewing a piece of garlic that still had its skin on.  I wanted large baguettes and butter on which to spread the insides of the garlic pods if I were going to eat them.  I wanted the capers to be discretely hidden under a steak of some kind, simply lending a subtle flavor, but not having their little green beebee selves chewed and swallowed.

Politely I poked my fork into one of the sweet potatoes, one of the few of these things that I trusted. Not bad, actually rather good, and so I kept on going.   I was astonished at how good these unpromising things tasted!  At the end of the meal I found myself popping a while garlic pod into my mouth and chasing it with a few capers and that slightly burnt curling onion sliver.  Even the rosemary was perfect, the parsnips sublime.  Everything was perfectly roasted and brushed with a lemon, olive oil, and caper vinaigrette-- not harsh or dry or bitter at all!  I drew the last few things on my plate, and as I drew I popped them into my mouth.  The garlic half looked like a lotus pod.