After a weekend of travel and eating meals out, there is something nice about returning home and cooking in your own kitchen.  Thankfully, this weekend of travel was filled with excellent meals, so the excitement to return to my kitchen was more about wanting to cook than needing decent food.

However, our return home wasn’t scheduled to be a quiet night.  In addition to the company of our 11 and 13 year olds, we also would be watching our two and four year old nephews.  So, after an evening of playing chase the preschoolers, simple foods seemed to be our best choice.

We had a few bunches of fresh broccoli in the refrigerator that would make an excellent side dish.  Everyone in our house likes broccoli, so we cook it frequently.  We have steamed it, boiled it, and stir fried it.  For this dinner I wanted to try something different.  Having roasted cauliflower, it seemed that broccoli would handle that method of cooking quite nicely.

Roasting the broccoli was wonderful.  It produced a crisp-tender vegetable that had a nice amount of seasoning from the garlic.  Although we used it as a side dish, I can imagine serving it as an appetizer also.

Roasted Broccoli

2 Tb. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 bunches broccoli

salt & pepper

Combine olive oil and garlic in a small bowl, and allow to sit for an hour.

Preheat oven to 425.  Trim the broccoli florets from the bunches, and place in a large bowl.  Pour garlic-infused olive oil over florets, and toss well.  Place broccoli on a large baking sheet, and season with salt and pepper.  Bake for 15 minutes, tossing once, halfway through cooking time.