After returning home from a little vacation and a lot of eating, I was in the mood to try a new vegetable recipe.

Besides that, I’d also been approached by a friend Linda at church who asked me to come up with some new vegetable recipes as she and her husband Dane were trying to eat a little better.

I knew Brad and I were going to have Kalua pork for supper Monday night, a recipe that is super easy and appeared in this column more than a year ago.

I just needed to figure out what to prepare with it.

I pulled out the small stack of vegetable recipes I’ve collected over time and went through them quickly. ince I’m not much of a vegetable-eater there aren’t many of them in my stash.

After a couple of minutes, I came up with three different recipes and then decided on today’s recipe for potato and carrot amandine. I’d printed the recipe from southernliving.com.

I didn’t have small red potatoes and I didn’t have fresh parsley, and since we’d been away for a few days, there were several other items I needed. Early Monday

morning, before going to work, I headed to the grocery store and did some shopping.

After arriving home from work, I turned on the ovens to preheat; one for the meat and the other for this new dish.

I dug around in my refrigerator and found just enough slivered almonds and popped them into the oven to toast while I lined a jelly roll pan with foil and began washing the potatoes.

Some of the potatoes were bigger than the recipe called for and I ended up quartering them and then cutting some of the bigger pieces in half.

Once the potatoes were cut up and on the pan, I opened the carrots, gave them a rinse and dumped them on top of the potatoes.

I drizzled the olive oil on the pile of veggies and then sprinkled the salt and pepper on top and gave everything a good toss to coat things evenly.

I opened the oven to put the dish in to bake and saw the toasting almonds. I’d forgotten about them and they were a little bit too brown. I dumped them off the pan so they would not continue to cook and let them cool for a few seconds before trying one. Thank goodness they weren’t burnt, just good and brown. I was sure thankful for that because there were no more almonds at the house and I wasn’t sure some other type of nut would suffice.

After that little panic, I placed the pan of potatoes and carrots into the oven and then rinsed and dried the parsley. I chopped just enough for this recipe and put the rest in the fridge for another recipe I’d found the night before and hoped to prepare later in the week.

I checked on the vegetables after 45 minutes and they weren’t quite done so I let them cook 10 more minutes.

After piercing a potato and a carrot with a fork and deciding they were done, I removed the pan from the oven and placed the vegetables in a bowl.

As I sprinkled on the almonds and the parsley, I was debating on whether to add the lemon juice too. About that time Brad popped into the kitchen; I asked his opinion about putting the lemon juice on the vegetables and we agreed since I was using fresh squeezed lemon juice, I’d just use some, not the entire tablespoon. I sprinkled a little bit of lemon juice on the vegetables, gave them a good toss and we were ready to eat.

As is our custom, Brad blessed the food and then we began to eat.

After just one bite of the vegetables I was hooked and Brad liked them too. We could taste the lemon, but it wasn’t over powering and I was glad I hadn’t used the whole amount called for in the recipe.

This recipe made more than enough for the two of us so we had them again Tuesday night and they were just as good reheated.

This recipe is a definite nailed it and it will be added to my self-made cookbook.

Linda, this one’s for you — hope you like it too.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.

Potato-Carrot Amandine

— 8 small red potatoes, quartered (about 1 1/14 lb)

— 1 16 oz. package baby carrots

— 3 tablespoons olive oil

— 1 teaspoon salt

— 1/2 teaspoon pepper

— 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted

— 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

— 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)

Place potatoes and carrots in a single layer on a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan.  Drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil, tossing to coat; sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.

Bake at 400 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until vegetables are tender and lightly browned, stirring once.  Transfer vegetables to a serving bowl; stir in almonds, parsley, and if desired, lemon juice.  Toss to coat.

Yields 6 servings.