Sneaky 'snips

Giving viewers a different point of view on some culinary thing is the almost a trademark of Alton Brown. In the most recent new episode of Good Eats, he shows the versatility of a little utilized root veggie--the parsnip.

While AB's goal was to disguise the veggie to win a bet with his finicky niece, the food made with parsnips. This new character, MJ, played very well by Alton's daughter, was a cute little miss smarty pants with an aversion to veggies. AB's charge to get her to eat veggies.

I loved the return trip to the cellar, now featuring a clapper for the light. There was a nice little debriefing on parsnip background.

It was nice to see an expert (a horticulturist) giving us a the facts on "cold sweetening" of parsnips. The graphics were cheese and so traditionally Good Eats, loved them.

The recipes were interesting and surprising. The muffins are certainly thing to consider. If they are anywhere near as good as AB's carrot cake... well they would be amazing.

The other recipe that caught my attention was the parsnip-pear sauce. That looked both oddly interesting and yummy.

I was interested in the chips as well, but I typically do not deep fry things at home. But, I would enjoy giving them a try.

Overall, a wonderful episode with three new recipes, a new character, a horticulture lesson and an introduction to a not widely used veggie.

Four and a half parsnips for a nice episode!