In my early years of cooking, I found that my attempts at roasting vegetables ended with deflated, soggy lumps that once resembled fresh veggies. Perhaps that is why I still hold romantic notions about serving amazingly caramelized, oven-roasted, Mediterranean fare cooked to perfection at elegant parties.

Well, it may not have been an elegant party - just a thrown-together dinner for two based on this romantic notion - but success was finally achieved in the roasted vegetable department.

First, the old stand-by - baked/roasted home grown potatoes: ...