Get a Load of These $70 Roasted Vegetables

by Karen Miner

Images via Williams-Sonoma, Jessica and Lon Binder/Flickr; Modified by Maximum Middle Age

Ah, Williams-Sonoma — the idyllic kitchen eden where Pinterest-perfect dreams are both realized and dashed. 

Don't get me wrong... fancy kitchenware stores like Williams-Sonoma and Sur la Table have my number. I've dropped more cash at these stores than probably any other. There isn't a knife, pot, pan, or piece of stoneware they sell that I don't want. No matter that my cabinets are already chock full of pots and pans and stoneware — it's not THAT particular piece. I can always use THAT particular piece. And so I gladly hand over my credit card for that limited edition Jaques Pepin copper sauteuse by Mauviel that I don't really need but that I SO DESPERATELY NEED.

But even I have my limits. When I recently took a stroll through the Williams-Sonoma online clearance section, I got a little mad. These places can sell me copper pots with inflated prices because Jaques Pepin put his name on it, but they cannot sell me $70 roasted vegetables, no matter who puts their name on it. 

Read more: Ugh, Stop Asking Me 'What's for Dinner?'

See, it upsets me when fancy kitchen stores make people think they cannot possibly make food as good as the food they are selling for 93 times as much as it actually costs to make said food. Sell us your wares, but make us all believe that we CAN do the work. That is your job. Do not put Tyler Florence's name on two-and-a-half pounds of frozen roasted vegetables and charge $70 for them (excuse me, $56 on sale), when those same (fairly usual roasted vegetables, if I do say so myself) would cost a home cook approximately $10 to make, and that's being generous.

Even if you're buying the most magical, organic vegetables grown by unicorns, you're not going to spend anywhere near $56 for them. And, though I do love me some Tyler Florence, unless he is coming to personally deliver you these roasted vegetables, and serving them to you by the fork-full while he simultaneously fans you AND does the dishes/makes the bed/vacuums/cleans the toilet, then nope, not worth it.

Are prepared trays of frozen vegetables easier? Sure. Are prepared trays of frozen vegetables worth $56. NEVER. Take that $56 and put it towards something at Williams-Sonoma that you will use again and again. And use this recipe for your veggies instead. It's not complicated or difficult, and I'm sure you have some new cookware in those cabinets you've been wanting to use anyway.