In the Kitchen
So. Life has been full of weird dreams and angst lately but I'm only going to share the happy with you today. And where does most of the happy happen in my life?
If you answered: "In the kitchen" you'd be correct. I'll send you a virtual cookie. ;-)
HOWEVER (and this is sort of huge) as I mentioned last week, I think, I've been reading through the archives of Yes, I Want Cake and she posts all these pictures of roasted veggies and the like and makes them look tasty. Well, one of her most common veggie postings was that of either a roasted or a baked sweet potato usually covered in something completely off the wall (to me, anyway) like peanut butter or bbq sauce. I was intrigued. Honestly, other than the mandatory Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole (check out How Sweet's lightened up version for a tasty and not as dessert-ish version) I have only ever tried them baked with a little butter and cinnamon or fried like french fries. Both of those options leave me less than thrilled. Similarly unimpressed with sweet potato pie unless it's heavy with the Cool Whip. I've always thought plain sweet potatoes tasted like feet. Not that I know what feet taste like, exactly. But you know what I mean.
Anyway, the idea of adding flavor to them with things like peanut butter sounded less like feet and more like something interesting. So I tried it this Saturday night.
I sliced the sweet potato into rounds (skin on) tossed them with a little olive oil and sea salt and roasted on a foil lined baking sheet at 400* for about 20-30 minutes until lightly golden, flipping once halfway through. Once they were golden and tender, I popped a teaspoon of peanut butter in the microwave just long enough to melt it a tad and then mixed in a drizzle of maple syrup. Drizzled all of THAT onto the roasted potatoes and...oh my. It was way better than I could have ever imagined. Not saying that I now LOVE sweet taters? But I at least have discovered a healthier way to enjoy them.
Still haven't worked up the courage to try it with the bbq sauce but eventually. Maybe.
This happened last week:
Chocolate chip banana muffins with a few pats of low fat margarine.
Mama gave me some (mostly) rotten bananas and said, "Banana bread" as she handed them to me. I took the hint. Except instead of bread, I made muffins and tossed in chocolate chips. YUM. Muffins are easier to split with her than bread and way easier on the portion control. It's just plain easier to eat a half a loaf of bread without thinking about it than to eat more than one muffin. Not to say that I DIDN'T eat more than one muffin at a time but...
Anyway, THIS happened Sunday morning. And last night. And two nights last week.
Taters, onions and turkey smoked sausage skillet.
If I'd thought to take a photo of it after it made it out of the pan, you'd see it covered in cheese. Probably not the HEALTHIEST kick to be on--CARBS--but certainly one of those soul comfort foods that I've been needing a lot of for the past couple of weeks. I season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, creole seasoning, and seasoned salt. Maybe a dash of pepper.
Sooths my soul.
This happened last night.
Actually, scones have been happening a lot lately. Usually with the addition of fresh cherries with those chocolate chips. But last night I was baking for my friends. E's birthday is tomorrow so I started celebrating early. Wasn't sure what their thoughts were on cherries in their scones. So I made a triple batch of Heather's Dish Scone for one. It actually made, like, eight generously sized scones. After this picture was made I mixed up a vanilla glaze and iced those puppies to within an inch of their lives. After eating one this morning, E said, "They may actually be better than the bakery's." SCORE! Now, for a (sort of) non-food related kitchen happy, I did this Saturday afternoon:
"What is it?" you ask? Well, let me give you a close-up.
It's a magnetic dry erase board. Because I have the hardest time reading recipes and recipe/book stands take up too much precious real estate on my small counters. So. I took the picture down that had been hanging there, bought a $2 tiny magnetic dry erase board, covered the hot pink plastic frame with white (yes, white!) duck tape and voila! Easy recipe reading! The next phase of "Operation: Baking Easier" is to install some under the cabinet task lighting. Because my kitchen is a dark hole at night. And because I need to be able to read those magnetized recipes. And because one of these years I'm going to blindly chop off a finger. I realize it doesn't look as cute as the old picture but sometimes function over form is necessary. *shrugs* And that's (mostly) what's been happening in my kitchen.
If you answered: "In the kitchen" you'd be correct. I'll send you a virtual cookie. ;-)
This happened Saturday night.
"This" being roasted sweet potato rounds drizzled in a heavenly candy-like mixture of peanut butter and maple syrup.
I don't really like sweet potatoes unless they are mixed with tons of brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with a brown sugar, oats and pecan mix and/or marshmallows. Whenever anyone on the nutritional circuit says to swap out a white potato for a sweet potato my general reaction is less than mature. (It involves calling them "stupidhead" if that's any indication.) Because ya'll? The only thing sweet taters have in common with white taters is the "taters" portion of their name. Oh, and they both grow in dirt. Otherwise? Ugh. Nothing at all alike.
HOWEVER (and this is sort of huge) as I mentioned last week, I think, I've been reading through the archives of Yes, I Want Cake and she posts all these pictures of roasted veggies and the like and makes them look tasty. Well, one of her most common veggie postings was that of either a roasted or a baked sweet potato usually covered in something completely off the wall (to me, anyway) like peanut butter or bbq sauce. I was intrigued. Honestly, other than the mandatory Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole (check out How Sweet's lightened up version for a tasty and not as dessert-ish version) I have only ever tried them baked with a little butter and cinnamon or fried like french fries. Both of those options leave me less than thrilled. Similarly unimpressed with sweet potato pie unless it's heavy with the Cool Whip. I've always thought plain sweet potatoes tasted like feet. Not that I know what feet taste like, exactly. But you know what I mean.
Anyway, the idea of adding flavor to them with things like peanut butter sounded less like feet and more like something interesting. So I tried it this Saturday night.
I sliced the sweet potato into rounds (skin on) tossed them with a little olive oil and sea salt and roasted on a foil lined baking sheet at 400* for about 20-30 minutes until lightly golden, flipping once halfway through. Once they were golden and tender, I popped a teaspoon of peanut butter in the microwave just long enough to melt it a tad and then mixed in a drizzle of maple syrup. Drizzled all of THAT onto the roasted potatoes and...oh my. It was way better than I could have ever imagined. Not saying that I now LOVE sweet taters? But I at least have discovered a healthier way to enjoy them.
Still haven't worked up the courage to try it with the bbq sauce but eventually. Maybe.
This happened last week:
Chocolate chip banana muffins with a few pats of low fat margarine.
Mama gave me some (mostly) rotten bananas and said, "Banana bread" as she handed them to me. I took the hint. Except instead of bread, I made muffins and tossed in chocolate chips. YUM. Muffins are easier to split with her than bread and way easier on the portion control. It's just plain easier to eat a half a loaf of bread without thinking about it than to eat more than one muffin. Not to say that I DIDN'T eat more than one muffin at a time but...
Anyway, THIS happened Sunday morning. And last night. And two nights last week.
Taters, onions and turkey smoked sausage skillet.
If I'd thought to take a photo of it after it made it out of the pan, you'd see it covered in cheese. Probably not the HEALTHIEST kick to be on--CARBS--but certainly one of those soul comfort foods that I've been needing a lot of for the past couple of weeks. I season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, creole seasoning, and seasoned salt. Maybe a dash of pepper.
Sooths my soul.
This happened last night.
Actually, scones have been happening a lot lately. Usually with the addition of fresh cherries with those chocolate chips. But last night I was baking for my friends. E's birthday is tomorrow so I started celebrating early. Wasn't sure what their thoughts were on cherries in their scones. So I made a triple batch of Heather's Dish Scone for one. It actually made, like, eight generously sized scones. After this picture was made I mixed up a vanilla glaze and iced those puppies to within an inch of their lives. After eating one this morning, E said, "They may actually be better than the bakery's." SCORE! Now, for a (sort of) non-food related kitchen happy, I did this Saturday afternoon:
"What is it?" you ask? Well, let me give you a close-up.
It's a magnetic dry erase board. Because I have the hardest time reading recipes and recipe/book stands take up too much precious real estate on my small counters. So. I took the picture down that had been hanging there, bought a $2 tiny magnetic dry erase board, covered the hot pink plastic frame with white (yes, white!) duck tape and voila! Easy recipe reading! The next phase of "Operation: Baking Easier" is to install some under the cabinet task lighting. Because my kitchen is a dark hole at night. And because I need to be able to read those magnetized recipes. And because one of these years I'm going to blindly chop off a finger. I realize it doesn't look as cute as the old picture but sometimes function over form is necessary. *shrugs* And that's (mostly) what's been happening in my kitchen.
Comments
The scones, however...too bad I'm still afraid to bake in this oven. LOL
Honestly, I didn't expect to like the pb/maple syrup combo on the sweet potatoes either. And when I told Mama about it, she looked at me like I had grown two heads. lol But it really was good. It's hard describe other than that it tastes like candy.
But then, I also love weird stuff like onions and mayonaise and sour cream. So I'm probably not the best person in the world to convince you to try it. hahaha
And I love the idea of the magnetic board. So smart!
You probably can't tell, but your pizza crust recipe is one of the two recipes currently stuck to my magnet board. I use it often enough that I finally stopped putting it away. ;-)
I'm famous now.... *off to preen*