Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I lived my entire life missing out on one of life's greatest food sources.  I can pinpoint the moment when I decided I knew that I didn't like sweet potatoes, one Thanksgiving years ago.  I tried candied yams and knew without a doubt in my 13-year-old mind that I would never eat yams or sweet potatoes ever again.  NEVER.

And I held true to that for 16 1/2 years.

The truth is, I would still be in that boat if I did not 'need' to make Joy the Baker's sweet potato cookies for the baking group I am in.  And I would have been fine, like a kid is fine the first year or two of their life when their parents vow never to give them sugar.  But then one day they have chocolate cake or a brownie and their little brain says, "Hey, why have you been holding out on me, huh?!"

That was the conversation I had with myself this winter after those cookies: "Why have you been holding out on me?!"

Sweet potatoes are GOOD! Really good. In fact, so good that you will be seeing at least three sweet potato recipes in the next week or two.  Why?  Because I want to eat them ALL. DAY. LONG.

And the easiest way to do that?  Mashed sweet potatoes.  Takes 15 minutes (mostly while you are waiting for the potatoes to boil) and tastes like Heaven on a spoon.  No more living in sweet potato ignorance for me!

MASHED SWEET POTATOES

Ingredients

TipCuttng the potatoes into smaller cubes allows them to cook faster.

TipYou can subtract the amount of dairy as you wish.  Sweet potatoes are flavorful and naturually creamy when cooked.

• 
  1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 cup heavy cream 
• 2 T. butter

• 1/4 t. nutmeg

• salt and pepper, to taste

• 
  

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the potatoes until soft when pierced with a fork, about 12 minutes. Drain return to the pot.
2. Toss remaining ingredients into the pot and stir with a fork, until soft and creamy. 

COST: $2.20   COST PER SERVING (4): $0.55

Get yo' greens! (Banana and Kale Smoothie -- A 'Sundays with Joy' Post)

Let's talk kale, shall we?  I had no idea what this stuff was until I was 25 years old and I spent a summer in Brazil with my future-at-the-time-in-laws.  Every once in awhile my mother-in-law would make this dish of a kind of bitter, but very delicious, green stuff.  That man of mine loved it.  LOVED it.  When I asked what it was the answer came back as couve.  So then I asked what it was in English, and the answer came back the same, couve.  Interesting, I had never heard of couve before...

A few years later, after the wedding bells had rung and the thought of cooking didn't intimidate me so much, I set out to find couve.  Lo and behold, it was something so simple to find -- kale.  Once we figured out that we could find it here in the States, my husband practically begged and pleaded for me to make things with it, as it is no doubt his favorite vegetable.  Sauteed kale with garlic, kale and potato pancakes, chicken and kale casserole... I graciously gave him what he asked for.

I bet he never thought I would turn it into a smoothie, though!

Yes, that's right.  This weeks recipe as we are working our way through Joy the Baker's cookbook (which you should totally go buy!) is kale and banana (and other stuff) smoothies.  Yes, a little odd, I know... but odd is not always synonymous with "bad", right?  Sometimes odd is "just right".  In this case, it means the latter.

I had the privilege of watching Joy at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend a few weeks ago, and guess which recipe she shared?  This one.  Along with two others that I will share with you when the time is right.  She made a great suggestion -- peel and freeze bananas to put in smoothies so you don't need ice.  Brilliant!  Later the night I went home and made this smoothie with soy milk and guess what?  Instant healthy goodness.  So good you actually don't even realize it is healthy... Actually, it just tasted like you were eating a banana with peanut butter.  All you moms out there, here you go -- time to be sneaky ;)

And that lover of kale that I am married to?  He liked it so much he even asked me to tell him how to do it so -- get this -- he could make it himself. 

WOW. 

That must mean it was good ;)

Cost: $1.70    Cost per glass (2): $0.85

PS - In Brazil they call smoothies just as "vitamins"  I could never figure out why, but today I put the ingredients into a nutrition counter and holy cow -- this thing is basically equivalent to a multivitamin!  221% of the daily recommended amount of Vitamin A?  Tons of other vitamins and minerals represented?  NOW I get it.  Drink your greens and live long and healthy!

Brazilian Tomato Salad

Five simple ingredients.  That's all it takes to make my husband the happiest man alive. 

Yup, tomatoes with some onion, cilantro, and a little bit of lime juice and salt are the way to this man's heart. 

And I totally get it.  I mean, my idea of salad had always been lettuce/spincach/arugula with some veggies and dressing on top, but this is so light and so fresh there is no dressing needed.  And you can skip the lettuce and get straight to the good stuff... tomatoes.

Unless you don't like tomatoes.  Then I guess it isn't the good stuff.  But if you do, well, you need to try this.  We had it with a plate of rice and beans and some ground beef/veggie mixture and I just mixed it all up... so. incredibly. GOOD.  I went back to get some more but there was none.  Guess who ate it all?!

Happy me -- I still have some tomatoes at home.  You know what I will be having more of tonight ;)

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 thin slices of onion, cut if quarters
• Salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Chop, slice, cut, mix, ENJOY :)

COST: $1.10       COST PER SERVING (4): $0.28

Soooo cheap!

And the sun came out... (Arugula Salad with Oranges and Beets)

Remember when I quoted those ever-wise words of Annie?  Well, it happened.  The sun came out, both literally and figuratively.  There is sunshine everywhere today, including my soul. 

It started this morning.  I woke up with the ability to breathe again.  Yes!

Yesterday I was thinking how we so often say things like, "I will never take the ability to breathe for granted again!"  For example: I used to live on this little (and by little I mean teeny-tiny, 1/4 of a square mile in size TOTAL) island with about 15,000 people living on it.  Yes, it was a little claustrophobic at times.  But that was OK.  I am incredibly sanguine, so that didn't bother me that much.  But the showers, oh the showers...  Not only were they cold, but they were salt-water.  And sometimes, when the power went out, which really was more than "sometimes" and instead like half of the time, we had to go get buckets of said cold, salt water out of a well.  That had cockroaches crawling all over it.  In this dark basement room.  (No, I am not making this up, and no, I did not walk to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways.)  During these moments I would hear myself saying, "I will never take clean and warm running water for granted again!"  But then I returned to the States.  Sure, the first few days I was in awe at the beauty of the faucet.  It didn't take long, however, for me to forget how wonderful that actually is and now I totally take it for granted -- unless the water heater breaks.  Then I find myself remembering my little island and how this used to be the norm and I think, "HOW IN THE WORLD DID I SURVIVE COLD SHOWERS ALL THE TIME?!" 

The point is this:  I can breathe again, and I know I am going to take that for granted.  Shoot -- five hours into and I already do.  And that is OK.  I am ready to take that for granted again.  That cold is over and I can fully live again.

Sunshine.
Then, on the way to work, the sun was actually shining, and shining brightly.  It wasn't warm, but it was bright.  I slid open the sunroof, turned up my music, and tapped my toes along with the beat. 

Sunshine.

So I bring to you today a sunny side dish.  A little salad, to be exact.  The beets and oranges, when cooked, release some of their juice which is used a little olive oil and salt to create the dressing.  The arugula has its own wonderful (albeit slightly bitter) flavor.  Mix it all together and you get something light and yum.

By the way, if you don't like beets, try this anyway.  I used to think beets tasted like the ground.  Actually, I still do... but it doesn't taste bad to me anymore.  And these beets you see up there in the picture are awesome because they are already steamed and peeled and you just have to heat them up for this recipe, although they are also great cold.  This little box has six or so beets in it.  Much easier than peeling, steaming, and then cooking with the oranges.  You could also use regular beets, of course.  Either way though, use them!  They are some of nature's wonders.  And remember, it is March.  The time of sunshine is near... yesssss!

Salad from Real Simple, October 2011

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 10m | Total Time: 45m (or 30 minutes if using the TJ's beets)

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound beets, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 oranges, cut into large chunks
• 6 cups baby arugula (5 ounces)

Directions

Heat oven to 450° F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the beets with 3 tablespoons of the oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast until beginning to soften, 13 to 15 minutes. Add the oranges to the baking sheet and roast, tossing once, until the beets and oranges are tender, 15 to 17 minutes more. Add the arugula and toss to combine.

Cost: $4.74                   Cost Per Serving (4): $1.19

Pear & Arugula un-Flatbread (The Quest for the Perfect Flatbread, Part 1)

There's a little something that I do when I find something I really like at a restaurant:  I try to figure out what they did to make it taste so darn good.  See, I have this idea that if some cook in a restaurant can do it, so can I.  The problem is that other than the Olive Garden, most restaurants aren't willing to tell you how they do it.  (The Olive Garden, however, posts many of their recipes online, which if you ask me is quite wonderful.)  This means that if I try something that I really really REALLY want to have at home I am then on the quest to make it happen.  Which would be how I learned to make some great avgolemono soup... but that is for another post, another time.  This particular quest that I am on right now is how to make the pear and arugula flatbread from this place:

Have you tried this stuff???  This flatbread is so incredibly delicious that I cannot even explain it to you.  It is, wow... top notch.  Top notch.  But alas, there is no recipe out there for it so it is up to me to find out how to do it.

First, I played around with my toppings.  We tried pears with arugula and blue cheese broiled on toast.  It was nice, but I was missing something.  So I went back to The Cheesecake Factory, ordered myself some of that flatbread, and realized I needed caramelized onions.

That was easy.  So easy.  I had never caramelized onions before, but now I feel a whole new world is opened up to me.  I want to put caramelized onions on burgers, on fish, on everything.

My husband told me it made the house smell like In-n-Out.  That means it was a success ;)

Then I needed to find out how to make flatbread.  According some website I found via a Google search, I could make flatbread with pizza dough. 

Well. 

Maybe it worked for them, but not for me.  My flatbread, as yummy as it was, was not FLAT bread, but Puffy bread.  But that's OK... I am on the right start and I am not done yet.  I will make the perfect pear and arugula flatbread sometime soon, I promise you that.

In the meantime, I don't mind enjoying Pear and Arugula Puffy-bread and I thought you might enjoy it, too ;)

 
THIS TIME --

INGREDIENTS:
1 pack fresh pizza dough
1 pear, chopped
1 cup arugula
1/2 cup soft cheese
3T olive oil
1/2 white onion
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Follow directions for pizza dough or flat bread dough for prep. 
2. To caramelize onions, chop the onion into slices.  Cook with 1T of olive oil over medium-low heat, stirring often.  Let cook for about 30 minutes.
3. When pizza dough is ready, spread out in shape you want and spread 2T of olive oil on top.  Put all toppings on the dough and cook for 8-10 minutes on 400F.

COST:  $5.20          COST PER SERVING --
                                       As the main dish (2): $2.60
                                       As a side (4): $1.30

Cooking with Friends: Apricot and Walnut Stuffing

A few months ago I read in one of my student's journals that she like to cook.  Taking my comment-making pen (green, by the way, and not red) I wrote, "Me too!  It would be fun to cook together sometime!"  I continued reading, closed that journal, and moved on to the next one, probably to read about a crush on Justin Bieber or something else incredibly important my little 9-year-olds share with me.  Later that day, however, this particular little girl came up to my desk and said, "I would love to cook with you.  When will you have me over?" 

You gotta give the girl some credit -- she knows how to go after something she wants.

Because I was already friends with this particular family (I have had more than this child as my student) and have actually know them outside of school, I did invite her over and we spent a day cooking together.  First, we made French Toast (her request) for brunch.

Then we *attempted* to make homemade peppermint hot chocolate.  Only I didn't know that Dutch Process Cocoa and regular unsweetened cocoa were so different from each other.  Our hot chocolate was OK, but it was definitely pepperminty.

And last but not least, we made apricot and walnut stuffing.  We had a recipe straight from England from one of my friends who lives there, but it was made very differently than I know stuffing so we adapted it and sort of made up our own recipe as we went.  You will also notice that this stuffing made a repeat appearance in my house and showed up on our Christmas table last night.  It was that good.

Cutting up the sourdough to make croutons

The Super-Crouton-Maker

Sauteing the onion, garlic, and celery

We did it!  A day full of cooking!

The finished product.  Yes, it is purple and gold.  I guess it would be a good treat for any LA Lakers fans out there.  Or nobility.  (Anything else you can think of that is purple and gold???)

INGREDIENTS:
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
5 slices sourdough bread cut into small cubes
1/2 cup dried apricots, cut in small pieces and soaked in water for an hour
1/2 cup walnut pieces
3 cups chicken broth
3 T butter
garlic salt

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Make croutons.  Take the bread squares and drizzle half of the butter -- melted -- over them.  Sprinkle with garlic salt and mix.  Transfer to baking sheet and cook for 13 minutes on 350 F.
2.  Meanwhile, saute onion, celery, and garlic in remaining butter over medium-high heat.  After about four minutes add broth. 
3.  When croutons are finished, mix in a large bowl with apricot pieces (water drained out) and walnuts.  Slowly pour broth mixture over the top.  Mix.  Allow to sit for five minutes.
4.  Transfer to a baking dish and bake at 375F for 30 minutes, until top is lightly browned. 

COST: $6.70     COST PER SERVING (6): $1.12

And my favorite picture of the day:

"Look, if I turn the apron around I am a super hero!  I am here to save the day!!!"

Meet "Couve" -- better known as "Kale"

This is the leaf of couve.

Couve, or as we call in America -- collard greens and kale -- is my husband's favorite vegetable.  For the longest time we didn't know the translation in English and so he lived without it.  But about three months ago I found out what is was online, hopped in the car to go shopping, and brought him home some.  You should have seen his smile.  BIG.  He, in response, immediately hopped onto Skype, called down to Brazil to talk to his mamae, and got her recipe for it.

Once again, three simple ingredients:

One great side dish:

There's nothing to it, really.  Just chop the leaves into small strips and cut the garlic up, as well.  Saute the garlic over medium-low heat, add the couve and a dash of salt, and cook for about a minute or two.  That's it!  How simple, huh?  And quite tasty, to be sure.

COST: $1.40                   COST PER SERVING (4): $0.35 

Brown Sugar + Carrots = Yum

I have never been a fan of carrots.  They were always either too crisp (and hard to bite) or too mushy (and tasted like cardboard).  So for a good part of my life I avoided them.  That is, until my grandma made me carrots one night.  Oh man, suddenly carrots had a place in my life... until I forgot about that recipe and moved on.  But a year or two ago I stumbled across the same recipe in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  I whipped that little dish up and it was a hit.  Paulo loved it, I was reminded of how good carrots can be, and this vegetable I once avoided was given a prominent place in our lives. 

As you can see, there are three simple ingredients.  Rather unusual ingredients for a vegetable dish, to be sure, but the right ones.

Here is how it goes --

Chop 3-4 carrots.
Boil for 5-6 minutes (long enough to soften, short enough to not make it too mushy).  Drain.
In the bottom of the pot, over medium-low heat, add 1T of butter and 1T of brown sugar.  Stir until melted together.  Add carrots and a dash of salt, another dash of pepper. 
Cook for 1-2 minutes. 
Enjoy!  (Trust me, you will!)

PS - I like carrots raw now, too.  But I still always have the fear of breaking my teeth when I bite into them.  (Can that actually happen?)

COST: $0.90            COST PER SERVING (4): less than a quarter