MORE Savory Sweet Potatoes

Lime Cilantro Sweet Potatoes

• Ingredients
• 2 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lime zest
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

Toss sweet potatoes with 2 tablespoons oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a shallow baking pan. Arrange potatoes in 1 layer and roast, stirring halfway through roasting, until tender, abo

ut 25 minutes total. Stir together cayenne, zest, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Whisk together lime juice and remaining tablespoon oil in a medium bowl, then add potatoes. Sprinkle with cayenne mixture and cilantro, stirring gently to combine.

Gifts for the "good" list

Twist on Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potato Chips dusted with chili powder

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes
  
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Directions

Blue Cheese and Chive Dip, recipe follows

Peel sweet potatoes and discard skin. Using the vegetable peeleror a mandoline make long thin chips by peeling/slicing lengthwise from top to bottom. Place in a bowl of ice water and chill for 1 hour. Drain in a colander and layout on paper towels and pat dry.

Combine chili powder, garlic powder, a pinch of cayenne, cumin and salt and pepper.

Heat vegetable oil in a large pot to 375 degrees F. Fry the potatoes in single layer batches for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown. Lift chips out with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Season with the spice mixture and serve immediately. Serve as an appetizer with Blue Cheese and Chives dip.

Blue Cheese and Chive Dip:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise, store-bought
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 bunch finely chopped chives, plus extra for garnish
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, blue cheese, honey and chives in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chives. Serve with spicy and sweet potato chips.

Wonderful time of year!

There are many reasons why this is such a wonderful time of year... Here is one of those reasons.... :)

Tasty Tuesday - Fruit Cake!

FRUIT CAKE RECIPE - Guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit.

You'll need the following: four large eggs, two cups of dried fruit, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, lemon juice, nuts, and a bottle or two of rum.

Before you start, sample the rum to check for quality. If it's good, let's get started.

Take a large bowl, and a measuring cup. Check the rum again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink it as fast as you can. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer; beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one seapoon of thugar, and beat again. Meanwhile, make sure the rum has retained it's fine quality. Cry another tup. Open a second quart if necessary.

Turn off the mixer. Break two arge leggs, and add to the bowl, and chuck in the cup of fried druit. Mix on the turner, and beat till high. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the rum to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of pepper or salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the rum. Now sift the lemon juice, and strain the nuts. Fold in some chopped butter. Add one table. Spoon. Of brown thugar or whatever color you can find.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 gredees. Don't for get to beat off the turner. Now pour the whole mess into the coven and ake. Feed to your goat. Check the rum again, and bo to ged.

Christmas in my home

I thought I would take some pictures of the Christmas decorations in my home.

I love my silver & purple tree

I really like the greenery on my pendent light

Meet baby Cal

Last weekend my girlfriends and I hosted a meet baby Cal shower for our friend Megan and her new baby boy, Callum John. The shower went off without a hitch, at this point we have it all pretty much figured out, this is the 7th baby between the girls.

Here we are before the guests arrived, with the guest of honor, Cal

And the tower of cupcakes. Per the momma's request I did chocolate cookie dough cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and chocolate cherry cupcakes with a sour cream cherry frosting and a chocolate dipped cherry on top.

Christmas Tonight

Wedding in Pittsburg

A few weeks ago I traveled to Pittsburg KS for my friend Erin's wedding. I was looking forward to this for weeks, even months b/c I would be seeing some OD friends and of course I knew it would be a blast.

My friend Ellen made the trek with me. As soon as we got into town we ate at a Mexican place. It was good but not as good as El Magueys, Rio Loco or La Fiesta :)
Jill (lives in CO now) & me

Sara (lives in CO) and Connie (lives in IL)

And the bride joined us after rehearsal :)

Then we headed to a bar... It was a Friday night and it was empty. Clearly Pitt State students don't know how to party :)

Love these girls!I did Erin's makeup the day of the wedding. This is her and her sister Stacy

Erin and her brother Chris

Saying their vowels. The church was amazing!

Mr. and Mrs. Mills!

There was a few hours to kill btw the wedding and reception (that was at our hotel, awesome!) so we decided to celebrate Erin & Jeff's marriage with some champagne. We ran out of cups so Sara had to make do :)

The doctors in their dresses :)

Tangee getting giggly :) (she is in AL now)

Jason, Tangee & Connie - best of friends :)

Sara, me & Ellen

Jeff & Erin walking in for the first time! Her dress was so beautiful.

Me & the bride. She is glowing... literally!

Tangee & Erin

Sara & Me... I think we are both in food comas after going thru the line... twice. :)

They did the dollar dance and I did not have a dollar... so I wrote a check :)

Cutting the cake... which I remember now I did not get any of b/c I was too busy busting out some amazing moves on the dance floor

Congrats Erin & Jeff on a beautiful wedding. Best wishes in the many years to come. I can not wait to enjoy more of your life celebrations as a husband and wife :) Love you guys!!

Tasty Tuesday - more pumpkin!

This weekend my mom's family celebrated Thanksgiving early. I was enlisted to bring a salad but of course I could not stop there... I had to do something sweet. I had gotten this recipe from my friend Kendra about a month ago but had not tried it yet. You would think I would learn my lesson about trying new recipes when I am on a time crunch... But then again I always work best under pressure, post melt down :)

These were delish but a bit tedious to make. If you are an amateur baker I would not recommend it. I think at one point I had 5 bowls going and 4 muffin tins...

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar
+++++
4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons chopped pecans
+++++
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners. (I actually got about 24 muffins out of this)
• To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.
• For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
• For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
• Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
• Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

_____________________________

The best part of baking was having my family at my house enjoying Saturday football and my sous chef helping me :)

Oh Christmas Tree :)

I know, I know... The rule is no Christmas stuff up until after Thanksgiving... Well, that may work for people who have regular schedules, but that is NOT me... I could not resist. Especially when it was snowing the other day. I really got the itch to put it up. I bought this tree last year after Christmas when it was 50% off at Target. At that time I was in a rental house that had VERY high ceilings, and my new house does not, so I was a little worried it may be too tall but as you can tell it is perfect! I love the glow of a Christmas tree. So pretty and so warm. I am excited for this holiday season and to get to spend time with my family and friends.

Get EXCITED!!!

Tasty Tuesday

osh, where does the time go. Here is the recipe for Pumpkin Bars from my cousin Stephanie. They are SO GOOD!!!

STEPHKINS PUMPKIN BARS

4 Eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
15 oz pumpkin (appox 2 cups)

Mix together and then add:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon (more if you like)
Mix all the above ingredients together until smooth.

Bake in an UNGREASED jelly roll pan (I place a sheet of parchment paper down on the bottom for easy removal) at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Icing:
8 oz cream cheese (room temp, do not heat)
3/4 stick of margarine (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk

Mix all the above ingredients together and when the bars are completely cooled, ice with icing

Lost photos

Not really lost but I got this from my friend Laura. The picture is awesome b/c she has an amazing camera that she uses professionally. :)

This was after the KSU/OSU game and a small nap (for Audra). We were headed to Little Apple Brewery for dinner and then Aggieville. One of my favorite times of year is not officially Aggieville at Halloween time... What an experience. I love to people watch and it was certainly a feast for the eyes!!! Can't wait for next year.

Wildcat WIN!!

This past weekend was the last home game of the season. The K-State Wildcats beat Texas easily. It was a great night game. And this was the first game of the season that I actually had to wear my heavy coats, gloves & hat!

This is how the day began.... You can imagine how it ended...
Me and my girl Ellen.

Me, Ellen & Aaron

Me & Nate at our seats.

Coach Snyder & Daniel Thomas. It was Senior Day. Look at The EyeDoctor logo!!

Having a good time!

I went to a basketball game today... So as one (home game) season ends another one begins! GO CATS!!

Pumpkins!

When Erin was here we carved pumpkins. Something I have not done it years! I remember my least favorite thing about it, the cold guts! This year it was pretty warm so the inside of the pumpkin was not cold at all, I much prefer this.

Here is Erin digging in :)
Nice!

Ellen getting her pumpkin prepped.

My design - The EyeDoctors logo

GOOEY!!

Deep in thought...

My "midnight cat" pumpkin

Erin's finished pumpkin

All the pumpkins lined up

Up close on my masterpiece :)