Happy Holidays!

Happy cooking (and baking and wrapping and unwrapping and all the rest)! See you next year!

Something Square: Gingered Sweet Potato Cubes

Chase and I were at the grocery store shopping for Thanksgiving dinner when we bought a beautiful sweet potato on a whim. We had no need for another dish at Thanksgiving, but that was no reason to pass up a good potato.

A week later I did this to the potato. (And a week later I wrote about it.) It was delicious.

Happy cooking!

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Gingered Sweet Potato Cubes

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato

4 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp brown sugar (loosely packed)

½ Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger

⅛ tsp pepper

⅛ tsp salt

Dash of cinnamon

Di

rections

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Peel the sweet potato. Make sure to peel off the palest part of the potato, just inside the skin. It stays tough if cooked.

3. Chop the potato into half inch cubes.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, ginger, pepper, salt and cinnamon.

5. Toss the sweet potatoes in the mixture to coat.

6. Spread the potatoes on an ungreased cookie sheet in a single layer.

7. Cook for about 15 minutes until fork-soft. Enjoy.

Pretty chopped potato.

Good flavors together.

Happy cooking!

Something Old: Pineapple Butter

This recipe is one of the oldies, a recipe I made and posted long ago when I was still just sharing recipes with Facebook friends. In fact, it's been nearly two years since I first concocted this recipe.

So if you need something to top your Cream of Wheat (Chase's new favorite thing is jelly in his Wheat) or your beer bread, give this sweet little recipe a try. It also makes a great gift. Put it in a jar, tie it with a bow, and share.

Happy cooking!

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Pineapple Butter January 28, 2010

I’m stuck indoors! This is turning out to be quite the storm. Maybe not the Icepocalypse, but definitely something to keep us inside.

So instead of going crazy, I decided to try something I’ve been curious about trying for awhile: Making jam! Because I don’t have any kind of gelling agent, what I made is more like fruit butter than jam, but it is absolutely delicious and really easy.

While you can do this with fresh pineapple, dealing with one of those suckers is no party. And especially for a recipe like this, canned pineapple works just as well.

The pineapple butter can be stored for about two weeks in the fridge. But I know that mine won’t last that long!

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

20 oz can chunk pineapple

2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

Ingredients

1. Drain pineapple chunks well. Roughly chop the chunks.

2. Place half of the pineapple into the food processor/blender. Pulse until pineapple are about the consistency of applesauce, wish some small chunks (more or less depending on your taste).

3. Add the second half of the pineapples and finish pulsing.

4. Put pineapple mush into a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves and mix well.

5. Cook until the mixture reaches fruit butter consistency. This will take about 15 minutes with occasional stirring.

6. Remove from heat and let cool before serving on toast, biscuits or even pork chops!

Something Quick: Samye's Taco Salad

Chase's mom Samye came up to visit us in September (was it really that long ago?) and one night she made this for dinner. Chase of course had eaten it many times before, but I hadn't. I was skeptical of 1000 Island dressing on taco fixin's, although it explained why Chase dips his tacos in it. And yet ... IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Then again, you can't really go wrong with Fritos and a mom's cooking.

I had been craving it since then, and I finally broke one day a couple of weeks ago and told Chase we were having it for dinner. He did not protest.

We use a bit less 1000 Island than Samye does, but it's a recipe that's easily made to any taste.

And just easily made.

Happy cooking!

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Samye's Taco Salad

Ingredients

1 lb ground meat

½ - 1 cup 1000 Island dressing

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 can black beans, drained

1 can black olives, chopped

1 cup chopped lettuce

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 10-oz bag Fritos

1 packet taco seasoning

Directions

1. Brown the ground meat and season with taco seasoning according to package directions.

2. For the vegetarian version, use

½ packet of taco seasoning mixed into the drained black beans.

3. In a large mixing bowl, toss lettuce, tomato, olives, beans and cheese.

4. Add half of the bag of Fritos to the veggie mix, crunching the chips slightly in your hands as you add them.

5. Toss the veggie mix in the 1000 Island.

6. Stir about two-thirds of the taco meat into the mix.

7. To serve, place a handful of the remaining Fritos on a plate. Top with a heaping scoop of the salad mix and sprinkle with extra taco meat.

8. As always, enjoy!

Salad mix, all mixed.

Ready for eating. It's just that easy.

Now that's some happy cooking! :)