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 Savory: Hot German Potato Salad

Chase was a little skeptical of this one, but totally willing to try it. He's not a potato salad fan, but this is something entirely different. It's warm, full of bacon and rich flavor, and topped with delicious smoked sausage.

My mom used to make this one for us growing up. With all the flavors, I expected it to be more complicated. But if you can use a whisk and boil potatoes, you can make this recipe.

We always ate this as a main course, but this also works great as a warm side dish. Just skip the smoked sausage on top (you know, if you want).

Happy cooking!

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Hot German Potato Salad

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes

4-6 slices of bacon

¼ cup chopped onion

2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp celery seed

Dash of pepper

¾ cup water

⅓

cup vinegar

2 eggs

1 smoked sausage (the big U-shaped kind, Hillshire Farms is best)

Directions

1. Peel and chop potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Cook in boiling water until fork-tender. Drain and place in deep casserole dish.

2. Meanwhile, over medium heat in a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving about 2 Tbsp bacon grease.

3. Crumble the bacon over the potatoes in the casserole dish.

4. Cook the chopped onion in the reserved grease over medium heat until tender but not browned.

5. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, celery seed and pepper in a small bowl. Stir into the cooked onions.

6. Add water and vinegar to the onion mixture. Cook until slightly thickened, whisking gently but constantly.

7. Beat the two eggs in a small bowl. Whisk the eggs into the onion mix.

8. Continue stirring until the eggs are cooked and incorporated into the thickened sauce.

9. Meanwhile, turn the oven on to broil.

10. Pour sauce over the potatoes and bacon and stir gently.

11. Split the sausage down the middle all the way around, but don't cut all the way through. Slice the sausage into 3-4 inch pieces. Place in a circle around the top of the casserole dish.

12. Place the casserole under the broiler for a few minutes, until the sausage is warmed and lightly browned around the edges.

13. Serve and enjoy. It's especially tasty with a little side of mustard.

Prep time: About 45 minutes.

Chopped onion ready for bacon grease cooking, crispy bacon, and dry ingredient mix.

And unrelated cinnamon rolls.

Onion mixture after eggs are whisked in and cooked.

Potatoes and bacon coated with onion and egg sauce.

Happy cooking!

Something Old: Baked Potato Slices

It's Monday again, and I'm still exhausted from working last night. It may also have something to do with the bizarre dreams I was having last night. I hate restless nights.

I realized this morning that I had nothing special planned for a Valentine's Day post. The cookies that were posted on Friday would have been perfect. Oh well. It's probably fitting, at least for me, that I have nothing for this holiday. Chase and I kind of forgot that V-Day was even coming up until a couple days ago. We decided not to do anything special for it, but then that sneaky kid got me a big box of chocolates anyway.

In any case, I'm sticking with my original plan for this week's posts. I've almost run out of old recipes from Facebook to post on Mondays, so not only are my choices for today limited, but I have to figure out how I'm going to change the blog when I have no more "Something Old" recipes. Only a few weeks left to brainstorm!

In potato related things, this dish is a perfect side dish because you can cook it in the oven while your entrée is cooking in there too. The recipe says to bake these at 350 degrees, but you can go up to 400 degrees if your entrée is cooking that high. Just take the potatoes out a little sooner.

Happy sappy cooking!

ps- I should mention that this recipe is a Chase original. He is the potato master.

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Baked Potato Slices June 23, 2010

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes

½ cup sliced red onion

2 Tbsp olive oil

½ tsp McCormick's Salt-Free All Purpose Seasoning (a potato's best friend)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash potatoes and slice into rounds about 1 centimeter thick.

3. Toss the potato rounds in olive oil and place on a cookie sheet.

4. Sprinkle potatoes with the salt, pepper, and seasoning. Top with sliced onions.

5. Bake on the top rack of your oven for about 30 minutes, until browned and fork tender. If you like your potatoes crispier, bake under the broiler for an additional 3-5 minutes.

6. Serve and enjoy.

Coated in olive oil, spices and onion. Ready for the oven.

Oh so yummy! Happy cooking!