Sweet Potato Patties

My love of sweet potatoes is nearly boundless. Any time I can try sweet potatoes in a new way I am usually excited. This was a new take on veggie burgers, though as you can see I ended up making them more like falafe. I based it off of this recipe. Some days I am inventive and actually make things up, but my skill level isn't high enough for novel ideas myself.

Cast of characters:
-2 to 3 sweet potatoes
-1 onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, diced
-1 cup beans (I used garbanzos)
-2 Tablespoons tahini
-2 Tablespoons maple syrup 
-Curry powder and cayenne, to taste
-1/4 cup flour
-Panko breadcrumbs 

1. Peel and chunk sweet potatoes, and roast in a 400 degree oven until soft.
2. Combine sweet potatoes, beans, onion, and spices.
3. Add tahini, maple syrup, and flour until the mixture is relatively thick. It will be pretty sloppy for burgers, but it worked out ok. If it's really too mushy, add some more flour and some breadcrumbs to the batter.
4. Flatten into patties (we did small like falafel and larger like burgers), and roll in breadcrumbs.

The other blog pan-fried them, but I opted to bake - 400 degrees and they took about 15 minutes. We waited for some hint of brown on the breadcrumbs.

We ate these with avocado on our favorite homemade pita recipe.

Hope you are having a lovely fall week where you are!

Sweet Potato Chorizo Chili

It is embarrassing how long it has been since I have posted anything. Consistency apparently escapes me. But last weekend we had a lovely time with family, and have a few fun meals we've made. First up: Sweet Potato Chorizo Chili.

I tend to like any meal I can cook in the crock pot, particularly on weeknights. So this was no exception: prepped the day before, turned the crock pot on low before I headed to work, and it was done by the time I got home!

Cast of characters:
-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
-1 large can diced tomatoes
-Pinto and Black beans (I used canned this time)
-1 large white onion, diced
-4 cups vegetable broth
-1 pound chorizo, cooked
-1 green pepper, diced 
-Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt and pepper to taste - I added 1.5 tsp. of cinnamon, and just a dash of nutmeg.

-Cilantro, yogurt, and cheese for serving 

All of the ingredients ended up in the crock pot all day, except for the chorizo, which we added right at the end.

And I didn't take photos like I should have of the chili, but here's a few other photos from the weekend:

Cake for Robin and Jeff's birthdays

A lovely walk in the park

Hope you all are enjoying this lovely fall weekend!

Carrot Soup and Homemade Pita

Get ready for soup - lots and lots of soup. Fall has officially arrived in St. Louis: leaves, sweater-worthy temperatures, and soup. First up, with carrots, since we got a bunch of free carrots from an event when my parents were here.



Cast of characters:
-Lots of carrots (approx 2 lbs), peeled and diced
-6 cups vegetable broth (or cheater substitute)
-1 large onion, diced
-1/3 cup coconut milk (or more to taste) 
-Cilantro, chopped
-2 cloves garlic
-Salt, pepper, and cayenne


1. Saute the onion in the pan, until brown.
2. Add the broth and carrots, simmer until reasonably soft.
3. Add garlic, cilantro, and spices.
4. Blend to desired consistency (I left some pieces to avoid feeling like baby food).
5. Add coconut milk, warm until heated through.

Note: I don't really have any idea how much liquid I want at the end to make the consistency right (since I don't really know what I'm doing ;) ), so when I'm using the immersion blender I always take some liquid off first and add it back in at the end if I need it.

We ate this with homemade pita bread from this recipe. Game changer. It is so amazing and SO EASY! Here it is:

1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons yeast (I used instant yeast, but supposedly active dry works in the same quantity?)
2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
Salt (calls for 2 tsp., I have used little if any)
1-2 teaspoons olive oil ("optional", but most savory things are better with olive oil)

1. Add yeast to warm water, dissolve (~5 minutes)
2. Add 2.5 cups flour, salt, and olive oil. Mix until it resembles dough.
3. Knead 5-7 minutes, until it is "smooth and elastic", adding flour as you need.
4. Coat ball with a little olive oil, place it back in the bowl, and cover with saran wrap until doubled in size. It says 1-2 hours, but I have stopped it 30 minutes and had it doubled already. Maybe with the instant yeast?
5. Deflate, and roll out pieces to desired thickness. I have made about 9 with this recipe, but that is for really little ones.

For cooking, you have two options. We've done both.

1. Cook on a hot cast iron skillet sprayed with a bit of olive oil. Let cook about 30 seconds one side, flip, cook 2 minutes, flip again. It's done when there are some brown spots and it (hopefully) puffs.
OR
2. Preheat oven to 450 with pizza stone (or cookie sheet) inside. Cook pitas for about 3 minutes, or until they puff a little.

Ours have rarely gotten super puffy, regardless of which way we make them. But the dough is not super dense, so they aren't like the previous wood-like discs I have made. Just light and delicious. You can save the dough in the refrigerator too! If anyone has any recommendations for better puffing, let me know. Even with marginal puffing, these were amazing.

Hope you have a lovely fall day where you are!

Mr. C Turns 3!

I meant to post earlier, but the week got away from me. Last weekend Mr. C turned three (gasp!). We had a beautiful weekend, complete with pizza in the park, a lovely walk, a dinner outside, and of course some Ted Drewes. The only food of note I made is a cupcake train for Mr. C's birthday. I will copy the recipes later, but I made apple cupcakes from here, this recipe cut in thirds and made into chocolate cupcakes, and this caramel buttercream for frosting.

Looking forward to another lovely fall weekend! Just a bit more homework between now and then...

A Red Meal, and Apple Mango Crisp

This isn't really a recipe. But I love lentils. And it seems obvious, but lentils cooked in veggie broth are a whole different experience.
We at them with beets sauteed on the stove, and tomatoes and corn.

Num. But does anyone successfully cook red lentils without them getting a bit mushy? I can successfully cook other lentils, but red lentils not so much.

And since that's not really a recipe, how about some Apple Mango Crisp?

Ok so this is not rocket science. But next time you are making apple crisp, add some mango. Num!

Cast of characters:
-3 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
-1/2 cup frozen mango (mine was from Trader Joe's), defrosted. I'm sure it would be even better with great fresh mango but I live in St. Louis and it's September.
-1 T lemon juice
-1 T sugar 
 
-1/2 cup white sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 cup flour
-1 stick butter, diced
-dash of cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients together. Blend in butter with a pastry blender. Set aside. Grease pan, and add apples, mango (diced into smallish pieces), lemon juice, and sugar. Top with crumb topping, and bake at 350 until brown.

I'm sure everyone has a favorite crisp topping, but this is thus far my favorite. Mostly (ok exclusively) because I don't need a recipe to make it. And if you're only making an 8x8 pan, you can halve the recipe!

Caramelized Apple Grilled Cheese

I love fall saturdays. I love them even more when they involve a trip to the farmer's market, the dog park, and coffee on our porch. There's a grilled cheese stand at the farmer's market, and last weekend they had a grilled cheese made with caramelized apples and goat cheese. Num!

We have now tried it out with two cheese options - first with goat cheese:

 and then with cream cheese:

On a fresh Companion bâtard, of course.

To make them, I just caramelized apples in a saucepan with a little butter and sugar, plus a little lemon juice. Then I lightly buttered the outside of the bread, and put cream cheese/goat cheese on each side, along with caramelized apples. Certainly not a health food, but a pretty great Saturday brunch, along with a muffin from one of our new favorite places, Pint Size Bakery:

 
Gertie likes September saturdays too:

Hope you have a lovely weekend! 

Relatively Ordinary Mac and Cheese

This Mac and Cheese was titled "revolutionary" here, and with a few tweaks it might be, but not this time. The "revolutionary" piece comes in it's preparation: the noodles are cooked in the milk, which becomes part of sauce.

Start with 2 cups of dried noodles (I used medium shells). Bring to a simmer in ~4 cups of milk. Cook 20-25 minutes, or until noodles are cooked as you'd like. Remove from heat, and add 1 cup cheddar cheese, and a bit of mustard (this part they were spot on about). I also added garlic powder and cayenne, along with some Tony's.

I think the key to actually making this revolutionary would be a greater amount of patience (shocker, I don't possess it ;) ). More routine stirring to prevent sticking at the bottom of the pan, and adding the cheese after the pasta is completely removed from the heat for a couple of minutes. I had turned the burner off but not moved it, and as you can see from the photos, my sauce broke. From my preliminary google search, it seems that happens when it's too hot...anyone else have any great tips how to avoid this blunder? (Dad?)



A very exciting post I know...a fairly flopped recipe. But that is what's cooking around here, and if you are one of the 5 people who read my blog, you've probably come to terms with that.

Hope your week is lovelier than this mac and cheese!