Autumn Panzanella

Last week was my week to bring treats to Mommy & Me. I decided I wanted to bring some kind of autumn thing but nothing that was hard, too much like Thanksgiving the next day or contained meat. So, I decided to make a panzanella! I used two different recipes as inspiration and then came up with my own twist. The dressing I made for the class was dull but the one I had later was awesome. I recommend this recipe whole-heartedly. Also, these sweet potatoes are awesome and I recommend them on their own.  This would also be great with nuts but our classroom is listed as nut free. Add pecans if you don't have that trouble. I also don't really have measurements for this but anything will work.

Except for cutting the apple, you make make this whole thing 24 hours ahead. This made enough salad for about 10 people.

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
Two large packages spinach or one spinach + one mixed greens
One loaf of bread or one bag of 'bread for stuffing' cubes of dry day old bread (this was a variety pack and it was perfect)
dried cherries
dried cranberries
parmesan cheese, shaved or use a long zester to make strips, or just shred.
cayenne pepper
cinnamon
ground cloves
olive oil
salt
balsamic or lingonberry balsamic vinegar
1 large apple, diced just before serving
lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 425.  Toss bread in olive oil and salt and put on a rimmed baking sheet. On a separate sheet, toss sweet potato, olive oil, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and cloves and salt.  Roast bread 10-15 minutes until hard. Roast potato for 30 minutes or until tender, tossing in the middle if you remember.

2. Meanwhile, combine lettuces, cherries, cranberries, cheese, bread and a dash of salt in a bowl.
3. Make the dressing. In a lidded container add 1/2 C olive oil, 1/3 C vinegar, dash of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Shake and set aside
4. Remove potato from oven and toss into salad. Dice the apple and add.
5. You can either serve the dressing on the side or tossed. If you toss it, the bread gets a little soft and it is true panzanella.

Alton Brown's Sweet Potato Pie

Joey really likes Alton Brown's show and DVRs it at his dad's house for future watching. Recently, he saw a video of Alton making sweet potato pie which he describes as a better pumpkin pie--it tastes similar but is so much fresher since it doesn't use the canned stuff. The best part is that fresh sweet potatoes are a whole lot easier to work with than fresh pumpkin because all you do is peel, slice and dice. With pumpkins you have to scoop out the guts and deal with the thick peel.

I agree that this pie was super easy. The only problem was that it wasn't a huge hit at Thanksgiving because everyone went for their favorite classics as fast as possible. I think though if we hadn't brought a pumpkin pie as well, and we removed the toasted pecans from the top, people would've eaten the Sweet Potato and not really noticed a huge difference. I think that this was one of the prettiest pies we brought to Thanksgiving, of the five.

I learned that at Thanksgiving, sweet potatoes are suddenly synonymous with yams even though they aren't really the same thing. The first time I bought yams with a yellowish flesh. The second time (after one got moldy from improper storing techniques)I purchased red yams which were on special and they were really more sweet potato-esque with orange flesh. I'm kind of glad the first set went moldy cause otherwise the color would have been way off.

Ingredients

* 1 pound 3 ounces sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
* 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
* 3/4 cup packed, dark brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
* 5 egg yolks
* Salt
* 1 (9-inch) deep dish, frozen pie shell
* 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
* 1 tablespoon maple syrup
* Special equipment: steamer basket

Directions

Put cubed potatoes into steamer basket and place steamer basket into a large pot of simmering water that is no closer than 2 inches from the bottom of basket. Allow to steam for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Mash with potato masher and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place sweet potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment. Add yogurt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, yolks, and salt, to taste, and beat until well combined. Pour this batter into the pie shell and place onto a sheet pan. Sprinkle pecans on top and drizzle with maple syrup.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the custard reaches 165 to 180 degrees. Remove from oven and cool. Keep refrigerated after cooling.

Roasted Sweet Potato

Remember when I told you that my mom sent me a giant sweet potato for my birthday and instead of cooking it it grew? Well I decided enough was enough, my mom is on her way to town next week and I'm sure she'd be hurt to see that I never used the potato she sent me mid-July. So I decided to cook it up.

I cooked it two nights ago to go along with the Chicken Tenders and Corn. I knew that I'd be the only one eating the potato, but really, it was time. Speaking of time, I didn't have it on my side so I wanted to make something quicker than a baked sweet potato but still with the sweetness one might have at Outback.

I scoured the internet for a recipe with these key words "Diced baked sweet potato." I realized I probably should have gone with cubed, but I found what I was looking for on a site I have never before heard of. I changed the recipe a bit because of the other recipe I was making and because I wanted something just a tad sweeter.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes
2 large sweet potatoes (I used only my giant)
3 T olive oil
1 t salt
1 t nutmeg
1/4 t pepper
3 T brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400
Cut the sweet potato into cubes
Combine the nutmeg, salt and pepper
Lay the potatoes in one layer on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil and spices
Bake for 20 minutes or until tender
Move to a bowl and sprinkle with brown sugar
Microwave for 1 minute until brown sugar starts to melt
Serve warm

How to Grow a Sweet Potato

My mom sent me a sweet potato for my birthday. I am still contemplating my strategy for it. I think I will bake it and then consume it over two meals with honey-butter or cinnamon butter or butter and brown sugar. I think I will make it tonight and let you know. In the meantime, you can check out how much it has grown just sitting by itself with no sun or water alternating between seats on my table and microwave. How does it do it? I wish I knew the secret combination so that I could grow other things. Unfortunately, my green thumb is usually not so green--this is the most accomplished growing that I have ever seen pass over these hands!