Sweet & Spicy Sweet Potatoes

Isn't it amazing how your energy level can drop in just 4 hours?  I was planning dinner during lunch and it included making these sweet potatoes and I was going to finally make Kentucky Hot Browns.  I thought it would be easy to whip up a Mornay sauce after work when my sweet potatoes were in the oven.  I ended up with turkey on toast.  But the sweet potatoes are a success.  You bite into them and get the hint of brown sugar and then the cayenne jumps on your taste buds.

Sweet & Spicy Sweet Potatoes

1 large sweet potato, pared and cut into wedges
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne 
1/4 tsp black pepper

Place sweet potato wedges in a medium sized bowl.  Pour olive oil over and toss.  Mix together spices and brown sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle over potatoes.  Place on a lightly greased pan (an Anolon crisper works great) and bake at 350° for 1 hour.  Turn wedges every 15 minutes for even cooking.

Mashed Potato Soufflé

Here's another dish that is using up potatoes and cream before their expiration date.  I only wish that potatoes and poultry would photograph better.  

Mashed Potato Soufflé

6 potatoes, peeled and diced

3 oz Neutchatel cheese

1 large egg

1 cup cream

2 dashes hot sauce

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Boil potatoes until fork tender. Drain and whip together with cheese, egg, cream and hot sauce. Do not add any more hot sauce that the 2 dashes or else you'll have orange potatoes. Add in salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Place in a greased casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes at 350°

Parmesan Corn

I'm determined not to waste any food that I buy.  I've been guilty of it in the past but I'm working hard at planning and creating meals with what I find in my refrigerator, freezer and pantry.  This is the result of making sure to use up a few items that I found searching.  It uses corn that I froze last summer, leftover Canadian bacon and some milk that is due to expire in 4 days.

Parmesan Corn

2 cups corn
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Canadian bacon, diced small
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Stir in flour until a paste forms.  Gradually stir in cream and allow to thicken over a medium heat, stirring frequently.  In a small greased pan, combine corn, Canadian bacon and Parmesan cheese.  Pour thickened cream mixture over corn and stir.  Bake for 40 minutes at 350°.  

  Here's the saying that I want to make a print of or cross-stitch for my kitchen.  I first saw this on the back cover of my Salt to Taste cookbook by Marco Canora.  It's from a U.S. Food Administration Poster ~ 1914-1918 and it's still relevant today.

Tortilla Pizza

Spring fever has arrived.  It only took a dozen seed catalogs and a day of sunshine to have me cleaning, tossing, recycling and finally winding down to finish reading How I Learned To Cook by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan.  I enjoyed it.  If you haven't picked it up, this book and Don't Try This At Home also by Kimberly Witherspoon are fun to read.  A quick glance at the clock sent me into the kitchen looking for something for dinner.  I chose this over peanut butter toast.  It was a good choice.

Tortilla Pizza

Flour tortillas
Pizza Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Pizza Toppings of your choice

Pizza Sauce ~

15 oz tomato sauce
4.5 oz tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup onions, minced
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp honey

Heat a medium sized saucepan with the olive oil.  Add in minced onions and garlic and cook for 2 minutes before adding in remaining ingredients.  Remember to crush the oregano and basil in your hands before adding to the sauce so they release their oils.  Cook for 10 minutes over a medium low heat until the sauce thickens.

Place flour tortilla(s) on an ungreased baking sheet.  Top with about 2 tbsp pizza sauce and then your favorite toppings.  Bake at 400° for 15 minutes until tortilla is crisp.

Peaches n' Cream Jelly Roll

I'm not sure what made me start making jelly rolls as a teenager nor why I stopped making them.  Recently someone asked me to identify what a jelly roll pan looked like because they needed to bake something for a function.  I asked if they had ever had a jelly roll and was amazed that they had not.   I didn't dare ask if they had ever experienced a baked Alaska.  It's all good since now I get to cross another item off my recipe bucket list for the year and this is an upgraded version using icing from the plain ones I used to bake.  

Peaches n' Cream Jelly Roll

4 eggs at room temperature, separated
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peach preserves (do yourself a favor and use a good kind)

Icing

3 tbsp butter, softened
4 ounces mascarpone 
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Start off by greasing your jelly roll pan.  Place a layer of wax or parchment paper down (cut to size) at the bottom of the pan and grease that also.  

In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with 1/2 tsp vanilla until thick (at least 3 minutes) and then beat in 1/2 cup of sugar.  In a larger bowl, whip the egg whites until they form a soft peak.  Gradually beat in the other 1/2 cup of sugar.  Put away the mixer until it's time to make the icing.

Gently fold in the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites.  Gradually add in sifted flour and baking powder.  You don't want to over 5but make sure the flour isn't hiding into any little air pockets.  Spread out over jelly roll pan.  Bake for 10-12 minutes (it's done when you can touch the middle and it doesn't indent) at 375°.  Gently cut along edges to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.

Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel.  Hold towel tight across and turn over.  Carefully remove the wax/parchment paper.  Roll up the cake in the towel and allow to cool completely on a rack.

Time to make the icing.  In a medium bowl, mix together butter and mascarpone.  Gradually add in powdered sugar (covering the bowl slightly with your spare hand will save you clean up later because the powdered sugar likes to fly.  Mix in 1/2 tsp of vanilla last.

When cool, carefully unroll the cake.  Cut off any dried edges.  Spread the cake with the peach preserves and then a layer (approximately 1/2) of the icing.  Reroll the cake and place the icing on the outside.  Cut into slices approximately 1/2 to 3/4" thick.

Taco Mac & Cheese

Where is Spring?  I miss seeing green grass and hearing lawn mowers instead of shovels scraping cement and snowblowers.  This is part two of what I did with taco meat.  Will there be a part three?  Only time will tell.

Taco Mac & Cheese

4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 cups medium macaroni shells
1 1/2 cups mild cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup taco cheese
1 cup taco meat
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/4 tsp paprika
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Melt 4 tbsp butter and stir in flour.  Gradually add in milk, stirring constantly.  When thickened, remove from heat and add in cheeses.

In a casserole, put cooked macaroni, taco meat and cheese sauce.

In a small pan, melt 1 tbsp butter.  Add in Panko bread crumbs and spices.  Top macaroni mixture.

Servings: 8

Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes

Taco Grilled Cheese Sandwich

One pound of lean ground beef and my taco seasoning mix...this is a start of what I making using them together.  And since we're easing into the week...we'll start off with the easiest but tasty sandwich.

Taco Grilled Cheese

2 slices of your favorite bread, I chose a Buttermilk White Bread
softened butter
1/4 cup taco meat
Colby cheese, sliced


Assemble just like a regular grilled cheese sandwich.  Butter the outside slices of bread and place one piece face down in a frying pan.  Place a layer of cheese slices over the bread.  Top with the taco meat and place another layer of cheese.  Top with your second piece of bread, buttered side up.   Grill until a nice golden brown, carefully flip and grill the second side.