Baked Sweet Potato Fries

In my latest grocery shipment, I got about five or six sweet potatoes — one of my absolute all-time favorite vegetables. They're simply one of the most naturally, but not overpoweringly, sweet and healthy things you can eat.

One of the things I don't like about them, and all potatoes, though is that it takes forever to cook them. To cut down on the cooking time while also attempting to still make a somewhat healthy side dish, I decided to try baked sweet potato fries.

Since I baked them, they did not end up having the crunch of a deep-fried fry, but it was still a great way to eat a sweet potato in under 30 minutes from prep to table.

What you'll need to make one serving:

1 medium sweet potato
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tbsp. brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Skin the sweet potato and cut into long, thin strips. I accomplished this by halving the sweet potato lengthwise. Then I halved each half, but with cuts parallel to the first. So I had four equally thick slices of potato. Then I took those flat pieces and cut them uniformly.

It's sad to say, but at this point if you have any small and strangely shaped pieces, they will most definitely burn in the oven. They are worth throwing out or perhaps cooking for half the time with a VERY keen eye on them. I became extremely adept at running over to my very oversensitive smoke detectors during making these potatoes.

Then I coated a cookie sheet with canola oil. Feel free to put parchment paper on the baking sheet so it's easier to clean. I added the strip of sweet potato and sprinkled the salt, cayenne and sugar evenly over the top. Then I mixed the whole batch around with my hands, making the oil and spice mix more even.

The cayenne does, of course, add some kick to the potatoes, but it was really well balanced with the sugar. Unless you're extremely sensitive to heat, I think you'll like this addition to this recipe.

My plan was to cook the potatoes for 15 minutes, turn them over and cook them again for 15 more. Thanks to my lovely smoke detector, I managed 15 minutes on one side and only 10 on the other. But the results were perfectly fine, a little darker where the slices were thinner, but not really burnt. I tend to like my food really crispy and only think toast is burnt when it's black. If you don't like that kind of texture to your food, I'd recommend cutting the ends of the fries so they're blunt.

I put the fries on a paper towel for a little bit before serving so the oil wouldn't get soaked up by the fries.

Though I longed a little for the crispier texture you get from deep-fried restaurant sweet potato fries, they still were delicious. I'm mostly overjoyed to have a new way of cooking sweet potatoes that takes 25-30 minutes.

Sweet potato fries with my portobello burger recipe from last month. 

Brussels Sprouts in Apricot Jam

My dad is a great cook. Between both of my parents, it's a miracle I don't weigh 300 pounds, because between the two of them, I'm pretty sure they can cook or bake anything. My mother does 100 percent of the baking duties, and growing up I'd eat a lot of very hearty, very American meals, usually a meat, a starch and a few vegetables. My father is about half Italian, and inherited that style of cooking, which he's also passed onto my mother. 

In a change of what I consider their typical kitchen roles, my dad set about to make pork roast, sweet potatoes, cranberry and apple stuffing, and some roasted Brussels sprouts serving as our green for dinner. 

While a lot of people don't like the bitterness of Brussels sprouts, I love them. They were even one of my favorite vegetables as a kid, and somehow I forgot about them for about 10 years until one day my roommate was cooking some. I tried one again and thought, "What have I been doing denying myself these delicious greens for so long?"

To balance some of that bitter, my dad decided to experiment and add some apricot fruit spread to the Brussels sprouts. Here is the ingredients list:

butter

Brussels sprouts

apricot jam

Very short, right? First my dad washed and halved the Brussels sprouts. 

He then added I'd estimate about three tablespoons of butter to a pan and turned the heat on. 

Once the butter was melted, he added the Brussels sprouts and cooked them until they were browned a bit on the outside and soft in the middle.

In a separate sauce pan, he put about a cup of apricot jam and heated it so it was warm and more fluid.

Here is where I think both he and I would recommend you diverge from how he actually cooked them. My dad added the heated apricot to the Brussels sprouts. It turns out when you do that, the Brussels sprouts absorb a lot of the jam and get a little soggy.

If we were to do it over, I think we'd plate the Brussels sprouts and drizzle the apricot over it, not using the entire mixture. Also, if one of my sisters was not a vegetarian, I'd like to see what this would taste like with bacon it. Bacon with Brussels sprouts is a very easy way to get anyone to find them more palatable. Perhaps I'd also add some ginger to the apricot jam.

Anyhow, the dish turned out having good flavor but was a touch soggy. This is a recipe for the drawing boards, but the entire meal turned out deliciously. My dad's pork was fantastic, as was the sweet potato. My mother, who has a bigger sweet tooth than I do, really liked the cranberry apple stuffing. I liked it, but in a smaller portion. 

Perhaps one day I'll expound on this recipe and give it another go! I'll see my family again in 10 weeks, so we'll see if I've got it nailed by then. 

Orange Honey Bread

I spent the weekend in Florida with my mom, dad and two sisters, and thought it'd be fun to have a guest blog or two, since basically everybody in my family cooks. 

My sister is very into healthy eating, and especially healthy baking. I can't remember the exact number she's lost, but I think it's around 20 pounds through tracking what she eats and balancing her intake with exercise. The point is, she still eats what she wants, just not as much of it, so you can totally bake your heart out as long as you're smart about it.

Here's what you'll need to make Michelle's orange honey bread:

2 tbsp. Smart Balance Buttery Spread (or substitute butter)

1 cup honey

2 egg whites from large eggs

2 tsp. orange zest

2 cups white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can add another 1/2 cup of white flour if you don't have whole wheat)

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

6 fluid oz. fresh squeezed orange juice (you can get both this and the orange zest from about 2 oranges)

1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

1/16 tsp. lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 325 and grease and flour a bread tin. The one we used was 9 inches. 

Cut your oranges in half and juice, making sure if it has seeds they do not get in the fluid. It's okay if the pulp does. 

Then take what's left of the orange and grate the peel to get 2 tsps. of zest. 

Add the butter to a mixing bowl, add honey and blend until smooth. 

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy but not stiff, about 2 minutes. This will make your bread lighter and fluffier. Add the orange zest to the egg whites and blend. Add the orange juice, vanilla extract and lemon extract to the egg white mix.

In a separate bowl, sift all dry ingredients together: white flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

Alternating as you go, mix the dry ingredients bowl and the egg mixture into the honey and butter mix until all ingredients are fully blended. 

You may have to scrape the underside of the bowl to make sure all flour is blended in. 

Blended and tasting good!

Then place mixture into the bread tin. This bread bakes at a pretty low temperature, 325, because the honey would otherwise burn, so be careful if your oven tends to run high. Michelle baked the cake for 60 minutes, when a toothpick came out cleanly. 

The result was a very moist, summery cake. And for a person, like myself, who prefers the flavor of white flour, the 1/2 cup whole wheat flour taste was barely there, completely overtaken by the blend of orange and honey. I really liked using this bread as a breakfast bread, toasting it and putting melted butter on top. 

If you cut the bread into 12 slices, it's 204 calories per slice, with only 1.8 grams of fat, 25 grams of sugar, and 8 mg of Vitamin C. 

Carrot, Date, Currant and Coconut Bread

It's been really hard for me to determine what to do with the carrots I have. I didn't want to just make some candied carrots as a side.

It hit me that I don't recall ever making carrot cake, though I love it. Instead of going for a full-on cake though, I thought I'd try a loaf. I added some Medjool dates that I had delivered to my house, along with some currants and coconut flakes. 

What you'll need:

1 cup of shredded carrots (about 1/3 pound, or 3 large carrots)

1/3 cup Medjool dates, pitted and chopped

1/3 cup Zante currants

1/3 cup shredded coconut

warm water

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 tablespoons canola oil

canola spray

For gluten-free people, I found a similar recipe on Whole Foods' website for carrot and date muffins that uses a blend of almond and either amaranth or millet flour. I'd imagine that would work with this recipe too, 1/2 a cup of almond flour and 1/2 a cup of either amaranth or millet. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

First, pit and chop the dates. a cut down the middle with a knife should let you peel the date back from the pit. 

Add the chopped dates to a bowl with the currants. Cover them with warm water to help reconstitute the dried fruit. 

Then shred up your carrots. I did it using a plain old grater.

Crack your eggs in a bowl. Adding eggs first will help if you accidentally get a piece of shell in there. Then add the canola oil and carrots. 

In a larger bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Blend until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Then add the coconut and blend again. 

Then add the ingredients from the carrot bowl into the dry ingredient bowl. Drain the dates and currants and add them to the bowl as well. Blend all the ingredients until you can no longer see any white flour and everything is evenly incorporated.

Then I sprayed a 9-inch bread pan with canola oil and poured the very dense mixture into it. I baked it for and hour, when I could pull out a toothpick cleanly.

Turns out, the dates are actually the stars of this bread, not the carrots. They're so sweet and add a lot of texture to the dish too. It's pretty dense, like it was as a batter. Perhaps if I wanted to lighten it up next time I'd add more oil or some apple sauce.

But the great thing about this bread is it is the perfect amount of sweet to be either a breakfast toast with some butter on it or a dessert by icing it with cream cheese frosting.

Apple and Pear Tart

After eating a few of the gala apples and d'anjou pears in my latest grocery shipment, I decided that these crunchy but somewhat blander varieties of fruit might make better for baking than eating. I much prefer eating fuji apples and bosc pears, particularly when the pears get a touch overripe.

I've made plenty of pies in my life, but never a blend of fruits, and I figured this was a good chance to test this out. I also have never made a pie to look like a traditional French tart, with thin slices of fruit standing up throughout the baking dish.

I put all these concepts together, with a few twists, to make a rustic looking apple and pear tart. What you'll need:

flour
shortening
cold water
two gala apples
two d'anjou pears
sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
butter

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. I had an 8-inch pie tin, which I sprayed with canola oil and lightly coated in flour.

Peel both apples and pears and cut the fruit away from the core. Discard the peels and cores, and then cut both the apples and pears into long, thin slices. Place these slices in a bowl and add about 3 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.

It is important you do this step before making the dough, because the longer a dough sits, the more dried out it gets, and the more difficult it will be to work with.

Now for the dough: Typically, tarts are made with puff pastry, but I figured an old-fashioned, U.S.-style pie crust would do the trick. I used my mother's (and her mother's, and likely her mother's) recipe.

Mix 1 cup of flour with 1/3 cup of shortening. I like to blend the two with a fork. Small crumbles of dough should begin to form when they're fully incorporated. Then slowly add cold water, typically about 2-3 tablespoons, until a dough begins to form. Now, a lot of things can factor into how much water you need, like humidity, so if you think you need more, you probably do, and vice versa. The goal is to make one cohesive mound of dough, not a flaky bowl of flour. I add about a tablespoon at a time until I'm satisfied.

Generously flour your tabletop. There is practically no such thing as too much flour in this situation. If your tabletop looks like the final scene in "Scarface," only then have you gone too far. Also coat your rolling pin.

Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and place on your floured surface. With your hands coated in flour (and rings removed), press this dough gently into a mound. Then, I like to perform a move that looks a little like I'm giving my dough CPR. Place your palms one on top of the other, much like CPR, and press different parts of this mound of dough out into a circular shape. This is a little trick I do to ensure that when I roll out the dough, it forms into a circle.

Take the rolling pin and evenly roll out this dough in all directions. If you're not sure how big to make the circle or if parts aren't stretched out enough, simply turn your pie tin upside down over the layer to get a good idea.

Now the fun part: Picking up the dough, and putting it into the pie tin.

This is my mother's trick: Pick up one edge of the dough and roll it onto the rolling pin. Now continue to roll the pin, picking up dough as you go. Once you can lift the entire dough this way, unroll it into the pie tin. It's a scary thing the first time you do it, but you'll get the hang of it. We're making this dish look rustic, so if it breaks, just pick it up and press it back together in the tin, no apologies! Never scrap your dough and try to start over. This overworks the dough, and you will never get it back to its original elasticity. Make a few fork impressions in the bottom of the dough.

Fill the crust with the pear and apple filling, stacking the fruits so they stand upright in the tin.

Dot the top of the filled crust with butter. Why? Because it's delicious — that's why.

I wanted this to look a little rough around the edges, so I did exactly that. I took the overlapping pie crust and just folded it back toward the center, leaving about a 4-inch-diameter hole in the center of the pie. Feel free to cut the excess crust and use a fork or your fingers to make a fancier looking edge. Make sure if you opt to cover the entire top with crust to leave holes so the pie doesn't puff up much taller than the filling.

Fun fact: Apparently the only real difference between a pie and a tart is if there is only a bottom crust. This one has a big overarching bottom crust, so perhaps this is somewhere in between technically.

I baked this in the oven at 425 for 50 minutes. I kept an eye on it, and about 35 minutes in, I covered the center with aluminum foil, because it was starting to get too brown. Do the same to any part of your pie you feel is in danger of burning.

It turned out great. The slices of apple feel very familiar, but then a slice of pear will come out of nowhere and wake up your tongue. One of my pears was particularly juicy, and slices of it make the whole pie come alive. Another dessert success for this blog!

Cooling Down With Kiwi Sorbet

In my latest grocery shipment were three little kiwis, a fruit I've always liked. Despite its seed-filled texture, I like the kiwi's sweet but unique flavor. My little fruit lesson of the day: Kiwis are actually called kiwifruit, their full name. They're also known as Chinese gooseberry, but were named kiwis in the U.S. after their very cute avian counterpart.

After watching a recent episode of "Chopped" with one of my friends, I decided to copycat an idea and make kiwi sorbet. It was so easy, and I didn't need an ice cream maker.

What you'll need:

3 kiwis (they can be a few days away from ripe)
water
sugar
liquor
lemon juice
powdered ginger

This recipe made about a cup and a half of sorbet, so multiply it to make more.

In a saucepan, add 1/2 cup of water and 3/8 of a cup of sugar (I just put in 1/4 cup and then half of that size).

Simmer until the sugar dissolves and then lower the heat for about two minutes. You'll know you're doing the right thing by using a whisk to mix the simple syrup. If a bead or two forms on the whisk when you take it out, you're doing the right thing. Wait for the simple syrup to cool. I just put it in the fridge away from other items.

Then I halved the kiwis and spooned their contents into my little food processor and pulsed it around a few times. Then I added lemon juice and, the best part, liquor! It helps keep the sorbet from turning into a giant ice cube, since freezing liquor is basically impossible using standard kitchen freezers. I happened to have some, ridiculous I admit, blue raspberry vodka in my fridge. (As a Florida Gator, this vodka is key to doing orange- and blue-themed shots during football games.)

I added about a teaspoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of vodka. I think a sweeter alcohol, like rum, would also work well. I'd advice against anything with a strong flavor, like gin. Just think of what alcohol you like in sweeter drinks and use it.

Then I added the cooled syrup to the mixture, about a teaspoon of ginger powder to add a more balance to the sweet treat, and pulsed it around a few more times. Place the mixture in a metal bowl, sealed tight with either a cover or a bunch of plastic wrap for a few hours.

I took the mixture out for about 10 minutes before serving it to my friends, who all seemed to highly approve. It was definitely something I'll make again. So easy and so mouthwateringly good. This would make an excellent summer barbecue cool dessert, and your friends will think you're some kind of culinary genius for making your own sorbet.

Squished Squash

I may have just prepared butternut squash in the best way I've ever had it. Pretty exciting stuff.

I've never been a big fan of butternut squash soups. I think they're too much like the pureed pumpkin you get inside of pies. There's something about that sweetness, especially coupled with that monotonous texture, I just don't get.

I'm in general not a huge gourd fan. They're edible, but I don't spend all summer dreaming of pumpkin cookies in the fall. I ultimately decided to treat my butternut squash like my true favorite orange vegetable: sweet potato. I added a twist to the recipe by spicing it up a bit with some powdered ginger.

Much like sweet potatoes and pumpkins, butternut squash are extremely dense and, therefore, difficult to cut up raw. I've seen recipes where you can just grill butternut squash after cubing it, but that seemed like a task my knife set was not up for.

To soften up a butternut squash for use in a recipe, simply cut it in half and then take out the seeds and strands, just like a pumpkin.

Then I baked the squash, insides down, in a baking tray with some water to add some steam to the process. It took about an hour at 350 for the most center part of the halves to be soft to a fork's touch. Look for the same qualities you look for in a done baked potato.

For the recipe, you'll need:

butternut squash mash
butter (or butter substitute, I used SmartBalance with added Omega-3s)
salt
pepper
ginger
maple syrup

I took the cooked butternut squash halves and scooped out the innards into a bowl. Then I added the butter, or in this case a substitute. I did this all earlier in the day for preparation for dinner later on in the night.

When it came to reheating the mash, I put it in a pan sprayed with some canola oil just to ensure it didn't stick if it overheated. Then I added about a tablespoon of maple syrup, a teaspoon of ginger, and salt and pepper to taste.

The result was delicious, sweet but spicy because of the ginger. It would make a fantastic addition to any Thanksgiving or fall dinner. I'm glad to add another vegetable to my cooking repertoire.