Wow. This is the third recipe within a week. I am definitely feeling much better.
I was sick for a longish time. I was already starting to be bad off when I first started this blog, and things got really bad for a while. I'm getting better now, and I can see the difference. Mentally, I am much more there than I was even two years ago. I'm solving puzzles again, I'm stitching again (I have a stitch blog too, which hasn't been updated in ages) and I'm once again planning meals a month at a time. Yeah, you heard that right. 31 days, to be precise, although it sometimes takes a little longer than that to go through all of them, because of holidays (eating out), too many leftovers (eating in), and sometimes I am tired and don't feel like cooking (frozen pizza, heat and eat, what I like to call French casual (fruits and crudites, cheese, good loaf of bread), or, yeah, leftovers). But on the whole, I like doing this because it takes the whole "WHAT AM I GONNA MAKE FOR DINNER, OMG IT'S 4PM AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO MAKE!" out of my life. Also, it makes grocery shopping way easier because you just get what you need for the next few meals (and breakfast and lunch and snacks, but...)
So, first, I set up a numerical list. Fish went on four times, beef five, pork and vegetarian/vegan six times each, poultry nine times and lamb once.
Then I went and listed everything so that I didn't make, say, chicken three nights in a row.
This is my lineup.
1 Pork
2 Beef
3 Poultry
4 Fish
5 Pork
6 Beef
7 Poultry
8 Vegetable
9 Fish
10 Poultry
11 Vegetable
12 Pork
13 Poultry
14 Vegetable
15 Beef
16 Poultry
17 Pork
18 Fish
19 Poultry
20 Pork
21 Beef
22 Poultry
23 Vegetable
24 Pork
25 Beef
26 Poultry
27 Vegetable
28 Fish
29 Poultry
30 Vegetable
31 Lamb
This is just a starting point and my personal random assortment. If you decide to do something like this, make your own designations of how many, what, and when.
So, then I went through the thousands (I collected them for years) of recipes I had accumulated, having cut them out of magazines and newspapers. I love to cook. I like good food. I am smart, and am both easily entertained and easily bored. Repetitious tasks are boring. Cooking dinner every evening is about as repetitious as it gets. So. Trying new recipes makes cooking every night way less boring and kind of exciting. Like, yeah, most of the ingredients in this meal are things I like, but some of them are cooked in a way I am unfamiliar with. Or, I like this food cooked this way, but it is really good for you and I want to cook it in healthier ways than the one I like it in. Which brings us to today's recipe. See, I love candied sweet potatoes. At Thanksgiving, the mashed are nice, but the candied are like dessert for a meal. What's not to love about that?
And here is the recipe, so you'll know what I'm talking about.
Candied Sweet Potatoes a la THE Magpie
1 or 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (about half inch cubes)
1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 to 1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
Put potatoes in a pot and boil for about ten minutes or until just tender.
Drain. Put the potatoes in a baking dish and dump all the rest of the stuff over it (1 potato, smaller amounts etc...) and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 F. That's pretty much it.
The Washington Post rand a recipe for a vegetable stir fry that used sweet potatoes. So I tried it. It is very good. It almost smells like perfume, and tastes like I always thought perfume should taste...
Hot and Sticky Vegetable Stir Fry
Sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine (Hah, if you've been reading this blog, you KNOW what to do--add at least two more cloves)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped fine
1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
1 teaspoon hot chili sauce (I just use two teaspoons hot sauce and two teaspoons brown sugar for these)
3 tablespoons lime juice
Vegetables
2 carrots
1 sweet potato
1 cup oyster mushrooms (I usually can't get these, so I use either Shiitake or Cremini here)
6 asparagus spears (get the bunch, save six out for this, and steam the rest, let cool, and drizzle with oil and vinegar, sprinkle with salt, and eat with grilled steak and some good bread)
handful of snow peas
1/2 pound shrimp, optional (I usually leave this out as I am going for vegetarian at the least--there is honey, so not vegan)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley or cilantro
Vegetable oil
Combine sauce ingredients.
Cut carrots and sweet potato into quarter inch strips about the length of the snow peas. Slice the mushrooms about the same size, cut the asparagus into pieces the length of the snow peas.
In a largish pan or a wok, heat the oil until it is almost smoking. Toss in the carrots and sweet potatoes, stir until coated and lightly browned (about 2 to 3 minutes). Add the asparagus and mushrooms and stir. Add the snow peas and the sauce mix. Cook until the sauce starts to boil and thicken. If you want to add shrimp, add the shrimp here, cook until they are done, about 4 to 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with parsley or cilantro, and serve. I usually make rice to serve with this, although I think it would also go well with noodles.
And yes. I found a way I like sweet potatoes that isn't exactly candied. :) I have another one that uses less sugar than this one. It'll be coming up in the future.
THE Magpie
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