spicy baked sweet potato fries

I've been in sweet potato-mode lately. Not sure why that is but I want everything sweet potato. The other night I made chili-stuffed peppers with these sweet potato fries as a side. I won't list the preparation of the chili & peppers because I cheated and used canned chili. But I basically followed the same instructions as from my beef-stuffed peppers recipe. I just cooked the canned chili on the stove and added a whole chopped shallot plus some chili powder and cheddar cheese. Anyhoo, on to the fries. The original recipe I found called for 6 potatoes. So I cut it down to three and cut down all the ingredients by half as well.

3 sweet potatoes, cut into french fries
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp taco seasoning
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

I began by peeling the potatoes and slicing them into french fry slices.

So I had a pretty big pile of fries going on. Next I put the canola oil, taco seasoning & cayenne pepper in a bag and added the fries, shaking until the fries were evenly coated. Time to preheat the oven to 425°

Next I lined a baking pan with parchment paper and lined all the fries on the pan single layered (as well as I could at least).

I put the fries and my peppers in the oven and baked them. The fries bake for 30 minutes and then are removed and flipped and baked for another 30 minutes. So a total of 1 hour fry bake time.

my chili-stuffed peppers

An hour later - out they come!

The fries were pretty spicy. I think they turned out fantastic. They went real well dipped in the chili & cheese. I also suspect they would be amazing with some salsa, sour cream or ranch dressing. This one was super easy and super delicious. Yum yum yum!

artichoke pie

I was trying to find vegetarian recipes and I had artichokes in mind so I stumbled upon this artichoke pie recipe. The only thing I changed was to add the sliced tomatoes throughout. First I prepared the pie crust with my usual pie crust recipe. I did use whole wheat flour this time, trying to make it as healthy as I could aside from that pesky shortening >:( I just didn't think a banana crust would suit artichokes, but maybe if I'm feeling adventurous the next time I make this....... We will have to see..
So, crust first

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup water

Threw all those ingredients into the mixer's bowl and let it mix until it was combined well. I rolled it up into a ball and put it in a ziploc and refrigerated it until it was time to build the pie, which was about an hour.
So the pie crust dough was chilling while I began work on the pie innards.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3 (12 oz) jars artichoke hearts (7.6 oz each jar when drained)
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 eggs, beaten
8 oz fresh mozzarella
2 medium tomatoes, sliced

I began by chopping the garlic until minced. I've learned via novio that the trick to mincing garlic without losing any garlic flavor is to lay down some salt and chop the garlic on top, that way the salt absorbs all the garlic flavor. I laid down a bed of salt, then broke the garlic by mashing them with the flat side of a knife and continued to mince away.

pac-man!

Next I heated the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and threw in the minced garlic. I then drained the artichoke hearts and put them in a bowl, ready to hop into the pan with the garlic.

I sauteed the garlic until it just turned brown and then added the artichoke hearts. I cooked the artichoke hearts for about 10 minutes before adding the 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and half of the parmesan cheese (1/4 cup).

nom nom nom...

bread crumbs

After the bread crumbs and cheese were heated all the way through, then it was time to add it to the crust.

I got the crust dough from the refrigerator and rolled it out flat and fit it into the pie dish.

Once the pie crust was in place and ready to go, it was time to add half of the artichoke mixture into the crust.

Next I cracked the 3 eggs into a bowl and beat them fluffy before pouring them over the mixture and topping it with the rest of the parmesan cheese.

Next I chose to slice up two tomatoes and add half the slices layered in the mixture, and save half the slices for the top.

So the layers were as follows: half artichoke mixture, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, tomato slices, the rest of the artichoke mix and then the 8 oz of mozzarella cheese. Then one more top layer of tomato slices. Preheated the oven to 350°

beginning to bake

It baked in the oven at 350° for 45 minutes. When it came out I sprinkled it with parsley flakes for color.

I was just thinking that the people who judge vegetarians are ridiculous. I am not a vegetarian but I do appreciate that you don't need meat to have an amazingly yummy meal.

I was also thinking that I would like to take this recipe and try it with stuffed peppers. Use the artichoke stuffing inside peppers instead of having the pie crust made out of shortening would be pretty awesome. Or maybe even incorporate the rice from the traditional stuffed pepper style recipe. Hmm. Food for thought.

honey cornbread muffins

It was chili cook-off day at work for a fundraiser so I said I would make cornbread to accompany the chili other people brought. I wanted something very yummy so I decided on honey cornbread. Got some pretty good reactions from it too.

This recipe is enough for probably 12 muffins, but I yielded 10 because I wanted them to be heaping.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1/4 cup white cane sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

First, in a mixing bowl I threw together the 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of cornmeal, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of baking powder. I mixed them up real well and then created a "well" in the center of the bowl with the dry mixture.

Once the "well" was constructed, I added the 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1/4 cup of honey and the two beaten eggs into the well and began to mix everything together. When adding the honey, I usually spray the measuring cup with Pam first so the honey slides right out versus sticking. 

I let the mixer handle the rest of the mixing and beating, while I preheated the oven to 400°

Once it was thoroughly combined, it was time to pour the batter into the muffin pan which I had already pre-loaded with foil muffin cups. Normally they would be filled about 3/4 full but I filled them almost to the brim. I had two empty muffin slots on the pan so I filled them with water so that the muffins would rise evenly. I got that piece of advice from Foodista and it worked!

water in the vacant muffin slots

Baked the muffins in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

MMMmmm honey-licious

peanut-butter, banana & honey cookies

These were made at the same time as the smurberry cookies. Took them to work for a fundraiser. Both cookies were pretty well received. I wish these cookies however would have turned out a little more aesthetically pleasing. Oh, well. To begin-

COOKIES
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup white cane sugar
1/3 cup creamy peanut-butter
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 mashed banana (1 cup)
2 cups old-fashioned oats

GLAZE
3 tbsp creamy peanut-butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp honey

I began by getting a medium bowl and sifting together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. I set that to the side and threw together the butter with white and brown sugars. Mixed it well until it was smooth.

Next I added the peanut-butter, honey, vanilla extract and egg.

I mixed it until it was smooth.

see?, smooth

Now that it was super smooth, I added the banana and mixed until it was all combined and smooth again.

Once the bananas were mixed in well, it was time to add the flour and add the oats (not all at once).

old-fashioned oats

I preheated the oven to 350° and lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and began dropping heaping spoonfuls of cookie batter onto the baking sheet.

Put them in the oven and baked them between 12-15 minutes. While they were in the oven I worked on preparing the glaze. In a small bowl I combined the 3 tablespoons of creamy peanut-butter, 1/2 cup of confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1 tablespoon of honey.

Whisked the glaze smooth. Had I had an issue with glaze density then I would have simply added more confectioners' sugar or milk to adjust the thickness. In retrospect I wish I had added more confectioners' sugar to thicken it up a little because it did tend to drip off the cookies. I am certain it was supposed to drizzle onto each cookie and stay. As you will see in the photos below, my glaze drizzled into puddles all over the cookie sheet. Ha! There's always next time.

How the cookies doing?

Coming along nicely, I see..

So once the cookies came out of the oven and cooled down for about 20 or 30 minutes, it was time to drizzle the glaze.

completion

Wish the glaze was a bit thicker, but overall not to shabby. And I did get a hand-full of compliments on these.