One of the Only Ways I Like Sweet Potatoes

If there is one thing my family can agree on, it is that no sweet food is allowed for dinner. Only dessert. Does that make sense? As in...we don't eat foods with sweet marinades, no pumpkin dinner rolls with maple sugar butter, no carrots with brown sugar, no sweet potatoes with marshmallows on them. I can't even remember ever even having marshmallows in the house growing up, for that matter.

Because of the "No sweets for dinner!" rule, I never had sweet potatoes until I met Alan. I thought I hated them, only because I didn't know of other ways to cook them. Alan told me there were other ways. I was hesitant.

I found this recipe and have adapted it along the way, and it is one of my favorites. Any time we have sweet potatoes on hand, I will usually make these. They're my favorite.

PS, although I said I don't like sweet things, this recipe does have a bit of brown sugar in it. Alan also taught me that a tiny bit of sugar in recipes will help bring out other flavors and also give a good crispness to certain things when baked...like these!

Hot Crash Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1 inch thick
1 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon New Mexico chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Using a saucepan, use enough water to cover your potatoes, salt the water and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and set the timer for 10 minutes – time from when you put the potatoes in, not from when the water starts to boil.As the potatoes boil, mix your spices together in a small bowl.

These ended up taking about 12 minutes, though you may need to pull some out as they feel "done". You want them to be somewhat soft but not cooked through. Stick a fork in 'em...you'll know if they're done or not. Let them cool off for 10 minutes or so – they will hold together a little better for the next step.

After they cool, squish em! I use a fork and make little criss-crosses in them, like you do with peanut butter cookies. As you do it a little bit at a time, the potatoes will start squishing down more and more for you. Try not to squish 'em too much though, you want them to hold together into disks.

Drizzle each of them with a tiny bit of olive oil and then sprinkle each one with the spice mixture, pressing it lightly on the surface. Carefully turn them over and coat the other side with the oil and the spices. Roast them in the oven, set at 375º for about 15 minutes, turn them over and roasted them another 10 minutes, till they had a nice crust on both sides from the caramelization of the sugar and spices.Aren't they so pretty? Every time I make them I add/subtract other spices. The other night I made 'em with more garlic than chili powder...I recommend sticking with the original recipe. It's tried and true!

PS: Try not to make them with those crazy huge sweet potatoes that show up in the megastores around the holidays. I get mine from the local health food center, which makes a lot of difference. The ones that are more than 2 inches in diameter are hard to squish and don't caramelize as much.

Christmas is quickly approaching

I absolutely love decorating for Christmas time. For that one month of the year, my home is shiny and pink and green and teal and red and purple and lights and ornaments and wreaths and trees. Love it. Here are several Christmas decoration ideas that I love.

Random Lovelies

I am notorious for saving photos off of various websites and blogs that I read daily/stumble upon, and here are some that are have been saved to my hard drive as of late.

This is simply adorable.

Hello there, bright yellow amoire. I love you.

Simply love this lampshade.

These are some gorgeous beauties.

I love catch-all type furniture/bookcases/etc

I also really love typography.

And this chair, too.

It's Been Awhile...

Just realized that it has been THREE weeks since I posted. So sorry.
To summarize the last 3 weeks:
1) Took a vacation from work.
2) Enjoyed every minute.
3) Got lots done.
4) Painted the living room (golden yellow)
5) Painted the den (rhubarb-ish red)
6) Ran all my errands
7) Went Black Friday shopping. Only went to 2 places. Scored major.
8) Made a great rug (more to come on this later)
9) Got our plumbing fixed!!
10) Got all my much needed hemming/taking in/sewing done.

It has been an incredibly productive last three weeks. Can't wait for the next 3!

If It's Not One Thing, It's Another

I recently won a Home Depot gift card from work, which is always awesome, but it came at a fantastic time because I am close to broke! I am close to broke, but really wanting to paint the living room. I knew that we needed another 5 gallon bucket of Kilz primer, something that I use in almost every single paint job I do...and I've got a ton left on the house! So, I spent the gift card on the primer, and figured that come pay day, I could buy the actual paint color for the room.

Today, I was working on moving all the furniture and boxes (yes, we still have not finished unpacking boxes. we're terrible.) into the center of the room to lay down drop clothes while Alan was working on another project. He came through the room and noticed that trap door in the floor (where an old furnace used to be) that covers the crawl space hole was warping. He lifted it up to investigate, and low and behold... there was a lake under our house. Fantastic.

So. We investigate and find that there in no longer much pipe working as a drain for the bath tub. There's a 6 inch section of pipe just completely gone, eaten away with age. And it's been that way for awhile. Every single time we shower or bathe, our water is running under the house.

And to top that (of course!) the pipe that brings in ALL of the water into the house has sprung a pretty big leak.

Amazing Neighbor came over and told us how to fix it and gave us plenty of advice on it. Now, does Alan want to get down in the 2 foot crawl space and work in the mud on something he hasn't ever done before, or do we call a plumber to replace all the piping? The answer to that question will be worked out in time. In the mean time, we have had to shut off the water to the house. Ugh. I'll keep you advised on how we make out in this situation.

And in case you were wondering, I didn't get to prime the living room for painting. I suppose I'll get to that later.