Sweet potato semi-fail

I have recently discovered that I love sweet potato fries, especially when they're well-done and crispy. Their sweet, caramelized flavor is SO GOOD. I haven't yet been able to replicate the flavor of my favorites from The Cheetah, but I did come sort of close to that toasted-marshmallow goodness last summer. Sweet potatoes called to me at the grocery store this week so I gave in and bought a few. Last night we had these "chips" (they didn't all get crispy) with our local grass-fed beef burgers (topped with sauteed mushrooms, local yellow onion, and local sharp white cheddar). I served some homeade-from-co-op-fruit apple/pear sauce as well. Let's call this my DDC meal for the week, though the mushrooms and sweet taters weren't local. (I'm not very good at this challenge. I know.)

The photos don't look all that appetizing, but they really were good. Well, the ones that didn't get so charred they were fed to the dog were good, anyway! After slicing the two large potatoes with my mandoline, I set them on a baking sheet but had too many to do a single layer. That might've been part of my problem. Aren't they a gorgeous color?

I drizzled them with olive oil, but as you can see here, I may have added too much because it kind of pooled on top when I went to flip them halfway through.

A sprinkling of sea salt and dried rosemary finished them off. After I flipped them, they went back into the oven but under the broiler this time, and came out like this.

You might be able to spot a few that went to the pooch. Once they were plated (bad lighting, oh well for dark Michigan winter nights) they looked like this:

The H, LG (little guy!), and I polished them off. Tasty.

So even though they aren't show-quality, what do you think about the addition of more photos? I've been trying to use more and not be so lazy about uploading them! I think they brighten up the ol' blog. Yes?

Meal Plan Monday

Meatless Monday -- Vegetarian fried rice

Tuesday -- Vegan split pea soup, modified for the slow cooker

Wednesday -- Date night at our favorite local place before co-op pickup!

Thursday -- Mushroom cheddar burgers with sweet potato fries (this is the one I'm most looking forward to, after date night!)

Friday -- OPEN (maybe a birthday party)

Saturday -- Corn chowder with apple grilled cheese sandwiches

Sunday -- (tentative) roasted chicken, fingerling potatoes, confetti kale (DDC meal)

Sunday, Sunday...

Lunch today was a gorgeous frittata with homemade chicken apple sausage patties made from ground chicken, apple, and onion from last month's co-op pickup. The eggs, potatoes, and arugula in the frittata were local as well; I guess that will count as my DDC meal; too bad I wasn't prepared with the camera!

After grocery shopping we had leftovers for dinner and I did some prep for a few meals, which included roasting and peeling three huge red bell peppers, de-flowering a gigantic head of cauliflower (I seriously almost needed two hands to lift it), and making a batch of guacamole since the jalapenos I had were getting wrinkly. Guess that's what happens when you stash fresh produce in the pantry and forget about it. What I didn't use for the guac I chopped and put into the wells of an ice cube tray to freeze for later use.

My meal plan for this week may look a little sparse; that's because The H is heading out of town for work mid-week, and I tend to either make things he doesn't like or scavenge the leftovers (hooray for a freezer stash!) for dinner.

The peppers I roasted are for lunches or a light dinner after a run one night. I've had these roasted red pepper sandwiches on my "to make" list for ages now. Instead of the ciabatta bread, I bought a seedy whole-grain loaf to use. Other meals are as follows:

- BBQ chicken breasts, roasted parmesan broccoli, brown rice (I'll make extra for other uses)

- Roasted red pepper sandwiches

- Branny's baked cauliflower and vanilla-bean roasted squash

- Jenn's turkey bolognese with rice pasta spaghetti, gluten-free breadsticks (made from Bob's Red Mill pizza crust mix), spinach salad

- And I'm hoping to bum a meal off my sister one night if/when she watches the little guy for me!

In my freezer stash I have chicken stew, beef stew, minestrone soup, sloppy joe filling, black bean burgers, tofu burrito filling, edamame, and countless frozen fruits (for smoothies) and veggies (for ad-hoc soups). If my household is going to die of starvation, it won't be this week.

DDC#3: Twice-Baked Potatoes

Tonight I made twice-baked parsnip potatoes, and in the process learned three things: 1) I do not care for the smell of parsnips when they are boiling, 2) Yukon Gold Potatoes are not the best for baking/hollowing/re-stuffing, and 3) my son will eat parsnips but refuse to touch anything green. However, I am proud to report that the potatoes contained 100% local ingredients (if you kindly overlook the salt, pepper, and not-very-green dried chives I sprinkled on top in a sad attempt to give them some color)! Ideally I'd have paired them with locally-raised chicken breasts, but co-op pickup isn't until later this month and I didn't feel like thawing and roasting the whole bird I have in the freezer since it's just the three of us.

The potatoes, as I implied above, were Yukon Golds. And guess what? Their skins are a *little* too thin for hollowing out. I had to leave about 1/4 inch of flesh all the way around to keep them from falling completely apart. But they were the only potatoes I had, so I made do. To the scooped-out potato, I added two cooked parsnips, about 1/2 cup of Michigan-made milk, and about 1/3 cup cup cooked and crumbled local nitrite-free bacon (from the co-op). I used my Microplane grater to shred the last of our locally-produced (co-op!) mild white cheddar, which I then placed on top before putting the potatoes under the broiler to brown. The very fine cheese let me get away with using less than two ounces for all eight potato halves.

The H said these were great, baby ate at least half of one, and when my super-stuffy nose granted me a split second to experience the sense of taste again, I thought they were pretty good, too. The parsnips added a touch of sweetness that I would not have imagined, given their dusty-basement smell while they boiled. Next time I make something like this, I will use baking potatoes and a stronger-flavored cheese. The goal for this meal was local as opposed to super-clean.

Ready for the broiler:

Ready to eat:

Dark Days Challenge: Beef Stew

This was my first meal for the DDC. It's been a month since our last co-op pickup and I am not (yet) a canner/freezer/preserver so our local-food stock was running a bit low. I had one package of grass-fed stew beef in the freezer and some carrot, potatoes, and onions left, so really my first meal for the challenge kind of put itself together.

The only non-local ingredients I added were some red wine (which could've been a Michigan-made thing, but I didn't want to open a fresh bottle for one cup), beef stock, and seasonings. Yesterday I made Jell-O (with juice) for the baby with fresh-picked-and-frozen Michigan strawberries, so we had that, too.

Aaand wouldn't you know the camera battery was dead. So just picture a steaming bowl of cubed Pontiac Red and Yukon Gold potatoes, diced red and yellow onions, the cutest carrots you've ever seen, and browned stew meat (and my son stabbing cubes of red gelatin) and there you have our dinner. We did have my sister join us, which was nice.

Tonight was co-op pickup, so hopefully I'll have more creative fare for next week's DDC meal!