Book 116: The Sweet Potato Lover's Cookbook | Iberian Sweet Potatoes

by Lyniece North Talmadge

Sweet potatoes or yams? Oh the controversy. It is my understanding that the sweet potato is the firmer, stringy, lighter skinned potato, and the yam which cooks up softer, has the purplish hued skin. The book's cover shows what I thought was a yam.



After the potatoes have been par-boiled and cooled, they are cubed and simmered with sautéed onions (shallots would be good too), bay leaf, chives, salt, lemon pepper and sherry for about forty minutes - just until the potatoes have finished cooking. I did not have any lemon pepper, so I added a small amount of lemon zest.

Ready to be served! Easy peasy.

Sweet potato or yam, no matter really - they were delicious, and I so welcomed the leftovers the next evening when I got home late and did not want to make dinner.

This would be a welcome change (or lovely addition) to your Thanksgiving menu.

You can find the recipe by clicking here.

Amazon

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Recipe found at Beyond Kimchee.

How cute are these?! They would look adorable on a Halloween buffet, or beautiful on the Thanksgiving table don't you think?

Not only are these pumpkin shaped, but they are made with pumpkin puree as well. However, there was not a discernible pumpkin flavor in these rolls - the recipe only calls for one cup - I am assuming more for coloring than flavor. They had the taste of your typical sweet dinner roll. 

These are really easy to make. If you feel you don't have the time to make the bread dough, or just not a fan of pumpkin, I'm sure you could use the refrigerated bread dough from your market or use your favorite bread roll recipe and shape accordingly. These would be just as cute without the yellow coloring.

After cutting your dough in several pieces and rolling the pieces into balls, the recipe instructs you to take a knife and make eight slits in the dough, leaving the center intact. I found it easier to use kitchen shears to achieve this. (I was in a hurry when I made these. Next time I would take more care in forming of the balls - stretching the dough smooth, for the imperfections show in the final product. )

After forming all your little pumpkins, poke a whole in the center of each with your little finger. This is where the "stem" will go once they come out of the oven.

 After the final rise, the center holes closed up a bit. Just poke them again before placing into the oven.

For the "stems" of the pumpkins, you slice the pecan halves lengthwise. You will have two stems from one pecan half. Once the rolls are out of the oven, place a stem where you poked the holes.

 Would you like a roll my sweet? Heheheheeee..

These rolls were more dense than I like my rolls to be. This may have been due to me overworking the dough. Still I enjoyed these, and they were fun to make. I'll have to give them another try - maybe try a plain bread version next time.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

Recipe from Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics
by Ina Garten




Let me start off by saying I would definitely use arugula in this salad as called for in the recipe; I used spinach that I had in the fridge that I wanted to use up. The peppery flavor of arugula would be a nice contrast to the sweet butternut squash. To me the spinach came across rather "flat" in taste and texture.

As for the dressing I did not have cider vinegar - used champagne vinegar, apple juice in place of apple cider, and I would cut the oil by half - all I could really taste is the olive oil. Not sure how much of an apple presence there would be if I had the correct vinegar and cider.

Monica of A Beautiful Mess raved about this salad; so maybe if I had the correct ingredients for the dressing it would have turned out better. This is definitely worth a second try and would look beautiful on the Thanksgiving table!

Success meter (1-3): 2

Make sure your squash is almost ready before

adding the cranberries. They turn out quite

chewy and hard if cooked too long.

The beginning of what I thought would be a great dressing.

Arugula makes for a prettier presentation. 

You can find the recipe at Barefoot Contessa and on Monica's blog.

Dinner for One (or more!)

This is a real quick and short post!

I want to share with you two tasty dishes I made for myself this past weekend while flying solo.

Both of these serve more than one, but I scaled the recipes down and still had enough for lunches as well.

Success meter (1-3): 3

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

I found the delicious squash recipe via Let's Eat!, where Ashley (our daughter) credits the recipe to Emily of The Daily Garnish. I am so proud of our daughter who is becoming quite the cook. She is the one who inspired me to start this blog and where I learned my photography skills from (I still have a long was to go). Thanks Ash! Love you!

The recipe calls for orange champagne vinegar which I do not have, so I added a bit of orange zest to regular champagne vinegar. I had a fair amount of stuffing leftover (I cooked only one squash - but the full amount of filling) and had it for lunch two days later. Still it had wonderful flavor.

The Brussels sprouts salad I found on Liz's blog at That Skinny Chick Can Bake and boy can she! If this recipe does not appeal to you, I'm sure you will find something that will.

The salad is garnished with grated hard-boiled egg (Liz omitted) and Parmesan cheese. The next time I make this I will add about 1/4 cup of cheese and a couple of grated eggs to toss in the salad itself for I thought it added a lot of character to this dish. 

As Julia Child would say - Bon Appetit!

Squash Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

Recipe from Bon Appétit | July 1998

Don't pass these up because they have no meat or poultry - they are fabulous! Even my sister who is a meat and potatoes kinda gal loves them. This would make a great addition to your (non-traditional)Thanksgiving menu, vegetarian or not.

I made these one evening when my meat loving sister was coming over for dinner and as they were baking she asked what kind of enchiladas we were having. I just looked at her, and she knew they were squash... how she knew I don't know. Maybe because I tend to use it often in recipes. We laughed so hard - she was hesitant to say the least, but she ended up loving them. Score!

Success meter (1-3): 3

We love the sweetness of the squash paired

with the zing of the salsa. Trust me - these

are really, really good. You'll be amazed.

Book Ninety: Complete Entertaining Cookbook

From Williams-Sonoma
Recipes by Joyce Goldstein



                                    Sweet & White Potato Gratin


Trying to tame my craving of something delicious, homey, and comforting, this side-dish hit the spot, along with the rest of this meal.

This may not be the healthiest dinner we've had, but man-o-man, was it good.

And how can it not be good - salmon with a honey-soy glaze, spinach salad with pear and blue cheese, and a gratin made with not only sliced Idaho potatoes, but also sliced sweet potatoes (my all-time favorite) and covered in a garlic infused heavy cream, and baked until the potatoes are tender and the cream thick, and well, creamy. Yes it's worth repeating - this hit the spot.

This gratin I'm thinking, would make a fine addition to your Thanksgiving table, when fat and calories don't count are not counted.

Success meter (1-3): 3

A mandoline makes slicing the potatoes a breeze.

 

Yep. The potatoes are good.

Book Twenty-One: The "21" Cookbook by Michael Lomonaco

Recipe: Wild Turkey with Ginger Chestnut Stuffing (substituted Apple Sage Stuffing)



(What a kawinkydink! Did you notice the title of this post? This was not planned!)

I purchased this book not because it is from the famed New York restaurant (actually I never heard of it) but because I loved the jockeys lining the balcony and stairs on the front cover; a short story about that follows.

There are a handful of recipes in this book I would like to try (in which I should have) however I have been thinking of cooking a turkey for a few days now (why do people think turkey is only for Thanksgiving?) and thought why not? Well, I'll tell you why not! This turkey did not turn out as expected. My turkey was larger than what the recipe called for (don't you think a "farm-raised wild turkey" is an oxymoron?) by just a couple of pounds, though it apparently was done before the allotted time for the smaller size. It turned out a bit on the dry side and quite pitiful looking. My Thanksgiving turkeys, when I have a million other things going on at the same time, turn out better than this one. I shouldn't complain; better now than on Thanksgiving when you have to serve it to guests!

I chose to make the Apple Sage Stuffing instead of the Ginger Chestnut Stuffing and glad that I did. I love sage and always seem to go for recipes that call for it. I like it so much that I added a tad extra to the stuffing. I advise to resist that temptation; it was a bit too much, but still very good. I have never made a stuffing which called for using eggs to the chicken stock and letting the bread soak up all the goodness before putting it into the oven. It was almost like it came from inside the turkey itself, so moist. I also made our trusted roasted asparagus with Parmesan (substituted Gruyere for I was out of Parm).

Success meter (1-3): 2

 This is why it is a good idea to always  

have a pan under your turkey.

Back side before turning over.

Thinking...beautiful. This is going to be good. 

Think it's done?!!

Bone slipped right out! Can you say "dry"?!

Pitiful.

Looks like a dried up old....

Andy salvaging the rest for

sandwiches, enchiladas, soup, etc.

Now for the stuffing!

The best tool ever

for coring apples, pears, etc.

This was good.

As was this, as always...

As I mentioned above here is the story about those jockeys (duplicated from "21"):

The Jockeys

The story behind this often-photographed statuary has been subject of much rumor and misinterpretation, including tales that they represent real riders, and that they are mysteriously linked to the Jockey Club, a private organization started in 1894 by a group of horseman on New York's East Side. Some have speculated that '21's jockeys are mere decoration. The truth, however, is far more interesting than all of the theories combined... '21' was home to the affluent 'horsy' set as far back as the early 1930s. To impart their personal stamp on the speakeasy-turned-restaurant, many breeders began donating jockeys as symbols of their private horse farms. Today, many of the brightly painted figures represent the country's most prominent stables. It all began with Delaware native Jay Van Urk, such a loyal patron that he had, in fact, his own private table and the distinction of having a '21' dessert named in his honor. Sometime during the '30s, Van Urk donated the first jockey to his regular haunt as a token of his appreciation. Thus, a '21' tradition was born. Over the years, some of America's most famous breeders and owners have followed in Van Urk's footsteps, including many high-profile '21' "regulars" from the Vanderbilt, Mellon and Ogden Mills Phipps families, as well as the Galbreath clan, owners of Darby Dan Farms. In addition, there is a jockey dedicated in honor of Secretariat, the greatest racehorse of all time. Two jockeys are also posted inside of '21's front door -- a welcoming tribute to equestrians and racing enthusiasts everywhere.