Breanne's Sweet Potato Salad

This is all that was left by the time I was able to take a picture

I adapted this from a Bobby Flay recipe that calls for mustard, but I don't like mustard so I used Catalina Salad Dressing instead.  The result is tangy and sweet, yum!

Ingredients
6-8 Sweet Potatoes (or yams)
4 scallions (green onions), chopped
1/4 c white wine vinegar
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
1 tbl of Catalina salad dressing
olive oil (about 4 tbl altogether)
1/2 c parmesan cheese
1/4 c fresh parsley (optional)
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.  Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread on a large flat tray and put in the oven for about 40-50 minutes, or until you can stick a fork through one of the larger pieces.  Try not to go too long so they aren't too soft.

Remove the sweet potatoes and sprinkle the chopped scallions over while they're still hot (you could also roast the scallions for the last 10 minutes of the sweet potato cooking time.  That's what I planned to do but I forgot so I just threw them on there while the SPs were hot).

Mix together the white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and Catalina dressing.
Slowly add 2 tbl olive oil while whisking to emulsify.

Put the sweet potatoes and scallions in a large bowl and pour the dressing mixture over them.  Toss it all together and sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese.

You can also add fresh chopped parsley if you want, but I didn't.

After I made this I thought it might be too weird but it turned out to be a big hit!  Thanks everyone for the nice compliments.

Pesto Potato Salad with Green Beans

I got a bunch of lovely fresh green beans from my co-op this week, so I was looking for a good, simple recipe to use them in. I don't think I've ever had so many green beans in my life, particularly because I've never liked them before. But I LOVE this salad. We've been eating it for days, it's fantastic even re-heated later.



I found the recipe on this site, which recommends making your own pesto. But I gave in and bought the kind that comes in a jar from the store. If you want the recipe for the pesto you'll have to visit their site.

4 pounds small Yukon gold or red-skinned potatoes, quartered
1 pound green beans, cut into one-inch segments
6 tablespoons (or more to taste) mild vinegar, such as white wine or a white balsamic
1/4 cup chopped green onions (scallions)
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
Parmesan cheese to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
(pesto)

Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 10 minutes. Add beans; cook four minutes longer. Drain well and let cool, then transfer potatoes and beans to a large bowl.

Toss the beans and potatoes with pesto. Stir in vinegar, green onions, pine nuts and season with salt, pepper and/or additional vinegar to taste. Finally, shave some wide flecks of parmesan over the salad with a vegetable peeler.

Serve immediately, or make this up to two hours in advance. It can be stored at room temperature.
(This was good cold, hot, room temp, whatever).

I did this a little differently. I cubed the potatoes and roasted them in the oven with some salt, pepper, and olive oil for about 40 minutes. Then I boiled some water, threw in the green beans for 4 minutes, then drained them and rinsed them with cold water (to stop them from cooking further). Then I just combined the potatoes and green beans with the rest of the ingredients. Yum!

Gluten-free Banana Bread

I know there are lots of recipes for this but I wanted to record this version we tried last week. It turned out really good.

1 stick butter
3-4 bananas, mashed
2 C GF mix + 2 t xanthan gum
1 C sugar
1 C finely chopped pecans
2 eggs
2 t baking powder
1 t vanilla
1 small pkg instant vanilla jello pudding

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and bananas. In a separate bowl mix GF mix, xanthan gum, baking powder and pudding. Add dry mix to wet and mix. Stir in pecans. Bake at 325 for 40-45 min or until baked through.

Smoky Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

This is a Bobby Flay recipe, that you can find here. It looked so easy (only 3 ingredients) that I had to try it.

This calls for a chipotle pepper. I have quite a few recipes that call for only 1 chipotle pepper, but each can has something like 8-10 peppers. So I found that it's easy to open a can (pictured), and then put leftover individual peppers into ziploc bags and freeze them.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon chipotle pepper puree
- 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 1/8-inch thick

This calls for "chipotle pepper puree." I just ran a mincer over my chipotle pepper on a cutting board and it disintegrated perfectly and I just scraped it right into some cream. The cream was really powerful enough to erase any of my fears about how hot this might be - it really just ended up having a smoky flavor that I liked. But, obviously, this was really, really filling. Which I kind of like because it's the perfect side dish - you'll only want a bit.

I used yellow sweet potatoes instead of the orange, just because that's all they had at the store. The yellow ones have sort of a lighter, more flowery flavor, but I'd also like to try this recipe with the orange ones. I sliced my sweet potatoes with a mandolin, which was blissfully easy, and I made sure to stop when I had about two inches of potato left and just thew away the nub at the end. It's not worth it getting any closer to the mandolin.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk together cream and chipotle puree until smooth.

In a 9 by 9-inch casserole dish, arrange the potatoes in even layers. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the cream mixture and add a new layer of sweet potatoes and cream. Continue layering, and season every 3rd (or so) layer with salt and pepper. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, cream, and salt and pepper to form 10(ish) layers.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes, remove cover and continue baking for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the cream has been absorbed and the potatoes are cooked through and the top is browned.

When I did this the cream didn't get absorbed all the way but it didn't really matter. It was delicious. It makes about 6 servings.

Garden Linguini

Here's a recipe out of my cookbook. (p31)

I used a green bell pepper instead of red and onion powder because the kids don't like onions right now. It's a fun vegetarian meal to try!




Ingredients:
8 ounces linguini or rotini pasta
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms
½ cup sliced onions
2 cups snow peas, cut into halves
2 cups diced zucchini
½ red pepper, cut into strips (optional)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup Parmesan cheese

Cook linguini as directed on package; drain. Set aside. Heat oil and butter in saucepan; sauté mushrooms, onions, snow peas, zucchini and bell pepper, if desired, until crisp-tender. Remove saucepan from heat. Add seasonings to vegetable mixture. Toss with linguini. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top.