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.

Foccaccia Bread

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup millet flour
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Put these dry ingredients into a bowl, and whisk them until they're combined. In a separate bowl, proof (put together and wait 5-10 mins to see if rising):

1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water
a dash of sugar

Mix together:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of honey

Stir everything up together. It should be a thick batter, like a cake batter. In a large casserole dish, preferably a 13 x 9 inch pan, drizzle a few teaspoons of oil into the bottom. Drop in the dough, and with a flat spatula, spread the dough to the edges. Sprinkle the top of the dough with more sea salt, some more Italian seasoning, and some parmesan cheese.

Let it rest in a warm oven for 20 minutes, and then turn the oven to 375. Continue baking for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and puffy. The oil from the bottom should be bubbling around the edges too.

You can slice these long and skinny to be breadsticks, or into squares or long rectangles that can be frozen and used for sandwiches.

This recipe came from here: http://glutenfreeinslc.blogspot.com/2009/11/gluten-free-herbed-focaccia.html

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

This is an Ina Garten recipe, so I can't take any credit whatsoever.

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Halve the sweet potatoes lengthwise and cut each half into 3 long spears. Place them on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil. Spread the potatoes in one layer. Combine the brown sugar, salt, and pepper and sprinkle on the potatoes. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn with a spatula. Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Sprinkle lightly with salt and serve hot.

I doubled the recipe when I made it the other day, and I didn't add any extra salt at the end. I actually didn't get to taste these really, I think I had one. I took some home but gave them to Michael, who also said they were good. So I'm taking your word for it. =)

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.