Sweet Potatoes with Tahini Butter

I started watching some Top Chef in these quarantine times, which I have not done in at least 5 years, and am finding it delightful. It's a nice switch from such copious quantities of news. Maybe it will help me transition to reading some more, which eludes me thus far in pandemic land. Though I have a nice stack of Sun magazines accumulating for when the inspiration hits. Anyway - Top Chef is calling my attention to ingredients and sauces, and some creative food wonderings. I've been on a bit of a tahini kick lately - spreading it on my sourdough teff toast with butter and jam, and yesterday when I was heating up previously frozen pancakes I made a topping of tahini/syrup/coconut milk that turned out really good. I always want a syrup-like topping that is not so sweet, that helps moisten the pancakes, and this was perfect.

The tahini-love lead to these sweet potatoes from a Bon Appetit recipe I flagged sometime in the last few weeks, and wow. I already knew tahini WITH butter was delicious from aforementioned toast, but this kicks it up another level (more butter than tahini). The recipe makers assure us that the tahini butter will all mix together, despite what seems incredibly too many liquids. I stirred for many minutes, and didn't get all the way there. Maybe my butter wasn't quite soft enough, or because my lime juice was too cold from being in the fridge? Or maybe I added a little too much lime, because I just squeezed in all of one? Anyway, I used my somewhat lumpy tahini butter and it was still delicious. The creaminess of the butter and the sweet potato, with a little crunch of seeds and the tang of the lime = Amazing.

I followed the recipe, except I baked my potatoes rather than steamed them, and I put some parsley on top. Link to the original recipe if you want their steaming method; I also reduced their recipe to 4 from 6.

Sweet Potatoes with Tahini Butter (serves 4)

2 lb. sweet potatoes, any color (4 small to medium)

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp tahini

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

Flaky sea salt

Toasted sesame seeds and lime wedges (for serving)

Chopped fresh parsley (opt, also for serving)

 

With chicken and a beet salad

1. Roast sweet potatoes in the oven at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes depending on their size.

2. Meanwhile, smash together butter, lime juice, tahini, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a small bowl with a fork until smooth, about 3 minutes. Season tahini butter with kosher salt and lots of pepper.

3. Arrange sweet potatoes on a platter or a large plate. Let cool until you can just handle them, then split open and generously spread tahini butter over. Season with sea salt; top liberally with sesame seeds. Serve with lime wedges.

 

Beef Chili with Sweet Potatoes

This is my mom's sweet potato chili recipe - it's super easy. She usually makes it with ground turkey, but I most often use beef. I had it this time with cornbread because I still had some kefir from making the skillet cornbread for my cornbread stuffing at Thanksgiving. So why not make it again to enjoy on its own?! (Also leftover labneh which I ate like sour cream on top!)

I'll be out of town for most of the week, and am prepping some meals that I can take with me to reheat. Chili, stew, and salad stuff. Seems easy.

Beef Chili with Sweet Potatoes
2 T butter
1 pound ground beef
1 large or 2 small onions, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno
1 T chili powder
2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 sweet potatoes (or one large one), diced
1 can kidney beans (or whatever beans)
3 14oz cans of tomatoes (or equivalent frozen garden tomatoes)
1 c frozen sweet corn (or more)

1) Saute onions and celery in butter until soft. Add garlic and jalapeno, and saute another few minutes.
2) Add meat and spices. Cook until meat is cooked through, breaking apart with your spoon.
3) Add tomatoes, kidney beans and sweet potatoes. Cover and cook until sweet potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
4) Add corn. Taste for salt, and probably add a little more. Serve!

Carrot-Sweet Potato Cakes (and hollandaise)

All the rain this spring created some beautiful, large carrots. I've been sort of holding back on picking them since the zucchini and green beans are first in order, but I picked a few this weekend to make these. I've made these latke-like cakes a few times over the past several months - but this was my first time making them with garden carrots. Yum! I decided to go all out and make hollandaise sauce too for a proper paleo eggs benedict. It turns out hollandaise isn't as hard to make as I imagined. I also didn't really realize that hollandaise is really just like a butter or ghee mayo, but with egg yolks instead of egg.

The original recipe for these fritters is spiced more sweet than savory, with cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg. I go more savory and just use salt and pepper for flavor because I find they make really good burger buns, or as a platform for an egg - they are sort of bread-like with the sweetness from the carrot/sweet potato. These cakes are similar to the root veggie latkes I posted some while back, but these don't include onions and are a little egg-ier. I find these ones simpler, and the extra eggs lend to a more bun/bread-like experience.

Carrot-Sweet Potato Cakes (makes 8 cakes)
1 cup sweet potato, shredded
2 cup carrots, shredded
4 teaspoons coconut flour
4 eggs
coconut oil for cooking
salt to taste at end

1. Mix shredded carrots and sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Add coconut flour and stir to coat the shreds evenly.
2. Beat eggs together and pour over carrot/sweet potatoes. Mix thoroughly. The mixture will be quite wet and shrink a bit.
3. Heat coconut oil in cast iron skillet or griddle on medium heat. When the oil is hot, spoon out (or use your fingers like I do), a heaping 1/4 cup's worth of "batter." Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until browned and a bit crispy. As the cakes are cooking, sprinkle some salt on each one. (You could add salt to the mix too, but I find this causes the cakes to get more wet - better to salt at the end.)
4. These are ready to eat right off the griddle, or you can keep them in a warm oven if you are using them for burger buns or eggs benedict. I've had them at room temp too and they are still good.

For paleo eggs benedict top these cakes with some bacon, egg, and hollandaise sauce (see below). Yum.

Hollandaise (makes about 1 1/2 cups)
*This is how I made mine and it was delicious. There are lots of recipes out there with varying amounts of butter and egg yolk, but this one worked for me. It helps to have a cooking companion to help pour while you whisk.
2 sticks butter (lightly salted or unsalted)
3 T water
3 egg yolks
2 T fresh lemon juice
Warm water

1. Melt butter (or ghee) in a small saucepan. Simmer on low heat.
2. Create a double boiler using a small pot with water in it, and a larger metal mixing bowl on top. You want rounded edges in the metal mixing bowl since you are going to be whisking and you don't want egg caught somewhere. Heat water in the pot to boiling. When it is near boiling, put your egg yolks and water in the large mixing bowl (off of the steaming pot) and whisk together for 30 seconds until frothy.
3. When water in pot is boiling, put mixing bowl on top (this is your double boiler) and continue whisking. It will take a minute or two for the bowl to heat, and what you are going for is a very subtle cooking of the egg and water. This will take another minute or two (so 3-4 minutes total), and you are looking for the egg yolks to become pale and creamy. They will leave a trail, or tracks, behind them that hold for a few seconds. As soon as this happens, remove the eggs from the double boiler and turn the heat off under the pot. Whisk the eggs another 30 seconds or so to cool them a bit.
4. Slowly pour in the warm butter as you continue whisking (still off the double boiler). This will take several minutes - you are adding the butter slowly because you don't want to "break" the emulsification. Once the butter is added, add your lemon juice. I like a lemony hollandaise, so kept adding it until it tasted right to me. 1-3 T should be good. Also add salt to taste if you used unsalted butter.
5. You can rest your sauce on the double boiler pot until you are ready to serve - don't turn the heat on, it will be warm enough there to hold it. Mine sat at least 15 minutes - I'm sure it can sit longer if you whisk it occasionally.
6. If your hollandaise is too thick: I like a slightly thinner sauce. If yours is thicker than you like, whisk in warm water (again a little at a time) before serving (I just used the warm water from the double boiler pot). I added 2-3 T worth until it was the consistency I like.

This recipe makes plenty to serve 4 (8 carrot-sweet potato cakes and 8 eggs); I had extra left over. And I have been eating it up! It was delicious spread on left over chicken breast and to dip my carrot sticks in. You can also gently reheat this - again in a double boiler - to bring back to the warm, pourable texture. Cold it is more like a thick mayo, or a very soft and creamy butter.

Carrot-Sweet Potato cake as a burger "bun" with mayo.

Roasted root breakfast veggies

This post has some music and food. Food and music. I've been listening to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros lately - it's like some kind of spiritual nourishment or something. You know how sometimes songs do that? I don't generally seek out music much, but My Charming Companion sends me "music transfers" over the email. One was the duo of songs below.

I spent much of yesterday listening to youtube music and cleaning the house, starting the day off with this really good breakfast (that filled me up and kept me going for hours!) I still am on the pork belly train and get them regularly, so breakfast included a couple slices of pork belly and some eggs. I love meals where you just put them in the oven and do some other stuff and then it is all done. Plus you can still get local carrots and beets right now, and maybe parsnips too. You could make this an entirely local meal except for the tahini sauce.

Roasted veggies with Tahini sauce
*makes several servings
1-2 large Carrots
1-2 med Beets
1 small Sweet Potato or Parsnip
1-2 T lard, ghee, olive oil

1. Chop everything in a small dice (if using sweet potatoes, chop them a bit larger than the other items since they cook faster). Coat everything in your fat of choice - I have plenty of excess pork fat and I use that and toss in a baking pan. Cook at 375 for 30-40 minutes, stirring once or twice.
2. While they are cooking, mix up a little tahini sauce: lemon juice, salt, water, and tahini. I like a lot of lemon juice, but just taste as you go, and add enough liquid so that it is a "drizzle-able" consistency.
3. Serve veggies with tahini sauce. I usually have plenty extra to just reheat the next morning or two.

Sweet Potatoes with Spiced butter and Pomegranate seeds

My feasting on Thursday was grandiose - everything was super delicious. My uncle smoked a turkey that was free from any gluten contact, and there were two grain free pies and lots of delicious sides. I made these sweet potatoes that turned out really delicious (I was a little nervous about the spicing).

The original recipe was in Bon Appetit using squash, but I tried it with sweet potatoes. It's a Persian spiced butter with cinnamon, coriander, lime zest and cardamom. The flavor was perfect: enough to be interesting, but not too overpowering to make it difficult to eat with other foods, and the pomegranate seeds were festive. I was making a double batch (7-8 lbs of sweet potatoes) and it all was pretty easy. I did not get any finished photos, alas. I meant to take one right before serving (with the pomegranate seeds), but of course was too swept up in the forthcoming eating to remember to take a picture. Imagine a blend of these two photos:

 Because this was Thanksgiving, I made a little extra effort and peeled the sweet potatoes. I cut them into a large dice - a little over an inch cubed. Originally I roasted them in olive oil and than poured the spiced butter glaze over the top, but were I to make them again I would just roast them in the butter glaze.

Spiced Butter

My double batch! Lots of sweet potatoes!

8 T butter/ghee
1 tsp fresh grated lime zest
1 T fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp pepper
salt

Additional ingredients: Sweet potatoes (3-4 lbs) and pomegranate seeds.

1. Make the spiced butter: Either in a bowl by hand or in a food processor, mix all ingredients except salt until combined. Salt to taste (I used about 1 tsp.) Use within a week, or roll up in parchment paper and refrigerate up to 2 weeks, or freeze for 3 months.
2. When ready to make sweet potatoes: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bring about 1/2 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Whisk in spiced butter, 1 T at a time, until all butter is incorporated to form a rich, glossy sauce. 
3. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into large chunks. In a large bowl, toss sweet potato pieces with 1/2+ of butter sauce. Stir to coat on all sides and use extra butter sauce if needed.
4. Layer sweet potatoes in single layers on sheet pans (with an edge) and lightly salt with a nice sea salt (I like Maldon). Roast for 20 minutes, flipping sweet potatoes midway through. Sweet potato pieces should be soft and browned.
5. To serve, pour remaining butter sauce over sweet potatoes and toss with pomegranate seeds.
YUM!

*Note: I learned an easy way to get pomegranate seeds from this youtube video. You basically score the pomegranate around the middle and pull it apart, then wack each half with a wooden spoon to knock out the seeds. I thought it worked great.

Roasted Chicken w/ Preserved Lemon and Root Veggies

Parks' "American Gothic"

I recently read the "One Read One Minneapolis" book, A Choice of Weapons, a memoir by Gordon Parks. Do you know Gordon Parks? I didn't. He is most famous for his photography, specifically American Gothic (at right), and he grew up in St. Paul. He grew up in the 30s and it is a really interesting read about race at that time in the Twin Cities (and elsewhere), and about all the crazy ways Parks survived, found ways to use his numerous talents, and create social critiques. His book actually has a forward by Wing Young Huie, the photographer who did the exhibitions of Frogtown, Lake Street, and University Ave. I thought the book was excellent. There is going to be an exhibit of Parks' work at the Mill City Museum, alongside photographs by Minneapolis high school students, in connection with the book. The exhibit opens tomorrow and will be there until spring.

The book has nothing to do with the recipe, but I do love reading while something is roasting in the oven, and I have been reading like a fiend lately. My curriculum seems to be "recent books by African American Authors." Other titles I highly recommend are Buck by MK Asante, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and Long Division by Kiese Laymon.

I love roasting chickens in this cold weather. It's nice to have the oven on, and it tastes so much more delicious than the rotisserie chickens at the co-op. This chicken was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to use the preserved lemons I made last spring, and I had some random root veggies I wanted to cook in the chicken juices. The preserved lemon on the chicken and veggies was Ah-Mazing - it added such a nice lemony/savory touch, and the drippings/sauce was incredible. The photo here is not mine (I am in denial about the loss of my camera), but is from Martha Stewart's recipe for roast chicken with preserved lemon. She does not pre-make the preserved lemon, but makes them in the brine for the chicken. I'm sure it's good - just more fussy.

Chicken (mine was 3.8 lbs)
1 preserved lemon (or a bit more)
salt
pepper
fresh thyme sprigs
root veggies - I used carrots, turnips, and sweet potatoes
onions
ghee/butter (room temp)
olive oil

I rubbed some salt all over my chicken the night before I was going to cook it - it was my replacement for brining. No need to be sparing, I did a nice Tablespoon or two and rubbed it on all sides, and put on a good few cranks from the pepper grinder too. I then left the chicken uncovered in the fridge overnight (or a couple of hours would be fine, or not at all).

I was making my bird in the morning before work, so I took the chicken out of the fridge first thing to bring it up to room temp. I am not sure why this helps, but many of the good recipes suggest it, so I followed suit. While it was acclimating, I chopped up the root veggies and an onion into coarse, larger pieces. (I cut the carrots lengthwise down the middle and then chopped them into 2" long pieces, and cut the onion into 6ths. The sweet potato cooks fastest, whereas the turnip was the slowest cooker, so cut the turnips smaller than the carrot, and the sweet potato bigger!) Throw the veggies in the bottom of a roasting pan and toss with some olive oil and several sprigs of thyme. I only lightly salted the veggies since they'll get the drippings from the salted bird.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prep the chicken. My preserved lemons still had rind and innards intact, so I cut the rinds off (that is the really tasty part), reserving the rinds in one pile and the (somewhat slimy) lemon innards in another. I sliced the rinds so that I could tuck them in the chicken skin. Using my fingers, I separated the skin from the meat of the chicken - it pulls away and becomes like a pocket. Tuck in the sliced lemon rinds here. Next, rub some ghee all over the chicken. I rubbed the lemon innards all over the outside of the chicken too. I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with 1/2 an onion, some big sprigs of thyme, and the rest of the lemon innards. Tie the legs together and set the chicken (breast side up) on top of your veggies. If you have one of those fancy racks that suspends your chicken over the roasting pan and veggies underneath, great.

Tie those legs together; this is breast up!

Stick the roasting pan full of veggies and chicken into the oven. I cooked it for 20 minutes at 425 (the higher heat browns the skin and makes it crispy), and then turned the heat down to 350 and cooked for another 60 minutes or so. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken, but you want the temp of the thick part of a thigh to come out to at least 160. (I was rushing and accidentally temp checked the drumstick, which was at the right temp, so I took out the chicken. Later I realized that the inner thigh was definitely not done and had to put the whole thing back in the oven - so be sure you check the right spot!!) Once the thigh is hot enough, remove the roasting pan from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before you dig in. It will finish cooking all the way through and all the juices will set and it will get really tasty. During the 20 minute rest, I took the opportunity to stir the veggies around in all the juices, and also added some minced preserved lemon. Parsley would be great stirred in there too - though I did not have any.

Finally - SERVE! The meat is delicious, and I loved getting bites of preserved lemon rind in there. The veggies were soft and sweet and also great with the preserved lemon. All in all the preserved lemon was the star of the meal because it made everything else so extra special.

*If you are without preserved lemon, just slice up a regular lemon and stick the slices in the chicken cavity with the thyme (no onion is needed in that case). I'd also rub a little lemon juice on the outer skin too, and squeeze a bit onto the veggies.

Roasted Veggies

The local veggies that seem to be brimming over at the co-op right now include about 8-10 squash varieties (I am really all about the kabocha right now), lots of mushrooms, and tons of root veggies - particularly parsnips, carrots, and beets. So I made up a big batch that I mostly have been eating for breakfast with some eggs - with fresh parsley over everything. I definitely did not follow this recipe exactly (also pasted below), but it had basically all the root veggies I happened to have in my fridge plus some brussel sprouts. The whole thing is creamy and delicious and carmelized tasting. And so easy!

Ingredients - feel free to swap or change amounts:
3 parsnips
6 carrots
1 onion
1 large sweet potato
1 lb brussel sprouts
olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh chopped parsley

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub carrots and parsnips (cut into 2-inch pieces if large). Slice onion in wedged slices.  Peel and slice sweet potato into wedges. Trim Brussels sprouts and cut in half. Toss all vegetables in generous amount of olive oil. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Spread onto a large baking sheet and roast, turning occasionally until cooked and browned, about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.

Sweet Potato, Carrot, Fruit Casserole

I finally got around to making this casserole recipe that is similar to my fave camping breakfast (dried sweet potato and carrots with cream and cinnamon). It tasted so good and oatmeal like! It does not seem to have been originally conceived as a breakfast dish, I just highly recommend it that way.

I edited the original recipe a bit, primarily to include less sugar/fruit, and it still was plenty sweet and delicious. You could still remove the prunes and it would be good too. I ate it this morning with some cream and coconut flakes on top. Mmm. Though the original recipe calls for peeling everything and cutting it small, I went the less fussy way and just cut everything up. Still good! I could see the high maintenance way being nice if you were hosting a fancy party or something. I mean, the photo is quite lovely with hose perfectly diced and peeled things. This makes a lot - I halved it and had enough for several meals. The recipe here serves 8.

2+ tablespoon butter 
6 medium carrots (about 1 1/2 pounds), cut in 3/4-inch dice
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 1/4 pounds), cut in 3/4-inch dice
2 Granny Smith (or other tart) apples, cored and cut in medium dice
1/4 cup pitted prunes, quartered
2 tablespoons mild honey
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)
2/3 cup water
lemon (or orange) zest (of half a fruit or so)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in a 3-quart baking dish in the oven while it preheats.
2. Place the carrots and sweet potatoes in a steamer set above 1 inch of boiling water, and steam for five to 10 minutes, until just tender. Drain and toss with the remaining ingredients in the buttery baking dish. Place in the oven, and bake 40 to 50 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes and carrots are thoroughly tender. Dot the top with a little more butter, and bake another 10 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Remove from the heat, and serve hot or warm.
Advance preparation: You can assemble this dish several hours before baking. You can bake it a day or two ahead of serving; reheat it in a medium oven.

Roasted Chicken Thighs/Roasted Beets & Sweet Potatoes

Well, as fall descends, my work schedule shifts to later hours. Which means I want dinner to be pretty speedy and/or easy, along with tomorrow's lunch prep. Last night I ate steak and some roasted broccoli (20 minutes total, but only 5 of that involved any action on my part). This morning I put 4 chicken thighs in the oven, along with 2 small sweet potatoes (cut into wedges), and 2 beets. They all roasted in under an hour, and I got 2 lunches and a dinner out of it, plus some extra sweet potatoes for breakfast tomorrow. And all I have to do is reheat it for dinner. I love fall and roasting things!

Roasted Chicken Thighs
4 bone-in, skin-on thighs
Olive oil
Spiced salt (I like Sel de Cuisine from Mississippi Market)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub olive oil and salt rub over thighs (all sides). Place them skin side down in a cake pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes, flipping over halfway through.

Roasted Beets and Sweet Potatoes

While the chicken cooks, throw in some beets wrapped in foil to roast, and/or sweet potato wedges. I coated the sweet potatoes in coconut oil and sprinkled on a bunch of the Sel de Cuisine. They only take about 20-30 minutes, depending on the wedge size, and can be flipped part way through. You could do giant wedges, which would finish up about the same time as the chicken. The beets take the longest: about an hour. Once they are cool enough to handle, peel off the skin (I just waited til I got home later that day.) I made a simple salad a la An Everlasting Meal from a couple of posts ago: slice or chop the cooled beets and top with olive oil, vinegar, a nice salt, and roasted nuts. Mmmm.

Chicken thighs sans 1 (it was in my lunch already)

For the fast dinner: reheat the thighs under the broiler for a few minutes on each side. They get piping hot, and can be served with the chilled beets, or along with the sweet potato wedges (reheated or not) making dinner cook time about 10 minutes.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Spinach and Avocado

I started making some sweet potato fries for dinner, and then realized I had some spinach and avocado and thought they would all be tasty together. And sure enough, I found a recipe online. I modified the recipe a bit, used the same dressing, and it turned out great. I really liked having the warm sweet potatoes and nuts on the fresh spinach. To make this EVEN easier, you could use any bottled dressing, or one without tahini and it would still be good.

2 sweet potatoes, diced
small onion, diced
coconut oil
4+ c spinach leaves
1 avocado, diced
1/2 c almonds, toasted
feta cheese (optional)

Dressing:
2-3 T tahini
1 T water (i used hot to soften the tahini)
1 T olive oil
juice of a small lemon
salt to taste
garlic, minced (optional)

Roast sweet potatoes and onion in coconut oil at 500 degrees for 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Mix dressing and toss with roasted sweet potatoes/onions. Layer sweet potatoes, almonds, and avocado over spinach and serve!
*Note that in photo i just put dressing over the top...I think it is better mixed in with the potatoes, but I didn't get a photo!

Roasted fall veggies

I went to the farmer's market tonight (only 5 markets left at Midtown!) to bulk up on some squash and try out the brussel sprouts. Things are quieting down at the market - they did have tomatillos at one stand, lots of peppers and tomatoes, some cabbage, onions, broccoli, potatoes...but it is definitely a smaller crowd. Oh winter, here you come.


I got home late and was tired - and opted to go for simple. I made a rice pilaf - which I am calling pilaf only because I used chicken broth instead of water. This made the rice seem much more exciting and flavorful with no extra work on my part.

And then I made a pan of roasted veggies: aforementioned brussel sprouts, sweet potato and onion. The final result was filling (pilaf is more filling than rice) and delicious. The sprouts were thumbs up, btw. Get your stalk and cook some up soon! (I hear the stalk is good roasted whole in a grill - have not tried that yet, but it sounds enticing, if also higher maintenance.)

Roasted fall veggies (not really modified from this blog post)
1 sweet potato, diced in large bites
1 stalk brussel sprouts
2 small onions, quartered
2 T balsamic
1 T olive oil
honey
salt and pepper

Remove sprouts from the stalk, wash to get any loose dirt off.
Make sure veggies are all dry before putting them in a roasting pan.
Mix up the balsamic, oil, and honey (1-2 tsps) and pour over the top.
Cook on 425 for 30-40 minutes, stirring a couple of times in the middle.
Generously salt and pepper (extra salt was really good).
Serve!

Deconstructed sweet potato hash with fried eggs

I have a cookbook from the library right now called "Five Ingredient Fix: Easy, Elegant, and Irresistable Recipes" and I had a little extra morning time this week, so I tried this breakfast. It is really simple - sorta seems like you don't need a recipe...but I don't tend to make caramelized onions for breakfast and I never use sage, even though it is growing in my garden. So, I found it inspiring and tasty enough to share. Note, there is a lot of butter in this recipe! I modified this for just me, but here is a recipe for 4:

1/4 pound butter
12 fresh sage leaves
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes (I did not peel!)
1 c. water plus more as needed
2 vidalia or sweet onions, sliced
8 large eggs

Melt 4 T butter in a large skillet on med-high heat. Add 4 sage leafs and fry until crisp (about 30 seconds). Transfer to a plate for later.

Add the sweet potatoes to the skillet and toss until coated in butter, then add remaining sage leaves and water. Simmer and cook the potatoes uncovered, until water is evaporated and potatoes are fork tender (about 10 min). If any excess water, spoon/pour off and reserve. Continue cooking potatoes another 10 minutes or so, scraping frequently until crusty brown. Add 1 T or so of reserved liquid if potatoes stick or scorch.

Meanwhile melt 2 T butter in a med skillet on med heat. Add onions and cook until deep golden brown, about 20 min. Transfer to a serving bowl. Wipe out the pan, add the last 2 T butter and fry the eggs, 2 at a time to your preference.

Plate the potatoes with the caramelized onions beside them, and top with 2 fried eggs and a fried sage leaf.