Happy National Sweet Potato Day!

Not as popular as it’s more practical brother, sweet potatoes are loved but not nearly enough in my mind. Packing quite a punch of beta-carotene and coming in a variety of orange and purple shades, today is truly a day for celebration.

And I celebrate by baking.

I started off with half of a big momma-bear of a sweet potato and after a rough knife peel and a quick chop, had about a cup and a half.

I ain’t winning any points for even-ness, but since this isn’t a Top Chef ‘mise-en-place’ race, I’m okay with that. Basically I just wanted to make these pieces small so they’ll boil faster.

While they boiled, I

Wrestled with a big frozen block of chipolte peppers in adobe sauce. (what I shaved off was about half a pepper plus a little sauce. But of course, adjust for your taste.

and I made a quick oat flour by processing 1/3 cup of quick-oats.

As soon as the potatoes were done cooking, I took the flour out and popped in the sweet potatoes, alongside the frozen peppers and sauce.

Added 1 tbsp of garlic, and 2 1/2 tbsp of earth balance.

At this point, you basically have whipped sweet potatoes with a bit of a kick. It’s be great on it’s own or mixed with a little lime and topped with a cajun-spice-blackened piece of tofu. But that’s not what I was going for today.

I added the oat flour, with 1/2 a cup of whole wheat flours, 1/4 tsp of baking soda and 1/8 teaspoon salt.

It took about 5 seconds to become a lovely dough ball. Which was then plopped down upon my roomate’s baking sheet (greased) in 1/4 cup patties. (Also notable, how messy I can be while cooking. Don’t worry, it all got cleaned up.)

And sprinkled with a little cornmeal on each side

Baked at 300 degrees, for 40 minutes, flipped halfway through. This recipe made 6 sizable biscuits.

Wonderful slathered in your favorite butter substitute and paired with any soup, including my curried chili (recipe for that one tomorrow).

Also I realized at the end of all this my lens had smudges on it. I apologize for all the blurs.

Remember to celebrate today!

Good morning!

Someone brought me bread! Delicious, overly processed, cottony, falling-apart white bread. Which in my culinary world can mean only one thing, peanut butter french toast.

First, we assemble the ingredients. I <3 peanut butter and co, and I especially love that I can get it for $3 at a discount retailer around these parts, but any smooth peanut butter will work. Also first post kink #1, I forgot to display cinnamon and 2 tbsp of flour. Basically what you need is:

1/2 cup peanut butter of your choosing.

1 cup milk of some sort (I like almond but as I’m sure you know there’s all sorts of varieties)

2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon (plus more for sprinkling on top)

Bread (3 or 4 pieces)

Banana and maple syrup for topping (I wish I had some tempeh bacon to go all Elvis’d out on this)

Combine the peanut butter and milk in a little pan, over medium heat just stir it all around until they meld together in a liquidy-smoothy consistency. Then you’ll want to stir in the cinnamon and flour as a thickener.

Now I like to use a spoon for the next bit of getting this creamy concoction onto the bread. Common sense works well here- spreadin’ it on one side which you then put face-down into another little pan (greased and on medium heat). Then spreading in on the other side while it’s cooking.

2-3 Minutes on each side worked on my cheap-ass dorm stove, but you know how french toast should look. Nice and cooked and a bit browned.

First post problem 2: My friends and I got mad greedy and I forgot to take a picture of this all nice, cut in 2 halves, overlapping and smothered in syrup, cinnamon and bananas. But I guess how it looked means less than how it tastes, which was delicious.

I hope you all out in bloglandia are doing well, if you’ve stumbled across this and have a bit of feedback or suggestion on what I should make next please do not hesitate! I’d be grateful, being new at this and all. Have a nice day!