There are two reasons why I will never have a truly successful cooking blog. One is that I can never have the patience to take pictures of each step of a recipe, and the other is that I cook too much like my mama. (A little of this, a sprinkle of that, a dab of such-and-such, and voila! I might have a delicious dish but I can't for the life of me tell you exactly how I made it.)
But last night I made up a recipe for scalloped sweet potatoes, and they were scrumptious, so I'm going to tell you how I made them. (Warning, this is a "sprinkle a bit of this" recipe, so if you're a stickler for exact teaspoons and tablespoons, read at your own risk!)
Autumnal Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4, but could very easily be doubled
You'll need:
2 medium/large sweet potatoes, thinly sliced
1 & 1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Dried, crushed Rosemary
Goat Cheese
Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
First, melt a tablespoon of butter in your baking dish,(mine was about 8×8,) and rub it around the bottom and up the sides. Then, arrange a layer of the sweet potato slices and season them with salt, cayenne pepper, and the dried rosemary. (Don't go overboard with the cayenne, unless you want the dish to be really spicy. You're going to season each layer, so there will be plenty of seasoning.) Then, crumble up some goat cheese and sprinkle it on top of the potato layer. Pour a few tablespoons of the cream over the whole thing. Repeat the process two more times, or more, if you have room in your dish and plenty of ingredients. Don't put goat cheese on the top layer.
Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake in a preheated oven at 375° for thirty minutes. Take the tinfoil off and bake for another thirty minutes. (Watch to make sure the top doesn't brown too much. It should brown a little.) Five minutes before it's done, take it out and sprinkle the top with the cheddar cheese. Pop back into the oven until the cheese is melted. Take out, and enjoy!
And, because it's that time of the year, here's Cindy Ballard's recipe for Pumpkin Bread!
You'll need:
1 & 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg {I like to use three tsps of pumpkin pie spice and one tsp cinnamon as the spices}
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orang juice
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
Stir together all dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine oil, oj, eggs, and pumpkin. Mix well. Add dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in pre-heated 350° oven for 60 minutes. Cool for five minutes and remove loaf from pan and place on rack to finish cooling.
But last night I made up a recipe for scalloped sweet potatoes, and they were scrumptious, so I'm going to tell you how I made them. (Warning, this is a "sprinkle a bit of this" recipe, so if you're a stickler for exact teaspoons and tablespoons, read at your own risk!)
Autumnal Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4, but could very easily be doubled
You'll need:
2 medium/large sweet potatoes, thinly sliced
1 & 1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Dried, crushed Rosemary
Goat Cheese
Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
First, melt a tablespoon of butter in your baking dish,(mine was about 8×8,) and rub it around the bottom and up the sides. Then, arrange a layer of the sweet potato slices and season them with salt, cayenne pepper, and the dried rosemary. (Don't go overboard with the cayenne, unless you want the dish to be really spicy. You're going to season each layer, so there will be plenty of seasoning.) Then, crumble up some goat cheese and sprinkle it on top of the potato layer. Pour a few tablespoons of the cream over the whole thing. Repeat the process two more times, or more, if you have room in your dish and plenty of ingredients. Don't put goat cheese on the top layer.
Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake in a preheated oven at 375° for thirty minutes. Take the tinfoil off and bake for another thirty minutes. (Watch to make sure the top doesn't brown too much. It should brown a little.) Five minutes before it's done, take it out and sprinkle the top with the cheddar cheese. Pop back into the oven until the cheese is melted. Take out, and enjoy!
And, because it's that time of the year, here's Cindy Ballard's recipe for Pumpkin Bread!
You'll need:
1 & 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg {I like to use three tsps of pumpkin pie spice and one tsp cinnamon as the spices}
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orang juice
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
Stir together all dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine oil, oj, eggs, and pumpkin. Mix well. Add dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in pre-heated 350° oven for 60 minutes. Cool for five minutes and remove loaf from pan and place on rack to finish cooling.
