Homemade Sweet Potato Fries & Honey Mustard

I've had a pretty great week. In the past seven days I've been at home with my family, started new classes, delivered a killer presentation, met and taught a group of awesome students, and landed two internship gigs. More on all that in the next couple of weeks.

There is absolutely no connection between sweet potato fries and all the things that have happened this week. Unless you count the fact that they are both awesome...which they are.

Sweet potatoes are one of those things I never really tried until college, but once I did I was hooked. Since I've been cooking for myself, I try to keep a couple in the pantry at all times. When I'm feeling super lazy, I poke a few holes in one, zap it in the microwave, and top it with peanut butter, cinnamon, and a little brown sugar for a simple lunch or dinner that tastes like dessert.

Messy, but oh so delicious.

If I have a little more time, though, I opt for the fry preparation (because let's face it, who doesn't like fries?). You could buy the frozen ones at the store instead...but if you throw them together as the oven's preheating, it's just as fast and even more delicious to make them yourself! This is the same basic method that I use for regular potatoes, except that I usually cook those somewhere between 400 and 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Use a sharp knife--sweet potatoes can be hard to cut.

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 sweet potato
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
(or other seasonings as desired)

Steps

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Scrub and dry the sweet potato; peel if desired (I like the skin, so I leave it on).

2.  Slice the sweet potato in half, and then into quarters.

Ugly on the outside, pretty on the inside?

Hold the round side of each quarter and cut it into slices, about half an inch thick.

These are a bit thick--I ended up slicing a few of those pieces
in half.

Rotate the potato quarter 90 degrees, so that you now have a stack of slices. Make two or three cuts through the stack so that you end up with fry-shaped pieces.

We are not striving for perfection here.

You can make these as thick or as thin as you want, but be aware that cooking times may change. I like to have some variation in size, so that some end up crunchy while others are still soft.

3.  Toss the fries with the olive oil. Add a bit of salt and pepper, and a few good shakes of paprika. Toss to coat.

For best results, coat the fries in olive oil first...

...then add the spices and toss again.

4.  Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil or Pam. Spread the fries on the pan in a single layer.

Just enough room left for a Trader Joe's vegetarian corn dog.
Which, by the way, are really starting to grow on me.

5.  Bake for about twenty minutes, turning halfway through. Prepare honey mustard sauce (see below) or whatever dip you enjoy. Barbecue sauce is also pretty good.

Flip the fries (and the corn dog) after about 10

minutes.

6.  When they start to brown a bit, or reach whatever texture you are going for, remove from the oven and serve!

Fries after baking.

Honey Mustard

The honey bear makes everything better.

Ingredients

1 tsp honey
2 tsp Dijon mustard (or to taste)

Steps

This is pretty self-explanatory: mix it together. Taste and add more honey or mustard as needed. Thin it out with a little vegetable oil, if desired.

Homemade honey mustard. Also good on chicken and pork.

Put it all together, and call it dinner!

Mmmmmmmm...

A vegetarian soup for those of us under the weather

That's one steaming pot of comfort food, right there.

The past few days have been sort of a setback for me, and from what I've gathered, for other people too. Some sort of bug is making its way around campus and it seems to have reached me.

I woke up on Ash Wednesday with a case of the sniffles and a headache. At first I chalked it up to the changes in the weather, and the fact that I got up earlier than usual for church. I did all my usual Wednesday things, including my run. But then at about 3:30pm, I crashed. I was so unusually fatigued that I took a long nap and didn't move much for the rest of the evening.

Fast forward to today. I felt significantly better, though still sniffly and tired. As much as I wanted to go for a run this afternoon, I decided that it's probably best to just wait it out. I'm hoping tomorrow or Sunday will be the day.

There is one good thing that's come out of this: a pretty good soup recipe.

Something that I've learned to pick up on over the years is that my body knows what it needs, especially when I'm sick. When I was trying to come up with something for dinner tonight, I realized that I wanted three things: onions, mushrooms, and spinach.

It took me a while to figure out to do with that combination. Salad? Too much chewing. Pasta? Maybe, but not what I really wanted. Soup? Yes! Broth, vegetables, and noodles. That was exactly what I needed.

I looked around for a recipe with those ingredients, but wasn't satisfied with any of them. I finally gave up and decided to wing it. I took a few ideas from the soup recipes I'd looked at and Ashley Lojko's Paprika Chicken (one of my favorite one-person chicken recipes). The result is what I'm calling Spinach & Mushroom Noodle Soup, until I or someone else can think of a better name. (Hint, hint.)

Spinach & Mushroom Noodle Soup
Makes 3-4 servings

Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion, sliced into "half-moons"
1 clove minced garlic
1 small can mushrooms, drained
Pepper, parsley, and paprika (or whatever seasonings you like)
1 extra-large vegetable bouillon cube + 3 1/2 cups water (or vegetable broth)
1 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles
2 cups fresh baby spinach

Steps

1.  Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cover the pan. After about 5-6 minutes, stir and cover it again.

2.  Check and stir the onions every few minutes until they start to turn slightly brown (I think this took about 10-12 minutes total). Add the mushrooms; cook and stir for another minute or two. (If you want to use fresh mushrooms, add them with the onions in the first step.)

3.  Add the bouillon, water, and seasonings. I took my inspiration from the Paprika Chicken recipe and used a little pepper, a few dashes of garlic powder, and lots of paprika. I also added some dried parsley and a shake of red pepper flakes (I think I'd leave the pepper flakes out next time, though).

4.  Bring the soup to a boil, add the egg noodles, and reduce the heat. Simmer uncovered until the noodles are cooked (8-10 minutes, maybe).

5.  Turn off the heat and stir in the spinach until slightly wilted.

And there you have it.

I apologize for the lack of photos and precise measurements in this post--I didn't think to take pictures or record details until the soup was almost done and I realized that it would be worth posting.

I'm hesitant to try and describe the soup, because my senses of smell and taste are a little out of whack right now. I felt that there was something a little "off" with the seasoning (I think it was the red pepper), but I can't be sure. But if you want to take my word for it, the soup was pretty good and almost exactly what I was craving. Plus, it came with a decent dose of Vitamins A and C, which couldn't hurt.

So for everyone who is sick right now: have a bowl of soup and feel better!