Saturday, March 24, 2012

Sweet and Savory Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes may not remind you of spring, but I love to make these Sweet and Savory Roasted Sweet Potatoes as a side dish during barbecue season.  Considering that temperatures have been in the 70s around here for the past week, barbecue was on my mind.  Plus, our grocery stores have been featuring sweet potatoes on sale since Easter is on the way and people are preparing for elaborate and traditional family feasts.

This side dish takes a food that you associate with fall and winter (sweet potatoes) and gives it a fresh, light take for spring and summer.  Plus, it's so easy that you don't need a recipe... I promise.

You'll need 3 peeled and diced sweet potatoes.  I dice mine into 1/2-inch pieces.  You'll also need 6 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces, 3 cloves of crushed garlic, salt, pepper and about 1/4 cup of olive oil.


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Spread the sweet potatoes, garlic, and green onions on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil.  I also add a little salt and pepper (I like 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and about 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper).  Make sure you have everything spread in a single layer on your baking sheet and just roast the whole thing for 30 minutes, or until your sweet potatoes are fork tender.

Serve as a side dish with your favorite meal.  We like to make chicken, burgers and/or hot dogs on the grill and serve this as a side.


The sweet potatoes get nice and soft and caramelized around the edges, but you still get a nice savory bite from the green onions and the garlic.  It's yummy!

I still haven't been up to doing much elaborate cooking and baking (my sense of smell is out of control and I'm still sleepy all the time).  But, I do have news on the baby front... IT'S A BOY!  All of the old wives' tales (and nearly all of our family and friends) told us were were having a girl, but to our surprise we have a son on the way.  We're pleasantly surprised and we're looking forward to meeting him.

Check out his Phillies gear:


We haven't really bought much baby stuff, but I couldn't resist these.  As a matter of fact, I purchased them back in February as a baby gender-neutral Valentine's Day gift for my hubby... now we know they are for our little boy!

I can't wait to meet him and I still can't believe that our family of 2 (plus 2 dogs) is now going to be a family of 3 (plus 2 dogs)!  Wow!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Seven

My husband I celebrated our 7th anniversary on March 6th.  Last year we did a fun wine tasting voyage to New York's Finger Lakes region.  For our 5th anniversary we returned to the spot where we were married.   This year we kept it closer to home and a bit more low key... I've been sleeping 10+ hours a night and it takes all of my energy just to work all week.

We decided to celebrate at the highly recommended Chesapeake Inn.  It's only a half hour from our home, but it felt like we were much further away.  The restaurant is owned by the same family who owns La Casa Pasta, my favorite Italian restaurant in Delaware and the site of our rehearsal dinner back in 2005.

Chesapeake Inn is located right on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in quaint Chesapeake City, Maryland.


There are water views from nearly every table.  The menu as some of the the Italian/Mediterranean influence of La Casa Pasta, but has more of a surf and turf spin.  We enjoyed our meal.

Calamari - I think I always order this on our anniversary!

Filet mignon

Wolf Fish - fajita spiced and pan seared with a citrus-agave beurre blanc, topped with a scallion-roasted red pepper confetti

It was a nice (early) evening.  We had an early reservation, so we dined before 5:00.  That worked out well for me because I go to bed at 7:00 on weekends these days.

We enjoyed our meal and the atmosphere, but I must say that I prefer the menu at La Casa Pasta.  However, La Casa Pasta doesn't have the beautiful water views.


We had banana cream pie for dessert.  It had a buttery shortbread crust and was filled with fresh pastry cream.  The whipped cream topping was fresh.  Believe it or not, it was my first time trying this dessert.  I liked it all... except the white chocolate shavings.  I'm not a fan of white chocolate.

Oh, and look who decided to show up...


The baby bump!  At 18 weeks I'm finally leaning more toward looking pregnant than looking like I have a healthy beer belly.  I still get the stink eye when I'm out shopping (I think people think I let myself go) and I'm looking forward to looking more pregnant soon.  I'm also looking forward to feeling our baby kick!
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