Smoky, Amazingly Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Guy and I just got back from a holiday trip at my mom's house. We didn't do our work share or pick up our box of food this week because we were gone. (Actually there was no work share this week, either way.) I'm eager to get back out in the dirt next week even though I'm sure it's going to be cold.

Aside from the chilliness at the farm, we're loving the cold weather. Cold weather means SOUP! I recently received an email from Rachel Ray about a smoky spicy sweet potato soup that can be made in just 30 minutes. While I'm not a fan of Ms. Ray personally, I've had great success with several of her soups and stoups.

Instead of the one chipotle pepper and teaspoon of adobo sauce that is called for, I used about 8 peppers and 1/2 c of sauce. I also used the sweet potatoes that we had from our last haul.

This soup is an easy delicious way to greet the cold.

Sweet Potato Pie Remix

On Sunday, Guy and I attended a Friendsgiving potluck party. Our contribution was a sweet potato pie (because it had been such a hit before).

We enjoyed the Good Eats sweet potato pie, but wanted to make a few changes. We wanted to change the boring pre-made pie crust for something that would add more to the pie. We also wanted to add some bourbon to the filling because pie is better with alcohol.

Behold, our second pie!

It's got a gingersnap pecan crust and the Good Eats sweet potato pie filling. Sadly, I forgot all about the bourbon when I was making the pie. But I won't forget next time.

This pie was a huge success! Everyone at the party loved it and it was absolutely demolished. I'm glad I got my slice early.

Potato, My Sweet

In an effort to use up our veg in interesting and delicious ways, as well as add to our paltry stock of kitchen items, Guy and I decided to eat our way through the Good Eats series. We'll learn about our food, try the recipes hands on, and have help buying those kitchen appliances and utensils that we so badly need.

Our CSA haul last week included four pounds of sweet potatoes, so we decided to start with "Potato, My Sweet" (Season 7, Episode 11). In this episode, Alton makes chipotle mashed sweet potatoes, sweet potato waffles, and (oh my!) sweet potato pie. He also talks about choosing a waffle iron. We already have a good enough waffle iron (plastic and square and without any of the functions Q suggests, but it works for us). What we did need was a steamer basket (we thought ours was lost to the moving gods) and a potato masher. We got ours at Target for about 13$ total.

We jumped right in to the sweet potato waffle recipe and, of course, we served it up with delicious pan-fried chicken. Guy made the waffles and I made the chicken.

All told it took us approximately 30 minutes and every bite of it was fantastic. A few days later I saw this post on Serious Eats and now we want to try those waffles with some leftover turkey and a cranberry chutney. OMnom.

The next day we made the chipotle mashed sweet potatoes.

I used about half a can of chipotle instead of just one pepper because we love it hot (we are Texans after all). Next time I'll use the whole can. My only concern is that the adobo sauce might overpower the sweet potato flavor, but I'm going to give a try and see what happens. We served it up with blackeyed peas stewed with greens and a good chunk of steak. So good.

Sweet potato pie was our last recipe to try. Even though it wasn't in the recipe, our pie was served with Cool Whip. We enjoyed it and so did our friends who ate the leftovers. However, I

want to try this filling with bourbon added (like this recipe) and in the gingersnap pecan crust that this recipe uses.

Overall results: "Potato, my Sweet" was a win. My favorite recipe was the chipotle mashed sweet potatoes. Guy can't decide between them. The mashed potatoes are the most practical recipe, one we can whip up really quick and will probably use often. But the pie was delicious! And so were the waffles! He wouldn't want to make the waffles in the morning though; it's more of an afternoon chicken-and-waffles thing.