Roasted cauliflower is so EASY

Don’t tell her I said that….but she IS.

There’s really no such thing as a roasted cauliflower recipe. It’s too simple for a recipe. First, you break up the head of cauliflower with a knife into pieces about this size. Then throw them all into a baggie like the one you see in this photo. Or a big bowl with a lid.

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Then you add into the baggie a splash of olive oil, a dash of salt and a thrash of pepper. I don’t know what that means. I just needed an __ash word.

Shake your sealed baggie until all the __ashes are spread evenly. This is why I like using the black pepper or a dark herb, it helps me see that things got spread around. Pro tip: Have no faith in the top of that zip bag. Always grasp that end tightly because it will spill open. One day. Probably when your family is whining and you haven’t slept in three days. You’ll be wearing a silk shirt and one floret will launch right onto your bosom and my warning will haunt you.

Dump the contents of your baggie onto a cookie sheet and pop into a 400 degree oven for, oh, 20 or 30 minutes. 20 if you like it lightly browned, 30 if you like it more roasty. I like it more roasty.

A few weeks ago I got a cauliflower that was the size of a Volkswagen. It would take me 6 weeks and a gallon of ranch dressing to get through this raw cauliflower. But….roasted?
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We ate a lot of roasted cauliflower that week, friends. Ok…I did. I tried to leave some for the others but you remember what I said about this cauliflower being easy, right?

 

Easy recipe for awesome sweet potatoes

I wish I had thought of this recipe, but I didn’t. I was shown this sweet potato method by a nice guy named Chef Kurt Fleischfresser one day while we were at the Culinary Kitchen in Oklahoma City filming a piece for NewsOK. By ‘we’ I mean several of my foodie buddies and the boyfriend. I can’t quite remember what the theme of the day was (several of those segments were taped over the course of a few months), but Chef Kurt rolled in with his usual swagger and dropped these potatoes into my world and my world was never the same.

They are great to make and reheat later. They are great to make and take to a party.  They are great to make in advance and pop into the oven the moment you are home from work, provided you’ve got an hour or so of other things to do before they finish.

They are HORRIBLE at allowing you to patiently wait for dinner because the smell of them baking and bubbling and roasting in your oven is almost unbearable. I advise popping them in the oven and going for a 50 minute walk.

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Slice your potatoes in half lengthwise with a heavy, sharp knife. Slice up an onion. I use a mandolin but you certainly don’t have to.

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Grab a your chiles and toss them onto a hot surface. This is my small cast iron griddle pan, mostly chosen because I am vain and cast iron = street cred. You aren’t cooking them, you’re just warming them up so they’ll be pliable enough to tear apart.

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Cover a sweet potato half in onion. Then cover it in halves of the ancho. Or strips of the ancho. Whatever you configure for your own pretty self.

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Then, oh so carefully, put the other potato half on the top and wrap the whole thing in bacon. Here you see two strips of thick-cut bacon. You could use thin just as easily. It matters not.

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Wrap the whole thing tightly in foil and place them all on a cookie sheet. (Which I forgot to take a photo of.) Pop them into a 400 degree oven for as long as it takes for them to be baked. These monsters took over an hour. You can save time and increase the bacon to potato ratio if you have smaller sweet potatoes.

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The results are a moist and tender sweet potato that is stuffed with soft onions, a earthy and not-too-spicy ancho chile. The potato skin (where so many vitamins lurk) is fork tender and melded with bacon, so it’s good and good for you.

Do you have any similar set-it-and-forget-it recipes you want to share?

Side note: I’m testing a new plug in. While you’re sharing your kitchen secrets, tell me what you think of the plug in or if you have a better suggestion. I’m still figuring things out over here. ๐Ÿ™‚

Ancho and Bacon Baked Sweet Potatoes
Sweet and savory dish everyone will love
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Ingredients
  1. 4 sweet potatoes, cut in half lengthwise
  2. 8 strips of bacon
  3. 1 white onion, sliced
  4. 3 to 4 dried ancho chiles, warmed and broken open
Instructions
  1. Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise. Cover a potato half with a layer of onion slice (will be 2-3 slices). Layer ancho onto the onion and top with the other half of the potato. Wrap each potato with bacon then wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for an hour. Longer for huge potatoes, less for petitie potatoes.
Notes
  1. You can tell when a potato is done when you squeeze it. If it's got give, it's done. If it still seems kind of tough, check again in 15 minutes. Please use a pot holder. ๐Ÿ˜‰
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A Room of One’s Own

When I returned from Camp Mighty I had some ideas. And I realized that for my ideas to come to life they (and I) had to have a space. We have a large house and after much mulling I decided that I would claim this weird little non-room sitting area in our bedroom as my own. With the blessing of my beloved, of course.

I decided that before I had the room I needed to get it all cleaned out and furnished appropriately. But where to put all the things? It’s sitting room acting as a junk drawer.

THEN! I created a Pinterest board for it! Which is a nice way to organize ideas and inspiration, but a terrible way of getting actual progress to happen. I did buy a lovely, simple candle for my writing desk, though. You know, the imaginary writing desk.

Then I hemmed. Then I hawed. Then I decided I needed to clean and organize my closet so it could contain at least half of the junk room. However, our mostly unfinished closet needs shelving and storage installations, which cost time and money.

And I want my space! NOW.

I was telling part of this story to my best friend yesterday and I can’t remember my exact phrase, but it went something like, “I need to stop waiting until the space is ready. I just need to make some space.” I love what happens when I get out of my head and get verbal.

I came home last night, grabbed some orange oil and a cloth and cleaned the sewing table in the sitting room. I lifted out the sewing machine, latched it into its case and reassembled the table top. I grabbed an extra dining room chair that we stash in the living room and set it in front of the table. I topped the table with some beloved trinkets and my technologies.

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The table hasn’t been sanded and painted. The walls are still contractor ecru. There’s no shelving or big comfy chairs. The clutter surrounds me. But as I sit here and type at the same table my mom used to make me things, I’m comforted. This space is enough.

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