Fancy Baked Sweet Potatoes

I was reading through a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living (I told you I love Martha!) and saw these amazing looking sweet potatoes. There wasn't really a recipe, just a one page thing about how fantastic sweet potatoes are. The picture was gorgeous! I decided I must try them, and the opportunity presents itself shortly thereafter when I received a bunch of sweet potatoes from my produce co-op one week. I knew there was no way my kids would eat these, so I slated them for a date night dinner for the husband and me.

Fancy Baked Sweet Potatoes

Per serving:
1 baked sweet potato
1 cup roasted Brussels sprouts
2 Tbsp blue cheese
2 Tbsp dried cranberries
1/4 cup toasted pecans

Split baked potato lengthwise and top with Brussels sprouts, blue cheese, dried cranberries, and pecans. Serve.

*****

Doesn't get a whole lot easier than that. The sweet potatoes I had were pretty little, so I baked two for each of us. All other ingredients are estimated because I'm really not sure how much of each I used. These looked GORGEOUS--the orange potatoes, green Brussels sprouts, crimson cranberries, flecks of white and little bits of blue from the cheese. I was so excited to eat these...then I took a bite and was so disappointed. It was not at all what I expected and honestly I thought it was kind of gross. So did the husband. But we didn't really have anything else we could make for dinner at that point because it was late on a Friday. So we muscled through it, and surprisingly we discovered that the more bites we took, the more we liked it. The trick was to have a little of each component on each bite. We ended up both really liking it and cleaning our plates. I'm so glad it worked out because I was really apprehensive after that first bite and debated running out to get us a pizza. I'm glad we stuck with it and finished them off. It ended up being so tasty!

Holiday Brie en Croute

As I mentioned in my last post the other dish I made for our Christmas Appetizer Feast was baked brie. Normally I just throw a round or wedge of brie onto a sheet of puff pastry, fold it up, put an egg wash on it, and then bake. I had gone to the Pepperidge Farm website for something recently and saw this recipe on the main page. To say the least, it looked freakin' awesome. Since I had planned on doing baked brie anyway, I figured I'd go for this dolled up version!

Holiday Brie en Croute
© 2009 Pepperidge Farm, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved

1 egg
1 tbsp. water
1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1/2 cup apricot preserves or seedless raspberry jam
1/3 cup dried cranberry
1/4 cup toasted sliced almond
1 (13- to 16-ounce) Brie cheese round

Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 14-inch square. Spread the preserves on the pastry to within 2 inches of the edge. Sprinkle with the cranberries and almonds. Place the cheese in the center of the pastry. Fold the pastry up over the cheese to cover. Trim the excess pastry and press to seal. Brush the seam with the egg mixture. Place seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Decorate with the pastry scraps, if desired. Brush with the egg mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Let stand for 45 minutes. Serve with crackers.

*****

I made this with apricot preserves because I just thought it sounded better than using raspberry, which is kind of weird because I don't like apricots. I guess I can appreciate their flavor, though. This was warm and gooey and cheesy and oozy...everything awesome that baked brie is supposed to be. There wasn't a whole lot of this left when the night was done. I did have some for lunch the next day; my mom said it was even good cold, so I figured I wouldn't be doing anyone justice if I didn't try it that way to report for myself. And of course she was right, but really my mom and I like just about anything cold, so it wasn't a big surprise.

I had planned on making baked brie for my friend Jen B's baby shower in a few weeks, and I think I might make this version because it was so good. Assuming, of course, that she approves of it.

Picture to come! (I think anyway...I might not have taken a picture...guess I'll find out.)

Cranberry Nut Bread

I've had a hankering to make some kind of quick bread ever since Jen A. brought me an awesome thank you gift for hosting her baby shower--a Le Creuset loaf pan!! Don't I have the most awesome friends ever?! It was entirely too generous of her, but I'm so excited to own it. I had two bags of cranberries in the freezer that I bought around Thanksgiving when they were super cheap. I didn't know why I bought them, I just felt I should since they were cheap. Jen B. was telling me recently that she's been turning to RecipeZaar.com instead of allrecipes.com, so I figured I'd check there for some kind of cranberry bread recipe. This one got good reviews, so I went with it.

Cranberry Nut Bread
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. In large bowl, combine dry ingredients.
2. Cut in butter until crumbly.
3. Beat egg, juice and rind; add to dry ingredients.
4. Mix just until blended.
5. Add cranberries and walnuts.
6. Spoon into greased and floured loaf pan.
7. Bake at 350* for 65 minutes, until pick comes out clean.

*****

I happened to notice there was a cranberry bread recipe on the bag of cranberries that was almost identical to this one, only it called for oil instead of butter. That would have been easier--I hate cutting in butter. It's in the oven now, I'm excited to see how it turns out.

And I think I'm done baking for quite awhile now!

*****

The bread is yummy. I've had two pieces to test it and make sure it's okay. I used pecans instead of walnuts because those are what I had on hand. I think something is weird with my oven because I had to bake this for at least 80 minutes, if not longer. The coffee cake took longer as well too. Hmmm. Good thing I'm not baking any time soon. ;)