Pass the honey, honey!

So this is going to be two posts in one because I am behind! And neither of them is soup! But I will be posting about soup in the next couple days, promise.

First up...

For Thanksgiving at my boyfriend's aunt and uncles house, we were assigned to bring a sweet potato dish. I scoured the internet for one that sounded delicious and easy and wasn't pureed, since I wanted my sweet potatoes to stand out and not be just another mushed up potato dish. I found this on Epicurious and it turned out amazing. I modified the recipe only very slightly (cooked at a higher temp, added some cayenne pepper and rosemary).

Wildflower Honey & Whisky-Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup light-flavored honey such as wildflower, orange blossom, or clover
2 tablespoons Scotch whisky (I used Cutty Sark)
2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
3 pounds orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
about 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F (I cooked the potatoes at closer to 400). Butter 2-quart casserole dish.

2. In small saucepan over moderately high heat, combine butter, honey, whisky, and sugar. Bring to simmer, whisking until butter and sugar are melted, then reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.

3. In large bowl, toss potatoes with butter mixture, salt, and pepper. Transfer to prepared dish and bake, tossing occasionally, until tender and glazed, about 45 minutes. Serve warm. (I cooked mine for an hour and they were perfect. When put back into the oven right before being served, the potatoes got super carmelized and crispy and were even more delicious than when I first took them out of the oven!)

These were so incredibly easy to make and super tasty. I think they will be a Thanksgiving staple from here on! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them after they were extra sugary carmelized, but this is what they looked like when I first took these morsels from the oven.




The other item I wanted to share is...
When my boyfriend's produce delivery service brought him an acorn squash, I was excited but then realized I've never cooked an acorn squash, what the heck do I do with it?! I found this recipe, thinking it sounded easy and it turned out even better than I had hoped for. Never having cooked any kind of squash besides zucchini before, I was pretty pleased with myself after this one.

This came from Ms. Paula Dean.

* 1 acorn squash, cut in 1/2
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preperation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Scoop the seeds and stringy pulp out of the squash cavities and discard.

3. In a small mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, butter, syrup and salt and pepper, to taste.

4. Rub the squash cavities and cut sides of the squash with the butter mixture and place them on a baking sheet, cut side up. Put about 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of the pan.

5. Cover and bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork. Serve 1 half per person.

I took mine out when it was falling off the skin and it was so so so so so so so good. I want some right now!

Poor Man's Soup

Otherwise known as "the soup I made yesterday because I'm on a Christmas budget". Or you folks might know it as Split Pea Soup. This was one easy and cheap soup to make. Although this soup has never exactly screamed appealing I have to say I thought it was quite good for a rainy winter evening. I took the original recipe from Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn but I modified it a bit.

Split Pea Soup
modified from The Kitchn

4 tbsp. butter
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, sliced or diced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cups of dried split peas
6 cups broth of choice
1/2-3/4 cup of half & half

Preparation
In a large, heavy pot (about 4 quarts in size) melt the butter and add the vegetables, and cook until the onions are soft. Add the bay leaves, thyme, garlic powder, and salt & pepper and stir. Add the split peas and stir to coat with the spices and the butter, then add the broth. Turn heat down to low, cover, and simmer for an hour. Check on the soup. It should be creamy and soft, but not so thick that it's like a pea loaf. If it's getting too thick, add a little more broth. The soup is ready when the peas are soft, about a hour to a hour & half. Puree in a blender if desired (I did about 3/4 of the soup and left the rest chunky). Add in half & half and serve.

Please excuse the iphone pics. Santa needs to bring me a god damn real camera.