No More Mr. (Mashed) Potato Head

The easy to prepare and super-healthy sweet potato.

I may resemble ol' Mr. P., but I'll no longer horde the serving bowl of the heavy white stuff. Really. I've switched from the white Russett to the orange Garnet. The sweet potato falls within my lazy but healthy guidelines.

I do looooove to eat but, no love for cooking. My oven is more storage space than anything else. Fortunately, someone else steps up to produce the occassional blueberry pie.

The "how to" is basic stuff, but I'll stretch it into a blog post.
Quick prep -> Just chop 'er up.
















Easy - > Move circular slices from the cutting board to the steamer or tupperware. Beware, orange coloring may bleed out and tinge the steamer.



Healthy -> beaucoup vitamins and minerals and the carbs are healthy. Loaded with antioxidants and all that.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64#summary


The orange flesh will eventually brown when exposed. Prevent this by storing the unused slices in a small tuperware container fillled with water and keep in the 'frig. Yeeesh, that sounds rather Martha Stewart-ish, eh?

I typically run the steamer every night for ~20-25mins.

• Carrots sticks go into the bin first
  
• then a few broccoli florets
• maybe some green beans
  
• some red and green pepper pieces
• perhaps some frozen peas and/or spinach and/or asparagus and/or brussel sprouts
  
• topped off with a number of sweet potato slices

If the asparagus, peas or spinach are fresh I'll wait to throw them in when there is about 10mins of steamer time remaining.

Rinse plate and steamer. Done. Minimal clean up is key.

Gas: $2.07 on 11-30-05.

Thanksgiving '05

Some lively Italian wine.

The holiday went pretty well here in the DC area. The weather was not bad, the company was excellent, and the food was great, times two.

B flew in earlier in the week and she and Mom produced tea ring and pies for the holiday. Blueberry and pumpkin. Homemade crust and everything. Berries from Burdick's of course.


The Chantilly crew was in good form on Thursday.
Mark served up a moist and tastey turkey using a brining process. Pretty brave to go with a new move on game day.
I'll give Carol credit for everything else, including some real cranberries that I loaded up on twice.

E & M held up well with the boring old folks.

Phoenix and Aspen even seemed particularly chipper with happy little bursts of indoor barks.

Meanwhile, I managed to screw up just about every pic I snapped.

Friday was cold but clear. Bridget, Dad and I got in a run along the Potomac on the C&O Canal tow path. Aunt Pat and cousin Mary Pat were up from Florida and staying in VA. They stopped by that afternoon with cousin Jimmy's daughter Ashley and went out yarn shoppping with Bridget and Mom.

Friday evening Mom, Dad, B and I went out for some mediteranean food and then out to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda. The first symphony was by a Spanish composer. Featured a violinist. The second was Tchaikovsky's first symphony (got that?). I was surprised at how much I liked all of it. Of course, I know nothing about such music.

Saturday was Thanksgiving in Gaithersburg. Dad pulled off another good year... turkey, oyster stuffing, cole slaw, asparagus and more. And, another pair of pies by Bridget & Mom.

Zippy contribution from me, but I did perch near the kitchen and take a lot of pics, and by sheer volume managed to get a few that show recognizeable objects.

An "artsy" sense of the flurry of activity...


Keep it up with the pics blogger boy, I'm first for the food...
Hey, it's a plumpkin, till it cools...


Gas: $2.13 before the holiday.