Lazy Saturday Morning

The Saturday morning ritual I think is a sacred one.  It is the one day that we do not have to get up early for any reason.  We don’t have work, church and we do our best not to schedule anything in the morning.  The idea is to sleep in, lounge on the couch while watching cartoons and just hang out.

You know lay low like broccoli.

Be chillin like a villain. (Could I get any cheesier?)

At some point in the day we do a few chores. Hubby has the task of going through all of our mail for the week and deciding what is trash and want needs attention. Buster decided he would help him out.

He was reviewing every piece of paper that went into that bag. Diligently making sure that some important bill or piece of paper didn’t get thrown away.

Checking it once and checking it twice.

After awhile he was drowning in paperwork.

And it just kept piling up.

Finally Buster became very overwhelmed with all the work and just fell asleep. Hubby and I had to write him up for falling asleep on the job. No milk biscuits for him.

Sweet Potato and Poblano Salad with Honey and Rosemary Dressing

Sweet Potato & Poblano Salad w/ Honey & Rosemary Dressing

Last week I got my first issue from my new subscription of Bon Appetit.  I’ve been reading this magazine for sometime now but never subscribed to it.  Instead I opted to pay $4 to $5 a pop for each issue.  Finally I got wise and got a subscription, which is much more economically friendly.

This month’s issue has a lot of grilling recipes, which of course makes sense because it is grilling season after all.  However I am not much of a griller.  I am a true and proud pansy when it comes to the heat.  The idea of standing outside in the heat in front of a equally hot grill is just not my choice of fun.  I leave hot sweaty grilling up to the Hubby.  Meanwhile I hang out inside in air conditioning, sipping on a nice cool Arnold Palmer. 

Season sweet potatos with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Arnold Palmer is not some fella I have stashed away in my house while Hubby is outside grilling.  No worries.  An Arnold Palmer is what I believe to be one of the most refreshing beverages for a hot summer day.  It is equal parts sweet tea and lemonade.  Takes putting lemon into you tea to another level.  It gets its name from the golfer Arnold Palmer whose favorite drink  is a combination of half iced tea and half lemonade.

Oooops, got a little side tracked.  Back to the food.

Hubby was in the mood to grill.  Which I am always cool with as long as I don’t have to stand outside in the heat.  We agreed that some sweet potatoes would be nice but I didn’t want your hum-drum, butter + brown sugar + cinnamon sweet potato.  There just had to be another way to prepare sweet potatoes. 

Then I remembered seeing this recipe in my new magazine and I was all over it.  I will admit I was skeptical.  I had never had a sweet potato “salad”.  When I though of sweet potato, I always thought of them as sweet.  I always thought of pie or  you know the casserole with the toasted marshmallows on top.  Needless to say the concept of putting scallions, poblano pepper and dressing over my sweet potato was very new to me.  I guess when it comes to sweet potato you can say I am simple.

In a large bowl combine potatoes with dressing, scallions and poblano

Well let me assure you their is no reason to fear the savory sweet potato.  The potatoes were nice and tender with just a little bit of a crisp from the edges.  The salad has sweetness to it because of the potatoes and the honey in the dressing.  It also has a little bit of a bite…actually a nip, from the white wine vinegar and just the smallest amount of heat from the poblano pepper.  When you think poblano pepper you think “hot”, or at least I did, but it is a surprisingly very mild heat.  It may have been down played by the sweet potato but the combination of all the flavors melded very well together.

Toss and serve.

The entire salad was devoured and will be one of my new go to BBQ recipes. 

Print Recipe

 Sweet Potato and Poblano Salad with Honey and Rosemary Dressing  (adapted from Bon Appetit)

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot (about 1 small)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 1/2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, quartered lengthwise
• Canola oil or vegetable oil (for brushing)
• 2 fresh poblano chiles (about 8 ounces total),* seeded, diced
• 1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced diagonally (about 2)

Preheat barbecue (medium heat). Brush potato wedges with canola oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Grill potatoes 20 to 30 minutes, turning frequently. Transfer potatoes to work surface, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces, set aside to cool.

Whisk first 6 ingredients in small bowl. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place potatoes, poblanos and green onions in large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pineapple Curry Glazed Chicken Skewers

Pineapple Curry Glazed Chicken Skewers

I am so proud of this dish, I made it all by my lonesome, no recipe or cookbook used. If you like the flavors of coconut, pineapple and curry this is definitely a dish for you.   These delicious little morsels turned out even better than I thought they would.  I swear they were like meaty candied morsels….LOL.  They are savory and sweet with just a bit of heat, soooo yummy.  I will admit though I was inspired to use pineapple from Kayotic Kitchen’s twitter feed, she mentioned a pineapple version of her Peachy Chicken.   

Of course the best part about this dish was that it was easy to make.  Hubby said that this had to be one of the top five, although I am not really sure which ones the other four would be.   I would definitely use this glaze again, Hubby said to be sure to write it down so we can use it on the grill this summer.

I served these skewers over a bed of jasmine rice that I cooked with equal parts water and coconut milk.  Yum!

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Goodwill Hunting and Waffles…..it’s what’s for dinner.

 Today hubby and I had a nice relaxing, but full day.  We got up this morning and went to the gym and later in the morning I went to church where I had an activity with the ladies ministry.  When I got home Hubby and I decided to do some Goodwill hunting.  We like to scavenge the local Goodwills and Salvation Armies for interesting home and kitchen items.  I like to find dishes and Hubby seems to have a fixation with anything that is cast iron.  It is also a great way to “change up” your food pictures at a minimal cost.  You can find all kinds of intersting dishes and items to present your food on.  Here is a collage of my finds today.  My favorite find was a set of 4 glasses that will be great to serve a layered dessert in.  I got all of these items for a grand total of $20.00, considering there are 3 cast iron skillets in the find, I think it was a pretty awesome stinking steal.

When we got home I cleaned up a bit and prept the pasta dough for lunch tommorrow.  (I will be posting step-by-step photos of this)  Then we had to figure out what to make for dinner.  Yes, I could have made the pasta but it was already late and I still had to let the dough rest and roll it out, so we decided on something a little quicker.  Hubby asked if I wanted breakfast for dinner and I thought that was an excellent idea.  We got into the kitchen together and whipped up some waffles, yummy Honey Yogurt Pecan Waffles.  I found the recipe on Annie’s Eats who got it from William and Sonoma.

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