Sweet Potato and Apple Hash

This recipe is one of our fall go-tos -- it's hearty and colorful and spicy and cozy, a real crowd pleaser. It's easy enough so that Anouk can help me assemble and "cook" it, and there's something about eating apples in a savory dish that I find really intriguing. Best of all, this dish is sort of a chameleon dish -- it's good with everything, from sausages to pork to roast chicken or turkey to breakfast-as-dinner, and, if you replace the sage with cinnamon and add a dollop of whipped cream, it even makes a super dessert.

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes

1 large apple

1 small onion

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or butter)

pinch sage

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and pre-cook in the microwave, for about five minutes, or until soft but not mushy. Remove, let cool, and remove skins. Dice sweet potatoes, apple, and onion and add apple and onion to a pan with the coconut oil. Cook on medium high heat until the apple is tender and the onion translucent. Add diced sweet potato, salt, pepper, and sage, and cook until the onion starts to caramelize.

Happy Monday!

Fondue party

I've been meaning to post about the fondue party playgroup we hosted in honor of Anouk's birthday since it happened, all the way back in March. But somewhere along the way I misplaced my SD card with the party pictures on it and didn't find it again until this past weekend (in the bottom of my camera bag...like, who would ever look there?)

Fondue might just be one of the best kids' party foods out there. It keeps little hands occupied. It encourages children to see food in a fresh way, to try new things in different combinations. It's fun, it's novel, and it's yummy. I think you could even make an argument that it builds motor skills, using those pointy little fondue forks.

We had two kinds of fondue at our party, with a whole tableful of dippables to go along with them. Strawberries, bananas, marshmallows and pound cake for the chocolate fondue; broccoli and carrots, french bread and homemade pretzels for the cheese. 

The talented Molly contributed both the charming vintage fondue pots and the sauces to go in them. The recipes are below -- with a few tweaks suggested for making them even more kid-friendly. The recipes come from a 1970s edition of a Better Homes and Gardens book titled simply "Fondue." Unlike most of the other recipes on this blog, there is absolutely nothing healthy about these recipes (1.5 cups of sugar!?) but sometimes you have to splurge, you know? So here you go.

Chocolate fondue (makes 6-8 servings)

6 oz of unsweetened chocolate

1.5 cups sugar

1 cup light cream (substitute full-fat coconut milk, if your kid has a milk intolerance like mine does) 

1/2 cup butter 

1/8 teaspoon salt

In a saucepan, melt chocolate over low heat. Add sugar, cream, butter, and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, about five minutes or until thickened. Pour into fondue pot, place over fondue burner. 

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Cheese fondue (makes 4-6 servings)

1 small clove garlic

3/4 cup beer (you can substitute unsweetened grape or apple juice)

8 ounces shredded Swiss cheese 

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese 

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Dash bottled hot pepper sauce

Rub inside of saucepan with cut surface of garlic. Discard garlic. Add beer (or juice) and heat slowly. Coat cheese with flour. Gradually add the cheese to the liquid in the pan, stirring constantly, till mixture is thick and bubbly. (Do NOT allow the mixture to become too hot). Stir in pepper sauce. Transfer to fondue pot, place over fondue burner. 

One thing to note: when they say "place over fondue burner," they mean right away. Our cheese fondue had to be transported and the sauce cooled and broke during the journey, which is why it looks kind of blobby in the photos. But it was still delicious! 

The chocolate was the big hit of the afternoon, as you might imagine. A table of kids plus a big old pot of chocolate? Who has eyes for anything else? We moms ate most of the cheese fondue and we let the wee ones have their fill of the sweet stuff. (A. was cresting the sugar wave for hours after, which is why this is best saved for a once-in-a-while treat). 

Just looking back at these photos makes me hungry all over again! Have your kids tried fondue? What did they think of it? What are some of your favorite things to dip? The BHG book suggests small boiled potatoes to dip in the cheese -- I never would have thought of it but yummm.

Salad People (and a recipe)

For most of her life, Anne has happily eaten whatever we put in front of her, but lately, she's has been a little picky, which I'm not used to. These days, there are only about four fruits and one vegetable I can count on her to eat without complaint (and no meat -- never a morsel shall pass her lips!) A couple of weeks ago, desperately in need of new ideas, I headed to the library to see if they had a copy of Moosewood Cookbook, the famous, award-winning vegetarian cookbook that, before it practically disintegrated from use, was a staple in our kitchen when J. and I moved into our first place.

Unfortunately, the library's copy of Moosewood was checked out, but I did come across Salad People, Katzen's cookbook written especially for preschoolers, and snapped it up, thinking it would be just the thing to brighten my toddler-food repertoire and to keep A. entertained (by something other than TV) in the afternoons when it's too cold to go outside.

Salad People has not disappointed. We're going to miss it when we have to take it back to the library next week, and will probably have to invest in a copy of it (and it's companion volume, Pretend Soup) for our own. A. and I have tested almost all of the recipes by now, but by far the one we like the best is the one for Raspberry Yogurt Swirl. She's had it for snack three times this week alone! It's equal parts yummy snack and art project, and it's easy to put together, which makes it pretty much the most perfect kid food ever. Here's the recipe, with a few tweaks.

Berry Yogurt Swirl (serves 4, or 2 if you like big portions)

You'll need:

• 1.5 cups berries (we'd eaten our way through the raspberries by the time this picture was taken, so we used frozen blueberries)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (you can also use apple or orange juice, but we like the kick of lemon)
• 2 cups vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt

Blend the berries, lemon juice, and honey together in a blender. Strain through a sieve if your berries have seeds, and decant the leftover liquid into a squeeze bottle (we used an empty honey bear for this; I think a [clean, obvs] medicine dropper could also work).

Spread 1/2 cup of yogurt on plate. Squirt dollops of berry puree into the yogurt, and swirl with a toothpick or spoon.

Eat and enjoy!

I can already tell that this is going to be a snacktime staple in our house. In the future (AKA after the next time I hit the grocery store), I'd really like to experiment with using several different berry mixtures for a tie-dye effect. The possibilities seem endless -- blended and swirled, the fruits/vegetables become colors rather than actual foods, and it seems like it would be pretty easy to sneak some of those verboten veggies in there without A. noticing. Maybe a green avocado and kale puree? Or orange carrot and sweet potato? What do you think?

Happy weekend, everyone!