{EwE} Easter Eats

Easter is almost upon us.  A glorious time of the year.  While it is a time of joy it is also a time of struggle.  Not an important struggle.  Just trying to plan an Easter menu when there are so many likes and dislikes in tastes.  Usually we have ham.  And rolls.  And a veggie.  But this year I’m not planning the meal.  The Daughter is.  No worries here.  This year!!

One of the veggies we usually have is a sweet potato dish.  Sauteed.  Fried.  Baked.  This year something different.  Ellie’s Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Orange Essence. Not very different you say.  It’s not the dish – it’s the orange essence.  NOT a usual flavoring in our sweet ‘taters.

This is the way my Mom used to make them.  But I make them with pecans, brown sugar, and pralines.

Not to say I didn’t like Mom’s.  I just got used to making them differently.  Ellie’s is very close to my Mom’s.

Mashed sweet taters with a touch of brown sugar, nutmeg, orange zest, and orange juice. Just the right amount of everything.

The recipe is simple to make and comes from Ellie’s The Food You Crave  page 267.   It’s also HERE!

Thanks, Kayte, for this week’s theme.

Need more Easter Eats -> Eating with Ellie.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter!

 

{IHCC} Chicken baked on sweet potato rosti

Chicken has become a mainstay of our diet. We eat a lot of chicken so I am always looking for new ways to cook it. Especially tasty ways. This recipe from Donna Hay, our Featured Chef this month for I Heart Cooking Clubs, fits the bill perfectly.

Simply put this is a tasty chicken breast that is browned in a little oil and then baked a few more minutes on a pile of thinly sliced sweet potato that has been baked.  The slices are tossed with olive oil, crushed garlic and grated Parmesan before they are ‘crisped’ in the oven.

Donna calls for chicken breasts with the skin on, but I really don’t like them so I used a boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Worked just fine.

Unfortunately my sweet potato slices didn’t ‘crisp’ very well.  And then ‘browned’ long before they were supposed to be done.  But they were good with the garlic flavor and Parmesan cheese.

The recipe is from Donna’s new food fast (page 93).  In this book the recipes are broken down in to 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes.  This one falls under the 30 minute list.  Quick and easy.

Check out the rest of the dishes from Donna Hay over at IHCC.

 

{WWDH} chicken poached in coconut curry

If he recipe has the word CURRY in it you can bet I am going to make it. The word just conjures up far away places and exotic flavors. Kayte’s pick for this weeks Wednesdays with Donna Hay did just that. I opned up new food fast to read the recipe and found I had already made it for IHCC last December and it wasn’t one of my fave dishes.

But I decided to make it again with a couple of tweaks!

While Donna says to simply halve the chicken thighs I cut them into smaller pieces. I also cut the sweet potato into smaller bites. I made only 1/2 the recipe but kept the Red Curry Paste at 3 Tbl. MUCH better. And then I added a touch of salt which brought out the flavors more. I thickened the broth some and served it with some browned rice. Also much better. But…. there is still something lacking to my taste buds. I want to like this but it just isn’t there for some reason.

Did the other Ladies of WWDH like Kayte’s pick? Check out their posts by hopping over to the WWDH Website where we all leave our links.

The recipe is on page 67 of Donna’s new food fast.

And anytime you want to join us for some really good food just leave a comment for one of us or on the website. We would love to have you.