okay, so this is only one thing to do with sweet potatoes.  but, they are probably my favorite food item and i would love, love, love to have 100 good ideas for sweet potatoes.

this week, i finally used the sweet potatoes i picked up at the west seattle farmer’s market several weeks ago.  i made one of my very favorite recipes.  i can’t recall where i located the recipe.  it lives in my head now and i just kind of toss it together whenever i have sweet potatoes or yams to use.

i usually use yams, which have a more orange-y color and slightly stronger flavor that sweet potatoes, but the recipe worked fine w/ the sweet potatoes too.

it goes like this…

peel the sweet potatoes or yams and cut them into rounds about 1/2 inch thick.

put ‘em in a bowl and add olive oil (enough to give them a light coating), a little salt, dried thyme, and crushed red pepper flakes.

toss ‘em about, so that the seasoning is well mixed and spread throughout.

place them one layer thick on a foil lined cookie sheet.

bake them at 350 for about an hour.  i like to flip them over half way.

so, so yummy.  i can eat them by themselves easily, but i really like them as a side for meatloaf.  i always make extra as they reheat wonderfully and are great for lunch the next day.  they even taste good cold.

that’s one thing to do with sweet potatoes.  what’s your favorite?

p.s. damn our dark, short seattle days.  i do most of my cooking in the evening and it is really hard to take good photos with my lighting.  sorry!

last saturday was one of my very favorite seattle events of the year, urban craft uprising!  the days before urban craft are as exciting to me as christmas morning (2 more sleeps until urban craft) and almost as excruciating as a half marathon (need to carb load and hydrate days beforehand).

jess and kim have been my urban craft partners-in-crime the past couple of years.  this year we decided to be early birds and get there just as the doors open at 11am.  it was insanely crowded this year.  i cannot remember it being nearly this packed last year.  we waited in a line a couple blocks long to get in and then the aisles were jammed.  i’m so happy for the crafters that the event is getting so much attention and so many people are interested in the event, but it kinda made for a challenging shopping experience.  it was really hard to move around and hard to see things.  i’m sure there were a couple of booths i missed just because i couldn’t see them or get to them.

trend wise, there were TONS of plush toys and felt project booths this year.  i fell in love with the plush candy corns from scrumptious delight.  there seemed to be a lot less jewelry booths this year.  i kinda missed that since i’m such a craft jewelry junkie.

i can’t go into too much detail about what i bought since i mostly bought christmas gifts, but here are some of my favorites:

figs & ginger – adorable, delicate nature themed jewelry

go robot – interesting, kinda industrial looking jewelry

laughing raven design – more handmade jewelry.  i said i liked the jewelry!

markhed – jewelry from montreal.  pretty pendants, some with cool city scape themes

paula deer – fun and funny felt hats.  with earflaps!

rachel austin – painting on maps.  i can’t afford one of her paintings, so i’d take one of the pendants

tako fibers – felt projects.  i bought a little kit from them that i’ll share once i do the project

i haven’t had much time for knitting or cooking or general holiday crafting lately.  those of you who are my buddies on ravelry or facebook already know why.  but, here it is:

lola puppy!  our now 14 week old pit bull puppy.  not only is she cute, but she is an awesome dog.  i feel like we really hit the jackpot when we found her at the seattle animal shelter.  she is sweet and snuggly and smart.  she’s full of beans and plays like crazy with her big brother dog mitch.  she’s completely attention defecit  and will only play with one toy for about 10 seconds before dropping it and grabbing another to race around the house shaking and squeeking.

she equally loves cuddling and wiggling her way as close as possible into any human (especially me!) that is willing to snuggle.  she quickly falls asleep and snores like an old drunk, which gives me the giggles every time.

she’s so little and cute that when she curls up on my lap for a nap, i don’t want to get up and get my knitting or any other project.  it’s been pretty quiet here on the blog because i haven’t been doing much other than snuggling with my girl or making sure she isn’t getting into things.

oh, she is totally getting snobby yarn knitted sweaters when she’s full sized!

i’ve been known to be a picky eater.  my relationship with vegetables is tenuous at best.  i used to hate them all, but i’m slowly learning to enjoy some of them.

last fall, one of my coworkers had me over for dinner and made a really delicious and simple squash.  i loved it at the time, then promptly forgot about it.  when i saw all the lovely acorn squash at the farmer’s market last sunday, i thought i may as well give it a go.

the results, delicious.

and easy.  i cut the squash in half and scooped out the pulp.  then place a pat of butter and a teaspoon of yummy wild berry honey (from sweet as can bee honey farm) in the center.  baked at 400 degrees for an hour.  i probably could have cooked it a tiny bit less as the edges charred a bit.

one super helpful tip i found online was to give the squash a couple pokes with a fork and nuke it for two minutes.  this made it much easier to cut the squash in half.

i also saved the seeds and toasted them w/ a little olive oil, salt, and ground cumin.  17 minutes at 275 degrees and they are just right.

i’ll definitely be exploring squash a bit more.  any ideas or recipes?

rosamund’s cardigan from interweave knits, fall 2009.  details here on ravelry.

i haven’t been a big fan of halloween since i was a kid.  as an adult i never enjoyed the pressure, yes pressure, of coming up with a good costume.  but, the one thing i absolutely L.O.V.E about halloween is candy corns.  little, sugary triangles of deliciousness.

this year, since i’m all about trying to make things for myself, i wondered if i could possibly make my own candy corns.  seemed crazy, right?  of course, on the internets you can find out how to make pretty much anything.

after sifting through what google had to offer, i settled on this recipe posted in the washington post and gathered all the necessary provisions.

the results…

aren’t they cute little fellas?

they are seriously delicious.  i could not imagine anything more yummy than a store bought candy corn, but these way beyond.  incredible creamy sugary-ness with a slight vanilla flavor.

however, complete pain in the ass!  the research i had done warned me that once the dough started cooling it would get hard quickly.  and it did, very, very fast.  my hands were aching and sore and the dough was barely pliable by the time i got the color incorporated.  i was able to manhandle about half the dough into the “corn kernels.”   there is no frickin’ way i could have worked fast enough to use all the dough.  once i was satisfied that i did, indeed, have some pretty kernel shaped candies, i decide to screw it and just cut the dough into bite sized chunks.

the bite sized chunks are just as tasty as the kernels, but everybody knows you’ve got to eat them by nibbling off one color at a time!  not having that option really does take away from the experience.

they were SO GOOD tho.  i’ll probably do a little more research to see if anyone has come up with a solution and try it again sometime.  next halloween, when the bruises on my hands have finally disappeared.

sundays in the fall are usually reserved for football and knitting.  all.  day.  long.  i don’t get to the farmer’s market much this time of year.  but, since the seahawks were unbearable to watch this morning, i decided to make a quick run to the west seattle farmer’s market.  it was a great day to visit the market; i’d forgotten how much i love fall produce.

whenever i hit the market, i can’t believe how much fantastic stuff i can get for $20.  today i picked up a big jar of honey, one each of four different types of pears, a couple of pounds of sweet potatoes, a pound of poblano peppers, and a couple acorn squash.  tonight i’ll be cruising the internet looking for recipes.  yay!

friday was my birthday and i had some really good fun.

the cutest, funniest husband ever made me a delicious dinner of homemade macaroni and cheese.  he used the recipe from a local restaurant, the icon grille.  everything should have molten cheese sauce on it!

the next day, jess and i headed up to bellingham to continue the celebration.  we both got our bachelors at western and have some great (and some crazy, embarrassing!) memories of the place.

first stop, casa que pasa for the most delish burritos in the northwest.  i love the potatoe; jess likes the rancho.  we both crave these on a regular basis and try to make a trip to bellingham once every six months or so to get our fix.  pan friend potatoe cubes with beans, cheese, and an amazing sauce.  to die for i tell you.

we also did a little shopping.  our main stop was texture.  we both have at least three of the awesome comfy skirts handmade with organic fibers from texture.  they are so comfortable and cute.  i picked up a black one for winter.  although they are based in bellingham, texture has a booth at the ballard farmer’s market pretty much every weekend.

to keep it crafty, i picked up a couple knitting books at village books:  itty bitty toys by susan b. anderson and the knitter’s book of wool by clara parkes.  i can’t wait to crack into them.

then we hit up tony’s coffee to get our fix for the trip back home.

it was such a fun day.  i still love bellingham.  birthday’s are the best!  i do, however, have a wicked food hangover from all the mac and cheese and giant burrito.  oh well, i guess you only turn 35 once.  yikes!

i have a well documented love of handmade and bird related jewelry.  i just discovered an awesome etsy seller, lulubug, who does absolute beautiful work with precious metal clay.  i haven’t purchased anything from her, but i’m in love with this fabulous little owl.

]]> http://luckylily.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/little-owls/feed/ 2 luckylily little owls http://luckylily.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/sweet-crafty-link/ http://luckylily.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/sweet-crafty-link/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:00:24 +0000 luckylily http://luckylily.wordpress.com/?p=101 ]]>

Check out the awesome projects over at Craftastrophe.  Of course the knitter in me loves this.  I hear that the slankets are sold out, and this is only $349.

Thanks to my bud, Sarah, for passing on the ridiculousness.