Recipe #4 - Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Lime Dip

I'm only on Day 3 of my little adventure, and I'm already having a great time.  While flipping through the cookbook last night to determine today's recipe, I thought to myself, "Self, I could totally get through all these recipes before the year is over.  Then what will I do?"  So I decided that I would make all the recipes on their blog too, since they have tons that aren't in the cookbook.  But then I remembered something; there is a new cookbook coming out in September.

"Ahh! I have to be done by September!" I thought.  "I can't be making old recipes when there are new ones to experience.  Egads!"  So then I felt the sudden urge to crank through all the recipes, so I could do all the new recipes too.    I promptly picked two recipes to make today, and then all was well in the world again.  Phew.

Sweet Potato Fries was today's second treasure for my tummy.  (Unfortunately, two treasures equals bonus time on the elliptical.  Dang.)    This is on page 180 in cookbook or it can be found here.

Until about 3 years ago, I was sure that I didn't like sweet potatoes.  My mom only made them on Thanksgiving, and I just thought they ruined perfectly good marshmallows.  (Whoever thought of putting marshmallows on a root vegetable must have been a little tipsy at the time...)  But I tasted a plain ol' baked sweet potato a couple years back and totally changed my tune.  They're good.  They're really, really good.  I'm still not a fan of the 50 grams of fat version on Thanksgiving, but I do like them now.

I especially like sweet potato fries.  I have never made them myself, but I have made the frozen kind for my family and I was the only one who would touch them.  With this history, I didn't know how today's dish would go with my kiddos and hubby.  Stay tuned...

Today's cooking adventure began with these two creatures:

Pretty ugly in the world of food, huh?  And when you peel them to discover that they're radioactive orange inside, they are extra creepy.

The recipe calls for a pound of peeled, cut sweet potatoes.  Not knowing how much a pound would be, I got out my handy dandy scale and started weighing as I cut.

I had two large-ish sweet potatoes and still had extra leftover.  So it doesn't take a ton of potatoes.  After oiling and seasoning, these babies were ready for the oven.

Clearly, I have some work do in the "cutting uniform sizes and shapes" department.  But come on, did you see what they looked like to start with?!  Its not like they're rectangular...

This recipe also calls for a Honey-Lime Dip.  I thought the dip was yummy but you didn't really need it.  The fries were great all by themselves.  And the dip recipe makes tons more dip than you need for the fries.  We had tons leftover.

Here is the finished product:

 

Yes, in addition to the cute tropical drink glasses, I will also buy myself some new plates when the movie rights sell.  We're still dining on my wedding dishes.  Corelle 1998, folks!  Classy!

Now the question is:  Did my family eat them?  Yes, each and every person tried and liked them.  My husband, who never eats sweet potatoes, even had seconds.  Go Sara and Kate!