Sweet Potatoes!

My desire for a sweet potato pie began around New Year's when I was running at the gym and thinking about meals to make -yes, I know, what a time to be thinking about food. It makes sense though, I mean, I gotta fuel my body after running 6 miles and lifting weights, right?

Anyway, I got this idea for chicken burgers and carrot fries with a glass of milk for dinner, then sweet potato pie for dessert. I have been searching through sweet potato pie recipes ever since (ie, two weeks).

I didn't make the chicken burgers (yet), but I did make a sweet potato pie =). I made it Monday and it was gone by this afternoon. Not bad, considering it's only 3 adults and 2 children under the age of 5 who have been eating it.

It was delicious and I will totally make it again, although I might cut the sugar down to 3/4 cup. Anyway, I totally recommend this recipe. I found it online. My boss, who told me she does not even like sweet potatoes, loved it.

P.S.

All this sweet potato pie made me want to make sweet potato biscuits and sweet potato creme brulee. Who knows if I will ever actually get around to doing that.

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (about 3)

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I mixed my own)

1/2 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 T of lemon juice in a 1/2 cup measuring cup, then filled the rest in with milk)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Mix together mashed sweet potatoes, butter or margarine, and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, flour, and salt. Mix in spices. Add to sweet potato mixture and stir well.

Mix together buttermilk and baking soda. Add to sweet potato mixture and stir well. Mix in vanilla extract. Pour filling into pastry shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 70 minutes, until set in center.

Strawberry Season

After hanging out with some good friends on New Year's Eve, it was time for me to drive back up to Kentucky to my new "home." Due to my desire to still want to spend time with college friends, my need for cheap rent, and the predicament of having no job and grad schools not starting until the fall, I am living in the guest room of the family for whom I nanny. I have almost everything I need in my little room: a tv, a small fridge, a nice chair, my bed and dresser (of course), my own bathroom, and even my own entry.

When I do don't make dinner for the family, I like to make dessert. The kids (ages 2 and 5) love to help me bake. As my mom reminded me before I left for Kentucky, strawberry season, as well as citrus season, is upon us. In accordance, the dessert I made yesterday was my mom's strawberry pie. Next week's will be a key lime pie, but I am going to wait just for the right Floridian menu to include it in, or maybe just have it with BBQ, since I love my BBQ.

My Mother's Easy Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

1 pie crust (9 inch, already baked)

3/4 c water

3/4 c sugar

3 tablespoons (level) cornstarch

Add one small box of jell-o

1 quart of fresh, washed, sliced, hulled strawberries

Directions

Mix water, sugar, and cornstarch in saucepan on stove over medium or medium-high heat, cook until really thick and clear (will not really boil, but will usually make one big bubble at a time), remove from heat.

Add one small box strawberry jell-o (do not use sugar free) and stir in.

Add and mix in strawberries, pour mixture into prepared pie crust, set in fridge for an hour or so.