Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Brown Butter

I had never tried fixing sweet potatoes before, so when I was gifted two from my nephew who got them from his brother, I figured it was a good time to play in the kitchen.

After peeling them, I decided to dice and roast them.

I tossed it with a bit of olive oil and added a teaspoon of crushed rosemary.  I can only find leaf rosemary, so I just grind it in my coffee grinder. It works well.

I put them on the roasting sheet and put them in a 400°F oven.

They did have to bake for about 40 minutes.

When they came out, they were just getting brown in places.  They really shrank down, so I was glad I did both of them.  They didn’t even completely fill my serving bowl.

Then I drizzled some browned butter on them.  I can’t believe it took me so long to discover brown butter.  I used 1/4 cup and just cooked it in my sauce pan until it was brown.

I didn’t use all of it for this recipe; it doesn’t take a lot to give it that buttery, nutty flavor.

After trying them, I decided I will need to get some more sweet potatoes.

Definitely need more sweet potatoes, which is why I have been trying to grow them and keep them protected from the deer.

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Another Real Chicken Dish

When I made the chicken bacon ranch casserole for my nephew and his wife, I figured out rather quickly that the package of chicken breasts was too much for that one dish, so I also made them pan seared chicken breasts with roasted mushroom and carrots all with a rosemary thyme brown butter glaze (that’s too long for the title of a blog post).  This has also been sitting here ready to go for over four months, so I thought I’d share it while I’m so busy with work, goats, and garden.

I started by placing my mushrooms and carrots into a pan with a bit of olive oil and roasted them at 400ºF for about fifteen minutes.  For a meal for two, I used half the bag of baby carrots and about 1/2 the 1 pound container of baby bella mushrooms.  I threw in about 1/4 cup of diced onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic, and a bit of salt and pepper.

While that was roasting, I seared the chicken breasts on both sides using a bit of olive oil in a cast iron skillet until they were browned.

I removed them from the pan and set them aside and put my butter into the skillet.  I used a whole stick and 1/2 tsp. of ground thyme and 1/2 tsp. ground rosemary.  That did end up being about twice as much as I needed.

Once it was rich and brown and nutty delicious, I added my carrot and mushroom mixture.

I let that finish cooking the carrots till they were almost done, then I added the chicken breasts and 1/4 cup of vegetable stock (I didn’t have chicken, or I would have used that).

Then it simmered until the breasts were thoroughly cooked.

Again, this was given to my nephew and his wife, so there’s no pretty plated picture.  They did say it was a blog-worthy recipe though.

Honey Cake with Plum Glaze

My plum tree is old and in pretty bad shape.  It looks like it’s been through a war.  Really, it has.  The war of “I want to live” vs. “The goats want to eat.”  The extremes we’ve had in our weather the last few years doesn’t help either.

I decided I need to start a new one or two or three trees and plant them up north.  I gathered a bowl full of plums to get seeds.

Then I decided I needed to do something with the plums because they are the best plums ever!

I made honey cake with plum glaze. It might be my new favorite cake.

Start by making the plum glaze (you need some of this for the cake too).  Honestly, I made the glaze the day before, and it worked well.  That way it was completely cool by the time I wanted to make the cake. I measured out 1 cup of plum sauce and 1 cup of honey.  Put them in a medium sauce pan and simmer, stirring constantly.  Add 1/8 tsp. ground ginger.  Let it come to a boil until it is thick and bubbly.  Put it in the refrigerator to cool.

For the cake batter, in a bowl combine:

• 3/4 cup softened butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups honey

Mix thoroughly and add:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Add:

• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Mix it all together and set aside while you prepare the filling.

For the filling, in a medium mixing bowl combine:

• 1 cup chevre (or cream cheese)
• 1/2 cup of your plum glaze
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. flour

Put about 1/3 of your batter in the bottom of a greased and floured bundt pan.  Then spread the filling over this.  It is fairly thin, so it might spread out and just be a layer more than a filling.  Then finish pouring the rest of the cake batter over the top.  Bake at a 350°F oven for about an hour.  Once it has completely cooled, you can remove it from the pan.

Then you might want to heat the plum gaze up enough that you can evenly drizzle it over the cake.  You just don’t want it so thin it will all run off.

There’s plenty of glaze to drizzle on your individual pieces if you want.

There you go!