Sweet potato mash

Jason took me on a lovely date night last Friday. He knows that I enjoy trying new restaurants so he treated me to 2Johns. It is a steak place about a mile away from our apartment. With my amazing ribeye I had a sweet potato mash that was heavenly. I decided to google a few different recipes and come up with my own. Here is what I got.

Sweet Potato Mash (2 servings)
1 sweet potato (about 3/4-1 pound)
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of milk (I use organic 1%)
pinch of salt
pinch of ginger
dash of vanilla
orange juice


Peel and cut up the sweet potato into cubes. Boil the cubes in water and orange juice until tender (about 15 minutes). I use 75% water and 25% orange juice. Once the sweet potatoes are tender I drain the liquid and use a fork to mask up the potatoes. Add the butter, milk, salt, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, and mix together. As the finishing touch add the maple syrup. Easy side dish!

I heart Ina

I have a true love for everything and anything related to Ina Garten. I could probably watch her all day on the food network (and trust me, I have time to do just that this summer) because she cooks good food and doesn't need to scream or make jokes while walking the viewer through the process. Don't get me wrong, I love when people are passionate about what they are doing, but I don't need to watch them squeal and moan over how good their potatoes turned out. (cut to, cooking with the Neelys)

I was recently watching the Food network and an old episode featuring the recipe below came on. It looked tasty and fairly simple so I decided that I needed to try it for myself.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken (serves 4-6)
1 cup honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger root
2 (3 1/2 pound) chickens, quartered, with backs removed (I bought chicken thighs and legs instead)

Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger root in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan, skin side down, and pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up, and raise the temperature to 375 degrees F. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.

The ginger, garlic, soy sauce made a delicious sauce. The only thing I'd change would be to add some heat. I think next time I'll add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sriracha sauce and maybe a few red pepper flakes. I think that would really add another layer of flavor to this dish! Enjoy :)