What’s for Dinner? Maple-glazed Sweet Potato Wedges (recipe)

I love it when this happens: my mom emailed me this recipe in the nick of time for dinner last night … AND, I had all the ingredients on hand. Woohoo, score!

These were delicious. Family and houseguests ended up squabbling over the last few bits in the pan, a sure test of appeal.

Here’s the original recipe:

Maple-glazed Sweet Potato Wedges

3 sweet potatoes, about 1-1/2 lbs
2 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

Cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise into uniform wedges, about 1 in. wide. Whisk together the other ingredients, then add the potatoes and toss to coat.

Arrange wedges in a single layer in a roasting pan, or on a baking sheet and drizzle with any maple syrup mixture remaining in the bowl.

Roast 20 min. at 450. Remove pan from oven, and carefully turn wedges over. Continue roasting until fork tender, about 15 min. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve warm.

My modifications:

Our rosemary plant froze to death during this month’s Arctic cold snap, so I used dried rosemary, in the same quantity because I really like rosemary. Then I also added 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes. I love the combination of sweet & hot.

I planned to cook these at the same time & at the same 375 degree oven temp as my chicken pieces. So I cut the sweet potatoes into 1/4” thick slices instead of 1” thick wedges, so they’d cook faster. I took them out after 45 minutes when they were thoroughly cooked & starting to blacken just a bit around the edges. Yum.

Addendum

• Do you know the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Kind of a trick question, but this article from Self spells out the nutritional data.
• I always use the darker “Grade B” maple syrup for dishes like this. It’s too strong for pancakes, but adds more flavor to baked goods, including breads.

Bon appetit!

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Creams for Fiber Artists
Sandia Park, NM

Blast from the Past: Pressure Cooking

 

I know, I say “pressure cooker” and you think (1) dangerous explosions, and/or (2) gray, flabby, over-cooked food.

It’s true, I witnessed a spectacular pressure cooker explosion back in 1968. Aunt Dee left me and my cousin Judy home alone, with vague instructions to “watch the pressure cooker”.

What’s to watch? We watched cartoons instead. Two hours later the pressure cooker went “BOOM”! We ran into the kitchen to find it had blown its lid, bashing a cantaloupe-sized hole in the ceiling and splattering green beans all over the walls.

Judy & I were in deep doo-doo for that one.

So I never considered trying a pressure cooker myself, until I moved up here to the high mountain desert. At 7,000 feet we have some unusual cooking “challenges” – my worst one being that I couldn’t cook beans. Seriously! I could not make a decent pot of beans up here.

My neighbors all advised pressure cooking to solve the high-altitude bean problem. And that’s when I discovered that “modern” pressure cookers are vastly improved over my Aunt Dee’s mid-century model. They’re electric, they’re digital, and they promise explosion-proof operation.

Okay … I decided to try pressure cooking.

After reading the reviews I purchased a Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, shown here.

I’ve used it for almost a year now. And I have to say, this was probably my best purchase of 2010.

 

 

Top 5 Reasons to ♥ Electric Pressure Cookers

1. Dang, they’re fast! I’m talking 10-minute potato soup (although that project did make milk come out its nose), or a 40-minute brisket for 8.

2. They’re programmable. Punch in your settings and walk away (cartoons, anyone?). You don’t have to “watch” them, or adjust the heat, or anything. When the cooking cycle ends, they’ll automatically switch over to Keep Warm mode.

3. Yes, a pressure cooker IS the best way to cook beans. No, repeat NO, pre-soaking needed. And you can season the beans during cooking, even add a little salt, and they’ll STILL cook up beautifully.

4. They don’t heat up the kitchen. This past summer was the hottest of the century, so I really, really appreciated not having to turn on the oven, or even the stove burners, for weeks on end.

5. They don’t use a lot of juice. It’s about the same wattage as a hair dryer, and the actual cooking time is short, so the energy consumption is way less than a standard oven, or even a slow cooker.

Plus there are serendipitous benefits. For example, I’ve discovered that my electric pressure cooker makes the best stocks imaginable – chicken, beef, pork, vegetable, whatever. And it’s now my go-to method for ribs: cook ‘em with pressure, finish them on the grill.

Best Pressure Cooker Cookbooks

I’ve since acquired a number of pressure cooker cookbooks, and of them all I recommend two to get you started:

Victoria Wise’s Pressure Cooker Gourmet

From the first chef at Chez Panisse, this book is all you need to convince unbelievers that you can cook delicious food in a pressure cooker. (I started with her Brined Pork Roast & Figs, a revelation.)

This one’s also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

Any of Lorna Sass’s pressure cooking cookbooks are great to have on hand, but I especially like her Pressure Perfect: Two Hour Taste in Twenty Minutes Using Your Pressure Cooker. Her substitution charts are pure gold when it’s time to convert your favorite traditional recipes to the pressure cooker.

 

Bon appetit!

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Creams for Fiber Artists
Sandia Park, NM

Mad at Apple–iPod Touch Battery Drain

 

Well well, looks as if the latest OS update to my iPod Touch included a battery killer.

Before the update, my Touch battery would easily run all night, with at least a 50% charge left in the morning.

Since I downloaded & installed the iOS 4 update last month, the battery can’t make it through the night. I wake up to a completely drained battery, a dead-in-the-water iPod, and … no alarm.

Scrounged around on the net & found this cNet report on the battery drain issue. Glad to know it’s not just me, or my iPod, it’s caused by changes Apple made to the OS.

Sigh.

So now I’m keeping my Touch in Airplane mode. I only turn on WiFi when I actually need to check email, then try to remember to turn it back off again as soon as I’m done.

This at least keeps my Touch alive overnight, but the battery life still isn’t anywhere near what it was before iOS 4. As in, maybe 2 days intermittent usage as opposed to the 4 or 5 days I used to get.

Thanks a lot, Apple!

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Creams for Fiber Artists
Sandia Park, NM

Belize City Attorney Gunned Down

I was horrified and saddened to learn that a prominent Belize City attorney of my acquaintance, Rodwell Williams, S.C, was ambushed and gunned down in a Belize City parking lot near his law office at 8 pm on Monday, May 31.

Two Belize City men were charged with the assault, Ricky Valencia, 27, and Akeem Thurton, 18. The attack is widely rumored to have been a “contract hit” paid for by a Belize City businessman recently defeated in court by Mr. Williams.

Mr. Williams was initially treated at a Belize City hospital for a single shotgun blast to the abdomen, and was later transferred to a Miami, Florida hospital where he is recovering.

Mr. Williams, Senior Counsel and law partner of Belize’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow, had been previously attacked on April 15, when a “projectile” was fired through the windows of the Barrow & Williams law office at 99 Albert Street in Belize City.

This latest armed assault is just one of more than 100 reported shootings in Belize City this year, where the death toll climbed to 30 as of August, 2010. According to The Economist, as reported on Belize’s Channel 5 News, “Belize is the world’s murder hotspot”, with a 2009 death rate of 32.7 per 100,000 persons country-wide.

The Campaign to Stop Human Trafficking in Belize confirms that relative to its size and population, Belize outranks all nations in murder.  “The latest statistics show Belize with 97 murders for a population of 320,000.  To put that into perspective, metro Toronto has 41 murders for the same period, but for a population of 2.4 million people.”

While violent crime statistics are higher in Belize City than in the rest of the country, crime throughout Belize has steadily risen over the past two years, says the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

“Major crimes in Belize (murder, rape, robbery, burglary, theft) increased in 2008 by 8.1 percent from 2007. The murder rate within Belize has continued to increase on an annual basis by five percent since 2003; the number of murders in 2008 (103 homicides) has now more than doubled those reported in 2000 (47 homicides) and represents a nationwide murder rate of 34 per 100,000 persons.”

Links:

Rodwell Williams Shot, Amandala, June 1, 2010

Rodwell Williams SC shot in street attack, The [Belize] Reporter, June 4, 2010

Two charged in shooting of Attorney Rodwell Williams, The Guardian, June 10, 2010

Belize is world murder capital, Belize Channel 5 News, September 7, 2009

Canadians Boycott Belize Tourism, Murder Capital of the World, Betty Phillips, July 23, 2010

Belize 2009 Crime & Safety Report, Overseas Security Advisory Council, August 17, 2009

Derby Duck! My Favorite Roast Duck Recipe, That Is

 

Well, we didn't have a Kentucky Derby party this year, but we did have a Derby duck.

Not exactly traditional, nary a mint julep in sight, but festive all the same!

When we find duck at a nice price - in Albuquerque usually at TaLin Market - we love this recipe for "Roast Duck with Honey-Chili Glaze". It's delicious, easy to follow, uses ingredients I almost always have on hand, and seems foolproof.

I originally got the recipe as a magazine clipping from my mom, so I have no idea who wrote it, or even what magazine printed it. My little clipping is now creased and stained, and I just know I'll lose it eventually. And of course I've made some minor modifications over the years ... so I thought I'd share it here. That way I can always find it, and there's also a chance someone will recognize it - I'd like to give full credit!

Roast Duck with Honey-Chili Glaze

One 4-lb duck

Rub Ingredients:
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 T. fresh, minced)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Glaze Ingredients:
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup dark rum

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Place a V-shaped roasting rack - I like the 13x10" Norpro rack shown at left - in a roasting pan with sides at least 2" deep.

Wash and drain duck, removing neck and giblets for another use.

In a small bowl, combine rub ingredients. Rub duck with the mixture, inside and out. Cover wing tips with foil to prevent burning. Put duck, breast side up, in rack and roast for 20 minutes.

Dial back the oven to 350 degrees F and roast 45 minutes more.

Remove duck from oven (leave oven on), remove foil from wing tips, and let duck rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Pour off hot duck fat.

In a small bowl combine glaze ingredients. Baste duck with glaze mixture, then return bird to oven. Roast 15 minutes more, brushing with glaze every 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, let rest 5 minutes before carving.

* * * * *

The recipe's author is obviously a health-conscious saint, tossing out all that rendered duck fat. Not me! I keep it in the fridge for future roast potatoes or hash browns, because potatoes sizzled in duck fat are sublime. In fact, I usually roast some quartered Yukon golds along with this duck, tucked around the edges of the roasting pan. Bliss!

Also: you can make a faaabulous stock from the duck carcass and neck. I freeze the stock for my next batch of gumbo.

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Creams for Fiber Artists
Sandia Park, NM

Foster Dog Graduation Day

 

Today’s the big day for our one-year-old foster dog Mork: he’s ready for adoption!

What a sweetheart he is. And he’s made great progress during his stay with us.

When he first arrived, he couldn’t even climb stairs. Now he races up and down the yard for the sheer joy of running, and he can jump two feet up onto the back deck.

He gets along with all our dogs, and even the cats. With his happy personality, I think he’ll fit right in with any pet household.

So, this morning he has an appointment with the groomer to make him all sleek & shiny. Then it’s show time!

We don’t know yet whether he’ll be at Animal Humane’s “Main Campus” (615 Virginia St SE, 505-255-5523) or their new Adoption Center (9132 Montgomery Blvd NE, 505-323-PETS).

Either way, the foster coordinator is sure he’ll be adopted right away, he’s that cute.

If you’re looking for him, remember, his shelter name is actually “Angelo”. We’ve just been calling him Mork.

Animal Humane of Albuquerque is located at 615 Virginia Street SE, and their main phone number is 255-5523. Their Adoptions Department is open 7 days a week from 10:00am-6:00pm (but closed for the lunch hour from 12:00pm-1:00pm). Their website ishttp://animalhumanenm.org .

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Creams for Fiber Artists
Sandia Park, NM

Speak Up on Health Care Reform!

 

"We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things."
--President Obama

I have been most bitterly annoyed by the series of TV commercials run on my local channels bashing the Congressional health care reform efforts. Many of these advertisements were sponsored by “fronts” for the insurance companies, and I find all of them deceptive and inflammatory.

According to CNN, over $57 million has been spent on advertising that tries to influence the health care debate. And remember, a lot of this money comes from the insurance premiums we pay now.

The average American pays over $1,000 per month for employer-sponsored health insurance, and as much as 1/3 of that goes to “administrative fees”, which includes advertising. I think that’s obscene.

So I was even more annoyed this morning to hear Sen. John McCain opine that Americans oppose health care reform 2-to-1. He failed to cite a source for his estimate.

I don’t believe it’s true, but if it is, then I think it’s important that all of us who do support health care reform take a moment to express our support to our representatives in Congress.

I am proud to say that both New Mexico Senators, Senator Jeff Bingaman and Senator Tom Udall, support health care reform. And my District 3 representative, Congressman Ben R. Luján, voted for it last night.

I have written all three to express my support.

If you don’t know who your representative is, or don’t know how to contact them, it’s easy to find out. Visit the following website, enter your zip code, and you’ll get the names and contact links for your Representative and your Senators:

http://whoismyrepresentative.com

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Creams for Fiber Artists

P.S. Wondering what the immediate benefits of the health care reform bill will be? After President Obama signs the bill, these 10 changes take effect immediately [source]:

1. No more lifetime or annual caps on coverage.
2. Free preventative care for all.
3. Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50 states. Community health centers provide primary, dental and vision services to people in the community, based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay.
4. Children will be able to stay on their parents’ health insurance until their 27th birthdays.
5. No child under 19 will be excluded from plans because of preexisting conditions.
6. Adults with preexisting conditions will be able to start shopping online for a plan in a national high-risk pool while waiting for insurance exchanges to get started.
7. Small businesses can deduct as much as 50 percent of employees’ health benefits for tax purposes in 2009 and 2010.
8. It will fill in the “donut hole” of Medicare prescription drug coverage with a rebate.
9. Insurers will have to post their balance sheets online, listing administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments.
10. And you can no longer be dropped from your insurance plan just because you get sick.