Friday, October 5, 2012

The Top 10 Things I make with Squash and Sweet Potatoes




 Fall is in the air and as I'm gathering all my gorgeous squash and sweet potatoes from our local farmer's market! Here are my top 10 favorite things to make with squash and sweet potatoes during the Fall season. Beautiful organic squash is just too stinkin' beautiful to just lob off the back of a truck during a zombie appocolypse...but it would work for that too. Just saying...it might even confuse the zombies for a minute if the middle looks enough like brains...right? I digress.

 I know there are many more things to make, but these give me a variety of sweet and savory applications that we just love around here.

#1. Spiced Acorn Squash. This is a method of filling the squash with maple syrup or just a dot of butter with some sweet spices. Baked, it is heaven...and totally easy to make!

2.Apple Sausage and Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash has been a great freezer meal to have on hand for wonderful weeknight meals, as well as a simple grab-n-go to take to work. I think it has just the right amount of wild rice and the sweet hints from the apple add nice depth.


#3. Danish Sausage Stuffed Buttercup Squash  with mushrooms and dried cranberries was served at my Dad's birthday event. It was amazing and was probably one of the most memorable events as far as squash is concerned.  Dad grew this beautiful buttercup squash and we baked it whole with the stuffing inside. Sliced open at service, it made a really nice presentation. It would also work for Halloween...but I'm not going ot explain that application. Use your imagination.

#4. Savory Pizza Stuffed Zucchini is a go-to around here. It is saucy, meaty, cheesy and well...awesome! Oh...and it freezes beautifully too!

Now for Sweet Potatoes:
Moment of silence for the beautiful sweet potatoes of freakish-glory. I should not love them as much as I do. Yet...here they are.

#5 Fall Edible Decorative Sweet Potato Bread this is a full tutorial on how to turn those beautiful sweet potatoes into a gorgeous loaf of edible joy. The perfect centerpiece for Fall! Wait until you see how easy it is!

The fresh red corn, sweet potatoes and roasted chilies are in perfect balance in this fast skillet meal! What a great weeknight dinner or midnight snack!

 #7  Sweet Potato Biscuits with Turkey Sausage Chipotle Gravy
I made a friend over this recipe! One of my readers named Heather wrote about a dish she'd had and I wanted to make the delicate sweet potato biscuits sing! So this is my original recipe based on an e-mail...and yes, Heather is still a darling friend on Facebook. Love that lady!
A light and fresh twist on the classic potato salad can be found with this divine salad. The sweet potatoes and pineapple are grilled then tossed in a sweet and savory dressing that is low fat and still remarkably flavorful. Brace yourself for a totally amazing experience!
#9 Pepper Cardamom Rubbed Pot Roast with Balsamic-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
I'm not going to lie...I love pot roast. The savory lemony rub coupled with the tangy-sweet balsamic glazed sweet potatoes was an instant classic around here. I can almost taste it!
#10 Sweet Spiced Sweet Potato Tamales with Chocolate Sauce  Admittedly I used pumpkin in this last one, but I use mashed sweet potato in place of the pumpkin in these and it is really an amazing dessert!

There you go! Ten great ideas for using squash and sweet potatoes!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

1 comment:

Heather Hunt said...

awwwww... aren't you sweet! Thanks to you, too, "Tess"! I feel we are friends too! I made the biscuits last weekend, in fact!