I’ve always disliked anything sweet potato. I felt that they were a cross between carrots and potatoes, and that they couldn’t make up their mind about what they wanted to be. The only sweet potatoes I enjoyed were my stepsister’s husband’s curry mashed sweet potatoes.

Then, recently, I started making my own sweet potato fries. For a few weeks, I was making them almost everyday. They’re a pain in the butt to cut, but hey, they’re tasty. The trick is to make them a bit spicy. Not so much that your mouth burns, but just enough to add a bit of a kick. For that reason, my measurements for the spices for the fries will be vague. Add the seasoning as you like it.

As a side note, this morning, I was having a conversation about remembering things I’m grateful for. I am grateful for many things, though I did want to mention one thing. I am grateful for you folks. Everyone who reads, shares, and/or comments on my posts. You all keep me going!

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries With Curry Dipping Sauce (vegan, paleo)

Ingredients

For the fries:
1 sweet potato
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Black pepper to taste – go generous

For the dipping sauce:
2 tbsp full fat coconut milk, refrigerated
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp each: cumin, minced fresh ginger, ground cardamom, garlic salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut the potatoes into fries and season them. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or adjust time if you cut your fries a different size from the picture. Take them out halfway through to flip/toss them.

In the meantime, prepare the curry sauce. Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge. Slowly turn it over and open it from the bottom. The thick stuff will be sitting right at the top that way. Scoop up the needed amount and mix in the rest of the ingredients.

I had the day off on Wednesday. I spent almost the entire day cooking. I ended up making sweet and sour pork tenderloin, peach meatballs, a trial for something I’ve never made before but intend to give as a gift (update: it was a biscotti recipe), a snack (update: it was coconut date balls), and this tapenade.

You won’t find me eating anchovies willingly. I didn’t even know tapenade was supposed to have anchovies until I started looking it up online recently (I’m a fan of appetizer parties). Thankfully, you can change it up to include different flavours, and it can still be quite tasty! So, I did just that. No anchovies in this tapenade.

This recipe is, of course, for olive lovers. I would like to say that there’s such a big difference between olives you buy in a can, and olives sitting in oil. Not only are the olives in oil much better for your health, but they also taste infinitely better. I like to buy the ones that I can scoop out myself because I can choose how much oil to include. I also find that most grocery stores offer a bigger variety of olives that way.

Easy Tapenade

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups pitted black olives
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp capers
1 clove garlic
1 cup flat leaf parsley, stems removed (NOT packed down)

Directions
Roughly chop the garlic. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until it looks as chunky or pureed as you like it.