Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Long overdue, I am sorry!  You know how Amherst finals are.  Here is the delicious sweet potato recipe Zach and I prepared for our Thanksgiving this year.  We modified a recipe from smittenkitchen.com pretty significantly and ... well, I'm biased, but I'm thinking ours was better.  The recipe after the jump serves about three; we tripled the recipe for a Thanksgiving of seven and there were leftovers (tasty, tasty leftovers!)  
Happy Holidays to all!  Looking forward to seeing some more holiday recipes.

Fried Okra

Okra is my favorite vegetable. A lot of people are turned off by the slimy texture, but to me that's just one of its charms, along with its mild yet unique (and tasty!) flavor. I am lucky enough to have grown up eating okra, as it was usually the vegetable that was served in my elementary school cafeteria in Texas. Those of you who didn't grow up with it might find it sort of freaky.

Okra is a summer vegetable; I found a bunch of it at the market last weekend, which I bought without even thinking about what to do with it. I love it simply steamed with a little salt and pepper or lightly stir-fried; it's also a necessary ingredient in gumbo and is used to delicious effect in Indian cooking (where you'll find it under "bhindi"). This time, though, I figured I might as well try my hand at frying it Southern-style. I do live south of the Mason-Dixon Line, after all, and batter-fried was the first form in which I tried it.

If you're not used to okra, frying it this way is a great way to introduce yourself to it. If you can't love okra covered in cornmeal batter and deep-fried, there is something wrong with you!

Asparagus Salad with Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette

pictured with"Bass in Paper," a recipe I'll reveal at a later date

So here's the dilemma: I want to start cooking more seasonal fruits and veggies in my dishes, because that's what all the cool kids do nowadays and because it's a practice that goes hand in hand with buying local. I also want to cook asparagus, which I find quite tasty. The problem is that a) we're fast approaching the end of the summer season and b) asparagus cannot, in good faith, be considered anything but a spring seasonal. Oh well -- better late than never.

This recipe comes out of my mother's recipe box and has quickly become a spring/summer favorite in the household. While Dijon mustard, olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar aren't by any means a revolutionary combination -- it makes for an excellent marinade on chicken -- I'm happy to report that it works very well as a base for an asparagus salad vinaigrette. There's also comparatively little prep time involved, which is always a plus for a side dish.

Finally, I should mention that this recipe is Emily tested and approved (she even went back for seconds!), which means that it can be a good choice for friends and family members with a minor aversion to veggies. Give it a try the next time you want to try something new alongside your entree... though you may need to act quickly, lest the asparagus disappear from the markets until next March.

Recipe after the jump: