An Afternoon Snack as the Only Snack

This week has been fairly easy as cooking dinner goes and that totally excites me. I've even made a completely different dish every night, almost winging it the entire time! We started out Monday with a roast chicken and butternut squash risotto. Tuesday, we used some of the leftovers for roast chicken with Ultimate creamy mashed potatoes and gravy. Wednesday (Halloween!), we spiced it up, using the remaining leftovers for a rum and honey glazed chicken over spiced coconut rice. And of course, today...we started the leftovers routine all over again with a lemon beer glazed chicken with leftover mashed potatoes and spicy carrots. Chicken every night sounds a bit horrifyingly redundant, but even just changing up the sauce can help a repeated main dish do a 180. Of course, ideally, we'd have a range of main dishes, but this is as far as I could get myself to go this week. Baby steps! I can't even tell you the last time we had this much variation, so chicken every night is fine by me!

There's a reason we've been eating like this anyway; it simply makes life easier! I've felt so relaxed and at ease in the evenings, which is something that I never seem to feel. It started with G.'s goûter ("goo-tay"). Yes, I am using a foreign word to describe my kid's late afternoon snack. So sue me! :) The entire reason I even thought to start doing this is because I've read about the French tradition a few times now, so I've just made a little habit of using the word, though it really is just a sweet, late afternoon snack. It's like a Godsend to me, though. See, I'm against snacking...I just don't want to have a child who's hungry at any given time, in which case I need to constantly be prepared, lugging around little snack containers, "just in case." It seems a bit silly to me that parents should be toting around so many things to occupy their children rather than teaching them to contain themselves. That's a different topic, though...the point is, I try not to allow G. to snack.

I obviously have many, many opinions about food consumption...and on the point of snacking, my issue is that 1) I don't want to have to tote around "just in case" snacks, 2) I don't want my child to end up full by dinner, 3) I want my child to learn to deal with hunger and wait until the appropriate time to eat, 4) I don't want my child to learn to regard food as a reward or a soothing device--that's when people start to get themselves in trouble! I remember the first time I used food as a soothing device...I was having some love trouble, having found out heartbreaking news, and was suddenly consumed with the need to bake a chocolate cake and devour the entire thing. A box mix chocolate cake with jarred frosting off the shelf. Woo! Anyway, I'm usually the type to starve my emotions, but something different overcame me and I went nuts baking this cake and eating it in all its delicious, chocolate glory. That's what officially got me started on my love affair with food. Before that point, I was perfectly content cooking nothing, baking nothing, and eating buttered noodles or plain chicken with mashed potatoes every...single...night. I was insanely picky too. Surprise! ;)

Back to the point...I ate my emotions for the first time and continued to do so afterward. I couldn't stop baking and eating, baking and eating...so I went from 120/125 lbs to 140 over the next few years. Sure, some of it may have been my metabolism slowing, some of it my change in diet...but the point is, if someone learns to self-soothe with food, they can end up with a great love/hate relationship and find themselves in a position of unhealthiness, weight gain, and guilt when eating should be nothing short of pleasurable at all times. So, one of the last things I want is for my daughter to get upset or bored (worse yet!) and think "I have an odd craving for milk and cookies...I think they'll save the day!" The same goes for shopping. What could be worse than putting yourself in debt because buying clothes is the only thing that makes you happy when you're upset? Better pray you are NEVER upset!

Anyway...I'm always going off on tangents. The bottom line is, I don't want G. to get used to snacking. Of course, this is America, not France, so snacking is inevitable and I'll deal with that by teaching her to crave nutritious foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts, and the like. However, for the time being, I'm in control of everything my daughter eats and I say she's not getting a snack unless truly necessary...or unless it's 4 o'clock and time for her goûter :) Which first happened Monday...I can't even quite recall what made me think to do it at that moment, but we'd gotten home from my parents house and I just thought, "Let me toast an English muffin and spread a little hazelnut butter on top to tide her over until dinner," and it worked! She sat in her high chair, blissfully gnawing on little slices of English muffin, getting warm, gooey hazelnut butter all over her face, hands, and clothes. It was so cute...and so convenient. I got a lot of cleaning done in the kitchen! And even got a slight head start on dinner before Billy got home and was able to take care of G. from there while I got the meal truly going.

I've been doing this every day since then and it works like a charm each time. So, my latest plan to organize our time is to continue with this practice...allowing G. a late afternoon snack once she's gotten up from her nap, in which case I can take my time getting dinner together, ensuring that we only eat by 7 rather than frantically trying to get something finished by 5. It's world's easier. And, as such...I was able to make an amazing Monday night dinner with what felt like minimal effort.

First, I roasted a chicken in my new Le Creuset French oven (it's really a Dutch oven, but the company labels them as "French") and, honestly, I can almost think of nothing easier than roasting a chicken. It feels like people make it out to be some big to-do, roasting anything, but it's beyond simple and effective. So, I put a chicken in the French oven along with some softened onions, herbs, garlic, and cubed butternut squash, threw it in the oven, and then sat on my butt for the next hour. When the chicken was finished, I started the risotto--it had the perfect timing because a roasted chicken needs about a 20-minute resting period, which is about the exact amount of time it takes to cook risotto (which you have to serve immediately!). So, I stood at the stove for 20 minutes, leisurely stirring my butternut squash risotto (instant roasted squash since I had it cooking alongside the chicken) and, once that was finished, I only had to dice up a couple pieces of chicken and throw them on top! The end ;) Did I mention this was a one-pot meal? While the chicken rested on a cutting board, I used the French oven to cook the risotto! Though, I guess technically I used two pots because I needed a very small pot of chicken stock kept warm on the stove for the risotto. So much more to clean..... ;)

So, that was Monday and you know the rest from there...I diced up some chicken so it was ready to go for B. and I at our next meals (all I had to do was make sauces and warm up the pieces in the sauce before serving) and I shredded one little container's worth for G. I love having my main course ready-to-go :)

French Toast Sandwiches

I've never been a fan of French toast. It's just a bit too eggy, dense, and boring to me. It actually makes me feel a bit sick to think about! Egg-covered bread with pancake syrup on top...ugh. But that's not to say that I don't love certain varying takes on the French toast concept...

First, I discovered my love for baked French toast. I almost don't see a reason to eat it any other way. I suppose it's really just bread pudding, but the ingredients are the same as a traditional French toast, you simply bake it instead! And cube the bread rather than using slices. Wow, is it good! My best friend's mom makes it pretty much every time we go to their cottage up north. The first time I ate it, I was only being polite; I was actually half horrified that I was going to be eating that eggy nonsense. But when I put that first bite in my mouth...oh my goodness. I would have eaten the entire pan! I'm beginning to crave it right now, in fact! Too bad I don't have the ingredients on hand as I just used up all of our bread for French toast sandwiches this morning!

Now, French toast sandwiches are cooked in a more traditional manner. In fact, you might be able to claim that it's just stuffed French toast, though I've never had it, so I can't make that claim myself. I mean, you eat it with a fork and knife...though I suppose you don't have to ;) It'll just be very messy, haha. Anyway, these sandwiches are wonderful. Basically, you just make a little breakfast sandwich, dunk it in the same custard bath that you would plain French toast, and then cook it on the stove top. It's as simple as that! And the options for fillings are endless. Bananas, slightly crushed berries, apples, stone fruits, any spread you can think of (nutella, peanut butter, hazelnut, fruit jam), I bet you could even make a savory version!

This morning's choice was red pears with sweetened ricotta. It was so good. So, so, so good! The sandwich was rich, sweet, and creamy with a little hint of cinnamon spice. G. devoured her portion, which wasn't a sandwich, at all, but roasted pear slices topped with the ricotta cheese. Same wonderful flavors, but a little more toddler-friendly :)

That's something I love about cooking for my family. I can take any adult dish and make just a few adjustments to turn it into something a child can easily eat. When G. was only able to eat even chunky purees, all I had to do was mince our dinner up or throw it in the food processor for a few quick pulses and, voila, a "Stage 3" meal. I actually have often done the opposite too. One of my favorite baby food cookbooks is Tyler Florence's Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating, not only because I agree with his take on how children and families should eat, but because the recipes are just so great! "Baked Apples and Barley," "Cauliflower Gratin," "Maple Roasted Pork Chops with Butternut Squash and Beets," "Ginger Chicken with Coconut." These are meals for babies! He's the one who gave me the idea for turning adult meals into baby-friendly ones and vice versa. So, I'll look at some wonderful puree recipes and simply stop before getting to the puree and suddenly I have a really delicious adult meal that was actually intended for a child. I feel like that may sound a little crazy, but I swear the recipes are appropriate for everyone!

This book is also where I came up with the idea for the pear and ricotta French toast sandwich. Tyler has a recipe for "Roasted Red Pears with Ricotta," as well as "Banana Breakfast Sandwiches," so I, essentially, just combined the two! And I'm so glad :)

Cravings Schmavings: Why Pregnancy is Not an Excuse for Unhealthy Behavior

*Disclaimer: I love my current and old friends and acquaintances. I know plenty of people, personally, who fall into the category I illustrate below and I absolutely understand the internal struggle with something that is, essentially, a form of addiction, especially for a pregnant woman with uncontrollable cravings. My frustration is more about how our country has allowed this frame of mind to become so common and to replace true common sense and conscientiousness about our health and bodies. This is not a personal comment about anyone and I truly hope I don't offend...

I know I'm a bit of a ranter when it comes to how I believe people should eat, but I'll just never understand being lax about your health! You see people every day on all sorts of medications with instructions from their doctors about the ways they have to change their diets or physical activities to keep from croaking too early, yet so many people are still walking around eating hamburgers, mac and cheese, and Twinkies while they drink a liter of coke, coffee, or both. I know these things taste good, but do you have no will power? 

Let me get to the point of this entry. Every workday, I listen to my favorite radio show of all time, "Blaine and Allyson in the Morning." I just cannot get enough and don't know what I'm supposed to do with the remaining 4.5 hours of my workday once the show's over. They're hilarious, smart, witty, and caring. Most important of all, though, they're incredibly amiable and easy to relate to. You want to be their friend, you want to have discussions with them, debates. You can't get enough!

So, one regular feature (which happens in multiple formats) is, of course, for listeners to write in with dilemmas that the hosts and listeners can help to solve. Whether it be "Helping Facebook Friends," "Therapy Thursday with Dr. Steve," "Love Court Tuesday," or anything else, there are many stories from listeners that are opened up to us for thought and discussion. Sometimes I think they're really interesting, sometimes a waste of my attention, sometimes blood boiling. For the most part, I'm just intrigued, but a listener problem on today's show had me particularly frustrated. One caller after another was giving the wrong answer until, finally, one sensible woman called in with reasonable advice and I was set at ease. However...I still feel the need to let out the rant that was building up inside :)

The story is, basically, that the listener's pregnant wife is eating junk food like there's no tomorrow and he's worried she'll gain far more weight than intended and will have a great struggle to lose it after having the baby (a struggle he's had to witness his sister deal with for a great deal of time). On the surface, it seems like this guy is just a chauvinist with his own priorities in mind--dear God, don't let my wife end up fat! And maybe that is what his real concern was, but that's far beyond the point I want to make. As he describes the gross number of Big Macs his wife is piling into her mouth to satisfy her pregnancy cravings, all these people are calling in to say TOO BAD! She's pregnant, she has cravings, this is what her body is telling her she needs, leave her alone! Seriously!? Is this what people really think?

Your body NEEDS hamburgers and french fries and ice cream with pickles on top and fried chicken slathered in the creamiest, fattiest gravy known to man? Does it really? I can't tell you why pregnant women have such odd cravings; I'm sure it has something to do with the grand changes her body is undergoing, including an increase of so many hormones. What I can tell you, though, is that pregnant or not, that food is not good for you and it, certainly, is not good for your unborn child. And pregnancy is no excuse to "let go" and gain 70 lbs, as if it's all going to magically drop away because, somehow, you believe that 70 lbs is simply because of the 8 lb baby you're going to deliver.

I'm not sure where women have gotten the idea that gaining weight to support a fetus relates and excuses gaining weight because of an unhealthy diet. Does nobody listen to their doctor? At 138 pounds, pre-pregnancy, the most weight I was supposed to gain was 25. Do you know how easy that is? My daughter was 8 pounds-even and various fluids and breast growth make up maybe another 7 or so, which means that, at delivery, I automatically lost around 15 pounds. If I'm only supposed to gain a total of 25, that only leaves me 10 pounds of fat. That means, in the 10 months that a woman is supposed to be pregnant (yes, 10, not 9), she should have only gained 10 pounds...Most of you realize how simple it is to gain 10 pounds, right? Probably something you could achieve in, oh, one month? Certainly something you could achieve, easily, in just a few, depending what you're eating and what your physical activity is like.

So, imagine that you're eating McDonald's all day with a side of ice cream, cupcakes, and whatever else has the highest fat, calorie, and sugar content. How much weight do you think you'll gain in 10 months? Definitely not the healthy 25. And, guess what, 25 is about the maximum any woman should gain; if you're overweight, you should be gaining less. Yet, somehow, we all think pregnancy is a free-for-all for weight gain. The perfect excuse to be bad! Forget the repercussions, I'm having a baby! That means I can do anything!

But let's think about all the things you're not supposed to do, that everyone knows you're not supposed to do, like drinking alcohol or smoking...or doing drugs. Why aren't you supposed to engage in these activities? It's certainly not for the benefit of your own health. It's because they affect the baby! When you consume anything, it's entering your bloodstream and going straight to the fetus, which is feeding off of that substance. This is how we get babies born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or drug addictions. There's no magical wall preventing anything from entering your unborn child's body. And this child is so extremely tiny. Think about how much alcohol it takes for you to get drunk and then think about how much your unborn fetus weighs in comparison to you. So, how much do you think it would take her to get drunk?

Everything you do greatly affects this child, so what I don't understand is how anyone could be so lax about what they consume while pregnant. I had so many people yelling at me about staying away from fish, from deli meat, from the tiniest sip of wine, from standing near anyone with a lit cigarette, yet these same people had no issues scarfing down a platter of double churned Edy's covered KFC on a nightly basis during their own pregnancies, as if that wasn't going anywhere near the kid. Or does that not matter? I suppose once the same baby is old enough to eat solids, they're feeding it the same exact things without any regard for the affect on his or her body.

It's just something that eats away at me. Why have people stopped caring about themselves? Why is all the concentration on weight and beauty? Probably about ninety-nine percent of the people who I've heard talk about their need to work out or go on a diet are referencing their desire to lose weight while maybe, maybe one percent want to do so, or are doing so, in order to be healthy. Forget the fact that eating a nutritious diet will likely aid in your weight loss; that doesn't matter. The main goal is to be thin at any cost, so filling our arteries with fat and cholesterol on the Atkins diet (because carbs are, apparently, the enemy. Confused as to how the French and Italians are thinner than us...) or eating a sliver of donut for x number of points and a drop of Mountain Dew for another x number of points on Weight Watchers is worth it. I just don't get it.

Can anybody clue me in? Is there anyone out there who wants to be on heart medication? Anyone who wants type 2 diabetes? Anyone who wants to give these issues to their children? When did we stop caring about the state of our bodies on the inside, about whether we have strength and energy, about whether we're healthy and whether our children are healthy. And that's what bothers me the most. Let yourself go, fine...but how can you do that to your child?

It's a very sad state our minds are in. And I can't believe only one caller thought to say that what she's eating is unhealthy for her and for the baby.

Now you see me...

Now you don't. That's 26 lbs of baby, fluids, breasts, as well as cantaloupe, watermelon, sweet potatoes, carrots, grapes, avocado, baked chicken thighs, grilled steak, baked french fries, risotto, pasta, and a glass of wine here and there (yes, wine!) and a bowl of ice cream every so often.

And this is what 1.5 months post-delivery looks like when you don't eat an entire Wendy's franchise in 10 months time. 

Mother Hen Toast

Breakfast might just be my favorite meal of the day, without any wavering, whatsoever. There are just so many choices and what's more fun than making a huge delicious breakfast? In college, I loved putting together a massive, home-cooked meal for my friends to enjoy: creamy scrambled eggs, crisp brown-sugar bacon, moist chocolate chip muffins, fluffy chocolate chip pancakes (with chocolate syrup and whipped cream!), simple toast with butter...

To me, breakfast is the perfect meal to put some real effort into. Since it's the beginning of the day, you're not interrupting anything and have the rest of the day to look forward to, plus you're already brimming with energy that just increases as you give your metabolism the jump-start it needs. I don't believe there's a meal I could be more excited about! So, last week during our honeymoon, I took full advantage to get back into the breakfast game.

I wanted to make wonderful, unique meals at all times--things we weren't used to eating with my tight and exhausting schedule. But we'd done so little grocery shopping as of late, there wasn't much to choose from, ingredient-wise. I searched quickly and desperately for breakfast ideas that only included what we had on hand and one of the first recipes I found was Tyler Florence's "'Mother Hen' Toast" or "Gallina de Madre." We didn't have the exact ingredients, but rather very good substitutes, so you might say I made more of a "'Gallina della Madre' Toast," (not a big difference between the Spanish and Italian, haha!).

Tyler's original recipe calls for Manchego cheese, horseradish, Serrano ham, and sage (among other ingredients I did have). For mine, I omitted the horseradish and substituted Parmesan cheese, brown sugar ham, and basil. Rather than display Tyler's original recipe, I'm going to give you my version, but you can find his in the book, Tyler Florence Family Meal: Bringing People Together Never Tasted Better. Aside from the missing horseradish, I imagine they taste very similar! As in...delicious :) The baked egg is wonderfully warm and runny (the yolk, of course, not the white), while the Parmesan bechamel adds a great sharp and creamy bite. Paired with the crisped ham and toast, you end up with a wonderful play of rich vs sharp and creamy vs crunchy. Think open-faced, breakfast Croque Madame with a slight variation on flavor. Love it!

Housewife Envy

The honeymoon is over and I'm just consumed with so much sadness about going back to work! Aside from the dread of waking up at 4:30 in the morning to rush getting ready and arrive at the office in the dark for an 8.5-hour day of numbing my butt in front of a computer with only a half hour lunch break...I just don't want to leave my family. I have major, major housewife envy.

It's not about laziness either. Maybe if my work were something I'm passionate about, I'd feel differently. I don't dislike my job, but it's not exactly the type of thing you wake up excited for. If I were a freelance photographer, writer, or baker...maybe!

We hired a string quartet for our wedding ceremony and when my dad and I met with the violinist to go over the music, I felt so jealous of what I imagined her life to be like. She teaches the violin and performs at all kinds of events not only with the quartet (or variation of it), but with a 12-piece band! She sounded so happy and excited talking about her work and my assumption is that her job is literally simply the violin--that she is her own boss, in charge of her schedule, in charge of her work. That would be amazing to me. I just wondered why I couldn't have mastered something like that and done the same. I can only imagine how much I'd enjoy life as a photographer, but I know so little and am so shy and awkward with zero networking skills, I have no idea how I'd get a job. I also don't know how we'd be able to afford for me to have that type of career unless I were exceedingly successful, like wedding photographers who make a few thousand a job and are booked every weekend of the year. I wish!

This is all rather beside the point of this entry, though. My career isn't something that matters so much to me because, at the end of the day, I just want to take care of my family. I don't want to spend 8.5 hours a day at work while my daughter is being raised by other people, after which I only get to spend the next 5 hours with her and my husband, anyway. And yes, I do mean to use the word "raised." If your child is spending several hours a day with any given person, that person is raising her. Sure, you are as well, but it's not solely you and that bothers me. Of course, I trust the people who my daughter spends her days with, let there be no misunderstanding, but it's just not the same. I want to be the mom who gets to wake up with her and decide what she'll have for breakfast and when she'll have it; who gets to decide when nap time is and what that routine entails; who gets to put together a fresh lunch and decide when and in what manner it's eaten; who gets to decide whether the TV is going to be left on or what is and isn't okay to play with; who gets to run around outside or sit and read the same book over and over; who gets to take her child to play dates, recreational activities, and after school events; who gets to have a 100% say in her child's learning process at home. I make myself sound like I just want absolute control or to have my daughter all to myself, but it's not about that. It's about believing that a parent should be the person who makes all those decisions and gets to be around every step of the way, while everyone else gets to play their actual role rather than having the responsibility of sharing mine.

I want to be the absolutely hands-on mom who's remembered as being there every minute and sharing in every moment, but it's not possible when you're away from your child most of the day and have other responsibilities besides her once you're home. Sure, we're in the same house for five hours after I get out of work, but we're not necessarily spending any time together and that makes it worse. I just feel complete envy for any parent who has the privilege to raise their own children...the privilege to be together with their children for so much time every day. To me, that's what a parent is supposed to be doing and if I had that opportunity I would snatch it up in a minute, even if I were still waking up at 4:30 every morning to start a full and busy day. I would love to get to raise my daughter.

And that's why vacations such as these make me so sad. To have woken up to her smiling, babbling face every morning...to cook us all breakfast and eat together at the table...to play together and relax together...to get work done or take some "me" time while she naps...and then to see her excited face, again, when she wakes up...to only have to miss her for a few hours while Billy and I go out for some alone time and her grandmother babysits and then get to come home and make us all a great dinner that we share together...to get to cuddle with my husband on the couch, in the evening, watching TV after she's gone to bed, with no anxiety about getting all of our breakfasts and lunches ready for the next day or making sure we've all had a good night's rest in preparation for work and babysitting the next day or anxiety over how to fit all that in along with cooking a proper dinner and actually spending time with my child...to get to do this all the time would be the most wonderful gift in the world, so when I finally get to have it for just a week, I'm overcome by sadness at its end. And all I have to look forward to is the next time I can take a week off of work and get to play stay-at-home mom, exhausting myself as I run around with the most wonderfully happy, laughing toddler in the world.

I'll miss you tomorrow, my little moo.

Apple Cider Muffins

Not to toot my own horn...but I made the most amazing apple cider muffins yesterday! I'm just astonished at how good they turned out, so I can't stop talking about them! Or eating them :) Thank goodness I made about a billion...I thought my recipe was only going to put out a dozen, so I doubled it and ended up with four dozen muffins AND a muffin loaf, ha! Everyone in this house has been devouring them for the past two days, though, so it was obviously a worthy effort.

When I come up with my own recipe, there are always certain characteristics that I'm afraid I won't achieve. For these muffins, would they be moist enough? Would they taste enough like apple cider? Would I have to soak them in cider after baking and, if so, would they become too moist? Am I adding too much cinnamon? Am I even adding enough cinnamon? Will the muffins overflow the pans as they rise? Will I burn them? Considering I made so many on my first attempt, this was an extra nerve-wracking situation. I couldn't have smiled bigger after that first bite, though. I could barely stand to wait for them to cool. I think I lasted maybe ten minutes before snatching up a muffin and pulling it apart to test. Holy crap was it good! All day, Gia kept pointing at them and making this high pitched noise that usually means, "Can I have this?" I'm sure we've already finished one of the dozens...even the dog has been eating them!

These muffins...they are so unbelievably moist. I don't even know how I pulled it off. Maybe it's the apple cider, maybe it's the apple shreds...I don't know. They're both a butter and oil-based muffin, which creates the perfect texture, in my opinion--not too dense, not too light, definitely not too dry. And the addition of dark brown sugar with the slightest hint of cinnamon (to the point where you have to ask yourself if you're really tasting it or not) rounds out the wonderful fall flavor of the apple cider. Amazing! Eaten all on their own, they're simply wonderful, but I'm extra excited to slice one in half and toast it with a little pat of butter. I'm salivating just thinking about it!

So, without further ado...here's the recipe. Do yourself a favor and make it! ;) And then, as I am right now, sit on the couch and yell to your husband to butter up a muffin for you to enjoy as you lay back and relax Sunday afternoon in front of the TV :)

Sweet Potato Latkes

Is there anything better than potato!? In all forms, potatoes are awesome! I just can't get enough. Smashed, whipped, boiled, baked, grilled, fried, flavored with nothing but butter, covered in tons of herbs and Parmesan cheese...however you can make a potato, I will probably eat it! So, it's no surprise that I would adore latkes. They're like comfort food, which I suppose all forms of potato are, but not in the same way. Think about hash browns, the great kind you get for breakfast at places like Big Boy, in which they're perfectly grated and a crispy brown on the outside, but soft and fluffy inside. Latkes are nearly the same! But fried in a shallow pan of oil and served alongside a tart, homemade apple sauce, they're even better :)

I first tried latkes in college. A close friend of mine since way back in the 7th grade is Jewish, so I had the privilege of growing up hearing about so many great foods that I was just dying to try (just check out my last entry about brisket!), one of which was latkes, of course! Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. This particular year was around the dawn of The O.C. Remember that show!? Ugh...But, back then, we loved it! And, even moreso, we loved Adam Brody and the amazing holiday his character made up that would forever go down in history (for us). Christmukkah. Half Jewish, half Christian (like my friend was!), he received the gift of two holidays rolled into one and we took full advantage of this to begin a yearly celebration of two of the greatest holidays known to man, Christmas and Hanukkah (was that not obvious? Haha).

So, for our very first Christmukkah, we had to serve dishes that were both Christmas traditions as well as Jewish! Hence the latkes. I don't believe either of us had ever made them before; I certainly hadn't, but I don't believe my friend had, herself, either. Luckily, they turned out amazing! I found a recipe on Food Network that used equal parts sweet potato, Yukon Gold, and onion. Of course, I wasn't very fond of onions, so I greatly, greatly reduced that portion. And nobody missed them. Wow, what flavor! The guys at our party ate them up before we realized they had even been touched. "Those hash browns were really good, do you have more!?" What hash browns?? Haha!

When I decided to finally try my hand at brisket tonight, I couldn't miss the opportunity for a little side dish of sweet potato latkes. The only thing I missed was the homemade apple sauce, which was still in the freezer (yes, I have lots for my 1-year-old!), but I'll get it next time :) For leftovers, this week! Yummm...

Anyway, if you've never had latkes, especially if you're a potato lover and extra especially if you're a hash brown lover, you absolutely must try these. Even if you dislike sweet potato, you have to try this recipe. I used to hate sweet potatoes, but thought these were insanely good. Grated sweet potato with equal parts Yukon Gold and onion is not the same as a pure mashed too-sweet potato that someone probably threw some extra sugar into along with cinnamon and nutmeg, as if you're about to eat dessert or pumpkin pie. Seriously...give these a shot :)