Sweet & Spicy Sweet Potatoes

I decided it's time to eat more vegetables. Last night, I was looking to make a sweet potato side dish. Looking through Allrecipes, most sweet potato dishes were of the candied variety - not what I was looking for. Then I came upon this awesome recipe. I think I could eat it everyday.

Here's my version:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

olive oil

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1.5 T paprika

0.5 t black pepper

0.5 t onion powder

0.5 t garlic powder

0.5 t chili powder

pinch of cayenne pepper

salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Coat the potatoes in a little oil (or a lot of if you're not trying to be healthy). Cook in the microwave. Mix up the spices. After the potatoes are mostly cooked, toss them in the spices. And bake on a cookie sheet coated with oil or cooking spray for about 15-20 minutes til they are a little crunchy. Enjoy!

Skip the microwave step, if you're not in a hurry. With the microwave, it took me 25 minutes, start to dinner.

I ate these for dinner with pork last night and again this morning with eggs for breakfast. Delicious!

Natural Buffalo Chicken Dip without dressing

In honor of Superbowl Sunday, I've been searching high and low for a good buffalo chicken dip recipe that doesn't use ranch or blue cheese dressing as a principle ingredient. I haven't found one that suited me very well, so I came up with my own. I think it's awesome!

BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP WITHOUT DRESSING

1.5 c sour cream

8 oz cream cheese

2 c cooked, chopped chicken

1/2 c cayenne pepper hot sauce (I used Frank's Wing Sauce)

3/4 c blue cheese

Ranch seasoning:

1t dried chives

1t dried parlsey

1t dried dill

1/2t garlic powder

1/2t onion powder

1/4t salt

1/4t pepper

Mix it all up! Adjust all the quantities to taste. I used the food processor to chop my chicken 'cause I like my chicken finely chopped. If you like chunks, chop your chicken differently. Yields ~5.5 cups or so? It's a lot!

For vegetarians, leave out the chicken.

For blue cheese haters, leave out the blue cheese.

For people without spices, leave our the ranch seasoning.

For people from the midwest, use less wing sauce.

Mexican food so good you can't imagine it

Perhaps, you remember my post about a little something I'd like to call the best mexican food I've ever experienced in my entire life. I thought I'd never experience it again, since a friend's out of town friend made it.

However, tonight my life has improved because I found a place with mexican food as delicious as I had that night. Tacqueria Distrito Federal in Columbia Heights. My goodness. It's like nothing I ever had before (except that one time...).

I had a chorizo taco - a generous amount of spicy chorizo sausage topped with red onion, cucmbers, radish, cheese, a roasted pepper slice and a lime wedge wrapped with two corn tortillas - and something else that I do remember the name of: a fried, flattened piece of dough that was a little bit crisp topped with shredded chicken, lettuce, cheese, a drizzle of sour cream and a red sauce on the side. Perhaps this sounds standard. It's not. Just go and your life will change forever.

3463 14^th St. NW
Washington, DC 20010

Also, I got a parking ticket as a result of this trip :(

Obama checks out the DG

Obama went to the Dairy Godmother with his daughters today! According to the DG's twitter feed, I was running past there RIGHT before he got there. Maybe he WAS there...the sidewalks were pretty crowded.

How cool is that??

http://wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1701094

Italian festival in Baltimore

I've heard a lot about the St. Anthony Italian festival in Baltimore and its happening this weekend! I'm REALLY excited. I'm picturing copious amounts of homemade Italian food made by old ladies. I also hope there is tiramisu and cannolis :D

Info on the internets is scarce, but here's what I got from http://www.littleitalymd.com/:

Annual Saint Anthony Festival
June 13th and 14th 2009
12:00 pm to 8:00 pm each day
Come and experience good Italian food, music and many activities.
$1.00 admission/donation
SAINT LEO THE GREAT ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH is located on the corner of Exeter and Stiles St. at 227 South Exeter Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Greek Festival!

Last night I checked out the Greek Festival at St. Sophia's church to learn about Greek culture. Just kidding! I went to eat Greek food :D

I had a delicious gyro - with lots of tzatziki sauce and feta cheese :D I also had a BAKLAVA SUNDAE! Vanilla ice cream, crushed up baklava and honey syrup! It was fantastic. There was also Greek entrees available inside the church, but I found out about it after devouring my gyro :)

They were getting the lambs ready last night for grilling today - I saw them chop the head off of a skinned lamb and then put it on a skewer :-O

Festival is at 36th and Massachusetts Ave NW and runs 12-9pm today and Sunday. Check it out!

http://www.saintsophiawashington.org/involved/festival.php

Ray's Hell Burger

So...I think I've discussed the pure joy that comes from eating at Ray's Hell Burger, right?
Turns out Obama and Joe Biden went to check it out! They probably read about it on my blog.... :)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/05/us/politics/AP-US-Obama-Burgers.html?_r=1

Burger night at Shooter McGee's

Tonight I needed chicken wings, so I went to Shooter McGee's on Duke St in Alexandria near the Landmark Mall. Unfortunately, it was also half price burger night...so I needed both!

They had a list of about 10 half-pound burgers with various combination of toppings - most of them including both cheese AND bacon. I got a blue cheese and bacon burger, without the bacon, cooked medium. My friend got a burger with jack cheese, sauteed mushrooms and bacon cooked medium rare. Both of our burgers came cooked as requested :) They were served with fries, cole slaw or baked beans (gross!). I got the coleslaw, but I wish I got the fries - they looked delicious!

To get the special, you need to order a drink. Burgers were regularly listed for $9.50, so this was a great deal. The waiter was excellent - my Sprite was refilled as soon as it was empty :) I've gone a few times, mostly for wing night, and have never left disappointed. Check it out!

Turkey Hill's Fried Ice Cream is back!

Just a little public service announcement that Turkey Hill's Limited Edition Fried Ice Cream is back in stores! This wonderful flavor is only available once a year, so I recommend you go out and pick some up soon. It is sure to be your new favorite ice cream flavor! I picked some up on Friday and it's half gone. Mmmm....

carrot french fries

The last several months were spent eating a glorious diet that consisted of fat and simple carbs (bagels with cream cheese, cookies, crackers,cake, waffles with peanut butter and dinners from the vending machine at work)....and a few steaks. NOTHING has been blog-worthy...

I slept more than 50% of the day this weekend and was still tired. Combine that with my failed attempts to start running again in the past week, and I concluded that I must be suffering from a terrible disease...or my abysmal eating habits have caught up with me.

So I went to the grocery store and bought vegetables and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Today, I had high hopes and bought a GIANT carrot at lunch (half pound!). I promptly decided I couldn't possibly eat it like that... So, I made carrot french fries for dinner! And it was actually good - tasted like sweet potato fries :) To make: Slice the carrot into fry-shapes, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, seasoned salt and pepper and baked it at 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

I also ate salad. A dinner of fresh vegetables! I feel better already, but I give this 3 days til I'm back at the snack machine....