This recipe is inspired by a menu item at Mitch's Tavern; a staple in the Raleigh/ NCSU community and a very special place to me and my friends. It's where I spent my 21st birthday. It's where we threw Mike his graduation party (most people who go to school for 10 years are called doctors, Mike). It's where Cam met me for a beer to celebrate finishing my last class of my academic career. It's where we started celebrating Jandy's wedding. It's where all reunions begin. We sit at the copper top.
Mike reserving the copper top by laying across it and whispering sweet nothings to it.
I love Mitch's because their food is reasonably priced and delicious, the beers are local and tasty, and the service is impeccable (shout out to Stephanie). Enough about Mitch's! I'm getting verklempt.
On their menu is a sweet potato and side salad that is delicious and nutritious! I recreate something similar to their sweet potato and bring it to work most days of the week because I find it makes me happy and full. When possible, it's good to pair it with a side salad so you can have the whole sweet and savory thing going on. Furthermore, this is a super cheap meal to make once you have all the ingredients.
Ingredients:
Sweet potato:
Sweet potatoes
Milk (or whatever)
Butter (duh)
Nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, anything that smells like it should go in your thanksgiving dessert
Honey
Trader Joes Omega Trek Mix (see below)
"Oh my!" indeed!
Salad:
I mean this is really up to you. I think a salad is whatever you want on top of lettuce. Nick once told me my salad was "stretching the boundaries of what defines a salad." But I think he just hate me 'cause he aint me. For my salad (which photographs great for all you foodstagrammers out there), I used the following:
Red leaf lettuce
Cherry tomatoes
Olive oil/vinegar/salt/pepper
ALRIGHT, Y'ALL!
My mom grows all sorts of veggies. I took the photos for this post over the summer (only took me 6 months to write it) and the ingredients I used were mostly from my mom's garden. I am a poor graduate student so I was trying to spend as little money on food as possible. I believe the sweet potatoes were from her garden (it is in NC after all) and the lettuce and tomatoes definitely were. I could have gotten my cheese from the amish here in PA but it seems they don't understand how real life works because who can afford to pay $9 for a small block of cheddar?! Get real. Get electricity, zippers, and real.
Ok really here's the recipe:
Boil water in a small pot
Peel and cut the sweet potato into large chunks and put them into the boiling water. In this case it looks like I probably cut them into quarters. It really doesn't matter.
Cook the sweet potatoes until you can stab them easily with a fork. Then drain the water, throw in the appropriate amount of butter (you do you, but remember: swimsuit season is just around the corner), milk (I use half and half because I don't have milk and, well, swimsuit season is just around the corner), nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and whatever other spices you decided on. Make sure you do all of this while the potatoes are still hot. This way the butter (seriously though, no judgement on the amount of butter) can melt and you can mash up them taters real good.
Once I get it to this point, I put it in a tupperware, wait for it to cool and refrigerate it until the next day when I eat it for lunch. Alternatively, you can eat it then. To serve it and give it that "I don't know what", add honey and the Omega Trek Mix. If you like sweet potatoes, you'll LOVE this recipe!
It really looks so much prettier in this pic than it does in my old tupperware containers. That's probably why Al always looks at me like I'm crazy when I eat this for lunch in front of him. He actually looks disappointed in me when I eat this in his office - which is weekly. Sorry, buddy.
On to the salad!
For this salad, I made somewhat of a caprese salad kinda. It's good. I picked a bunch of tomatoes from my mom's garden. Alternatively, since it's currently January, you could go to the grocery store and buy some tomatoes that have been shipped across the country. I went to the store in NC and asked where the tomatoes were. The woman working glared at me and condescendingly said "there's a draught." WELL SORRRRRY! (but really, sorry to my CA homies). Alternatively to the previous alternative, you could eat something more in season since this is a local food blog. I put brussels sprouts, black bean and corn salsa, and some pepper jack cheese on my salad (this would be the salad Nick does not qualify as a salad - but like I said, the food that lies with lettuce, shall henceforth be known as salad).
K. Here's the recipe:
Wash the lettuce. My mom once called me high maintenance because I made fun of her when I found a worm on my salad. I was eating the salad, but apparently I was also high maintenance for pointing it out. Life is confusing.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. This will allow them to soak up the vinaigrette and be more stab-able when you're eating the salad
Note the subtle hints of stab-ability in these tomatoes
If you got lil mozzarella ballz like I did, I'd cut those in half or quarters as well. This will make your ballz go further and allow you more cheese per bite. I swear if I turn lactose intolerant one day, I will have no idea what to do with my life. I've had multiple roommates admit to eating more cheese because they live with me. Like that's MY problem. As if.
Vinaigrette is: 1 part balsamic vinegar, 1 part olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. I'd add a pinch of sugar as well. It's grandma's secret but she doesn't understand the internet so it's cool if I tell you here.
You know how salad works, throw it all together and pour a glass of wine. Viola!
This meal is so good - I literally cannot even right now.
Well there it is. My sweet potato recipe ($6 trek mix + $6 of sweet potatoes could feed me for two weeks at work), and a salad recipe. I think the nuts from the trail mix and the nutrients from the sweet potatoes help me to stay awake through the afternoon. You know when that 2:30 feeling hits, have a sweet potato. Just don't eat it in front of a Ron Swanson-like co-worker if you're concerned about judgement.
Delicious Level: 4/5 (lezzbehonest - it's no steak dinner but it's super delicious)
Difficulty: This is so easy Maebe can make it
Lessons Learned: Just please. Finish your dissertation, Alison. Stop writing in your ridiculous food blog. Get out of PA. You don't belong here. Your clothes are too colorful and you still haven't figured out that you have to clear your car off and warm it up before you can drive it in the winter. It's been 4 years. You should have learned that by now. Tammy even knows and she's from Hawaii.
Here's to eatin' good and eatin' local! Cheers and uff-da!
