Roasted Parmesan Herb Sweet Potatoes

I'm in a bit of a catchup mode with posting recipes. I have a bunch of new ones that I've tried and liked enough to keep around and make again, just haven't made the time to get them posted. First is the roasted sweet potatoes we had tonight. I don't know why I never thought to roast sweet potatoes, these were so good. I really liked that they were on the savory side, sometimes sweet potatoes can be too sweet with cinnamon and sugar. These were a great side dish with chicken seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some thyme.

Roasted Parmesan Herb Sweet Potatoes
serves 4

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 tsp thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a large baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or wipe with extra virgin olive oil or line with parchment paper. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine olive oil, Parmesan cheese, thyme, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add diced sweet potatoes and toss to coat. Spread potatoes in an even layer on prepared pan. Bake 32-35 min, or until lightly browned and crispy. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 min. Sprinkle with extra Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Apple Pie

We have had an overabundance of apples recently. I made apple crisp one day, apple pancakes another but we still had more. Sarah was home this past week for fall break and she really wanted Bob to make her one. Off she went to the store to buy crusts so he could make her a pie. This is the recipe straight off the box of Pillsbury pie crusts. It's good, works every time, and when you buy the store brand they don't always have the recipe on the box as Whitney found out. So really, this is for Whitney (and me) for the next time. Sorry no pictures, the pie was finished this morning at breakfast.

Apple Pie

1 box of pie crusts (or a homemade crust if you're feeling ambitious)
6 c thinly sliced apples (about 6 medium)
3/4 c sugar
2 Tbsp flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Heat oven to 425*. Let crusts sit at room temperature while you make the filling. In a large bowl gently mix the rest of the ingredients. Place one pie crust in ungreased 9-inch pie plate and press firmly against the side and bottom. Spoon the filling into the crust and top with the second crust. wrap excess top crust under the bottom and press edges together to seal. Cut slits or shapes in several places in the top crust.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Cover edge of crust with strips of foil after first 15-20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours before serving (if you can actually wait that long).

Invasion of the German Grocery Stores

Two new names in the grocery store business, at least in our area, are German. Aldi has been around for quite a while and I used to shop there quite often when Sarah was taking Irish dance since I used to pass by one on the way to her classes. These days I don't go as often, although I really should at least for German week. Much newer to the scene is Lidl. One opened not too far from us about a year ago and another one, that's a bit closer to us opened while we were on vacation. I stopped over there today since it's right next to the Target I usually go to and I flipped through the Lidl ad and saw a few Halloween/fall items I wanted to get and I figured it would be a good chance to check it out. I had heard good things about Lidl but the first one was across town and I don't usually go in that direction and I had also heard that it was crazy busy. I was hoping that this one was less so, at least at lunchtime on a Friday.

In some ways Aldi and Lidl are very similar but they do have their differences. First Lidl is about three times as big as the typical Aldi. They both carry mostly private label brands but Lidl has more national brands than Aldi usually has. At Aldi national brands are usually only around when they put them on sale; Lidl seemed to have more and they weren't all sale items. I thought it was interesting that they both seem to have the same free standing freezer cases. One big difference between the two German groceries and the typical American grocery store is prices; although I only took a quick look around Lidl this morning the prices in the German stores are quite a bit lower than I usually see. The quality of the produce looked good, there was a large beer and wine selection at Lidl (it's smaller at Aldi), there was a bakery at Lidl. Both stores have a general merchandise section with tools, small outdoor items, kitchen tools/appliances, this and that. It's not stuff I'd expect to find in a grocery store, but again the prices for this things are great.

The Lidl was not crowded this morning at all, maybe because it just opened. I do think I'll go back again, grocery list in hand. I've also been thinking that I wanted to get back to Aldi but I just don't pass one in my usual daily travels. May have to work on that. They both have good prices so it's worth the trip. I know when I shopped at Aldi more often I would still need to hit another grocery store since they didn't have everything I needed. Maybe with Lidl being larger I can do more of my shopping there, we'll see.

In case you were wondering I bought pumpkin spice coffee (12 k-cups/$3.69 was a really good deal, I hope the coffee is) and two packages of Halloween pasta - pumpkins, bats, and spiders. I'll use that to make mac & cheese when Sarah is home for fall break.

Foil Dinners

Ah, camping food! We just got back from a two week vacation to Colorado - the Rocky Mountains, Leadville, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was a wonderful taste of fall and the mountains were spectacular! I love Colorado.

Besides just getting away one of the treats about camping, at least for us, is the food. Since we tent camp we need easy to prepare and stuff that doesn't take up a lot of room in the cooler or grocery bags in the back of the car. That means we eat some of those semi-processed foods that I don't buy at home, things like Hamburger Helper or spaghetti sauce in a jar. We also have some food, like foil dinners, that we only make when we're camping. I suppose we could make them in the grill (we have a charcoal one) or in the firepit (which we did once) but I just don't think about making them if we're not camping. This trip we had the one we always make - hamburgers, sliced potatoes, carrots, and onions but I also found a new foil dinner that we really liked. At home this could easily be a sheet pan dinner, just cut everything up and roast in a 400* oven.

Note: adjust the amount of ingredients to the number of people you have and what you like.


Sausage & Veggie Foil Dinner
serves 2

1/2 smoked sausage, sliced
3 potatoes, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
1 small red onion (or 1/2 a larger one), thinly sliced

Divide the ingredients between two large pieces of foil. Season with salt and pepper then fold over and seal the packets. Cook over coals for about 30-40 minutes, turning the packets every 10 minutes or so. Be careful of the steam when opening.