Crispy Roasted Sweet Potatoes

The longer this self quarantine goes on - the longer the list of activities that I should NOT be participating in, grows.  😂  I've played more tennis in the last couple of weeks than I have in YEARS and I would have thought that with all that practice - I would be a master tennis player by now. 🎾🙅🏻‍♀️ I actually managed to unintentionally peg my poor pup square in the butt last week during a somewhat comical match with my husband.  She was shocked and I can only assume, ticked off, at my total lack of ball control.  We both were, really.

Golfing, social distance style, has been very interesting.  ⛳️ The cups are turned upside down so that no one has to touch the flag.  For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, that means that there is no "hole" that the ball actually has to go into.  All I had to do was hit the cup.  Easy, right?  Nope.  Golf is another sport that I am painfully inept at - even without a hole. 😂 With the shelter in place order, there were an unusually large number of children that seemed to be playing on or near the course and that made me very nervous.  These innocent children had no idea what kind of blind trust they were putting in my amateur golfing abilities.  Fortunately no children were harmed during my golf game - maybe just a squirrel or two.  😬

My most recent quarantine endeavor is biking. 🚴🏻‍♂️I've rediscovered how much fun it is to go out on long rides through the neighborhoods near my house.  I was feeling so confident in my new found biking skills in fact, that I suggested that my husband and I take our bikes to the park last weekend.  Our ride was all going swimmingly UNTIL I came in contact with a spider! 🕷 The timing couldn't have been worse.  I was about half way down a very steep hill when a spider (which was pretty ginormous, by the way) somehow ended up in my shirt. 👚 I started frantically shaking out my shirt with one hand and trying to navigate my bike around the sharp curve at the bottom of the hill with the other hand when I first caught a glimpse of two  innocent bystanders who were strolling along in my direction.   Terrified - that was the look on their faces as this crazy woman careened towards them at a very high rate of speed on a bike that seemed to be out of control while screaming at the top of her lungs.  🙀 I'm happy to report that there was no collision and the spider was successfully removed (unharmed) from my shirt.  But I did give those poor pedestrians (and myself) quite a scare.  

Maybe I should just stick to the things that I'm good at.  I'm a good walker.  🚶🏻‍♀️ I've yet to fall out of my kayak.  🛶 And the general public is much safer when I'm on my stationary bike.  🚲😂

All of this outdoor activity though has me craving bigger meals than normal.  Sweet potatoes are one of my go-to post workout treats.  They have got a lot of the vitamins and nutrients that I need after an afternoon of exercise.  These Crispy Roasted Sweet Potatoes are super easy to put together and REALLY delicious.  

Crispy Roasted Sweet Potatoes
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary)
3 lbs. (3-4 medium) sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
1 shallot, peeled and sliced thinly
Kosher salt and black pepper

​Combine melted butter, oil and crushed rosemary in a small bowl.

​Pour 2 tablespoons of butter-oil mixture in the bottom of a 2-quart baking dish.

Arrange potato slices in the dish.

​Add a sliver of shallot between every few slices of potato.

Brush top with remaining butter-oil mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

​Cover dish with foil and roast at 400 for 1 hour, covered, until potatoes are tender.

​Increase oven heat to 450 degrees F. Remove foil and roast another 10-15 minutes, until tops of potatoes are browned and crisp.

We eat a lot of sweet potatoes in our house.  We like them baked, roasted, "fried", sautéed and stuffed.  We eat them in burritos, salads, muffins, cornbread, eggs, casseroles and burgers.  If you're interested in checking out any of my sweet potato recipes - type "sweet potato" into the search bar on the recipe index page of my blog.  Even I was surprised at how many sweet potato recipes I had posted.  

Ciao!

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