It's Valentine's Day next Tuesday, and that, of course, means that you need to know how to make sweet potato tots. Can you think of a better way to show your love than with the delicate crunch of fried potato giving way to its sweet and creamy insides as it's dipped into a cool and smoky sauce - each nugget lovingly shaped between your fingers rather than shaken out of the freezer bag? Homemade tater tots? That's love, man.
I would not normally be this attuned to your football watching plans, but Paul and I happened to carve out a date afternoon the Sunday before last and at the top of our list of things to do without our children was go check out the new Golden Road Brewery near the L.A. River.
It turns out that the Sunday before last was not the day for the football clueless to go to a palace of beer. We lucked into two bar stools and ordered the first two beers on the list and a smattering of snacks and mutely gazed at all the flashing tv screens and raucous fans. People were excited about the football, man.
I'm excited about Golden Road's huge train-ajacent patio that will be a perfect place for Felix and Desmond to watch the box cars, then the oil cars, then the coal cars, then the flat cars rumble past while we share snacks and a beer. The menu is promising. The banh mi was way-underseasoned, just disappointingly dull, but the big warm pretzel with a vegan pimento cheese dip was excellent.
So, all that yelling and carrying on reminded me that the Super Bowl is coming up, and while I don't care, I do care about your party snack needs. And I'd been mulling over this layered dip ever since I brought home a cute little bag of rye toasts from Trader Joe's. This dip has all the layers of your classic tempeh reuben sandwich - the warm spiced tempeh, the tart sauerkraut, the creamy pickle-flecked dressing, topped off by melty cheese browned under the broiler. I prefer mashed avocado to cheese in my sandwich, but in this dip I wanted the enticing bubbly brown top layer. The whole thing comes together pretty quick, and ready to party. Go team?
My desk is clean, the box is full, and the contest is closed. Here's a recap of the booty:
I took an informal poll recently of a few friends and family members gathered around the table. The results surprised me. So I'm putting the question to you a bit more guardedly. My expectations are lowered, but still I have to ask -
When you were a kid, were you pretty sure you could fly if you just ran fast enough or really, really tried?
Everybody's mama has a recipe for biscuits. Here's mine. Like I said on Tuesday, this one adds a bit of light whole wheat flour without making them taste at all good for you, plus there's much less fat than a lot of recipes out there. So, this is now a semi-weekly treat rather than a semi-yearly one. There is no better vehicle for good jam than a soft biscuit fresh from the oven.
