Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Bananas and Honey and a Chili-Lime Pecan Glaze

Everyone,
I was looking for a different sweet potato dish to make for Turkey Day and couldn't find anything that stood out. I came across a sweet potato with banana and honey recipe from Tyler Florence, but it had no spices in it and seemed boring. I jazzed it up with spices and invented a chili-lime pecan glaze for the top to give it a little kick.

They just came out of the oven and they are AMAZING. Since I added virtually everything, I'm considering this one an original. Let me know if anyone tries them!


Spiced Whipped Sweet Potato with Bananas and Honey
with Chili-Lime Pecan Glaze

Ingredients

• 4-5 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
• 2 bananas, unpeeled
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• dash red chili powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• optional orange zest

topping
* 1/2 bag pecans
* 1/2 stick butter
* 1/8 cup honey
* 1/4 tsp ginger
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 tsp red chili powder
* 1 lime

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, put them in a roasting pan and roast for about an hour, or until soft. Toss the bananas into the pan and continue roasting for 10 to 15 minutes, until both the bananas and potatoes are very soft. Remove the pan from the oven but don't turn the oven off.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Peel the bananas and add them to the bowl along with 1 stick of the butter, and the honey. Season with salt and other seasoning and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until everything's well combined and the mixture is fluffy. If it is a little dry, add a tiny bit of milk, but it shouldn't need too much. Spoon into an oven-proof serving bowl and smooth the top.

For the Pecan topping:

In a skillet, melt the butter but do not let it begin to bubble yet. When melted, add the honey and turn up the temperature to medium heat, so the mixture begins to bubble. Once bubbling, add the pecans. As the mixture begins to cook down, stir in the spices and add the juice of the lime. Cook the mixture down until you get a nice pecan glaze and remove from heat. Taste the topping to see if it needs more acid or spice, but it should be just about perfect.

While it is still hot, drizzle it on top of the potatoes in the pan and then return pan to the oven and bake an additional 7-10 minutes, to set flavor.

Serve warm and enjoy!

the new semester

starting this new semester was so much easier than the first one-- i mean, duh, i already know the school and kids, etc, but the planning process was better, too.

every day i learn how to do this just a bit better. thinking back now to my first day is amazing. i have changed so much already.

we have one day left until mid-winter break and i am soooooo ready. in fact, i told the students in one of my harder-to-manage classes "look guys, in a few days i'm going to be in seattle, snowboarding and happy, and i know you guys have plans too. let's just get through the end of this week in one piece, okay?"

thinking about going back to seattle makes me so happy-- i miss it. i miss my friends, i miss the green and the mountains and the water. i know that i'll try to be back there sooner rather than later. i am already thinking about end-of-summer plans for the pacific northwest. i have some friends doing a portland-seattle-vancouver tour that sounds kinda dreamy.

one more day. its all i can do to not just pee myself with excitement.

almost halfway done with my first year...

taking some time to reflect on my first 4 months of teaching, now that i'm two days away from school starting back after xmas break, thinking about my experiences thus far.

i definitely love teaching and for the most part, i love my students, but part of it seems, as ruth would say, a little too "downstream" for me. the analogy there is something to the affect of if you were downstream of a powerful river and you noticed that people were systematically needing to be rescued from drowning because of a weak spot in a bridge upstream, would you stay there and fish each one of them out, or would you move upstream and fix the bridge?

after a dream i had the other night in which i went to law school, i checked my status with the Law School Admissions Council (the LSAC) and was delighted to see that my membership (and LSAT scores) does not expire until October 2009. this got me thinking on a whole train of thought that led me to the idea that i could apply for fall of 2010, just before my scores, etc, expire, and try to get into law school. many years after the first go around, i have come back to the idea that i might be able to help serve, and save, more people if i work more upstream. i think that my work in politics, activism, and now education, have pointed me in the direction of the public service area of law. i will complete my master's degree by the spring of 2010 and would be ready to enter law school after that.

also, i miss seattle very much. i am so looking forward to my visit in february!
i am realizing that while brooklyn (and NYC) are great, with lots to offer, i need more in my life to feel balanced and happy. i need to be around more scenery. i need to be closer to the great outdoors (the very indoor-oriented texan in me can't believe this, trust me), more dependent on a bike and less on a train, able to play rugby, buy groceries at a big store, be around people that appreciate the greatness of family pizza night.

i was looking into the UW law school and i think that my admission packet could get me in-- lsat is in the accepted range, gpa is good, plus will have a master's degree and some service experience behind me. UW also has a fellowship in public service law that, if you're accepted, will pay for all your school and a few internships in exchange for 5 years public service work post school. i think that sounds great and i know a friend-of-a-friend who is on the board that accepts people into the fellowship. :)

right now, i just wish i were writing this entry from the Fuel on 45th st.

miss you all!