Good Monday morning to you all. What I have for you today is a way to turn a batch of roasted vegetables into either a salad, hash or soup. If you would like to make all three, you’ll need to make a triple batch of the roasted sweet potato and butternut squash recipe. If you want to just give one of the dishes a try, make a single batch. And, of course, the roasted veggies are delish all on their own.

A beautiful box of McClendon’s Select produce that I bought at the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market a week ago was the inspiration for all of these recipes. McClendon’s Select is offering an “order ahead – drive-thru contact-free pick up” service at the market each Saturday in Scottsdale during this time of quarantine. Click HERE for more information on that.

If you hang in there and get to the final recipe here, you’ll get to my confession. Hey, something to look forward to!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Butternut Squash

• 3 cups peeled, seeded, and diced butternut squash (about 1 medium squash)
• 3 cups peeled and diced sweet potatoes (about 1 large potato)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Trader Joe’s Everything But the Elote Seasoning Blend
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil, and set aside.

Put the butternut squash and sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Toss with olive oil and the TJ’s seasoning blend and generously season with salt and pepper.

Spread the vegetables in one layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, toss and roast for an additional 15 minutes.

Use for either the Hash, Soup, or Salad recipes below. One batch is enough for any ONE of the recipes. If you want to make all three, you’ll need to make a triple batch of the roasted vegetables.

Sometimes it seems as if sweet potatoes are the ugly stepchild at Thanksgiving dinner. The dish that is expected but not overly anticipated or appreciated.

I remember looking forward to them when I was a kid, but today we eat them more than just once a year. Sweet potatoes are in fashion all year long. Then there are sweet potato fries, which are offered and ordered nearly as often as their French fry cousins. If you’re like me, you select them over potato fries more often than not.

I have to admit that this was the case with this dish at our Thanksgiving buffet. Most guests took a small portion for their plate, but chose to fill up on the stars of the day; the turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

And that was just fine with me. These maple-roasted sweet potatoes made great leftover dishes for breakfast (sweet potato hash with eggs) lunch (added to a turkey taco) and dinner (part of a black bean chili or puréed and added to risotto).

When shopping for sweet potatoes, I bought three varieties in a pretty trio of colors.

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Yesterday, I made it sound as though I may not be posting another recipe for a while. At least that is what I was thinking. But then I remembered that I still had a couple of recipes in my back pocket. On December 5th, at the last class of my 3-week series at Les Gourmettes, four days before the fateful fall, and with the permission of my fabulous students, I took a bunch of photos during class with my iPhone.

Happily, I have those to share with you until I am able to cook again!

When I asked the class if they would mind if I took photos and they said to go ahead, I then asked if they would mind if I took photos of them too. I felt as though there was a little hesitation, so I said, “If you don’t want your picture included on the blog, just hold the recipes up in front of your face, and I’ll say that some of my students are very intent on reading their recipes.”  Here is how they reacted to that suggestion!

Pranksters, each and every one of them! I love my students!

They are the sweetest people!

Each and every one of them!

The recipe calls for sweet potatoes to be cut into matchsticks.
To do so …

after peeling the potato,

cut in half,

then cut each half into 1/4-inch planks.

Stack the planks and cut them into 1/2-inch matchsticks. It’s that easy!

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We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We upheld all our traditions and had a new guest at our table. It was the first Thanksgiving Dave’s mom had ever spent with us and it was a joy having her here!

Just a few of our many Thanksgiving day traditions: Dave and the kids hike Pinnacle Peak while I get the turkeys into the oven and onto the grill. I always make two turkeys, not that we ever feed more than six people, it is just what we do! My dad arrives to cut up the giblets for the gravy. I make two pans of gravy, one with giblets for my dad, Dave, and this year, for his mom too. And another pan without giblets (Yuck!) for me and the kids.

We play games outside in the warm Arizona sunshine.

Dad brings the Beaujolais Nouveau, our traditional Thanksgiving wine. Connor and Marissa help me serve, get everything onto the table, and clear the plates between courses. Then they cheerfully help clean up until the last dish is dried and put away. And I’m not being sarcastic when I say cheerfully, that they are the best!  To finish it all off it, at the end of the meal, my dad always says, “You done good.”

Yes, there is a lot to be thankful for and grateful for!

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