A Dash of Cold Water...

...on youthful optimism.  This is compliments of a friend who teaches in the Humanities, but a fair bit of it also applies to those of us teaching in the CSU system as well, I think.

Stir-fried Sweet Potatoes

Gropius and I made a new recipe recently that was a bit of a crapshoot and it turned out incredibly tasty, so I have to share.  I came across a recipe for stir-fried sweet potatoes, noticed that I liked all of the ingredients, and thought, "Why not give it a try?"  When I think of stir-fry, I tend to think of chunky vegetables, but this recipe called for grated sweet potato and it worked out well (and sped up the cooking time!).  It was a quick weeknight meal and I think it may see regular rotation because even Lulu was a big fan of the leftovers.

The observant of you can date this photo by the NYTimes food section articles. 

It had a nice amount of spice without being overpoweringly hot.

We decided to serve it over white rice and it was a great combo.  I don't know that brown would've tasted as delicious.

Dinner

butternut squash "farrotto."  Very tasty, whole grain, and vegetarian.  Very spicy with three red, late summer/fully ripe jalapenos!

Yogurt-cumin sauce in the bowl and roasted butternut squash seeds with a little chipotle chile powder.