Sweet Katie Ray's Sweet Puh-Taters

This concoction was born out of frustration -- do you know how challenging it is to find a decent sweet potato recipe? No, I don't want them mashed. No, I don't want to reinvent a classic. Of course I want mini marshmallows on top! This doesn't seem like too much to ask, but apparently, it is. There isn't a sweet potato tradition in my family, so I turned to my dear sister-in-law, the woman responsible for my all-out sweet potato lust each November. A known chatter, I expected more information about sweet potatoes that I could possibly use; instead, I got "lots of butter and lots of brown sugar." Hmmm. I'm pretty clever in the kitchen, but really?

At this point, my unbridled desire for sweet potatoes took over. Not to mention, this was the year of my first ever solo Thanksgiving endeavor. In case you ever find yourself in a similar bind, here's how to make a super-traditional, extra gooey, melt-in-your-mouth sweet potatoes... Katie Ray style.

To serve 6 for dinner (and still have some leftovers for yourself the next day), you'll need:
2 1/2 lbs yams
1 cup packed brown sugar
5 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup hot water
3 cups mini marshmallows (don't even bother wasting your money on marshmallows not made by Kraft. You'll be disappointed.)

Place the yams, whole and unpeeled, in a large stock pot and cover with water. Put a lid on it, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook for about 30 minutes, or until mostly cooked. Remove yams, and set aside to cool. Now would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once the yams are almost cool, get a small saucepan. Before you ever set that saucepan on a burner, add the brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the hot water (it shouldn't be boiling, but hot enough to hurt a little when you touch it), and stir. Set the saucepan on the stove on low, and continue to stir occasionally. The heat should help this mix create a thick liquid, about the consistency of good maple syrup.

Your yams should be plenty cool by now. I won't lie, this is the most pain-in-the-you-know-what part of this dish. But it's so worth it. Anyhow, carefully, gently, peel those cooked yams. Then dice them in to nice little bite-sized chunks. Evenly spread your yams into a greased 9x13 glass baking dish. Remove your brown sugar sauce from the stove, and pour over the top of your yams. Top with mini marshmallows. Bake until bubbly, about 25-30 minutes. You'll know it's ready when your mini marshmallows are toasty.

Meatless Monday Penne with Roasted Zucchini

Meatless Monday caught my attention earlier this year; however, as skilled as I am in the kitchen, my experience with meatless menus is essentially non-existent. I'm married to a man who grew up on a dairy farm, and as the daughter of a hog farmer myself, vegetarianism isn't exactly on my radar. But the idea of dedicating one meal a week to food that doesn't involve meat seemed like an interesting challenge.

I've crafted a few meatless meals in the past year, mostly by modifying old standbys. Honestly, once the excitement ebbed after the first couple week, I've been a half-hearted participant in the movement. Some weeks it just seemed like too much trouble to think of something new, other times I just wanted to enjoy the original recipe, but one way or another, Meatless Monday became Meatless Monthly in the Ray household.

Slay Energy Vampires! has recently rekindled my interest in Meatless Monday. I've read posts about Baba Ganoush, Eggplant Parmesan, and an ad-libbed stir fry, all complete with enticing photos and detailed instructions. Justin inspired me to give it another chance, and remarkably, I actually enjoyed Meatless Monday this week. Instead of modifying one of my favorites, I invented my own vegetarian meal, which turned out to be a much better plan. And while I still can't promise I'll make it happen every week, I think I might have discovered my first standby for Meatless Mondays yet to come.

Here's what you need to enjoy a delicious meat-free meal:

2 healthy zucchinis (together they should weigh close to 2 lbs)

12 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

3 shallots, halved and sliced

1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb uncooked penne pasta

1 cup chopped fresh basil

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and bring a large stock pot filled with water to a boil (in preparation for your pasta). Trim the ends of the zucchini, then slice into thin rounds -- no more than 1/4 inch thick. Place zucchini, smashed garlic, shallots slice, crushed red pepper flakes and about 4 tbsps of olive oil into a large bowl and toss. Then pour everything onto a heavy rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10-12 minutes. Zucchini should be tender and literally fall off a fork when it's ready.

Hopefully your water is at a full boil at this point, and you can cook the penne (according to package directions) while the veggies roast. Just before you remove the penne from the stove to drain, reserve 1 ladle-full of pasta water in a separate dish.

If everything runs smoothly, your zucchini should be ready about the same time the penne comes off the stove. Return the penne to the stock pot (over low heat), then add the roasted zucchini, garlic, and shallots to the pot as well,, making sure to pour any remaining olive oil from the baking sheet into the pot. Add the reserved pasta water, fresh basil, and shredded parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste (as usual, I go easy with the salt and heavy-handed with the pepper, which is freshly ground, of course). Toss in the stock pot, then transfer to a large, warm dish. You should be able to serve 4-6, depending on their appetites. This dish tastes great with garlic bread and a Caesar salad (but skip the anchovies so you don't ruin Meatless Monday!).

Date Night Shrimp Scampi

The first time your significant other comes over for a dinner you're preparing, you want it to be culinarily sophisticated. Or at least super special. As a co-ed in my educational homestretch, struggling to finish an honor's thesis while working 40 hours a week, I typically survived on hot dogs and blue-box mac & cheese. But I definitely didn't want to serve Mike anything that resembled college food the first time he ate in my kitchen. So I created a menu so fancy, so beyond college food (or bachelor food, in his case), that I was sure to wow him. And I did.

I prepared a veritable feast that night: Strawberry Spinach Salad, Garlic Bread, Classic Alfredo, and Shrimp Scampi. What he didn't know at the time was how deceptively easy it is to pull off this meal. Shrimp Scampi looks and sounds like a restaurant-worthy indulgence, but it's reasonably easy to make on the cheap (buy the frozen shrimp -- it's actually fresher than the "fresh" stuff, unless you've got beachfront property). And it's only labor-intensive for a few minutes, so you can spend more time chatting up your date.

Six years later Mike knows this isn't the most challenging dish,but it's still one of his favorites.

Here's what you need:

1-1&1/2 lbs shelled and deveined shrimp (just buy it that way -- it's totally worth it)
4 large garlic cloves, smashed (don't worry about the garlic -- as long as you both eat it, neither of you has bad breath!)
1/2 cup butter (use the real stuff)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/8 tsp pepper (or several vigorous cranks of the pepper grinder)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Lemon wedges

Melt the butter in a large skillet, then add the garlic, salt, oregano, and pepper. Add the shrimp and lemon juice. Cook 10-15 minutes, until the shrimp is opaque and the liquid is reduced. Serve on a warm platter (shrimp gets cold like a chihuahua in 70 degree weather, so this really makes a difference). Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.

Red Wine Beef Stew

While the calendar asserts that fall arrived last month, it typically takes a little longer for it to feel like fall in Arizona. Which is probably why this is my favorite time of year; I love watching the temperature begin to drop after a long, hot summer, and I enjoy cooking more when it's chilly out and the oven keeps the house nice and roasty-toasty. We haven't quite reached chilly yet in Arizona, but with last day of hundred degree heat behind us, I can't help but get excited about all of my fall favorites, especially beef stew.

I grew up eating this midwestern staple on cold winter nights, and honestly, it wasn't one of my favorites back then. My family's stew has all the classic ingredients: meat, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions... you get the idea. But I could never get excited about it. Like a lot of other folks, I got caught up in Julia Child mania and only recently discovered Bouef Bourguignon. Now, I don't want to prepare a dish that labor intensive most days, but Mrs. Child did inspire me to try a reworking of my family's beef stew that included red wine. Turns out, I love beef stew! I just needed a little wine (okay, a lot of wine) to transform this ho-hum classic into a meal I crave on chilly (or at least not so hot) evenings.

If you think I'm being a little over-the-top about stew, just ask my cousin Jason about this meal. I debuted this recipe on him, after he sat down at my kitchen table and announced, "I'm not really a stew kind of guy." Jason has since learned that the moment your hostess pulls a bubbly Dutch of deliciousness out of her oven is not the appropriate time to make such assertions. And we both learned that Jason is a stew kind of guy -- it just took the right stuff to turn him around.

Here's what you need to get started:

1 1/2 lbs beef roast, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup flour (in a large ziploc bag)

6 carrots, chopped into 1 inch chunks

4 stalks of celery, cut into 1 inch chunks

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2 onions, sliced into 1 inch pieces

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

2 tbsps fresh thyme leaves, plus 6-8 whole springs

2 cups red wine (try a Cab -- that's my favorite for this dish)

1 cup beef broth

1 small can tomato paste

3 tbsps olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees, and start chopping. I almost always cut up the beef first, but then get overly excited to get it cooking and toss it into the pot. Unfortunately, this means I end up speed chopping of everything else in a panic to have it all ready for the next step. Do yourself a favor, and just chop everything all at once before you even turn on the stovetop.

Once everything is sliced and diced, heat a large Dutch oven with 2 tbsps olive oil over medium heat. Place the chunks of beef and the flour into a ziploc bag, and shake to coat the meat. Add the meat to pot, and cook until brown on all sides. Remove the meat to a plate, then add the remaining tbsp of olive oil, as well as your veggies and thyme leaves to the Dutch oven. Cook about 10 minutes, or until they have softened up a bit. Return the beef to the pot, then add wine, broth, tomato paste, salt, and pepper. Don't go crazy with the salt, but be generous with the pepper. Top with fresh sprigs of thyme.

Put the lid on, and slide the whole thing into to oven. Cook for two hours, removing the lid for the last 20 minutes so it can thicken up a bit. Serve with some kind of crusty bread. This supper is most satisfying when there is a chill in the air, but it still tastes pretty darn good if you simply turn the AC down an extra couple degrees.