Sweet Potato Fries with Spicy Garlic Aoli

I made this recipe to bring to Thanksgiving at my Dad's last year. My nieces and nephews (all under the age of 12 and averse to veggies) loved these, and the aoli elevated the dish so that all the adults were impressed with my "culinary expertise." My family asked me to make these again this year, so I figured I'd share the recipe. At home, I'll usually pair these with a black bean burger or my quinoa burgers (and put the aoli on top of the burgers too)!

SWEET POTATO FRIES WITH SPICY GARLIC AOLI

Ingredients:

Fries:
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled (don't have to peel them, but it makes them more crispy if you do. Also, a good rule of thumb is to ration about 1 sweet potato per person if you're cooking for more than just yourself or a friend).
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt, pepper, paprika, and cinnamon to taste

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
While you wait for it to heat up, peel and cut your sweet potato into 1/2" thick sticks. Try to keep really pointy ends from being there, as they burn easily.
In a ziploc bag, put in your olive oil and spices.
Throw your sweet potatoes in and give the bag a good shake so that everything covers the sweet potato (this step is especially fun if you're making this with a kid as your helper. Put on some music and shake around!).
Put your potatoes spread evenly on a baking sheet with tin foil over it.
Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, turning your fries over in the middle (at 10 or 15 minute mark - different ovens will take different times to make the fries crispy). When your fries begin to brown, it's time to take them out.
Dry your fries on a paper towel, add some extra salt and pepper, and serve!

You can make oven fries with regular potatoes too. Just bring down the cooking time to like 10-20 minutes because regular potatoes will burn more easily.

Aoli (don't use this if you're vegan unless you have vegan mayonnaise):
- 1/3 cup Mayonnaise (bonus points if it's homemade)
- 1-2 tbsp sriracha sauce
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp Lemon or lime juice (I used lemon)
- pepper & salt to taste (I used about 1 tsp pepper and 1-2 tsp salt)
- 1-3 tbsp cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it)
- 1/2 tsp cumin

So, the funny thing about aoli is: it's just a fancy word for mayonnaise. You put stuff in it to make it taste better, but it's usually just mayonnaise (yeah - all those fancy restaurants that have "aoli" somewhere on the menu? It's because they're too chicken to just call it what it is so you're actually willing to pay more money and think it's healthy or high-class or something).

To make it, you just mix all the ingredients together until it tastes good. Up the quantities of everything if you want more aoli to dip into or if you're putting it on top of a burger.

Items not donated or dumpstered: olive oil, garlic, spices, sriracha sauce

Broccoli Cheddar Bake

So, I've always had this idea in my head from childhood that broccoli and cheddar cheese taste good together. Yet, I usually just steam broccoli, throw some butter and salt on it and call it a day (which is essentially the first step of this recipe, so if you want to do that, you can).

I'm usually very anti-anything-remotely-resembling-casserole since it reminds me of '50s housewives (gross) and overly processed leftovers (double gross). Still, I decided to try my own rendition of one, which turned out pretty tasty. It's not as healthy as I'd like, but I think it's definitely better than the very (surprisingly) popular cheese-whiz/onion powder/frozen broccoli versions I found online. It was kind of an experiment, but for a pretty minimal amount of effort I came out with enough food to last me for a week's worth of lunches. Plus, I was right - broccoli and cheddar do taste great together.

BROCCOLI CHEDDAR BAKE

Ingredients:

- 3 heads of broccoli, cut into small florets (use the stem too) (you can use previously dumpstered and frozen broccoli too, but it may not taste as good as the fresh stuff)
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 2 long stalks celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary and/or thyme (optional)
- 1 cup mayonaise (bonus if home-made)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 cups uncooked rice
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- 1.5 cups Italian-spiced bread crumbs (extra points if home-made from dumpstered bread) - you can also use crushed up crackers like ritz crackers, which will give it a different but good flavor.
- 1 can or 2 cups leftover cooked chicken (optional - I didn't use this, but it could add some extra protein)
- Salt & pepper to taste

Normally, people use cream cheese or a can of condensed cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup instead of my sour cream/mayo combination, but they were the only ingredients I had on hand and I was hungry.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step One: Steam your broccoli

Put a weird thingy that looks like this (called a steamer?) in the bottom of a pot with enough water underneath so it barely shows:
Throw your broccoli on top. Turn the stove to medium-high, then cover the pot (be careful that the water doesn't all evaporate or the bottom of your pot will burn). Steam until broccoli is bright green and a fork goes through pretty easily. If you're lazy, you can just throw your cheddar cheese (or butter with some salt) on top and call it a day. This makes a great side dish by itself.

If you're bold enough to continue into the land of house-wifery, then continue to...

Step Two: Put it all together

While you're waiting for the broccoli to steam, mix the onion, celery, garlic, sour cream, rosemary, and mayonnaise in a bowl.
Once the broccoli is finished, dump it onto the bottom of a glass or pyrex baking pan (9"x12" works well).
Evenly cover it in the sour cream/veggie mixture.
Sprinkle your shredded cheddar over the top.
In a separate bowl, mix your melted butter and bread crumbs into a thicker mixture. Sprinkle this on top as well.

Step Three: Wait and make your rice

Throw it in the oven for 30 minutes while you make some rice (it's pretty easy - just read the side of the bag or box of rice - give yourself about 40-50 minutes for it to turn out well, so maybe start boiling your water around when your broccoli is done steaming so everything is done at the same time).

When it comes out, it'll look kind of like this:
Serve the bake by itself or for some added heartiness, put a few scoops of rice underneath! I used brown rice to make the dish last EVEN LONGER.

Items not donated or dumpstered: Butter, sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic, rosemary (from garden), salt, pepper