I'm back (roasted sweet potato stuffing)

Last night I cooked.

I was still feeling a little apprehensive, especially since I was making up a new recipe idea (of course, why would I ease my way back in to real food with anything familiar?) but I overcame my fears.

That's right, I am a strong, courageous, fearless - yes, fearless individual.

Well, not really. But I wanted to get a recipe together for this weeks contest on Food 52 featuring sweet potatoes (attention foodies: if you have not checked out this site, please do so) so I had to get a grip on my paranoid stomach.

I sat my stomach down and gave it a stern talking-to.

Picture if you will me staring down at my belly, pointing fingers and making mean faces.

Or no, maybe you shouldn't picture that. Yeah, no, skip it...'cause it never happened and you can't prove otherwise!

I entered my recipe for sweet potato fries but I also wanted to play with sweet potatoes a little so I thought about doing a stuffing. Here's the results:



Roasted Sweet Potato Stuffing

4 sweet potatoes peeled and diced
olive oil
1 loaf sourdough bread cubed
1 onion diced
7 strips bacon chopped
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 tsp fresh thyme (or equivalent dried)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon
s&p
1 cup chicken broth

Preheat oven to 425
Peel and dice sweet potatoes
toss diced potato with olive oil and lay on parchment covered baking sheet
roast for approx. 20 minutes or until you can pierce pieces with fork easily
At the same time lay diced sourdough on baking sheet and place in oven for approx. 5 minutes to toast
Saute onion in olive oil just until softened
Season onion with s&p
Fry bacon until just crispy and dice into bite sized pieces
In a large bowl combine sweet potato, toasted bread, onion, bacon
Add to mixture toasted pecans and cranberries
Add spices and season with s&p
Add 1 cup chicken broth slowly (just enough to moisten mixture)
Stuff bird with mixture or if baking:
Heat oven to 325 and bake for 1 hour

p.s. SeaBass enjoyed it so much he let bacon back in to his heart.

Woohoo!