BBQ Sweet Potato and Feta Cheese Salad

The weekend is almost here - try a new salad - put sweet potatoes and feta cheese on your grocery list.

When I came upon this recipe while browsing through Recipe Zaar
I had a feeling it would be a winner. It was. Colourful, texturally interesting and a snap to make. The sweet potatoes added some interest to salad making on our table.


1 2/2 lbs orange sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into slices
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 pinch salt and peper
4 oz baby spinach
4 Tbs pine nuts, toasted
1 red onion cut into thin slices (1 used about 1/2)
7 oz crumbled feta cheese
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp clear honey
1 Tbsp coarse grain mustard (I used dijon)

Directions

Simmer the sweet potato slices in salted water for about 5 minutes until only just turning tender (they cook quicker than ordinary potatoes). Drain, cool, then toss with 2 tbs olive oil and season.

Heat the barbecue and cook the sweet potato slices for a few minutes each side, carefully turning only once, until completely tender and very chargrilled.

Toss the spinach, pine nuts and red onion together and scatter over a large serving platter. Top with the feta.

Whisk the balsamic, 1 tbsp olive oil, honey and mustard together and season well.

Pile the sweet potato on top of the salad and drizzle with the dressing.

Peach Blueberry Crisp

As a member of BloggerAid...Changing the Face of Famine, one of the fun initiatives I'm happy to be part of is the BBFF - a getting to know you exchange between bloggers from different countries. As a member of BACFF you can read about the exchange here . More than just virtual comments on each others' blogs, we've chosen to get to know another person with whom we already know we share interests. What I've learned through this exchange is that as much as we're all different, in many ways we're all very similar. For me this is a link to why BloggerAid...Changing the Face of Famine is so important - it's about humanity and doing something to help contribute to a better world.



My good fortune has been meeting Kim of The UnGourmet" , an Oregonian with unlimited patience. I mean, how many people do you know that could build a business doing cupcake parties for kids while still working part time and taking care of her own two children? Two pretty amazing children!. Her daughter at 12 is already a budding artist and her 8 yr old son - well, who can resist an 8 yr old who likes listening to Frank Sinatra?

Folks...she works part time at an upscale day spa - hmmmm...my wheels are spinning already. She bakes, she cooks, she works at a spa - the ultimate pamper blogger (and I don't mean diapers).

The other similarity we have is that we both love dogs. Kim has a female black lab named Sophie who is a hurricane rescue dog. I told my male Shih Tzu - Casey about Sophie and he asked me to set up a play date. Her love for animals continues - with 2 cats and a blue and white parakeet named Sky.



Sophie - he even put on his best ribbon for you.

Kim started blogging in February 2009 and found that it didn't take long to become a passion. No surprise, right? But it's not just about the food - it's also about the many wonderful people you meet in this community and the amount you learn to step outside your comfort zone. Being able to add new foods to your repetoire and share them with the people you care about has and continues to be an incredible experience for Kim.

Kim and I decided, after several exchanges of emails, to comb each other's blogs and find a recipe to try and share.

My choice was a

Peach Blueberry Crisp - very tough choice and you'll see why when you visit Kim's blog . She has a wide array of recipes and why she calls herself the UnGourmet is beyond me. It was that hard picking one recipe to showcase.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of peaches
• 1 cup of blueberries (I also added raspberries - great choice)
• 2-3 tbsp of honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla

For topping

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened

In a large bowl toss fruit with honey, vanilla and cinnamon.




In another bowl combine the oats, flour, and brown sugar. Cut in the butter.



Place the fruit in a greased baking pan. Top with oat mixture. Bake on 375 for 30-35 minutes until fruit is nice and bubbly and oats are golden brown.



Serve with vanilla bean ice cream or top with a little whip. That would have been great had it lasted long enough.

I took this as one of two desserts to a "meet Actor Boy's new girlfriend" dinner. It was out of control delicious and of the two desserts, the feedback was that this was the clear winner. Kim suggested adding cornstarch to the fruit to avoid having a runny crisp. I added a heaping tablespoon and it was a great tip. The crisp was not runny at all. You can actually use any combination of fruit - I simply don't see how this recipe can fail.

Cherry Clafouti

Val, from More than Burnt Toast recently posted Julia Child's cherry clafouti . Since making a clafouti was on my "must do" list, it seemed rather fitting that something Julia should make the blog list on the premiere week for the movie Julie and Julia. AND since we're right into cherry season in Ontario, Canada and I just happen to have a bazillion cherries (give or take), it was a pretty easy decision.



The other cool thing that I had to do (or at least it seemed cool in my mind)was to try out my brother's newest acquisition - a cherry pitter. Now that I've used it, my brother may have a hard time getting it back. How does someone pit cherries without it. I admit, cherry pitting isn't my favourite thing to do and yes, I should have worn plastic gloves but I'm thinking my purple hands will have gone back to normal before Psychgrad has her first baby (no pressure)



This toy works like a charm. It's fast and easy and makes really short work of an otherwise tedious job. The one thing it doesn't do is take away from a juicy cherry mess.


Food Buzz - if you're watching, don't be sad - your apron for which I am entirely grateful, was put to great use and fought like a soldier. It may not have won the war but it certainly came out of it with greater strength of character.

Julia Child's Cherry Clafouti

Ingredients

1 -1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar, divided
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
3 cups cherries, pitted
powdered sugar, for garnish

***************************
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a blender, combine the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour, and blend.
Lightly butter an 8-cup baking dish, and pour a 1/4-inch layer of the blended mixture over the bottom. Set remaining batter aside.

Place dish into the oven for about 7-10 minutes, until a film of batter sets in the pan but the mixture is not baked through. Remove from oven (but don’t turn the oven off, yet).

Distribute the pitted cherries over the set batter in the pan, then sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Pour the remaining batter over the cherries and sugar.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the clafouti is puffed and brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

Servings: 6-8 for dessert, 4 for breakfast.

I liked the rustic look of this dish and moreso how easy it was to prepare. Definitely on my do again list