Sweet Potato Sammies and A Cooking Resolution

This week has been an exercise in extremes.  Tuesday was terribly cold with wind chills driving us into negative temps, and today has topped 50 degrees– as I write, I have the window open!  Today it’s sunny as can be– perfect for long walks outside– but yesterday was miserably rainy.  And I really mean miserably rainy.  The clouds didn’t part once, and the promised 60 degree temps were never more than a distant dream.  BF and I ventured to the only brewery in DC, which was great!  Nothing like a few beer samples to warm you up on a chilly day.  Plus, it was pretty cool to support a new, local business (Three Stars Brewing opened at the same time I moved to DC, so they’re very young) that’s trying to do a lot of good for the community.

Though it’s the only metro-accessible brewery in the DC area, Three Stars still  isn’t exactly right next to transportation, so after a few chilly, rainy walks we were definitely ready to get inside, lose our leaky shoes (boo!), and eat something cozy.  And what screams “cozy” more than a roasted sweet potato?  Nothing.  But when you put it between thick slices of multigrain toast with a great supporting cast, that sweet potato gets even better.  I was originally going to make this as a salad (which you totally could, for the record), but cold, rainy days just don’t feel like salad days.  Sorry, but it’s true.

Sweet Potato Sandwich with Goat Cheese and Arugula (makes 2)

• 1 Sweet Potato
• A few ounces Goat Cheese, room temp.
• A few handfuls Arugula
• 4 slices thick Bread (I used a multigrain and would recommend doing the same)
• Honey
• Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 and roast sweet potato for about 45 minutes– lay a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack below to catch any potential mess.  When sweet potato is soft all the way through when poked with a fork, remove and let cool slightly.

In the meantime, toast bread.  Spread each slice with a bit of goat cheese and top two with big handfuls of arugula.  Slice sweet potato and layer on the other two slices.  Drizzle sweet potato with honey and a give it good dose of black pepper.  Assemble, eat (keep a fork handy for runaways), and repeat until you can’t eat another bite.

The flavors of this sandwich came together SO beautifully.  The colors look quite pretty together as well, but let’s be honest– pretty food only gets you so far.  It’s gotta taste good too!  Some of my favorite dishes are seriously ugly, which is such a bummer for food blogging purposes.  It’s kind of an unavoidably visual medium, but I think a lot of really great recipes get left behind just because they aren’t pretty.  Luckily, this recipe has looks AND flavor– and a great personality to boot! 😉

With classes starting this past week, I worried I wasn’t going to have as much time to get creative in the kitchen.  But I’m taking it easy this semester (aka taking the same number of classes as last semester but not also doing a 20 hour/week internship), so I think I’m going to have more time to a) focus on reading for class, and b) cook!  My goal for next weekend is to try making bread.  I really like making my own “basics”– tomato sauce,  whipped cream, salted caramel sauce (can I count this as a basic? It should count…), etc– and I want to explore more!  Yogurt, butter, and cheese seem pretty easy to make, so I’d like to give those a shot too, but bread just feels right for wintry days like these.  So we’ll see.  I don’t have a breadmaker or a mixer with a dough hook attachment, which means a lot of elbow grease will go into this little experiment— hopefully what emerges on the other side is edible!  I think I’ll let BF be the guinea pig to try it first, just in case…don’t tell him I said so!