Baked Sweet Potatoes and Apples

BAKED SWEET POTATOES AND APPLES
Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Though sweet potatoes have never been as favored in the North as in the South, this simple dish hails from old New England. A cheering winter recipe, and a great side dish for Thanksgiving, it is characteristically sweetened with maple syrup.

• 4 large sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons nonhydrogenated margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• Cinnamon
• Ground cloves
• 1/2 cup apple juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake or microwave the sweet potatoes until done but still firm. When cool enough to handle, cut them into 1/2-inch-thick slices.

Oil a deep, 1 1/2 quart baking casserole. Arrange half of the sweet potato slices on the bottom. Drizzle with half of the margarine, then half of the maple syrup. Top with the apple slices. Sprinkle lightly with the cinnamon and cloves.

Repeat the layers, then pour the apple juice over the top. Bake for 30 minutes, covered, then for another 10 minutes, uncovered. Serve at once or cover and keep warm until needed.

Result: This was very good and reminded me on Thanksgiving dinner.  Think I'll wait till the fall to prepare this one again.

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Serves: 6

• 2 pounds asparagus
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light margarine or canola oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 large potato, finely diced
• 3 cups water or vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• Dash of nutmeg
• 1/2 to 1 cup plain rice milk or other non-dairy milk
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut about 1 inch off the bottoms of the asparagus stalks and discard. Scrape any tough skin with a vegetable peeler. Cut the stalks into approximately 1-inch pieces, setting aside the tips.

Heat the margarine or oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion and sauté until it is golden. Add the asparagus pieces, garlic, potato, water or stock, dill, basil and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer gently until the asparagus and potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the solid ingredients to the container of a food processor or blender. Process in batches until smoothly pureed, then stir back into the liquid in the soup pot. Add enough rice milk or other non-dairy milk to achieve the desired consistency.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and return to low heat. Steam the reserved asparagus tips until tender-crisp. Stir them into the soup and simmer over very low heat for another 5 minutes. You can serve this at once, or let it stand for an hour or so to flavor, then heat through as needed.

Still haven't tried this one yet...but going to very, very soon!!

Tortilla Casserole

TORTILLA CASSEROLE
Serves: 6

Here's my favorite in-a-hurry casserole to make when craving southwestern flavors. It involves throwing together a lot of convenient ingredients like canned beans and tomatoes, and frozen corn, but it's unbelievably good when you need an emergency dinner. In the 12 to 15 minutes that this is in the oven, steam a big batch of broccoli and make a simple salad of mixed baby greens, carrots, tomatoes, and bell peppers.

• One 16-ounce can pinto, pink, or black beans, drained and rinsed
• One 16--ounce can crushed tomatoes
• One 4-ounce can chopped mild green chilies
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 2 scallions, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 8 corn tortillas
• 1 1/2 cups grated nondairy Monterey Jack, cheddar, or jalapeno cheese
• Salsa for topping

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.

Lightly oil a wide, 2-quart casserole dish and layer as follows: 4 tortillas, overlapping one another; half of the bean mixture; half of the cheese. Repeat the layers.

Bake the casserole for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly. Let stand for a minute or two, then cut into squares to serve. Pass around salsa to top each serving.

Result: This is very very good! Although, we've decided that we don't like it with the tortillas in it. Instead, we just scoop and eat on some Blue Tortilla chips. YUMM!!